Planning

Environmental Impact Assessment - local planning authority giving negative screening opinion - not obliged to reconsider whether assessment required before granting planning permissionR (Fernback and others) v Harrow London Borough Council: QBD (Mr Justice Richards):11 April 2001A developer requested a screening opinion as to whether a development which it proposed required an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The council, pursuant to regulation 5(4) of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (SI 1999 No 293), adopted a negative screening opinion to the effect that the proposal did not require an EIA.

Subsequently a traffic impact assessment was submitted, indicating that the proposal would give rise to traffic congestion.

The council, without reconsidering whether an EIA was required, granted planning permission for the development.

The claimants sought judicial review of that decision on the ground, among other things, that the council should have reconsidered whether an EIA was required and have concluded that one was, with the result that the grant of permission without considering an environmental statement was in breach of regulation 3 of the 1999 regulations.Eian Caws (instructed by Mishcon de Reya) for the claimants.

David Mole QC, Paul Brown and Paul Greatorex (instructed by the Borough Secretary and Solicitor to the Council, Harrow London Borough Council) for the council.

Matthew Horton QC and Reuben Taylor (instructed by Turbervilles with Nelson Cuff, Uxbridge) for the developer.Held, refusing the application, that it was open to a local planning authority which had given a negative screening opinion to change its mind in the light of further information and to require an EIA before planning permission was granted; but that an authority was not under any duty, either express or implied, to reconsider the matter at the time of determining the application, and the traffic impact assessments were not such as to compel a reasonable authority to reconsider whether an EIA was required; and that, although there would be some environmental impact in the form of traffic congestion, it could not be said that the only reasonable conclusion open to the council was that the development was likely to have 'significant effects on the environment' for the purposes of the regulations.