Drainage (Environmental Assessment) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Provision of information

10.  For regulation 9 there shall be substituted–

“Provision of information

9.— (1) Subject to paragraph (6), where the Department proposes to prepare an environmental statement in accordance with this Part, it may enter into consultations with any person to determine whether that person has in his possession any information which the Department considers relevant to the preparation of the statement, and that person shall make any such information which he has available to the Department.

(2) Where the Department has prepared an environmental statement in relation to any drainage works and made that statement available in accordance with regulation 6 it may determine that further information is relevant to any matter which is required to be, or may be, dealt with in the statement.

(3) Subject to paragraph (6), the Department may enter into consultations with any person to determine whether that person has in his possession any further information which the Department considers relevant to the environmental statement and that person shall make any such further information which he has available to the Department.

(4) Where, pursuant to paragraph (3), the Department obtains any further information it shall–

(a) by notice published in the Belfast Gazette and at least two local newspapers announce that the further information is available, and give details of the time and place where a copy of that further information may be inspected or obtained and, if a charge is to be made for a copy thereof under regulation 8, the amount of the charge; and

(b) state that any person who wishes to make representations in relation to that further information should make them in writing to the Department at the address specified in the notice within 28 days of the date of the publication of the notice in the Belfast Gazette.

(5) At the same time as the notice referred to in paragraph (4) is published, the Department shall supply copies of the further information to–

(a) the Drainage Council;

(b) the district council of the district or, as the case may be, each district in which the proposed drainage works are situate; and

(c) any other person who appears to it to have an interest in the matter.

(6) Nothing in paragraph (1) or (3) shall require the disclosure by any person of confidential information.

(7) A reasonable charge reflecting the cost of making information available in accordance with paragraph (1) or (3) may be made to the Department by any person making it available.”.