The Environmental Impact Assessment and Natural Habitats (Extraction of Minerals by Marine Dredging) (Wales) Regulations 2007

Provision for the protection of European sites: new dredging projects

2.—(1) This paragraph applies in relation to every project in respect of which the Welsh Ministers have determined under regulation 6, 13(1) or 18(3) that it would constitute a habitats project.

(2) A person applying under regulation 10, or under regulation 18, must provide such information as the Welsh Ministers may reasonably require for the purposes of the assessment under regulation 13(3) or that regulation as applied by regulation 19(3).

(3) For the purposes of the assessment, the Welsh Ministers must take appropriate scientific advice.

(4) The Welsh Ministers may also take appropriate steps to obtain the opinion of the public for the purposes of the assessment.

(5) In the light of the conclusion of the assessment, and subject to sub-paragraphs (7) and (8) below, the Welsh Ministers may grant permission for the project only after having ascertained that it will not, either alone or in combination with other plans or projects, adversely affect the integrity of the European site.

(6) In considering whether a project will adversely affect the integrity of the site, the Welsh Ministers must have regard to—

(a) the manner in which it is proposed to be carried out; and

(b) any conditions or restrictions subject to which it is proposed that the permission should be granted.

(7) Where the Welsh Ministers consider that any adverse effects of the project on the integrity of an European site would be avoided if the permission were subject to conditions, permission can only be granted subject to those conditions.

(8) If the Welsh Ministers are satisfied that, there being no alternative solutions, the project must be carried out for imperative reasons of overriding public interest (which, subject to sub-paragraph (9), may be of a social or economic nature), permission may be granted for the project notwithstanding a negative assessment of the implications for the site.

(9) Where the site concerned hosts a priority natural habitat type or a priority species, the reasons referred to in sub-paragraph (8) must be either—

(a) reasons relating to human health, public safety or beneficial consequences of primary importance to the environment, or

(b) other reasons of overriding public interest, provided the Welsh Ministers have had due regard to the opinion of the European Commission in concluding that there are such reasons.