Interpretation and notices
4.—(1) In these Rules (unless the context otherwise requires) references to sections are references to sections of the Transport and Works Act 1992 and—
“the Act” means the Transport and Works Act 1992;
“application” means an application under section 6 and “applicant” means a person making, or proposing to make, an application;
“banks”, in relation to an inland waterway referred to in a category in Schedule 2, 5 or 6 below, has the meaning given in section 72(1) of the Land Drainage Act 1991(1);
“bridleway” has the same meaning as in the Highways Act 1980(2);
“byway” means a way shown and described as a byway open to all traffic or a road used as a public path in a definitive map and statement, as defined in section 53(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981(3);
“Crown interest” means a Crown or Duchy interest within the meaning of section 25(2);
“cycle track” has the same meaning as in the Highways Act 1980;
“the Directive” means Council Directive No. 85/337/EEC on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment(4) as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC(5);
“documents” includes photographs, drawings, maps and plans;
“environmental impact assessment” means an assessment, in accordance with Articles 5 to 10 of the Directive, of the likely impact upon the environment of the implementation of the works included in any order in respect of which an application is being, or is to be, made;
“environmental statement” means a statement that contains—
the information referred to in rule 11(1) below, and
such of the information referred to in Schedule 1 to these Rules as may reasonably be required in order to assess the environmental effects of the proposed works and which the applicant can, having regard in particular to current knowledge and methods of assessment, reasonably be required to compile,
and “applicant’s statement of environmental information” means a statement submitted by an applicant as the environmental statement in relation to his application;
“expiry date for objections” means the date, being a date not less than 42 days after the date on which the application in question is made, which the applicant specifies in the notice published pursuant to rule 14(1) below as the final date for making objections and other representations;
“footpath” has the same meaning as in the Highways Act 1980;
“highway” has the same meaning as in the Highways Act 1980;
“local authority” means a county council, a district council, (in Wales) a county borough council, a London borough council, the Common Council of the City of London, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, London Regional Transport and a Passenger Transport Executive;
“local planning authority” means a local planning authority within the meaning of Part I of the Planning Act(6);
“objection” has the meaning given by rule 22 below and “objector” shall be construed accordingly;
“occupier” means a person occupying land under a tenancy for a period of more than one month (not being a statutory tenant within the meaning of the Rent Act 1977(7) or the Rent (Agriculture) Act 1976(8)) and includes—
a statutory undertaker (not being an owner) having a right to keep equipment on, in or over land, and
a person having the right to construct or maintain, at a specific position on an inland waterway, a mooring post, gangway, landing stage or other erection or installation for a vessel (not being anything which when not in use is normally carried on the vessel);
“operator”—
in relation to a transport system, means any person carrying on an undertaking which includes the system, or any part of it, or the provision of transport services on the system, and
in relation to an inland waterway, means the navigation authority and, if different, the conservancy authority within the meaning of section 221(1) of the Water Resources Act 1991(9);
“owner”, in relation to land, means a person, other than a mortgagee not in possession, who is for the time being entitled to dispose of the fee simple of the land (whether in possession or reversion) and includes also a person holding, or entitled to the rents and profits of, the land under a lease or agreement, where the unexpired term of that lease or agreement exceeds 3 years;
“pipeline owner” means—
any person in whom a pipe-line, within the meaning of section 65 of the Pipe-Lines Act 1962(10) is vested, and
any person—
designated as the owner of a controlled pipeline, within the meaning of section 14(2) of the Petroleum Act 1998(11), by an order made by the Secretary of State under section 27 of that Act, or
who is entitled to operate any such controlled pipeline in relation to which no such order has been made;
“the Planning Act” means the Town and Country Planning Act 1990(12);
“public telecommunications operator” means—
any person authorised by a licence to which section 8 of the Telecommunications Act 1984(13) applies to run a public telecommunications system, and
