Commentary on provisions of the Act Part 1: Conditions Condition relating to building works
Where a building (other than a temporary building) is to be constructed, altered or extended under the Act, paragraph 2 requires this to be done in accordance with plans and specifications approved by the relevant planning authority (which in a non-unitary area is the district council). Paragraph 2(3) and (4) enable the authority, when approving these, to require plans and specifications showing additional details of the building works to be submitted, in order to permit approvals of the plans and specifications to be staged. Paragraph 2(5) and (6) set out the grounds on which approval can be refused or conditions applied. For both qualifying and non-qualifying authorities, these are that details of the design or external appearance of the building works ought to be modified to preserve the local environment or local amenity and are reasonably capable of being modified, or that the development ought to be resited within its permitted limits. Qualifying authorities may in addition refuse approval or apply conditions on road and heritage grounds. Under paragraph 2(7), conditions also require the agreement of the nominated undertaker.
	Where the relevant planning authority is a qualifying authority (see Part 2 of Schedule 17, and the commentary below relating to that Part), paragraph 3 requires similar approvals in relation to other construction works which are part of Phase One, namely certain road vehicle parks, earthworks, screens, fences, lighting, transformers, telecommunications masts and pedestrian accesses. Similar provision to that in paragraph 2 about additional details, grounds of refusal and conditioning are applied to these construction works.