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Optional Enquiry 17: Hazardous Substance Consents

Document Cited authorities 7 Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorKeith Pugsley/Ken Miles
Pages173-178
Optional Enquiry 17: Hazardous Substance Consents

17.1. Please list any entries in the Register kept pursuant to s. 28 of the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990.
17.2. If there are any entries:

(a) how can copies of the entries be obtained?
(b) where can the Register be inspected?

This optional enquiry concerns the public register of applications, consents, revocations, modifications and directions issued or made in accordance with the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990.

The Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990 brought into force an outline regime of control in respect of defined ‘hazardous substances’, in excess of the ‘controlled quantity’, kept on, over or under land. It is the presence of a hazardous substance on (or over or under) land which requires the consent of the hazardous substances authority, not the use of the land or any buildings on it per se. This is an extension of the duties of traditional local planning authorities. Although the regime of hazardous substance control is similar in many ways to the regime of planning control, the emphasis on the presence and nature of the substance, as opposed to the use of the land on which it is present, is recognised by the fact that provisions originally contained in the Town and Country Planning Acts were extracted and consolidated in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

The hazardous substances authority

The hazardous substances authority for the area, to which application for consent is made, is, in most cases, the local planning authority. In Greater London, the authority is the relevant London borough council. Outside London, the district council (or metropolitan district council in a metropolitan area) has this duty; in urban development areas (see optional enquiry 11) it is generally a function of the urban development corporation. In respect of National Parks, the hazardous substances authority is the county council. There are separate arrangements relating to the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads (the Broads Authority).

‘Hazardous substances’ and their respective ‘controlled quantities’ are defined in the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/627). Examples include arsenic pentoxide, bromine, chlorine, acetylene and petroleum spirit.

174 Enquiries of Local Authorities and Water Companies

The Secretary of State may also prescribe, by regulation, descriptions of land and other circumstances in respect of which hazardous substances consent is not required.

Hazardous substances consent

Consent for hazardous substances (referred to in the Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1990 as ‘hazardous substances consent’) is not required if the aggregate quantity of the substance on the land (including other land or structures within 500 metres and...

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