The first meetings of a National Park authority (in the following provisions of this Schedule referred to as “the Authority”) shall be convened by the acting proper officer as soon as practicable and, in any event, within 21 days beginning on the establishment day, and shall be held at such place and hour as may be fixed by him.

That meeting shall be treated as the annual meeting of the Authority in the year 1996.

Notice of that meeting shall be published at the place where the meeting is to be held and the summons to attend the meeting shall be signed by the acting proper officer.

Until the completion of the election of a chairman of the Authority at that meeting, the acting proper officer shall exercise any functions falling to be exercised by the chairman and the deputy chairman of the Authority but the acting proper officer shall not vote at the election of the chairman of the Authority unless the votes for election of the chairman are tied.

Without prejudice to the generality of article 11(1) of this Order, at the first meeting of the Authority the acting proper officer shall exercise any functions falling to be exercised by the proper officer of the Authority in relation to the meeting.

The standing orders for the regulation of the proceedings and business of the existing council, or, as the case may be, the Board, of which the acting proper officer is an officer shall apply at the first meeting of the Authority.

The Authority shall hold such further meetings before 1st April 1997 as may be necessary for the purpose of doing anything which, in accordance with section 65(3) of the 1995 Act, it considers appropriate for the purpose of securing that it is able properly to carry out its functions on and after the date.

So far as is consistent with the preceding provisions of this paragraph, the following provisions of this Schedule shall apply to the calling and conduct of meetings under this paragraph.

The Authority shall in every year after 1996 hold an annual meeting. The first meeting held after 31st May in any year after 1996 shall be the annual meeting.

Such meeting shall be held at such hour as the Authority may fix or, if no hour is so fixed, at twelve noon.

The Authority shall in every year after 1996 hold, in addition to the annual meeting, at least three other meetings for the transaction of general business.

Those other meetings shall be held at such hour and on such days as the Authority may determine but shall be held as near as may be at regular intervals.

The chairman of the Authority or, if the office of chairman is vacant, the deputy chairman of the Authority may call an extraordinary meeting of the Authority at any time.

If the offices of chairman and deputy chairman are vacant, the proper officer of the Authority may call an extraordinary general meeting of the Authority at any time.

If the chairman, or the deputy chairman if the office of chairman is vacant, or the proper officer if both offices are vacant, refuses to call such a meeting of the Authority after a requisition for that purpose specifying the nature of the important or urgent business, signed by five members of the Authority, has been presented to him, or if, without so refusing, the chairman or, as the case may be, the deputy chairman or proper officer does not call a meeting within seven days after such requisition has been presented to him, then any five members of the Authority on that refusal or on the expiration of those seven days, as the case may be, may forthwith call an extraordinary meeting of the Authority.

The election of a chairman and of a deputy chairman shall be the first business transacted at the annual meeting of the Authority.

A person elected as a chairman or deputy chairman of the Authority may at any time resign his office by notice in writing delivered to the proper officer of the Authority.

Where a casual vacancy in the office of chairman or deputy chairman of the Authority is filled the person so appointed shall hold office until the date upon which the person in whose place he is elected would regularly have retired.

Where necessary, the meeting at which such a casual vacancy is to be filled shall be convened by the proper officer of the Authority.

Meetings of the Authority shall be held at such place, either within or without the National Park for which it is established, as it may direct.

If a member of the Authority gives notice in writing to the proper officer of the Authority that he desires summonses to attend meetings of the Authority to be sent to him at some address specified in the notice other than his usual place of residence, any summons addressed to him and left at or sent by post to that address shall be deemed sufficient service of the summons.

Want of service of a summons on any member of the Authority shall not affect the validity of such a meeting.

At a meeting of the Authority the chairman, if present, shall preside.

If the chairman is absent from a meeting of the Authority the deputy chairman, if present, shall preside.

If both the chairman and the deputy chairman of the Authority are absent such other member of the Authority as the members present shall choose shall preside.

For the purposes of computing the period of three clear days under paragraph 6(2) of this Schedule there shall be excluded any day which is a Saturday, Sunday, or bank holiday, Christmas Day or Good Friday.

The contract of employment of a designated employee shall not be terminated on the transfer date but shall have effect as if originally made between that employee and the National Park authority mentioned at the head of that list.

In this paragraph, any reference to the 1990 Act is a reference to that Act in the form in which it was in force immediately before commencement of the Planning and Compensation Act 1991 or as amended by that Act.

A National Park authority may, when preparing, altering or replacing a development plan, include proposals, which have not yet been adopted, in respect of a development plan which was being made, altered or replaced by a transferor authority prior to 1st April 1997 in respect of an area for which the National Park authority has a duty to prepare a development plan.

The National Park authority shall publish a statement identifying a proposal so included.

Where the National Park authority is satisfied that there has been no significant change in circumstances affecting the proposal, it need not repeat any step taken by the transferor authority in respect of that proposal for the purpose of complying with the 1990 Act or with regulations made thereunder.

