The Town and Country Planning (Environmental Assessment and Unauthorised Development) Regulations 1995

Opinion as to need for environmental statement, etc.

4.—(1) Where it appears to the local planning authority by whom or on whose behalf an enforcement notice is to be issued that the matters constituting the breach of planning control comprise or include unauthorised development they shall serve with a copy of the enforcement notice a notice (“regulation 4 notice”) which shall—

(a) specify the description within Schedule 1 or, as the case may be, Schedule 2 by reference to which it is the authority’s opinion that the development is unauthorised development; and if within a description mentioned in Schedule 2, the factors by virtue of which it is likely to have significant effects on the environment; and

(b) require a person who gives notice of an appeal under section 174 to submit to the Secretary of State with the notice four copies of an environmental statement relating to that unauthorised development.

(2) The authority by whom a regulation 4 notice has been served shall send a copy of the notice to—

(a) the Secretary of State;

(b) the persons with whom, in accordance with article 10 (consultations before the grant of planning permission) of the Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995(1), the authority would be required to consult if an application for planning permission for the unauthorised development were before the authority for determination;

(c) the following persons, if not referred to in sub-paragraph (b)—

(i) any principal council for the area in which the land to which the unauthorised development relates is situated, other than the local planning authority;

(ii) if the land to which the unauthorised development relates is situated in England, the Countryside Commission and the Nature Conservancy Council for England;

(iii) if the land to which the unauthorised development relates is situated in Wales, the Countryside Council for Wales;

(d) where the unauthorised development is of a description referred to in paragraph (3), the chief inspector for England and Wales appointed under section 16 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990(2).

(3) The development referred to in paragraph (2)(d) is any development which in the opinion of the local planning authority—

(a) involves mining operations, or manufacturing industry or the disposal of waste; and

(b) is likely—

(i) to give rise to waste, the disposal of which requires an authorisation under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993(3), or to discharges (other than of domestic sewage) which are controlled waste or special waste within the meaning of Part II (waste on land) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990(4) or are likely to require the licence or consent of the National Rivers Authority or a sewerage undertaker; or

(ii) to involve works specified in Schedule 1 to the Health and Safety (Emissions into the Atmosphere) Regulations 1983(5).

(4) Where an authority provide the Secretary of State with a copy of a regulation 4 notice they shall also provide him with a list of the other persons to whom, in accordance with paragraph (2), a copy of the notice has been or is to be sent.

(1)

S.I. 1995/419.

(2)

1990 c. 43.

(3)

1993 c. 12.

(4)

1990 c. 43. See the definitions of “controlled waste” and “special waste” in section 75 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and paragraph 9(2) of Part I of Schedule 4 to the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/1056).

(5)

S.I. 1983/943, amended by S.I. 1989/319.