Thresholds for extending projects
3.—(1) Where the project under consideration is an extending project—
(a)the threshold specified in the Table in paragraph 2 shall not apply; and
(b)the threshold applicable for that project for the purposes of regulation 3(3) shall be instead such balance (if any), in hectares, of the area specified in Column 2 or, as the case may be, Column 3 in that Table opposite the entry in Column 1 for that type of project as remains after deduction of the accumulated material past project area.
(2) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (1)(b), it is immaterial whether any part of the accumulated material past project area is, or is not, in a sensitive area (or any kind of sensitive area).
(3) In this paragraph —
“extending project” means any project covering, or proposed to cover, land adjoining the area of one or more material past projects;
“material past project”, in relation to a particular extending project, means a project which —
is of the same type (as specified in regulation 3(2)) as that extending project; and
was completed after the coming into operation of these Regulations; and
was completed not more than five years before the proposed date for starting the work relating to that extending project;
“accumulated material past project area”, in relation to a particular extending project, means the total area covered by —
the material past project or, if more than one, all of them; and
every other project —
whose area adjoins the material past project, or one of them; and
which satisfies conditions (a) to (c) in the definition of “material past project”.