Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990
| Year | 1990 |
Planning (HazardousSubstances) Act 1990
1990 CHAPTER 10
An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to special controls in respect of hazardous substances with amendments to give effect to recommendations of the Law Commission.
[24th May 1990]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Hazardous substances authorities
1 Hazardous substances authorities: general.
1. The council of the district or London borough in which land is situated shall be the hazardous substances authority in relation to the land except in cases where section 2 or 3 applies.
2 Hazardous substances authorities: statutory undertakers.
(1) The appropriate Minister shall be the hazardous substances authority for—
(a) operational land of statutory undertakers; and
(b) land in which statutory undertakers hold or propose to acquire an interest with a view to the land being used as operational land.
(2) For the purposes of this section a wharf or harbour land which is not operational land of statutory undertakers authorised to carry on a harbour shall be treated as if it were such operational land.
(3) Any question whether subsection (2) applies to land shall be determined by the Secretary of State and the Minister who is the appropriate Minister in relation to operational land of statutory undertakers who are authorised to carry on harbour undertakings.
(4) In this section ‘wharf’ and ‘harbour land’ have the same meaning as in the Harbours Act 1964 .
3 Hazardous substances authorities: other special cases.
(1) The county council shall be the hazardous substances authority for land which is in a non-metropolitan county and—
(a) is situated in a National Park;
(b) is used for the winning and working of minerals (including their extraction from a mineral-working deposit); or
(c) is situated in England and used for the disposal of refuse or waste materials,
unless subsection (2) applies.
(2) If the land is in a National Park for which a joint planning board or special planning board has been constituted, the board shall be the hazardous substances authority for the land.
(3) The Broads Authority is the hazardous substances authority for the Broads unless subsection (1) or (2) applies.
(4) If the land is in an area for which an urban development corporation is the local planning authority in relation to all kinds of development, the corporation shall be the hazardous substances authority for the land unless subsection (1) or (2) applies.
(5) If the land is in an area for which a housing action trust established under Part III of the Housing Act 1988 is the local planning authority in relation to all kinds of development, the trust shall be the hazardous substances authority for the land unless subsection (1) or (2) applies.
(6) This section does not apply to land to which section 2 applies.
Control over presence of hazardous substances
4 Requirement of hazardous substances consent.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the presence of a hazardous substance on, over or under land requires the consent of the hazardous substances authority (in this Act referred to as ‘hazardous substances consent’).
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the aggregate quantity of the substance—
(a) on, over or under the land;
(b) on, over or under other land which is within 500 metres of it and controlled by the same person; or
(c) in or on a structure controlled by the same person any part of which is within 500 metres of it,
is less than the quantity prescribed as the controlled quantity for that substance.
(3) The temporary presence of a hazardous substance while it is being transported from one place to another is not to be taken into account unless it is unloaded.
(4) The Secretary of State may by regulations provide that hazardous substances consent is not required or is only required—
(a) in relation to land of prescribed descriptions;
(b) by reason of the presence of hazardous substances in prescribed circumstances.
(5) Regulations under this section may make different provision for different cases or descriptions of cases.
5 Power to prescribe hazardous substances.
(1) For the purposes of this Act the Secretary of State—
(a) shall by regulations specify—
(i) the substances that are hazardous substances; and
(ii) the quantity which is to be the controlled quantity of any such substance; and
(b) may by regulations provide that, except in such circumstances as may be prescribed, all hazardous substances falling within a group specified in the regulations are to be treated as a single substance.
(2) Regulations which—
(a) are made by virtue of subsection (1)(a)(i); or
(b) are made by virtue of subsection (1)(a)(ii) and reduce the controlled quantity of a substance,
may make such transitional provision as appears to the Secretary of State to be appropriate.
(3) The power to make such transitional provision includes, without prejudice to its generality, power to apply sections 11 and 26 subject to such modifications as appear to the Secretary of State to be appropriate.
(4) Regulations under this section may make different provision for different cases or descriptions of cases.
Obtaining hazardous substances consent
6 Hazardous substances consent: general.
(1) Hazardous substances consent—
(a) may be granted on an application under this Act, or
(b) may be deemed to have been granted by virtue of section 11 or 12.
(2) Without prejudice to the provisions of this Act, any hazardous substances consent shall (except in so far as it otherwise provides) enure for the benefit of the land to which it relates and of all persons for the time being interested in the land.
7 Applications for hazardous substances consent.
(1) Provision may be made by regulations with respect to—
(a) the form and manner in which applications for hazardous substances consent are to be made;
(b) the particulars which they are to contain and the evidence by which they are to be verified;
(c) the manner in which they are to be advertised; and
(d) the time within which they are to be dealt with.
(2) Regulations—
(a) may require an applicant for hazardous substances consent or the hazardous substances authority or both to give publicity to an application for hazardous substances consent in such manner as may be prescribed;
(b) may require hazardous substances authorities to conduct appropriate consultations before determining applications for hazardous substances consent;
(c) may provide for the manner in which such a consultation is to be carried out and the time within which—
(i) such a consultation; or
(ii) any stage in such a consultation,
is to be completed;
(d) may require hazardous substances authorities to determine applications for hazardous substances consent within such time as may be prescribed;
(e) may require hazardous substances authorities to give prescribed persons or bodies prescribed information about applications for hazardous substances consent, including information as to the manner in which such applications have been dealt with.
(3) In subsection (2) above ‘appropriate consultations’ means—
(a) consultations—
(i) in the case of a hazardous substances authority other than the appropriate Minister, with the Health and Safety Executive; and,
(ii) in the case of the appropriate Minister, with the Health and Safety Commission; and
(b)...
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