Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Competent authority definition

What does Competent authority mean? In legal practice, “competent authority” describes the regulator designated by legislation to perform specified supervisory, approval and enforcement functions within a particular financial services regime. In the UK, for the purposes of Part VI of the financial services and markets act 2000 (official listing), the competent authority is the financial conduct authority (FCA). The term is defined by statute and appears across other UK regimes (for example the UK Market Abuse Regulation, the Prospectus regime and the Transparency Rules), with its precise meaning set by the relevant legislation and the FCA Handbook in each context. In Ireland, the expression...

Public rights of way stopping up and diversion for development under s 257 TCPA 1990: necessity test, procedure, objections, statutory undertakers and High Court challenges (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Planning expert

Practice notes

What is a s 257 order?

Section 257 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990) concerns footpaths, bridleways and restricted byways that are impacted by development. It empowers a ‘Competent authority’ to permit the stopping up or diversion of these routes where they are satisfied it is required to facilitate development being undertaken either:

in line with planning permission issued under TCPA 1990, Pt III or TCPA 1990, s 293A (see: Necessary for development to be carried out below), or
by a government department.

TCPA 1990, s 257 further enables an order to be made ahead of the grant of planning permission, where the stopping up or diversion would be required if planning permission were granted, with such an order only capable of being confirmed once planning permission has in fact been granted. These powers apply to routes affected by development...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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