EIA meaning

Has the correct application form been used? If an application is submitted on the wrong form, or without the requisite details, it will be invalid and the local planning authority (LPA) may decline to validate it. The determination period only starts from the date the application is validated. The application must be submitted by one of the following routes: an online submission via the Planning Portal (advised) the national standard application form (1APP), completed and filed online or as a PDF a paper/PDF form downloaded from the Planning Portal ‘Paper Form Chooser’ (or, where available, from the relevant LPA’s website) and sent by post or email...

In this issue: Planning applications and decisions Planning judicial and statutory review Planning policy Heritage and natural environment LexTalk® Planning: a LexisNexis® community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Planning applications and decisions MHCLG publishes new planning consultation direction for England The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has issued the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2026, made under the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, SI 2015/595. Under this Direction, local planning authorities (LPAs) must approach the Secretary of State before turning down planning consent for schemes of 150 or more dwellings or flats, where the application remains undetermined before 11 May 2026. See: LNB News 31/03/2026 29. MHCLG publishes planning committee reform response alongside consultation on draft regulations MHCLG has released its reply to the 2025 technical consultation on planning committee reform, together with the launch of a consultation on draft...

Pearce v Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2021] EWHC 326 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? While the facts are specific to this matter, multiple offshore schemes along England’s east coast are moving through consent, and each must robustly account for cumulative effects. The case also underlines mounting pushback from local communities against sizeable onshore infrastructure in the area, coinciding with BEIS’s programme reviewing offshore transmission and different approaches to linking offshore wind schemes and landing renewable power. The court further made clear that, even where a proposal aligns with government policy and helps deliver low‑carbon, renewable generation consistent with legal duties towards ‘net zero’ and tackling climate change, that alignment does not displace the requirement for any application to evaluate every impact properly and in accordance with the law. All such proposals therefore need to demonstrate, through the application process, that cumulative and project‑specific effects have been considered with sufficient rigour, rather than assuming policy support or climate objectives will...

R (on the application of Carralyn Parkes) v Dorset Council [2024] EWHC 1253 (Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? This ruling confirms how far planning control reaches in England and Wales under the TCPA 1990 where land meets the sea, and addresses whether ‘land’ covers the sea bed beyond the foreshore’s LWM. Although the High Court was told there is considerable opposition to the Bibby Stockholm being moored in the harbour and to its role in accommodating asylum seekers, the court emphasised it was not there to judge the merits of those controversies. Its focus was strictly on the legal issues presented by the claim... What was the background? The Bibby Stockholm is a barge stationed in Portland Harbour, Dorset, used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers. Up to 500 men are expected to live on the vessel while their asylum applications are determined. It is secured over a stretch of sea that is never revealed by the tide, situated below...

National policy 25-Year Environment Plan —the 25-Year Environment Plan outlines the government’s commitments to enhance the environment within a generation. The Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 (EIP 2023) for England was the first statutory update to the 25-Year Environment Plan under the Environment Act 2021 (EA 2021). On 1 December 2025, it was replaced by the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025 (EIP 2025), now the current environmental improvement plan for EA 2021 purposes. EIP 2025 renews the long-term framework for achieving environmental outcomes, revises the interim targets in EIP 2023 and adds two new interim targets. EIP 2025 is pertinent to waste planning as part of the broader policy to improve resource efficiency and drive the move to a more circular economy, complementing the Resources and Waste Strategy and the Waste Management Plan for England (see below). Resources and Waste Strategy The Resources and Waste Strategy sets out how the government intends to conserve material resources by cutting waste, promoting resource efficiency and moving towards a circular economy in...

Breach of planning control and enforcement action Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (TCPA 1990), any breach of planning control can be met with enforcement measures. For these purposes, a breach of planning control is understood to mean: undertaking development without the requisite planning permission — this presumes that an unauthorised operation or a material change of use has occurred which amounts to development within TCPA 1990, s 55, that such development requires planning permission, and that no permission has been secured When determining whether a breach of planning control has arisen in this context, the applicable guidance and case law on the meaning of ‘development’ must be applied; see Overview: Is planning permission required?...

Key legislation Environmental impact assessment (EIA) safeguards the environment by obliging the planning decision‑maker, including a local planning authority (LPA), when determining whether to grant planning permission for a project likely to have significant environmental effects, to take those likely significant effects into account in the decision‑making process within town and country planning matters as part of that decision‑making process. In the context of town and country planning, EIA is regulated by: the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 (English EIA Regulations), SI 2017/571 in England; and the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (Wales) Regulations 2017 (Welsh EIA Regulations), SI 2017/567 in Wales together, the ‘EIA Regulations’. The EIA Regulations implement into English and Welsh law the changes introduced by Archived Directive 2014/52/EU to Archived Directive 2011/92/EU on assessing the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment (as they had effect immediately before IP completion day—11 pm on 31 December 2020), insofar as they...

Neither the legislation—Part 4, Schedule 6 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 (EIA 2006)—nor the guidance—Governance handbook and Schools causing concern—Statutory guidance for local authorities—addresses whether a duty to consult persists where a local authority intends to exercise its EIA 2006, s 65 powers to appoint an Interim Executive Board (IEB) after the entire governing body has stepped down. Warning notice As stated at page 14 of the guidance, a warning notice under Part 4 of the EIA 2006 must be provided in writing to the school’s governing body and must include: the matters on which the local authority’s concerns are based...