ABSTRACT
The roles of the spatial planning, environmental protection and public health regimes are interconnected and, to an extent, complementary. All are involved with a range of similar issues and share the aims of achieving more sustainable communities by protecting the environment and health, preventing and mitigating nuisance or loss of amenity, and facilitating healthier lifestyles. The terms amenity and nuisance are widely used within planning policy with one of the broad aims of the planning system being to mitigate against adverse impacts on amenity and to determine when incompatibility between differing types of development is likely to cause nuisance. The environmental health departments of district councils are consultees in the development management process and also may have a role in both local plan-making and planning enforcement. Poor air quality remains an issue in many parts of the UK including Northern Ireland.
