ABSTRACT
The aim of Environmental Impact Assessment is to protect the environment by ensuring that decision makers, when deciding whether to grant planning permission for a project which is likely to have significant effects on the environment, do so in the full knowledge of the likely significant effects and take this into account in the decision making process. The regulations require that certain types of projects which are likely to have significant environmental effects should not proceed until these effects have been systematically assessed. The regulations allow a developer to apply to the local planning authority for an opinion on whether an EIA is needed prior to applying for planning permission. Developers can obtain a formal opinion from the LPA on the scope of the EIA – i.e. what it should include. EIA can formally be required at all stages of the planning process irrespective of whether an EIA has already been undertaken.
