Environmental Impact Assessment
What is it?
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process that flows from the Town and County Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. It is generally most associated with strategic scale major developments but it can apply to more modest development proposals where there are acknowledged special sensitivities.
What are the process stages of EIA?
There are five stages:
1) Screening Request – the first stage of the process dealing with whether a project would be EIA development or not. Typically, an applicant will seek a screening opinion from the Council on this issue prior to the making of a planning application (although a project can be screened at any stage).
A Screening Opinion request does not involve a planning fee and does not require any public consultation. An applicant can ask the Secretary of State to consider whether EIA applies or not.
There is no set form for a Screening Request but, to respond, we will need sufficient details so that we can carefully consider the project against the criteria set out in the Regulations as well as any relevant guidance. In some cases, an applicant may have sufficient confidence that a project would be EIA development so as to skip this process stage and proceed directly to the ‘Scoping’ stage.
2) Scoping Opinion – if a project would be EIA development, this second stage of the process allows an applicant to request the Council for an opinion on the information that will need to be considered and then included in an Environmental Statement. Again, there is no public consultation on this request. The Council will typically consult key internal and external technical consultees for input and has the ability to add to the list of topics that it considers that an applicant should ‘scope in’ to an Environmental Statement.
3) Preparing an Environmental Statement – this comprehensive and specialist document will include detailed information set out in topic-based chapters dealing with an assessment of the likely significant environmental effects that would arise if planning permission were granted. It will seek to quantify the magnitude of these effects to assist the Council’s consideration of the environmental benefits and negatives that would arise. Accompanying the Statement is a Non-Technical Summary. This important document seeks to make the key issues and findings accessible and easily understood by those with an interest in the outcome of the Council’s decision.
4) Application & consultation – the Environmental Statement and the planning application to which it relates will be publicised by the Council and the legislation allows for a longer period for making comments. The Council can request clarification and/or seek further information from an applicant in order to assist reaching a decision on the application.
5) Decision - should the Council wish to grant permission then we will need to take into account the Environmental Statement and demonstrate of balancing of the issues leading to that conclusion. In some instances there may be a lag between the Council resolving to grant planning permission and the actual issue of the decision notice where a legal agreement has to be negotiated in order to secure mitigation dealing with the impacts of the scheme. When planning permission is issued this will be followed by a public notice.
