159.There are three National Parks in Wales: Brecon Beacons (Bannau Brycheiniog), Pembrokeshire Coast (Arfordir Penfro) and Snowdonia (Eryri). These, and the 10 in England, are designated under Part 2 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Since the National Parks in Wales were first designated in the 1950s, there have been several changes to the administrative arrangements for managing the Parks, including those made by the Countryside Act 1968, Local Government Act 1972, Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 and the Environment Act 1995 (‘the 1995 Act’). Before the changes made by the 1995 Act, each National Park in Wales had a National Park Committee(15). There were also powers to establish joint planning boards or special planning boards for National Parks(16), but those powers had not been used in Wales.
160.Section 63 of the 1995 Act gave the Secretary of State the power to make an order establishing a National Park authority where there was an existing authority for a National Park or in connection with designating an area as a new National Park. An existing authority in this context meant a joint or special planning board or a National Park Committee. The National Park Authorities (Wales) Order 1995(17) (‘the 1995 Order’) established National Park authorities for the Parks in Wales with effect from 23 November 1995. The authorities assumed their substantive functions, and the National Park Committees ceased to exist on 1 April 1996.
161.Section 64 of the 1995 Act, which only applies to Wales, is mainly about the transition from joint or special planning boards to National Park authorities. Subsections (1) to (5) dealt with the situation where a board had already been established for a National Park, but they never had any effect because no such boards were ever established in Wales. The Act therefore repeals these provisions, as they are redundant.
162.Section 64(6) and (7) dealt with the situation where steps had been taken towards establishing a board but had not been concluded, and where a National Park authority was instead to be established before 31 March 1997. The Act therefore repeals those subsections, since they would have applied to things done during a period that ended long ago and are now spent.
163.Subsection (9) of section 64 defined terms used in subsections (1) to (7), and section 75(2) made provision for orders under section 64. The Act therefore also repeals these provisions, which become obsolete on the repeal of the substantive powers.
164.In section 65 of the 1995 Act, subsection (3) makes provision about the functions of a National Park authority during any period between the authority being established and becoming a local planning authority. Subsection (4) modified subsection (3) for Wales, but only in relation to things done before 1 April 1996. Subsection (4) is now spent and is also repealed.
165.The definition of an “existing authority” in section 79(1) contains references to powers to establish joint and special planning boards for National Parks in Wales that were never used and are no longer available. The Act therefore repeals these provisions as they are redundant.
166.In Schedule 7 to the 1995 Act, paragraph 14(2)(b) and 14(4) refer to things done by a joint or special planning board for a National Park in Wales. The Act repeals these provisions as they never had any effect and can no longer have any effect.
167.In Schedule 10 to the 1995 Act, paragraph 30 amended a provision in Schedule 8 to the Electricity Act 1989. That provision was also amended by paragraph 22 of Schedule 6 to the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (‘the 1994 amendment’), which was not in force when the 1995 Act was enacted. Paragraph 30 of Schedule 10 therefore contained different amendments for the situations where it came into force before, after or at the same time as the 1994 amendment. In fact, paragraph 30 came into force before the 1994 amendment, so the amendments for the other situations were never needed(18). The Act therefore repeals these provisions, contained in paragraph 30(4) and (5) of Schedule 10.
168.In Schedule 23 to the 1995 Act, paragraphs 7, 11 and 15 were transitional provisions for cases where joint and special planning boards had been established for National Parks in Wales. Those paragraphs were not brought into force. The situation to which they applied never arose, and even if it had arisen the paragraphs would now be spent, so the Act repeals them.
Commentary on Sections Part 3 – Repeals of Welsh Legislation Part 10 – National Park Planning Boards