Corporate slide master
With guidelines for corporate presentations
The draft Town and Country
Planning (Environmental
Impact Assessment) (Wales)
Regulations 2012
Hywel Butts
Development Management Branch
Planning Division
Welsh Government
hywel.butts@wales.gsi.gov.uk
Planning Division
Five branches and a bill team
•
•
•
•
•
Decisions
Policy
Plans
Resources & Delivery
Development Management
• Planning Bill Team
Issues
• Infraction
• EIA Regulation changes
• Case law
• Baker
• Mellor
• Smout
• Commission v Ireland
• Development categories
• Multi-stage consent & Local Development Orders
• Questions
Consulting on new regulations in Wales
Other regulations within the United Kingdom – learning from
experience
Consolidated regulations
UK response to case law changes –
Baker, Mellor
Issues in Wales –
Smout case, Local Development Orders, Costs
Obtaining views on the options available
Three month consultation period starting end of March (subject
to ministerial approval). Likely that new regulations in force in
the summer.
Baker case – changes or extensions to
existing development
R (on the application of Baker) v Bath and North East Somerset
Application of Annex II, development class 13
Schedule 2 of the 1999 regulations – application of screening
thresholds
Options
1. Change to guidance – EIA may be required below the
threshold
2. Legislation enabling local planning authorities to screen
development below the existing thresholds where possibility
test of ‘likely significant effects’ will be met
3. Legislation requiring formal screening of all changes and
extensions
Mellor case – Reasons for negative screening
decisions
European Commission pursuing the need to give reasons for not
requiring EIA.
European Court of Justice ruling – reasons not required to be
issued but can be requested later under the Environmental
Information Regulations
Importance of retaining an audit trail
Options
1. Reasons on request
2. Full reasons to accompany all screening decisions
Smout case – applying EIA to modification
and discontinuance orders
Smout v Welsh Ministers, Wrexham CBC, Cory Environmental
Orders made under sections 97 and 102 of the Town and
Country Planning Act 1990 where planning permission is
granted
Direct application of the EIA Directive
Options
1. Developer prepare the environmental statement
2. Local planning authority prepare the environmental
statement
Commission v Ireland – applying EIA to
demolition
ECJ case C-50/09 – EIA capable of applying to demolition
Annex 1 and Annex 2 written in terms of an end use – demolition
in its own right
Save Britain’s Heritage v Secretary of State for CLG
Parts of the Demolition direction quashed – More reliance on
Permitted Development Order so demolition does not
require planning permission
EIA development cannot be permitted development
Options
Whether or not to introduce a separate class in Schedule 2 for
demolition
Application of EIA to subsequent consents
The ECJ ruled that EIA could apply to reserved matters
applications - the Barker case.
The UK planning system viewed as a ‘multi-stage consent
procedure’
2008 changes to the EIA regulations – ‘subsequent consents’
Still a requirement to deal with EIA primarily at outline stage but
a requirement for full EIA publicity and environmental
statement provision at each ‘subsequent application’ stage
Options
1. Keep procedures as currently drafted
2. Reduce advertisement requirements at subsequent
application stage where EIA previously undertaken
3. Remove automatic consultation requirements
Changes to development categories & other
minor change
Directive 2009/31/EC Geological storage of carbon dioxide –
new categories in Schedules 1 and 2
Electricity transmission projects – Annex 3(b) cases that fall to
the land use planning system for decision e.g. some substations fall within the land use planning system
Removal of criminal offence – Regulation 14(7) offence to
provide a false certificate of publicity
Local Development Orders (LDOs)
New Development Management Procedure Order (DMPO) to be
made this month – introduces Local Development Orders
Consultation on LDOs – LDOs will not be able to to provide
consent for EIA development
England have the provision to screen LDO’s where they provide
consent for schedule 2 development is this required in
Wales?
Costs of the EIA Process
A draft regulatory impact assessment will be included in the
consultation document. Comments are encouraged on whether
the assumptions made are reasonable.
Public Consultation
Consultation documents will be available from the Welsh
Government web site later this month – sign up for the
consultation newsletter –
http://wales.gov.uk/consultations
The draft Town and Country Planning
(Environmental Impact Assessment)
(Wales) Regulations 2012
Any Questions?
Hywel Butts
Development Management Branch
Planning Division
Welsh Government
hywel.butts@wales.gsi.gov.uk