The Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Stages I–IV) Designation (Amendment) Order 2004

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order amends—

• the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Stage I) Designation Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/3049) (which designated areas in The Broads, the Pennine Dales, the Somerset Levels and Moors, the South Downs and West Penwith as environmentally sensitive areas);

• the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Stage II) Designation Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/3050) (which designated areas in Breckland, Clun, North Peak, the Suffolk River Valleys and the Test Valley);

• the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Stage III) Designation Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/3051) (which designated areas in the Avon Valley, Exmoor, the Lake District, the North Kent Marshes, the South Wessex Downs and South West Peak); and

• the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Stage IV) Designation Order 2000 (S.I. 2000/3052) (which designated areas in the Blackdown Hills, the Cotswold Hills, Dartmoor, the Essex Coast, the Shropshire Hills and the Upper Thames Tributaries).

The Order increases, with effect from 16th February 2004, the maximum rates of certain payments by the Secretary of State pursuant to agreements made under section 18(3) of the Agriculture Act 1986 relating to land in an environmentally sensitive area (Articles 2–5). The payments concerned are those relating to the provision of public access.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as it has no impact on the costs of business.