9th January 2007, 02:30 PM
All quotes posted by Unit of 1:
The public are supposed to be involved, but the UK regulations are very weak on this. The main requirement under the T&CP EIA regs is for the local authority to consult the public before making their decision, rather than the developer. Recent changes in the regulations may strengthen the obligations of the actual proposer of the development in this respect.
Public consultation can mean not much more than a small ad in the local paper saying that an application has been made, and where the documentation is available, or it can include writing to specific members of the public who live nearby. More Rolls-Royce type consultations can involve a series of exhibitions, questionnaire surveys, information on websites, VR simulations, etc. These take months to prepare and to analyse the results and cost more than a large archaeological excavation. They do occur - I have taken part in two in the last year, and I am about to be involved in a third.
All successful planning applications with an EIA could be said to be granted 'in spite' of the EIA, because it would be very unusual for no significant environmental impacts to be identified. The authority has to decide on a case-by-case basis what weight to give those impacts in their decision-making, when balanced against other material factors. They might have to decide, for instance, whether a minor impact on archaeological remains is more important than permitting a development that would create 500 jobs in a depressed area.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Quote:quote:Easy I dont think its easy âsomewhere along the line the public are supposed to be involved for some totally unfathomable reasonYou are dead right - EIA is not easy, it is difficult and very complicated.
The public are supposed to be involved, but the UK regulations are very weak on this. The main requirement under the T&CP EIA regs is for the local authority to consult the public before making their decision, rather than the developer. Recent changes in the regulations may strengthen the obligations of the actual proposer of the development in this respect.
Public consultation can mean not much more than a small ad in the local paper saying that an application has been made, and where the documentation is available, or it can include writing to specific members of the public who live nearby. More Rolls-Royce type consultations can involve a series of exhibitions, questionnaire surveys, information on websites, VR simulations, etc. These take months to prepare and to analyse the results and cost more than a large archaeological excavation. They do occur - I have taken part in two in the last year, and I am about to be involved in a third.
Quote:quote:Article 2:2. The environmental impact assessment may be integrated into the existing procedures for consent to projects in the Member States, or failing this, into other procedures or into procedures to be established to comply with the aims of this Directive.Absolutely - the 'existing procedures' for over 90% of EIA cases are the planning consent procedures.
Quote:quote:I suppose a question could be: can a development be refused consent because of the EIA or can a development be granted acceptance in spite of an EIA. Do both cases need a judgement and how and who is the judgeBoth are true. The authority can refuse consent either because the content of the EIA does not satisfy them that the development would be in accord with planning polidy, or because the developer has refused to do the EIA at all. If the EIA is inadequate, they can send it back and ask the developer to do additional work before they consider the application.
All successful planning applications with an EIA could be said to be granted 'in spite' of the EIA, because it would be very unusual for no significant environmental impacts to be identified. The authority has to decide on a case-by-case basis what weight to give those impacts in their decision-making, when balanced against other material factors. They might have to decide, for instance, whether a minor impact on archaeological remains is more important than permitting a development that would create 500 jobs in a depressed area.
Quote:quote:Now how does this relate to the Drs pipelines which seem to do the consent and EIA in one go and objections dont seem to go to public inquires where as road schemes and TCPA and others doPipelines can and sometimes do go to Public Inquiries, while not all trunk road schemes and only a minority of planning schemes go to Public Inquiry (non-trunk roads are dealt with as planning schemes).
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished