PART 2CONSERVATION OF NATURAL HABITATS AND HABITATS OF SPECIES
Control of potentially damaging operations
Farm capital grants24
1
Where an application for a farm capital grant is made as respects expenditure incurred or to be incurred for the purpose of activities on land within a European site, the appropriate authority—
a
must, so far as may be consistent with the purposes of the grant provisions, exercise their functions so as to further the conservation of the flora, fauna, or geological or physiographical features by reason of which the land is a European site; and
b
where the appropriate nature conservation body have objected to the making of the grant on the ground that the activities in question have destroyed or damaged or will destroy or damage that flora or fauna or those features, must not make the grant except after considering the objection.
2
Where in consequence of an objection by the appropriate nature conservation body, an application for a grant as respects expenditure to be incurred is refused on the ground that the activities in question will have such an effect as is mentioned in paragraph (1)(b), the appropriate nature conservation body must, within three months of their receiving notice of the appropriate authority’s decision, offer to enter into a management agreement—
a
imposing restrictions as respects those activities, and
b
providing for the making by them of payments to the applicant,
in the terms of a draft submitted to the applicant.
3
In this regulation—
a
“farm capital grant” means—
i
a grant under a scheme made under section 29 of the Agriculture Act 197059 (farm capital grants), or
ii
a grant under regulations made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 197260 to a person carrying on an agricultural business within the meaning of those regulations in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred for the purposes of or in connection with that business, being expenditure of a capital nature or incurred in connection with expenditure of a capital nature; and
b
“grant provisions” means—
i
in the case of a grant of a kind described in sub-paragraph (a)(i), the scheme under which the grant is made and section 29 of the Agriculture Act 1970, and
ii
in the case of a grant of a kind described in sub-paragraph (a)(ii), the regulations under which the grant is made and the EU instrument in pursuance of which the regulations were made.