Interpretation
2.—(1) In these Regulations—
“the 2011 Act” means the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and any reference to a section is a reference to a section of that Act;
“appropriate council” means the council for the district in which a conservation area is located;
“council” means a district council;
“electronic communication” has the meaning assigned to it by section 4 of the Electronic Communications Act (Northern Ireland) 2001(1).
(2) In these Regulations, and in relation to the use of electronic communications for any purpose of these Regulations which is capable of being carried out electronically—
(a)the expression “address” includes any number or address used for the purpose of such communications, except that where these Regulations impose any obligation on any person to provide a name and address to any other person, the obligation is not fulfilled unless the person on whom it is imposed provides a postal address;
(b)references to plans, notices or other documents or to copies of such things include references to such documents or copies of them in electronic form.
(3) Paragraphs (4) to (7) apply where an electronic communication is used by a person for the purpose of fulfilling any requirement in these Regulations to give or send any plan, notice or other document to any other person (“the recipient”).
(4) The requirement must be taken to be fulfilled where the plan, notice or other document transmitted by means of electronic communication is—
(a)capable of being accessed by the recipient;
(b)legible in all material respects; and
(c)sufficiently permanent to be used for subsequent reference.
(5) In paragraph (4), “legible in all material respects” means that the information contained in the notice or document is available to the recipient to no lesser extent than it would be if sent or given by means of a document in printed form.
(6) Where the electronic communication is received by the recipient outside the recipient’s business hours, it must be taken to have been received on the next working day; and for this purpose “working day” means a day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday.
(7) A requirement in these Regulations that any document should be in writing is fulfilled where that document meets the criteria in paragraph (4).
2001 c.9 (N.I.) as amended by 2003 c.21