Advice to BNP Paribas (for Royal Mail)

Enquiry

• From: BNP Paribas (for Royal Mail)
• Date advice given: 16 February 2012
• Enquiry type: Phone

On behalf of their client, BNP Paribas enquired as to whether Royal Mail should be consulted by developers in all cases during pre-application procedures and asked if the IPC considers the cumulative impacts in assessing Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

The IPC replied by email.

Advice given

Thank you for your telephone call to the IPC helpdesk on Tuesday 7 February 2012, in regard to your client Royal Mail. I have since spoken with an IPC case manager about your enquiry.

Further to your question on whether the IPC considers the cumulative effects of projects in the application pipeline, I refer you to pages 21 and 22 of the IPC’s Scoping opinion for the proposed Dyfnant Forest Wind Farm (please see link). Where the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009 (EIA Regs) impose procedural requirements for the carrying out of an Environmental Impact Assessment on certain Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) under the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008), the proposal would need to identify other major development in the area and the potential cumulative impacts with other major developments. The IPC recommends that the developer discusses and agrees with the relevant authorities the other developments that should be assessed as part of the cumulative impact assessment of the proposed development, giving appropriate consideration to development which is: under construction; permitted application(s), but not yet implemented; submitted application(s) not yet determined; identified on the IPC’s Programme of Projects; identified in the relevant Development Plan (and emerging Development Plans - with appropriate weight being given as they move closer to adoption) recognising that information on some relevant proposals will be limited and; identified in other plans and programmes (as appropriate) which set the framework for future development consents/approvals, where such development is reasonably likely to come forward. The IPC’s Scoping opinion sets-out the information to be included in the Environmental Statement. There are some NSIPs, however, that only require EIA if they are likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of their nature, size or location.

In regard to whether Royal Mail should be consulted under s42 of PA2008 for all NSIP applications, particularly in Wales and the Southwest of England, it is for the developer to establish whether their proposal and any associated development is likely to affect the functions of relevant statutory undertakers as set out in Schedule 1 of The Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009 (APFP). Where a proposal is identified as EIA development, the IPC will notify consultation bodies, any regulation 9(1)(c) persons and any non-prescribed consultation bodies in accordance with Regulation 9(1)(b) of the EIA Regs, and consult on the scope of the Environmental Statement under Regulation 8. This is carried out independently from the pre-application consultation undertaken by the developer. The IPC provides the developer with a list of those persons and bodies consulted for these purposes: a developer may use, but not rely on, this list to inform their pre-application consultation. For some consultation bodies prescribed in the APFP Regulations, the IPC does not have any discretion and must consult in all cases. In other cases, the IPC can exercise discretion by adopting ‘relevance’ and/or ‘circumstances’ tests, as described in pages 5 and 6 of Advice Note 3 (link). As ‘Royal Mail’ is not a named prescribed consultee under APFP Schedule 1, but comes under the ‘relevant statutory undertakers’ category, the IPC has to take a judgement on the probability or risk that the development will have an effect on the function or responsibilities of those statutory undertakers. We note that for Nant y Moch Wind Farm, Dyfnant Forest Wind Farm and Mynydd Mynyllod Wind Farm, Royal Mail was identified for the purposes of Scoping. The developer would follow their own tests and legal advice for identifying prescribed consultees for the purposes of ss.42-44 consultation under PA2008 and secondary legislation. Incidentally, please be aware of footnote 19 of Advice Note 3, which adds (with regard to any universal service provider established under the Postal Services Act 2000) that it is understood Royal Mail is currently the only provider of the universal postal service in the UK.

I hope this information has been helpful, but please contact the IPC again should you have further questions.