The Town and Country Planning (Referred Applications and Appeals Procedure) (Wales) Regulations 2017

Written statements of evidence

44.—(1) If the appellant, the local planning authority or any person invited to take part in the inquiry propose to give, or to call another person to give, evidence at the inquiry by reading a written statement—

(a) the appellant must send one copy of the statement, together with a written summary, to the local planning authority;

(b) the local planning authority must send one copy of the statement, together with a written summary, to the appellant;

(c) the appellant and local planning authority must simultaneously send one copy of their statement, together with a written summary, to the Welsh Ministers;

(d) each person invited to take part in the inquiry must send one copy of their statement, together with a written summary, to the Welsh Ministers.

(2) The Welsh Ministers must, as soon as reasonably practicable after receipt—

(a) send a copy of the written statement of evidence, together with any summary, of each person invited to take part in the inquiry to the local planning authority; and

(b) send a copy of each written statement of evidence, together with any summary, to each person invited to take part in the inquiry.

(3) No written summary is required where the statement of evidence proposed to be read contains no more than 1,500 words.

(4) The statement of evidence and any summary must be received by the Welsh Ministers no later than—

(a) 4 weeks before the date fixed for the inquiry; or

(b) where a timetable has been arranged under regulation 41, the date specified in that timetable.

(5) The Welsh Ministers must send to the appointed person, as soon as reasonably practicable after receipt, any statement of evidence together with any summary sent to them in accordance with this regulation and received by them within the relevant period, if any, specified in this regulation.

(6) Where a written summary is provided in accordance with paragraph (1), only that summary is to be read at the inquiry unless the appointed person permits or requires otherwise.

(7) Any person required by this regulation to send copies of a statement of evidence to the Welsh Ministers, must send with them the same number of copies of the whole, or the relevant part, of any document referred to in the statement, unless a copy of the document or relevant part of the document in question is already available for inspection under regulation 10.