The Countryside Access (Exclusion or Restriction of Access) (Wales) Regulations 2003

2.  Delete Regulation 4, and substitute:

“4.— (1) Subject to paragraph (2), the respondent must, within 14 days of receiving from the National Assembly a copy of the appeal form, send to the National Assembly and to the appellant:

(a) a statement as to whether it will oppose the appeal and, if so, its grounds for doing so;

(b) a statement as to whether it wishes to be heard by a person appointed by the National Assembly in connection with the appeal (rather than that the appeal be determined on the basis of written representations) and, if so, whether it wishes to be heard at a local inquiry or, alternatively, at a hearing;

(c) copies of any relevant correspondence between the appellant and the respondent;

(d) copies of any representations made to the respondent by any person other than the appellant in respect of the decision on the part of the respondent to which the appeal relates, and

(e) any further information required by the National Assembly to be provided.

(2) In the case of an appeal under section 6 of the Act, the respondent:

(a) must, in addition, send to the National Assembly, within the period specified in paragraph (1), a copy of an extract showing that part of the provisional map to which the appeal relates;

(b) need not send the statements referred to in paragraph (1)(a) and (1)(b) within the period specified in paragraph (1) but must do so before the expiry of the period specified in regulation 5(2)(a) or 5(2)(b) (whichever is the later) and must, at the same time, send the National Assembly any further information which the National Assembly has, by that time, required the respondent to provide; and

(c) if it does not, within the period specified in paragraph (1) send the National Assembly the statements referred to in paragraph (1)(a) and (1)(b), must, instead, send the National Assembly, within that period, a statement containing an indication as to whether it will oppose the appeal and, if so, its likely grounds for doing so.”