Environmental Impact Assessment
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The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 requires new development projects for:
- 3,000 places for production pigs (over 30kg)
or
to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before planning permission can be granted: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1999/99029305.htm#sch1
This is in addition to IPPC permitting.
An EIA is also required when any development of an intensive livestock unit exceeds the above threshold or any part is within an environmentally sensitive area where:
- the area of new floor space exceeds 500 metres square
or
- more than 0.5 ha of semi-natural or uncultivated land is developed
An EIA assesses the effect a proposed new unit could have upon the environment through noise, smell, pollution, visual impact, traffic, potential flooding and ecology, and considers means of reducing the impacts of the proposal.
This allows the farmer to reconsider his original ideas and possibly improve on them before the final submission of a planning application.
This is further to IPPC permitting, which has lower thresholds, but much of the IPPC process translates to the EIA.
The planning application together with the EIA are then determined by the Local Planning Authority who decide whether the proposed scheme is given consent or if some of the alternatives within the EIA should be considered to reduce the potential impact.
Aside from planning permission, the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations 2006 may require an EIA to gain consent from Natural England for:
- Any agricultural project likely to have a significant effect on the environment or
- Cultivation of land that has not been cultivated for over 15 years (although cultivation includes harrowing and spraying but not topping or grazing).