Perhaps more significantly it was held that that there was no case for asking the European court to decide whether those regulations (as construed) had failed to give effect to Directive 85/57/EEC (the non-implementation issue) .
But the story is unlikely to end there. Quite apart from a possible appeal to the House of Lords in Barker, it seems that the European Commission is deciding whether it should, on its own initiative, take the UK government to the European court on the non-implementation issue.
* Now superseded by the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment)(England and Wales) Regulations 1999, which do not affect the point in issue.
PP 2002/4
Q A planning authority have granted an outline permission for a major urban development, having decided, after due consideration, that there was no reason to call for an environmental impact assessment (the EIA question). The developer is now applying for the approval of certain reserved matters. A protest group will contend for a reopening of the EIA question on the grounds that: (a) the authority fell into error at the application stage; and/or (b) the approval process will raise environmental issues that have not yet been considered. Has the developer any cause for concern?
A Not on the current state of the law: see the decision of the Court of Appeal in R (on the application of Barker) v Bromley London Borough Council [2001] 49 EG 117 (CS). This endorses the prevailing judicial view that, on a proper construction of the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988*, the EIA question must be considered once and for all at the initial application stage.
Perhaps more significantly it was held that that there was no case for asking the European court to decide whether those regulations (as construed) had failed to give effect to Directive 85/57/EEC (the non-implementation issue) .
But the story is unlikely to end there. Quite apart from a possible appeal to the House of Lords in Barker, it seems that the European Commission is deciding whether it should, on its own initiative, take the UK government to the European court on the non-implementation issue.
* Now superseded by the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment)(England and Wales) Regulations 1999, which do not affect the point in issue.
