Environmental Impact Assessment
| Author | William Webster |
| Pages | 333-343 |
Chapter 16
Environmental Impact Assessment
INTRODUCTION
16.1 This chapter deals with the legislation covering environmental impact assessment (EIA).
16.2 The process of EIA in the context of town and country planning is governed by the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017
16.3 The EIA Regulations 2017 apply the amended Directive 2014/52/EU
(Environmental Impact Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2017 came into force on the same date. The new regs are based on a revised Directive 2014/52/EU.
Assessment) Regulations 2011 (EIA Regulations 2011) where appropriate, subject to certain transitional arrangements contained in the EIA Regulations 2017, reg 76, which provide that the EIA Regulations 2011 continue to apply where, before 16/5/2017, a person or body has submitted an Environmental Statement (ES) or has requested a scoping opinion, or in respect of a local development order an LPA has prepared an ES or a scoping opinion, or requested a scoping direction. The screening provisions set out in the EIA Regulations 2011, Pts 1 and 2 will also continue to apply to requests for a screening opinion or direction made or initiated before 16/5/2017.
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only to certain types of development and can even apply to permitted development. The local planning authority (LPA), the Secretary of State or an inspector must not grant consent for EIA development unless an EIA has been carried out.
16.4 The screening thresholds for industrial estate development and urban development projects were raised in April 2015 as set out in the Annex to the guidance on the EIA Regulations 2011. Projects which are wholly outside sensitive areas and do not exceed the revised screening thresholds are not Schedule 2 development and should not be screened by the LPA. Where the LPA has, prior to 6/4/2015, screened a project which does not exceed the relevant revised threshold and has determined that it is EIA development, it will continue as such. It remains, as usual, open to the applicant to request that the Secretary of State issues a screening direction to determine whether a development is likely to have significant effects on the environment. Subsequent applications in relation to development which was determined to be EIA development prior to 6/4/2015, but which is below the thresholds introduced in 2015, should continue to be treated as EIA development.
PURPOSE OF EIA
16.5 The aim of EIA is to protect the environment by ensuring that an LPA, when deciding whether to grant planning permission for a project which is likely to have significant effects on the environment, does so in the full knowledge of the likely significant effects and takes this into account in the decision-making process.
2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conservation of Wild Birds (the Birds or Habitats Directives); (c) to the list of environmental factors to be considered as part of the EIA process; (d) to the information to be provided to inform a screening decision and the criteria to be applied when making a screening decision; (e) to the way in which an ES is to be prepared, including an amendment to the information to be included in it, the introduction of a requirement that it should be based upon a scoping opinion (where one has been obtained) and a requirement that it is to be prepared by a competent expert; (f) to the means by which the public is to be informed of projects which are subject to the EIA process, and (g) the introduction of a requirement for decision-makers to avoid conflicts of interest.
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16.6 EIA will only apply to a small proportion of projects. LPAs already have a well-established general responsibility to consider the environmental implications of developments which are subject to planning control. The EIA Regulations 2017 integrate EIA procedures into this framework and should only apply to projects which are likely to have significant effects on the environment. Pre-application engagement is also clearly important in identifying when, and in what respects, a proposal should be subject to an EIA.
OVERVIEW OF EIA
16.7 The EIA process has five broad stages: screening; scoping; preparing an Environmental Statement (ES); making a planning application and consultation; and decision-making.
Screen...
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