Designated Site meaning

This checklist is intended for landowners, including farmers and local authorities, who are considering a solar farm project. Levels of irradiance Is the site located in a part of the UK with strong irradiation? The South West, the South, South Wales and East Anglia are most favourable. The Midlands and the North can also host solar farms, though with reduced irradiance. North Scotland is the least suitable. Grid connection Is there an electricity substation close enough to enable grid connection? Engage the distribution network operator at the earliest opportunity to obtain a quote. Suitable land What is the overall site area? As a rule of thumb, at least ten hectares is required. Could nearby environmental, geographic or geological conditions influence the solar array? If possible, obtain aerial photographs. Is the site inside or next to a designated landscape, such as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or a National Park? Is the land level? Is the ground rocky?......

R (on the application of Andrew Rickards) v East Hertfordshire District Council [2025] EWHC 2278 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? For Part 6 agricultural prior approvals, the ruling clarifies that although the GPDO (SI 2015/596) grants permission in principle, authorities must still reach—and evidence in the case officer’s report—a targeted assessment of implementation, expressly addressing effects on designated assets, including: ancient woodland, where refusal is the norm absent wholly exceptional justification; and listed buildings, where great weight attaches to conservation, including their setting. Silence is unlikely to be cured by a charitable reading on review and risks being quashed. Declarations of unit size backed by a planning statement can suffice without disproportionate enquiries or a site visit, yet applicants should proactively grapple with nearby constraints, and the GPDO site-notice duty must be strictly satisfied. What was the background? The claim arose from a judicial review of a decision granting prior approval for the installation of...

What are the key proposals in the consultation? Novel nuclear technologies—small and advanced modular reactors EN-7 will be the first national planning policy crafted specifically to cater for, and govern, nuclear generation beyond conventional gigawatt-scale stations. In particular, EN-7 will extend to small modular reactors (SMRs) and advanced modular reactors (AMRs). SMRs are compact iterations of established light water reactor designs, whereas AMRs are distinguished by innovative fuels and alternative cooling methods. This represents a significant break from earlier policy and is meant to enable nuclear schemes to be delivered in settings and for uses where large fission plants are ill-suited... A new approach to locating nuclear generation The existing NPS for nuclear generation (EN-6) named eight sites regarded as potentially appropriate for gigawatt-scale nuclear developments, at which promoters could seek consent to build a station. Those sites were chosen following the government’s extensive strategic site assessment over three years prior to EN-6 being designated in 2011. EN-7 will signify a pronounced shift away from this...

Editor’s note Welcome to the closing 2024 instalment of the Public Law case law quarterly, reporting on the year’s fourth quarter and bringing the year to a close with this quarter’s developments. We open with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Skykick, where the Justices confirmed that the EU Trade Mark Regulation applies directly in the UK as a matter of continuity to ongoing actions already on foot before a UK court designated as an EU trade mark court prior to IP completion day, and that such courts retain their pre‑Brexit jurisdiction in those matters. We then turn to UKSC decisions in McAleenon, holding that neither criminal nor standard civil proceedings provide adequate alternative remedies for a claimant seeking to compel regulators to discharge their duties, and in JR222, where the Supreme Court addressed the standard a minister should apply when deciding whether to pause a public inquiry amid an active criminal investigation or case. Finally, we examine the Court of Appeal’s judgments in Save Stonehenge, which, alongside issues of...

What is the duty to inspect? Local authorities (LAs) are required to examine their localities for the purpose of: identifying any contaminated land under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA 1990) deciding whether it should be designated as a special site; for further details see Practice Note: Special sites of contaminated land When determining contaminated land, LAs must comply with the statutory guidance. What land must be inspected? LAs must assess land situated within their own area. An LA has no obligation to inspect land beyond its boundaries...

Protected areas and protected sites Under section 55(1) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990), development is taken to include carrying out building, engineering, mining or other works in, on, over or beneath land, as well as any material change to the use of buildings or other land. Anyone who has acquired, or is considering acquiring, land for development, or who plans to undertake development activity, must first assess whether the land is a protected site or supports protected species. It is the developer’s duty to establish whether proposed works could impact a protected area or site. They should check, in advance, whether their proposals are likely to affect any such areas or sites at all. Protected areas and protected sites include: national parks—areas designated for their natural beauty and for the opportunities they provide for open-air recreation, with regard to their character and their relationship to centres of population. See Practice Note: Biodiversity and nature—protected sites Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty—tracts...

Chemical sites in the UK Across the UK there are many active and former chemical facilities. Most sit within industrial zones, yet that does not remove environmental sensitivity; in the North East, for instance, rivers such as the Tyne are adjacent to mudflats designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Numerous older plants have since been redeveloped, and those closer to the centre of towns and cities may have been converted to residential end use. Potential environmental liabilities associated with chemical works Operational chemical sites can present environmental risk arising from bulk liquid storage, processing areas and waste streams—especially via the drainage network. Fires at such facilities can also inflict major harm; a notable example is the 2011 Chemie Pack blaze in Rotterdam. Case study—Chemie Pack, Rotterdam 5 January 2011—a catastrophic fire broke out at the Chemie-Pack facility on a large industrial park in Moerdijk, 35 kilometres south of Rotterdam the plant and two adjacent sites were completely destroyed ...

Under the Capital Funding Guide issued by Homes England, where a development lies within a designated protected area (DPA) and benefits from grant, the registered provider (RP) granting a shared ownership lease must include one of two provisions: limit staircasing to a maximum of 80%; or if staircasing beyond 80% is permitted, require the leaseholder to sell their share back to the landlord (or a nominee that is also an RP) at market value when they wish to sell. In certain cases, a local authority can seek a waiver of these conditions from Homes England where the supply of shared ownership homes is no longer constrained. Notwithstanding guidance suggesting one of the above clauses is mandatory for every shared ownership lease in a DPA, our understanding is that the applicable regulations do not impose this where the site has not received grant. For more detail, see: Practice Note: Entitlements under shared ownership leases Housing (Shared Ownership Leases)...