The Town and Country Planning (Electronic Communications) (Wales) (No. 2) Order 2004

Amendment of the Town and Country Planning (Enforcement) (Written Representations Procedure) (Wales) Regulations 2003

2.  After regulation 2(1), add—

“(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 purposes of such communications, except that where these Regulations impose an 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 the required postal address;

(b) references to notices, representations or other documents, or to copies of such documents, 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 regulations 4 to 8 of these Regulations that representations or other documents should be sent or submitted to any other person (“the recipient”).

(4) The requirement will be taken to be fulfilled where the document transmitted by means of the 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 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 will 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, Bank Holiday or other public holiday.

(7) A requirement in these Regulations that any notice or document should be in writing is fulfilled where that document meets the criteria in paragraph (4); and (except in regulation 5) “written” and cognate expressions are to be construed accordingly.”.