Origins and development - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 40

all before 1988; many EIAs were prepared voluntarily or at the request of local
authorities, and guidelines for EIA preparation were drawn up.
2.4.1 Limitations of the land-use planning system
The UK's statutory land-use planning system has since 1947 required local planning
authorities (LPAs) to anticipate likely development pressures, assess their significance,
and allocate land, as appropriate, to accommodate them. Environmental factors are a
fundamental consideration in this assessment. Most developments require planning
consent, so environmentally harmful developments can be prevented by its denial. This
system resulted in the accumulation of considerable planning expertise concerning the
likely consequences of development proposals.
After the mid-1960s, however, the planning system began to seem less effective at
controlling the impacts of large developments. The increasing scale and complexity of
developments, the consequently greater social and physical environmental impacts and
the growing internationalization of developers (e.g. oil and chemicals companies) all
outstripped the capability of the development control system to predict and control the
impacts of developments. In the late 1960s, public concern about environmental
protection also grew considerably, and the relation between statutory planning controls
and the development of large projects came under increasing scrutiny. This became
particularly obvious in the case of the proposed third London Airport. The Roskill
Commission was established to select the most suitable site for an airport in south-east
England, with the mandate to prepare a CBA of alternative sites. The resulting analysis
(HMSO 1971) focused on socio-economic rather than physical environmental impacts; it
led to an understanding of the difficulties of expanding CBA to impacts not easily
measured in monetary terms, and to the realization that other assessment methods were
needed to achieve a balance between socio-economic and physical environmental
objectives.
2.4.2 North Sea oil- and gas-related EIA initiatives
The main impetus towards the further development of EIA, however, was the discovery
of oil and gas in the North Sea. The extraction of these resources necessitated the
construction of large developments in remote areas renowned for their scenic beauty and
distinctive ways of life (e.g. the Shetlands, the Orkneys and the Highlands region).
Planning authorities in these areas lacked the experience and resources needed to assess
the impacts of such large developments. In response, the Scottish Development
Department (SDD) issued a technical advice note to LPAs (SDD 1974). Appraisal of the
impact of oil-related development noted that these developments and other large and
unusual projects need “rigorous appraisal”, and suggested that LPAs should commission
an impact study of the developments if needed. This was the first government recognition
that major developments needed special appraisal. Some EIAs were carried out in the
early 1970s, mostly for oil and gas developments. Many of these were sponsored by the
SDD and LPAs, and were prepared by environmental consultants, but some (e.g. for the
Flotta Oil Terminal and Beatrice Oilfield) were commissioned by the developers. Other
early EIAs concerned a coal mine in the Vale of Belvoir, a pumped-storage electricity