The Electricity and Pipe-line Works (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1990

Procedure to facilitate preparation of environmental statements

6.—(1) A prospective applicant may give the Secretary of State notice in writing that he intends to make an application for consent falling within regulation 3(1) and to submit an environmental statement with his application.

(2) A notice under paragraph (1) shall include the information necessary to identify, or be accompanied by documents identifying, the land and the nature and purpose of the proposed development, and shall indicate the main environmental consequences to which the prospective applicant proposes to refer in his environmental statement.

(3) Where the Secretary of State receives such a notice as is mentioned in paragraph (1) in relation to a proposed application for consent falling within regulation 3(1), he shall—

(a) notify the bodies mentioned in paragraph (4) in writing of the name and address of the prospective applicant and of the duty imposed upon them by regulation 11 to make information available to the prospective applicant;

(b) inform the prospective applicant in writing of the names and addresses of the bodies so notified.

(4) The bodies referred to in paragraph (3) are—

(a) any principal council for the area where the land is situated, if not the local planning authority;

(b) the Countryside Commission;

(c) the Nature Conservancy Council;

(d) where the prospective applicant intends to make an application for a section 36 consent, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Pollution.

(5) Where an application for consent falling within regulation 3(1) has been made without an environmental statement, and—

(a) the Secretary of State has given notice to the applicant to the effect that the consideration of an environmental statement is required; or

(b) the applicant has informed the Secretary of State that he proposes to submit an environmental statement,

the Secretary of State shall take the action specified in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph (3) as if references to the prospective applicant were references to the applicant.