The Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995

Supplementary provisions as to potentially damaging operations

Duties of Department of Agriculture with respect to European sites

65.—(1) Where an application for a farm capital grant is made as respects expenditure incurred or to be incurred for the purposes of activities on land within a European site, the Department of Agriculture—

(a) shall, so far as may be consistent with the purpose of the grant provisions, so exercise its functions thereunder to further the conservation of the flora or fauna or geological or physiographical features by reason of which the land is a European site; and

(b) where the Department has objected to the making of the grant on the grounds that the activities in question have destroyed or damaged or will destroy or damage that flora or fauna or those features, shall not make the grant except after considering the objection.

(2) Where in consequence of an objection by the Department, an application for grant as respects expenditure to be incurred is refused on the ground that the activities in question will have such an effect as is mentioned in paragraph 1(b), the Department shall, within three months of being advised of the decision of the Department of Agriculture, offer to enter into, in the terms of a draft submitted to the applicant, a management agreement—

(a) imposing restrictions as respect those activities; and

(b) providing for the making by it of payments to the applicant.

(3) In this regulation—

• “farm capital grant” means—

  (a)

  a grant under a scheme made under Article 16(1) and (2) of the Agriculture and Fisheries (Financial Assistance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1987(1), or

  (b)

  a grant under regulations made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(2) to a person carrying on an agricultural business within the meaning of those regulations in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred for the purposes of or in connection with that business, being expenditure of a capital nature or incurred in connection with expenditure of a capital return; and

• “grant provisions” means—

  (i)

  in the case of such a grant as is mentioned in paragraph (a) the scheme under which the grant is made and Article 16(1) and (2) of the Agriculture and Fisheries (Financial Assistance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, and

  (ii)

  in the case of such a grant as mentioned in paragraph (b) the regulations under which the grant is made and the Community instrument in pursuance of which the regulations were made.

(1)

S.I. 1987/166 (N.I. 1)

(2)

1972 c. 68