Protecting the Natural Environment
| Author | William Webster/Robert Weatherley |
| Pages | 505-535 |
INTRODUCTION
49.1 This chapter offers an overview of the planning regime in the case of EIA, the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010,
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
49.2 The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011 (as amended) (2011 Regulations)
49.3 The aim of EIA is to protect the environment by ensuring that the 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 its decision-making. The 2011 Regulations set out a procedure for identifying those projects which should be subject to EIA, and for assessing, consulting and coming to a decision on those projects which are likely to have significant environmental effects. LPAs and developers should carefully consider whether a project should be subject to
506 Restrictions on the Use of Land
EIA. If required, they should limit the scope of the assessment to those aspects of the environment that are likely to be significantly affected.
49.4 The EIA process
(a) screening: whether a project falls within the remit of the 2011 Regulations,
i.e. whether it is likely to have a significant effect on the environment and therefore requires an EIA);
(b) scoping: determining the extent of the issues to be considered in the assessment and reported in the environmental statement; the applicant can ask the LPA for its opinion on what information needs to be included – this is known as a ‘scoping opinion’;
(c) preparing an environmental statement: where it is decided that an EIA is required, the applicant must compile the information reasonably required to assess the likely significant environmental effects of the development; to help the applicant, public authorities must make available any relevant environmental information in their possession;
(d) making the planning application and consultation: the environmental statement (and an applicant may prepare an environmental statement without first seeking a screening or scoping opinion from the LPA) and the application for development to which it relates, must be publicised and the statutory consultees and the public must be given an opportunity to give their views about the proposed development and the environmental statement;
(e) decision-making: the environmental statement, together with any other information which is relevant to the decision, comments and representations made on it, must be taken into account by the LPA and/or by the Secretary of State in deciding whether or not to give consent to the development; the public must be informed of the decision and the reasons for it.
49.5 Development covered by the 2011 Regulations can be found at Schedules 1–2.
49.6 It is for the LPA (or Secretary of State in the case of an appeal) to determine whether the project is of a type listed in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 to the 2011 Regulations. If a proposed development project listed under the development description contained in the first column of Schedule 2 exceeds the
relevant thresholds or criteria set out in the second column, the proposal needs to be screened by the LPA to determine whether significant effects are likely and hence whether an EIA is required. Projects listed in Schedule 2 which are located in, or partly within, a sensitive area
49.7 When screening Schedule 2 projects, the LPA must take account of the selection criteria in Schedule 3. Not all of the criteria will be relevant in every case and each case should be considered on its own merits in a balanced way, and LPAs should retain the evidence to justify their decision. The guidance suggests that only a very small proportion of Schedule 2 development will require an EIA. To aid LPAs to determine whether a project is likely to have a significant environmental effects, a set of indicative thresholds and criteria have been produced which can found in the PPG in the section ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’.
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