Where an inquiry or other hearing is held for the purpose of considering an objection to proposals in respect of a development plan, the person holding the inquiry or other hearing need not allow an objector to appear if he is satisfied that the objection is in respect of a proposal identified in accordance with paragraph (3) above and the person objecting has had his objection in respect of the proposal heard at an inquiry or other hearing held by the transferor authority or, where a matter affecting consideration of the proposal to which the objection relates has been considered at an examination in public considered by such an authority.

The structure plan applying immediately before 1st April 1997 to Somerset and that part of Devon falling within the area of Exmoor National Park, and any proposals prepared before that date for the alteration or replacement of that plan, shall be treated as if they had been prepared jointly by the Exmoor National Park Authority and the Somerset County Council; and section 50 of the 1990 Act shall apply accordingly.

The structure plan applying immediately before 1st April 1997 to Northumberland, and any proposals prepared before that date for the alteration or replacement of that plan, shall be treated as if they had been prepared jointly by the Northumberland National Park Authority and the Northumberland County Council; and section 50 of the 1990 Act shall apply accordingly.

The structure plans applying immediately before the 1st April 1997 to North Yorkshire, that part of Redcar and Cleveland falling within the area of the North York Moors National Park, the City of York, and that part of Cumbria falling within the area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and any proposals prepared before that date for the alteration or replacement of any of those plans, shall be treated as if they had been prepared jointly by the North York Moors National Park authority, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, the York City Council, and the North Yorkshire County Council; and section 50 of the 1990 Act shall apply accordingly.

The right conferred by this paragraph shall be exercisable by a National Park authority against any transferor authority the whole or any part of whose area lies within the National Park for which that authority has been established.

Upon giving reasonable notice, a National Park authority (acting through any authorised officer) shall have the right at all reasonable times to inspect and take copies of, or extracts from, recorded information to which access is necessarily required for the proper discharge of its functions, wherever, and in whatever form, such information may be held.

The transferor authority against whom the right is exercised shall supply all such information and assistance as may reasonably be required in relation to the exercise of the right.

The duty imposed under this article is in addition to, and without prejudice to, the duty imposed by paragraph 4 above, or any other duty otherwise imposed upon a transferor authority.

This paragraph applies to a National Park authority which does not, or will not, receive from a transferor authority all of the material comprised in any register maintained by that authority so far as relevant to the National Park for which that National Park authority is established.

Upon giving reasonable notice, a National Park authority (acting through any authorised officer) shall at all reasonable times be entitled to access to such material as is referred to in sub-paragraph (1) which it has not received, or will not receive, to enable copies to be taken or information extracted.

In fulfilling its obligation to maintain a register, a National Park authority may incorporate with any material copied or extracted in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) a certificate that it is a true copy of, or extract from, the register from which it has been copied or extracted and thereafter the certified copy or extract may be maintained as the register, or as the case may be, part of the register, that the National Park authority is required to maintain.

Nothing in this article shall affect the operation of any other provision in relation to any register which a National Park authority is required to maintain.

For the purposes of this paragraph “register” means any register, map, list or other document of whatever form and in whatever medium which a local authority is required to maintain.

The obligation for a National Park authority to have an interim monitoring officer shall continue until the designation of a monitoring officer by the authority under section 5(1) of the 1989 Act.

Subject to the provisions of this article, section 5 of the 1989 Act shall apply to an interim monitoring officer in the same way as it applies to a monitoring officer, and the interim monitoring officer shall, for all purposes, be treated as the National Park authority’s monitoring officer.

An interim monitoring officer shall be paid such remuneration and allowances (if any) as the National Park authority appointing him think fit.

The duties of an interim monitoring officer shall be performed by him personally.

A National Park authority shall not appoint as its interim monitoring officer a person who holds any other paid office or employment with that authority.

During the period of his appointment an interim monitoring officer shall not be appointed to any other paid office or employment of the National Park authority.

Any person who ceases to be an interim monitoring officer shall be disqualified from being appointed to any paid office or employment with that National Park authority until 1st April 1997.

A member of a National Park authority shall be disqualified from being appointed as an interim monitoring officer for the authority.

If the appointment of an interim monitoring officer is ended other than by reason of the designation of a monitoring officer, a National Park authority shall, unless they designate a monitoring officer, appoint a further person to be an interim monitoring officer and the provisions of this paragraph shall have effect in relation to that further appointment.

The accounts of a National Park authority for the transitional period shall be audited with the accounts of that authority for the financial year beginning on 1st April 1997 and shall be treated for all purposes as if they were accounts for that financial year.

On or after 1st April 1997, the said paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part I of and paragraph 3(a) of Part II of the Schedule to the 1993 Regulations shall not apply to a National Park authority and, in consequence, a National Park authority shall no later than its first meeting after the 1st April 1997 take all the action required by regulations 2 and 4 of the 1993 Regulations in respect of the standing orders provided for in those paragraphs.