The Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999

Part I General

Citation and commencement

1.  These regulations may be cited as the Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 and shall come into operation on 14th March 1999.

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(1) shall apply to these regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(2) In these regulations—

“the 1991 Order” means the Planning (Northern Ireland) Order 1991(2) and references to Articles are references to Articles of that Order;

“the Commission” means the Planning Appeals Commission;

“the Department” means the Department of the Environment;

“developer” means a person carrying out or proposing to carry out development;

“the Directive” means Council Directive 85/337/EEC as amended by Council Directive 97/11/EC;

“documents” includes photographs, drawings, maps and plans;

“EIA application” means an application for planning permission for EIA development;

“EIA development” means development which is either—

(a)

Schedule 1 development; or

(b)

Schedule 2 development which is likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of factors such as its nature, size or location;

“environmental information” means the environmental statement, including any further information, any representations made by any body required by these regulations to be consulted and any representations duly made by any other person about the likely environmental effects of the proposed development;

“environmental statement” means a statement that includes such of the information referred to in Part I of Schedule 4 as is reasonably required to assess the environmental effects of the development and which the applicant can, having regard in particular to current knowledge and methods of assessment, reasonably be required to compile, but which includes at least the information referred to in Part II of Schedule 4;

“exempt development” means development which comprises or forms part of a project serving national defence purposes or in respect of which the Department has made a direction under regulation 3(b);

“further information” has the meaning given to it in regulation 15(1);

“the General Development Order” means the Planning (General Development) Order (Northern Ireland) 1993(3);

“the land” means the land on which the development is to be carried out or, in the case of development already carried out, the land on which it has been carried out;

“Schedule 1 application” and “Schedule 2 application” mean an application for planning permission for Schedule 1 development and Schedule 2 development;

“Schedule 1 development” means development other than exempt development of a description mentioned in Schedule 1;

“Schedule 2 development” means development other than exempt development of a description mentioned in column 1 of the table in Schedule 2 where—

(a)

any part of that development is to be carried out in a sensitive area; or

(b)

any applicable threshold or criterion in the corresponding part of column 2 of that table is respectively exceeded or met in relation to that development;

“selection criteria” means the criteria set out in Schedule 3;

“sensitive area” means any of the following—

(a)

an area of special scientific interest, that is to say, land so declared under Article 24 of the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985(4);

(b)

an area of outstanding natural beauty, that is to say an area so designated under Article 14(1) of the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985;

(c)

a National Park, that is to say an area so designated under Article 12(1) of the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985;

(d)

a property appearing on the World Heritage List kept under Article 11(2) of the 1972 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage(5);

(e)

a scheduled monument within the meaning of the Historic Monuments and Archeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995(6);

(f)

a European site within the meaning of regulation 9 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats, etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995(7).

(3) Subject to paragraph (4), expressions used both in these regulations and in the 1991 Order have the same meaning for the purposes of these regulations as they have for the purposes of the said Order.

(4) Expressions used in these regulations and in the Directive (whether or not used in the 1991 Order) have the same meaning for the purposes of these regulations as they have for the purposes of the Directive.

Directions

3.  The Department may direct that—

(a) a particular development of a description described in column 1 of the table in Schedule 2 and which does not meet the conditions in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of the definition of “Schedule 2 development” is EIA development; or

(b) in accordance with Article 2.3 of the Directive (but subject to Article 7 of the Directive) that a specific development is not development in respect of which the consideration of environmental information is required before planning permission can be granted.

Prohibition on the grant of planning permission without consideration of environmental information

4.—(1) Planning permission shall not be granted for EIA development, where the application is received on or after the date these regulations come into operation, unless the Department or the Commission, as the case may require, has first taken into consideration environmental information.

(2) The Department or the Commission, as the case may require, shall when granting planning permission in respect of an application to which paragraph (1) applies, state in the notice to the applicant of its decision, that it has taken environmental information into consideration.

Confirmation that development is EIA development

5.—(1) Subject to any direction of the Department under regulation 3, the occurrence of an event mentioned in paragraph (2) shall determine, for the purposes of these regulations, that development is EIA development.

(2) The events referred to in paragraph (1) are—

(a) the submission by the applicant or appellant, in relation to that development, of a statement referred to by the applicant or appellant as an environmental statement for the purposes of these regulations; or

(b) the determination by the Department, or following a hearing by the Commission, confirmation by the Department, that the development is EIA development.

(1)

1954 c. 33 (N.I.)

(2)

S.I. 1991/1220 (N.I. 11)

(3)

S.R. 1993 No. 278 as amended by S.R. 1995 No. 356; S.R. 1998 No. 222

(4)

S.I. 1985/170 (N.I. 1) as amended by S.I. 1989/492 (N.I. 3)

(5)

See Command Paper 9424

(6)

S.I. 1995/1625 (N.I. 9)

(7)

S.R. 1995 No. 380