any person to whom the telecommunications code has been applied pursuant to section 10 of that Act;
“relevant coastal authority” means, in relation to works situated, or proposed to be carried out, in tidal waters which do not lie within the boundary of the area of a local authority in England or Wales—
every local planning authority whose area has a boundary which lies within 15 kilometres of any point on the works, or
where there is no such local planning authority, the local planning authority with the area boundary closest to the works;
“representation” has the meaning given by rule 22 below;
“river” means any river (including any part of a river which is tidal or which has been canalised), lake, stream, ditch, culvert, drain, dyke, sluice, weir or any other passage by which water drains, but does not include—
a canal or inland navigation which is not a canalised part of a river,
any part of the river Tweed (as defined in section 2(7) of the Water Resources Act 1991(14)),
any part of the river Esk or river Sark at a point where either of the banks of the river is in Scotland,
any part of any tributary stream of the river Esk or river Sark at a point where either bank of such tributary stream is in Scotland, or
a public sewer or a sewer or pipe used primarily for the drainage of a building or any premises appurtenant to a building, or of a street;
“scoping opinion” means an opinion given by the Secretary of State, pursuant to rule 8 below, as to the information to be provided by an applicant in an environmental statement;
“screening decision” has the meaning given by rule 7(3) below;
“statutory undertaker” means—
any person authorised by an enactment to carry on a railway, tramway, trolley vehicle, guided transport, road transport, water transport, canal, inland navigation, harbour, pier, lighthouse, electricity supply, hydraulic power, sewerage or water undertaking,
a pipeline owner,
a public telecommunications operator,
the Post Office,
the British Airports Authority,
the Civil Aviation Authority, and
a public gas transporter within the meaning of Part I of the Gas Act 1986(15);
“street authority” and “street managers” have the meanings given in sections 49(1) and 49(4) respectively of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991(16);
“tidal waters” means such part of—
the territorial sea adjacent to the United Kingdom, and
the internal waters of the United Kingdom in so far as they are tidal or constitute part of the sea,
as lie within the English area (within the meaning of article 1(2) of the Civil Jurisdiction (Offshore Activities) Order 1987(17));
“transport system” means a railway, tramway or trolley vehicle system or a system using a mode of guided transport prescribed by an order made under section 2;
“the Trinity House” has the meaning given in section 223 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995(18);
“works” means any works that may be authorised by an order made under section 1, 3 or 7 but in rules 7, 8, 11 and 16 below, and in paragraphs 2, 5(c), 7(a), (d) and (e) and 12 of Schedule 8 to these Rules, shall also include any matter that may be authorised by such an order; and
“works affecting”, in relation to any land, means works proposed to be carried out in, on, over or adjacent to that land.
(2) Where these Rules require that notice be served, published or displayed in a prescribed form, the notice shall be served, published or displayed (as the case may be), duly completed—
(a)in that form,
(b)in a version of that form adapted to meet the circumstances of the particular case, or
(c)in a form which has substantially the same effect as that form (whether the form is adapted or not),
and, except where these Rules require that the notice in question be published in a newspaper, duly signed by or on behalf of the person required to give the notice.
(3) A notice published pursuant to rule 14(2) and (3) below in a local newspaper circulating in Wales shall be expressed in Welsh as well as in English.
O.J. No. L175, 5.7.85, p. 40.
O.J. No. L73, 14.3.97, p. 5.
Part I has been amended by: the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 (c. 28), section 187(1) and Schedule 21, paragraph 29; the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (c. 19), sections 18 and 19; and the Environment Act 1995 (c. 25), sections 67 and 78 and Schedule 10, paragraph 32(2) and (3).
1977 c. 42. See section 2(1) and Schedule 1, as amended by the Housing Act 1980 (c. 51), sections 76 and 153(2) and Schedule 26, and the Housing Act 1988 (c. 50), section 39(1).
1976 c. 80. See section 4, as amended by the Rent Act 1977, section 155 and Schedule 23, and the Housing Act 1980, section 76(3).
1990 c. 8; section 90 was amended by section 16 of the Transport and Works Act 1992.
1986 c. 44, as amended by section 5 of the Gas Act 1995 (c. 45).
S.I. 1987/2197.