UK agency and legislative context - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 66

However several issues still remain. First is the ambiguity inherent in the term “project”.
An example of this is the EIA procedures for electricity generation and transmission, in
which a power station and the transmission lines to and from it are seen as separate
projects for the purposes of EIA, despite the fact that they are inextricably linked (Sheate
1995, and see Section 9.2). Another example is the division of road construction into
several separate projects for planning and EIA purposes even though none of them would
be independently viable. This is discussed further with regard to SEA in Chapter 12.
3.4 The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact
Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (S1 293)
(previously the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of
Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988 (ESI 1199))
The T&CP Regulations implement the EC Directive for those projects that require
planning permission in England and Wales. They are the central form in which the
Directive is implemented in the UK; the other UK EIA regulations were established to
cover projects that are not covered by the T&CP Regulations. As a result, the T&CP
Regulations are the main focus of discussions on EIA procedures and effectiveness. This
section presents the procedures of the T&CP Regulations. Figure 3.4 summarizes these
procedures; the letters in the figure correspond to the letters in bold preceding the
explanatory paragraphs below. Section 3.5 considers other main EIA regulations as
variations of the T&CP Regulations and Section 3.6 comments on the changes following
from the amended EC Directive.
The original T&CP Regulations were issued on 15 July 1988, 12 days after Directive
85/337 was to have been implemented. Guidance on the Regulations, aimed primarily at
local planning authorities, was given in DoE Circular 15/88 (Welsh Office Circular
23/88). A guidebook entitled Environmental assessment: a guide to the procedures (DoE
1989), aimed primarily at developers and their advisers, was released in November 1989.
Further DoE guidance on good practice in carrying out and reviewing EIAS was
published in 1994 and 1995 (DoE 1994a, b, 1995), and in 1997 (DETR). The new 1999
T&CP Regulations were accompanied by new circulars on EIA (DETR 1999, SEDD
1999, and NAFW 1999), which give comprehensive guidance on the Regulations. A new
guidebook, Environmental Impact Assessment: a guide to the procedures (DETR 2000)
was also issued. This, the circulars, and other government guidance are strongly
recommended reading. However, only the regulations are mandatory: the guidance
interprets and advises, but cannot be enforced.
3.4.1 Which projects require EIA?
The T&CP Regulations require EIAs to be carried out for two broad categories of project,
given in Schedules 1 and 2. These broadly corresponded 1 to Annexes I and II of Directive
85/337 before it was amended, excluding those projects that do not require planning
permission. The amended schedules correspond very closely to Annexes I and II in the
amended Directive, as outlined in Table 2.3 and detailed in Appendix 1. Schedule 1 has
very minor wording changes from Annex I, plus the switch of Annex I, 1.20, long