Commentary on Sections and Schedules Planning Section 15: Extension of permitted development rights
57.Section 15 allows certain statutory undertakers (such as sewerage and electricity undertakers) to rely on their own permitted development rights for work which they carry out in relation to Crossrail, provided that the significant impacts of such diversions have been environmentally assessed for the purposes of the project as a whole. Such assessment would be found within the various statements containing environmental information which the Department has produced at the introduction of the Act and subsequently where significant project changes have emerged. As with section 14, this provision is intended to ensure that the direct and indirect environmental effects of the development authorised by the Act are properly assessed at the appropriate stage.
58.Section 15 also brings into effect Schedule 8, which enables the Secretary of State to intervene in the process of statutory undertakers carrying out work in relation to Crossrail but under their own permitted development rights. The Secretary of State may intervene under Schedule 8 for the purposes of avoiding a breach of a relevant Parliamentary undertaking or for securing that the environmental effects of carrying out development are not materially different from those assessed.