3 Amendment of the principal regulations—application of section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990
After regulation 9 of the principal regulations insert new regulation 9A as follows—

“9A Application of section 77 of the Act to applications for express consent
1 Section 77 (Reference of applications to Secretary of State) of the Act shall apply to applications for express consent made by an interested planning authority pursuant to these regulations subject to the following adaptations and modifications—
(a) in subsection (1) for “applications for planning permission, or for the approval of any local planning authority required under a development order” substitute “applications for the display of advertisements pursuant to regulations made under section 220 of this Act”; and
(b) subsections (4) and (6) shall be omitted.
2 Where the Secretary of State gives a direction pursuant to section 77 of the Act in respect of an application for express consent to display an advertisement, regulations 12 (duty to consult), 13 (power to deal with applications) and 14 (notification of decision) of the principal regulations shall apply to that application subject to the following adaptations, modifications and exceptions—
(a) any references to a local planning authority shall be construed as references to the Secretary of State;
(b) regulation 12(1)(c) shall not apply; and
(c) in regulation 14(1) for “applicant” substitute “interested planning authority.”.”