Briefing Note 3  

Planning and the Environment - getting it right

 

The environment and applied matters such as sustainability and biodiversity are rising every more to the fore in planning application decisions and especially with inspectors and the Secretary of State in determining appeals.  
 
If you are putting in a planning application and do not get the statutory consultees, planning officers, local residents and (above all) the Council Members on your side, your application may well be lost.  
 
Applications are delayed and even refused outright because of lack of environmental information and insufficient attention to sustainability issues. There has been a rise in refusals as planning authorities increasingly avoid pre-determination discussions. Matters such as archaeology and landscape design that would at one time have been a matter of condition are now being brought forward to pre-determination. There is also the rise of the skilled professional objector with the ability to pick substantial holes in ill-prepared environmental statements.  
 
The strong message is: ensure you have your environmental act together well in advance of an application. Legislation and guidance changes, costs rise and ever more work is required.  

So, what can be done? Following these three steps will help:

 
Step 1. Budget fully and up front for environmental surveys of all kinds including contaminated land investigations, landscape assessments, tree condition surveys, badger, bat, newt and slow-worm surveys, hydrological and geological surveys and others depending upon the nature of the project.  
 
Step 2. Consult early with all those who will consider your application including planning officers, appropriate officers of the Environment Agency and English Nature, County Archaeologist and Ecologist, local landscape and biodiversity officers. Ensure that the scope of the environmental information required is agreed in advance of preparing your application.  
 
Step 3. Think ahead to who your objectors might be and make sure that you talk to them. Local residents may be better assured of your good intentions if you can demonstrate that you have commissioned independent environmental appraisals of your proposals and can make reports available to them. Keeping documents back can lead to ill-founded objections causing wholly unnecessary delay.  
 
If you project is sound, you will get a smooth passage through planning, and if your application provides substantial benefit to the local community such as by high standards of design, wildlife and community benefit, you may even get an award. Awards look good and provide evidence of your commitment to sustainable development and improving the environment.  


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