The Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“agriculture” includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, livestock breeding or keeping, the use of land as grazing land, meadowland, osier land, reed beds, market gardens and nursery grounds;

“additional environmental information” means any additional information required under regulation 13(1);

“Area of Special Scientific Interest” means an area so designated by the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985(1)

“consent” means consent granted under regulation 16(1);

“consultation bodies” means the consultation bodies listed in Schedule 5, and any other public authority, statutory body or other organisation which the Department may consider to have any interest in or holds any information which may be relevant to a project;

“cultivated” means cultivated by physical means (including ploughing and harrowing) or chemical means (including the application of fertilisers);

“the Department” means the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development;

“EEA State” means a member State, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein;

“environmental statement” means a statement that includes—

(a)

as much of the information in part 1 of Schedule 3 as is reasonably required to assess the environmental effects of the project and which the applicant for consent can, having regard in particular to current knowledge and methods of assessment, reasonably be required to compile, and

(b)

at least the information referred to in Part 2 of Schedule 3;

“European site or Area of Special Scientific Interest” means a site mentioned in paragraph (a), (b), (d) or (e) of regulation 10(1) of the Habitats regulations;

“the Habitats Directive” means Council Directive 92/43/EEC(2) on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, as last amended by the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Czech Republic, the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the Republic of Hungary, the Republic of Malta, the Republic of Poland, the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovak Republic and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded(3);

“the Habitats Regulations” means the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995(4);

“project” means—

(c)

the execution of construction works or other installations or schemes; or

(d)

other interventions in the natural surroundings and landscape;

“the relevant land” means the land on which the project is to be (or has been) carried out;

“restructuring project” means a project for the restructuring of rural land holdings;

“screening decision” means a decision made by the Department under regulation 8(1) or a decision deemed to be made by the Department under regulation 8(7);

“screening notice” means a notice served under regulation 6;

“sensitive area” means—

(e)

an area of outstanding natural beauty designated as such by an Order made by the Department of the Environment under the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985;

(f)

a National Park;

(g)

a scheduled monument within the meaning of section 1(11) of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979(5);

(h)

Special Areas of Conservation;

(i)

Special Protected Areas;

(j)

Areas of Special Scientific Interest;

“significant project” means an uncultivated land project or a restructuring project which the Department has decided under regulation 8 or is deemed to have decided under regulation 8, is likely to have significant effects on the environment;

“uncultivated land” means land which has not been cultivated in the previous 15 years;

“uncultivated land project” means a project to increase the productivity for agriculture of uncultivated land or a semi-natural area, and includes projects to increase the productivity for agriculture of such land to below the norm.

(2) Other expressions used in both these Regulations and in the EIA Directive or the Habitats Directive have the same meanings in these Regulations as they have in the relevant Directive.

(3) All notifications, applications, notices, representations, requests, approvals and agreements under these Regulations must be made or given in writing.

(4) “Writing” in paragraph (3), except where it applies to notices under regulations 24 and 26, includes an electronic communication within the meaning of the Electronic Communications Act 2000(6), but notifications required to be made by the Department to any person may only be made by an electronic communication if the intended recipient—

(a) has himself used that form of electronic communication in communicating with the Department under any provision in these Regulations, or

(b) has otherwise represented that that form of electronic communication is a means by which persons can communicate with him.

(1)

S.I. 1985/170 (N.I. 1)

(2)

O.J. No. L206, 22.7.1992, p. 7.

(3)

O.J. No. L 236, 23.9.2003, p. 667–70. See Annex II: List referred to in Article 20 of the Act of Accession, 16. Environment, C. Nature protection.

(4)

S.R. 1995 No. 380

(5)

1979 c.46

(6)

2000 c. 7.