The Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Essex Coast) Designation (Amendment) Order 1999

Title and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Essex Coast) Designation (Amendment) Order 1999 and shall come into force on 31st August 1999.

Interpretation

2.  In this Order “the principal Order” means the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Essex Coast) Designation Order 1994(1), as amended at the date that this Order comes into force.

Amendment of the principal Order

3.  The principal Order shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this Order.

4.  In article 2(1) of the principal Order, the provisions immediately following the words “In this Order–” to the end of article 2(1), in so far as they were made under section 18 of the Agriculture Act 1986, shall be deleted and the following definitions shall be inserted at their appropriate alphabetical place:

““agreement” means an agreement under section 18(3) of the Agriculture Act 1986 as respects agricultural land in the area designated by article 3;

“capital activity” means an activity specified in Schedule 1;

“conservation plan” means a plan incorporated into an agreement for the carrying out of one or more capital activities within a specified period;

“farmer” means a person who has an interest in agricultural land in the area designated by article 3, and who has also entered into an agreement with the Minister;

“grassland” means land on which the vegetation consists primarily of grass species and includes meadowland, pasture and rough grazing;

“management activity” means an activity specified in Schedule 2;

“permanent grassland” means grassland which has not been ploughed or re-seeded for at least five years;

“public access route” means a strip of land which is the subject of an agreement and on which access is given to the public;

“scrape” means a shallow excavation which may hold water seasonally;

“wet grassland” means grassland with the potential to retain winter and spring water levels on marshland to create field wetness or to allow shallow pools to develop.”

5.  In article 3 of the principal Order, for the words “dated 3rd March 1994, signed and sealed by the Minister” there shall be substituted “dated 31st July 1999, signed on behalf of the Minister by the Parliamentary Secretary”.

6.  For article 4 of the principal Order and the heading thereto there shall be substituted the following article and heading–

“Matters in respect of which payments may be made

4.   Payments to be made by the Minister under an agreement may be made in respect of a capital activity or a management activity.”.

7.  For article 5 of the principal Order there shall be substituted the following article and heading thereto–

“Rates of payment

5.— (1) Payments to be made by the Minister under an agreement shall not exceed–

(a) in the case of a management activity, the rate specified in respect of that activity in column 2 of Schedule 2; and

(b) in the case of one or more capital activities included in a conservation plan, £100,000 in aggregate.

(2) Any works which form part of an activity which constitutes both a management activity and a capital activity may by virtue of an agreement be eligible for payment either as part of a management activity or as part of a capital activity, but the agreement together with any conservation plan incorporated in it shall not provide for payment to be made on both such bases in respect of the same works.”.

8.  For Schedule 1 to the principal Order there shall be substituted the Schedule set out in Schedule 1 to this Order.

9.  For Schedule 2 to the principal Order there shall be substituted the Schedule set out in Schedule 2 to this Order.

10.  The following provisions of the principal Order shall be deleted–

(a) articles 6 and 7; and

(b) Schedules 3, 4 and 5.

Elliot Morley

Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

31st July 1999

We consent,

Jim Dowd

Bob Ainsworth

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

9th August 1999