Overview of the Act PART 2 – MASTERPLAN CONSENT AREAS Schedule 5A of the 1997 Act: Masterplan consent areas Calculation of periods
129.Paragraph 24 explains how periods described in the schedule as ending after a specified number of months or years are to be calculated. There are two such references, to months or years, within Schedule 5A:
	Paragraph 1(4) – which means schemes cannot cover a period longer than 10 years.
	Paragraph 13(2) – which bars the planning authority from making certain restrictive alterations to schemes until 12 months after the completion of the consultation process.
130.In calculating these periods, paragraph 24(1) means that the end of the period of however many months will fall, within the final month, on the same day of the month as it started on, unless the final month has fewer days than the month it began, in which case it would be the last day of that calendar month.
131.Paragraph 27(3) provides a worked example to show when a six month period from a set date would be calculated to finish.