The Environmental Impact Assessment (Land Drainage Improvement Works) (Amendment) Regulations 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Environmental Impact Assessment (Land Drainage Improvement Works) Regulations 1999 (“the 1999 Regulations”) which apply to England and Wales.

Regulation 3 makes amendments to the 1999 Regulations in relation to public participation in determining whether improvements should be carried out, arising from Directive 2003/35/EC (O.J. No. L 156 , 25.06.03 p.17), which amends Directive 85/337/EEC (O.J. L 175, 5.7.1985, p.40) on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, which was previously amended by Directive 97/11/EC (O.J. No. L 073 , 14.03.97 p. 5). It specifies additional information that drainage bodies are to place in notices and creates new duties upon drainage bodies to make information on improvement works available to the public, including a duty to maintain a record of all determinations.

Regulation 4 provides that notices under the 1999 Regulations are to be published not only in two local newspapers but also on any website maintained by the drainage body proposing the works. It also makes provision allowing drainage bodies to substitute for one of the notices required to be placed in local newspapers a notice on the site of the proposed improvement works. This option will only be available to a drainage body where the site of the proposed improvement works is easily visible from a public highway.

Regulation 5 makes further miscellaneous amendments to the 1999 Regulations not directly related to public participation in decision-making. It includes English Heritage and Cadw within the definition of bodies to be consulted upon determinations; changes the definition of “the Directive” to take account of Directive 2003/35/EC; and clarifies that the expression “improvement works” includes not only improvements but also alterations to existing works. In regulation 3(2) of the 1999 Regulations it removes the previous cross-reference to the Directive and instead states that the appropriate authority’s power to give a direction exempting particular improvement works from the requirements of the 1999 Regulations is exercisable on exceptional grounds. In Schedule 3 to the 1999 Regulations, the list of information which the appropriate authority is required to send to other EEA States wishing to participate in the procedures provided for by the Regulations is amended to refer to the information required to be contained in a notice under regulation 6(2).

A full Regulatory Impact Assessment and a transposition note has been prepared in connection with the amendments made by these Regulations, and placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies are obtainable from either, Lucy Toman, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Flood Management Division, Room 202 Foss House, King' Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green York Y01 7PX (email: [e-mail]) or, Cedric Moon, Welsh Assembly Government, Environmental Protection Division, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF10 3NQ (email: [e-mail]).