Julie James AM, Minister for Housing and Local Government and Hannah Blythyn AM, Deputy Minister for Housing and Local Government
This was published under the 2016 to 2021 administration of the Welsh Government
Biomass UK No.2 Ltd submitted a planning application to the Vale of Glamorgan Council under section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (reference number 2017/01080/FUL). In February last year we wrote to the company to inform them we were minded to direct the application must be subject to Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). We continue to consider matters in light of representations made.
As part of that process we have identified a potential breach of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (“the EIA Regulations”) in relation to planning application 2015/00031/OUT.
We are aware that if there has been a breach of the EIA Regulations we have a duty of sincere co-operation under European Law which requires us to exercise any powers available to us under domestic law to remedy any breach that may have occurred if taking such measures is lawful and proportionate.
We are exploring options under domestic law to progress matters as quickly as possible. We consider that compiling and consulting upon an environmental statement would assist with remedying any breach of the EIA Regulations. The consultation will allow all interested parties to consider and comment on a single comprehensive document, which would reflect the requirements for environmental statements as described in regulations applying EIA to Town and Country Planning. This would ensure that all of the potential environmental impacts which could arise from the development are collated and that communities have the opportunity to consider and respond to that information.