Details
Title
English Case Decision on the need for SEA for SPG's
Author
Date posted
1st July 2008
Text
An English case decision on the need for SEA to be carried out for supplementary planning documents has been published http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2008/262.html. In this case the Court held that no SEA was required and that there should be no retrospective assessment of local plan policies. This case highlights the need for a careful review of existing development plan policies at the outset of developing SPG. This decision has been subject to doubts about the approach taken (see for example http://www.planningresource.co.uk/appeals/LegalReport/821337/Legal-report/) and authorities should consider discussing with SEA Gateway whether SEA will be required for their wind farm SPG (for contact details please see http://www.spgadvice.co.uk/faq/22/).
If SEA requires to be carried out then authorities should bear in mind the need to prepare the Environmental Report alongside the the draft SPG following the recent case in Northern Ireland relating to equivalent legislation there which held that the responsible authority had failed to comply with both the European Directive and the relevant Regulations because the Environmental Report had been prepared at such a late stage that there was no opportunity for the Report to inform the draft plan. See http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/nie/cases/NIHC/QB/2007/62.html&query="strategic+environmental+assessment"&method=boolean