The Environmental Impact Assessment (Forestry) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999

Regulation 3(3)

SCHEDULE 2 THRESHOLDS FOR IDENTIFICATION OF PROJECTS LIKELY TO HAVE SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Interpretation

1.  For the purposes of this Schedule,

• “National Park” and “Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty” have the meanings in paragraphs (c) and (g) respectively of the next definition;

• “sensitive area” means—

  (a)

  land notified under subsection (1) of section 28 (areas of special scientific interest) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981(1);

  (b)

  land to which subsection (3) of section 29 (nature conservancy orders) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 applies;

  (c)

  a National Park within the meaning of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949(2);

  (d)

  the Broads(3);

  (e)

  a property appearing on the World Heritage List kept under article 11(2) of the 1972 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage(4);

  (f)

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

  (g)

  an area of outstanding natural beauty designated as such by an order made by the Countryside Agency, as respects England, or the Countryside Council for Wales, as respects Wales, and duly confirmed, under section 87 (designation of areas of outstanding natural beauty) of the National Parks and Access to Countryside Act 1949(6);

  (h)

  a European site within the meaning of regulation 10 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats etc.) Regulations 1994(7).

• “specified threshold” means any threshold specified in hectares in Column 2 or 3 of the Table in paragraph 2 below.

Thresholds

2.—(1) For the purposes of regulation 3(3), the threshold for any project of a type specified in an entry in Column 1 in the Table below is the area (if any) specified in the corresponding entry in Column 2 or 3 of the Table, whichever is appropriate to the land covered, or proposed to be covered, by that project.

(2) This paragraph applies subject to paragraph 3 of this Schedule.

TABLE

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Type of project or part of project	Threshold where any part of the land is in a sensitive area	Threshold where no part of the land is in a sensitive area
Afforestation	2 hectares, where the sensitive area is a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.	5 hectares.
	No threshold in the case of other sensitive areas.
Deforestation	0.5 hectare, where the sensitive area is a National Park or Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.	1 hectare.
	No threshold in the case of other sensitive areas.
Forest road works	No threshold.	1 hectare.
Forest quarry works	No threshold.	1 hectare.

Thresholds for extending projects

3.—(1) Where the project under consideration is an extending project—

(a) the thresholds specified in the Table in paragraph 2 above shall not apply, and

(b) the threshold applicable for that project for the purposes of regulation 3(3) shall be instead such balance (if any), in hectares, of the area specified in Column 2 or, as the case may be, Column 3 in that Table opposite the entry in Column 1 for that type of project as remains after deduction of the accumulated material past project area.

(2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (b) above, it is immaterial whether any part of the accumulated material past project area is, or is not, in a sensitive area (or any kind of sensitive area).

(3) In this paragraph—

(a) “extending project” means any project covering, or proposed to cover, land adjoining the area of one or more material past projects

(b) “material past project”, in relation to a particular extending project, means a project which—

(i) is of the same type (as specified in regulation 3(2)) as that extending project; and

(ii) was completed after the coming into force of these Regulations; and

(iii) was completed not more than five years before the proposed date for starting the work relating to that extending project;

(c) “accumulated material past project area”, in relation to a particular extending project, means the total area covered by—

(i) the material past project or, if more than one, all of them; and

(ii) every other project—

(A) whose area adjoins the material past project, or one of them; and

(B) which satisfies conditions (i) to (iii) in sub-paragraph (b) above.

Consideration of thresholds in other cases where project adjoins or is near another project

4.—(1) The facts—

(a) that a project is or would be adjoining or, in the opinion of the Commissioners or (as the case may be) the appropriate Authority, near another project of any type specified in regulation 3(2), and

(b) that, for any reason, the case in question does not fall within paragraph 3 above,

may be regarded by the Commissioners or Authority as rendering the circumstances of that project exceptional for the purposes of regulation 6(3) or (as the case may be) 7(6).

(2) This paragraph—

(a) shall not affect the application of those regulations in a case which does fall within paragraph 3, and

(b) shall not be interpreted as limiting the generality of the references in those regulations to circumstances which are, in the opinion of the Commissioners or (as the case may be) the appropriate Authority, exceptional.

(1)

1981 c. 69, amended by the Wildlife and Countryside (Amendment) Act 1985 (c. 31), the Wildlife and Countryside (Service of Notices) Act 1985 (c. 59), the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 (c. 4) and the Planning (Consequential Provisions) Act 1990 (c. 11).

(2)

1949 c. 97. Relevant amendments were made by the Environment Act 1995 (c. 25), Schedule 10, paragraph 2.

(3)

See the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 (c. 4).

(4)

See Command Paper 9424.

(5)

1979 c. 46. See the definition in section 1(11).

(6)

1949 c. 97. Section 87 was amended by paragraph 1(12) of Schedule 8 to the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (c. 43).

(7)

S.I. 1994/2716.