Member

The noble Baroness asked what Crown land is and what the route to this is. Section 293 of the Town and Country Planning Act defines who is an applicant, known as an appropriate authority, for the purposes of applications under these routes. For example, this includes where land belongs to a government department or is held in trust for His Majesty for the purposes of a government department. That government department is then considered the appropriate authority. For land belonging to His Majesty in right of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is the appropriate authority. For land belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall, such a person as the Duke of Cornwall appoints is the appropriate authority. I hope that explains who the authorities are in this case. The person making the application will be expected to demonstrate that the Crown has a sufficiently high degree of interest in or control over the proposed development for which planning permission is sought.