Participation, presentation and review - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 186

documents, any comment made by the statutory consultees and representations from
members of the public, as well as to other material considerations. By any standards,
making decisions on development projects is a complex undertaking. Decisions for
projects requiring EIAs tend to be even more complex, because by definition they deal
with larger, more complex projects, and probably a greater range of interest groups:
The competition of interests is not simply between the developer and the
consultees. It can also be a conflict between consultees, with the
developer stuck in the middle hardly able to satisfy all parties and the
“competent authority” left to establish a planning balance where no such
balance can be struck. (Weston 1997)
Whereas in the early years the decision-making process for projects with EIA was
accepted as being basically a black box, more recently attempts have been made to make
the process more rigorous and transparent. Research by the
(Wood & Jones 1997) and Oxford Brookes University (Weston et al. 1997) has focused
on how environmental information is used in UK decision-making; this is discussed
further in Chapter 8. Similar work carried out by Land Use Consultants resulted in a good
practice guide (DoE 1994) on the evaluation of environmental information for planning
projects; the advice, however, could relate equally well to other types of project. The
good practice guide begins with a definition of evaluation:
…in the context of environmental assessment, there are a number of different stages or
levels of evaluation. These are concerned with:
• checking the adequacy of the information supplied as part of the ES, or contributed
from other sources;
• examining the magnitude, importance and significance of individual environmental
impacts and their effects on specific areas of concern…;
• preparing an overall “weighing” of environmental and other material considerations in
order to arrive at a basis for the planning decision.
The guide suggests that, after vetting the application and EIS, advertising the proposals
and EIS, and relevant consultation, the LPA should carry out two stages of
decisionmaking: an evaluation of the individual environmental impacts and their effects,
and weighing the information to reach a decision. The evaluation of impacts and effects
first involves verifying any factual statements in the EIS, perhaps by highlighting any
statements of concern and discussing these with the developer. The nature and character
of particular impacts can then be examined; either the EIS will already have provided
such an analysis (e.g. in the form of Table 6.3 or 6.4) or the case-work officer could
prepare such a table. Finally, the significance and importance of the impacts can be
weighed up, taking into consideration such issues as the extent of the area affected, the
scale and probability of the effects, the scope for mitigation and the importance of the
issue.
Weighing up the information to reach a decision involves not only considering the
views of different interest groups and the importance of the environmental issues, but
also determining whether the proposed project is in accordance with the development
plan. Environmental impacts can be divided into three groups: those which by themselves