Significant court decision on permitted development and EIA

Paul Mobbs mobbsey at gn.apc.org
Mon Apr 4 09:44:13 BST 2011


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/general/news/stories/2011/mar11/31mar11/310311_1

Change to demolition direction following Court of Appeal case

Roger Milne, Planning Portal, 31st March 2011



In a judgment delivered on 25 March the Court of Appeal decided that 
demolition constitutes a project under the terms of the EU Environmental 
Impact Assessment Directive after allowing SAVE Britain's Heritage's judicial 
review against the proposed demolition of the former Mitchell's Brewery site 
in Lancaster.

The Government had argued that the Town and Country Planning (Demolition - 
Description of Buildings) Direction 1995 paragraph 2 (1) provided that 
demolition of listed buildings (and buildings which were scheduled ancient 
monuments or in a Conservation Area) were not development and that as a result 
fell outside the EIA Directive.

In an earlier case the courts had agreed with the Secretary of  State’s stance 
that demolition of dwelling houses and buildings adjoining dwelling houses 
which have permitted development rights by Part 31, Schedule 2 of the Town and 
Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 did not (and could 
not) require EIA. 

Since permitted development rights are withdrawn where EIA is required that 
view was of considerable practical importance in housing clearance and 
Pathfinder cases.

Now the Court of Appeal has ruled that demolition could be a project under 
Article 1.2 of the EIA Directive (either as a 'scheme' under the first limb of 
the Article or as 'other interventions in the natural surroundings and 
landscape' under the second limb).

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: "This is 
a legal challenge that was initiated under the last administration, and stems 
from the implications of an EU Directive. We will now consider the judgement 
carefully and consider the next steps."

The Court of Appeal stated “It is a curious, and thoroughly unsatisfactory, 
feature of the Direction that those demolitions which are most likely to have 
an effect on the cultural heritage - the demolition of listed buildings, 
ancient monuments and buildings in a conservation area - are effectively 
excluded from the ambit of the Directive.”

The Court granted the declaration sought by SAVE that paragraph 2 (1) (a) to 
(d) of the Demolition Direction are unlawful. The Court did not consider 
whether the exclusions in subparagraphs (e) and (f) are lawful.  

The Secretary of State's applications for permission to appeal to the Supreme 
Court and for a stay of the declarations and quashing order were refused.

The judgment may also mean that proposals for demolition of listed buildings 
and buildings in conservation areas may need EIA.


- -- 

.

"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government,
nor are we for this party nor against the other but we are
for justice and mercy and truth and peace and true freedom,
that these may be exalted in our nation, and that goodness,
righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity with
God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burrough, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')

Paul's book, "Energy Beyond Oil", is out now!
For details see http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ebo/

Read my 'essay' weblog, "Ecolonomics", at:
http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/ecolonomics/

Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864
email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/index.shtml
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mei/mobbsey-2011.asc

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (GNU/Linux)
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=tJxx
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----



More information about the Diggers350 mailing list