§ Mr. TrendTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the financial implications faced by local authorities being called upon to produce environmental impact assessments in connection with the proposed fifth terminal at Heathrow airport; and what financial compensation he proposes to pay to local authorities for this.
§ Mr. Robin SquireUnder the procedures set out in the Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988, it is for an applicant for planning permission to prepare and submit an environmental statement for any project that requires environmental assessment under the regulations. The local planning authority must then send the statement as well as the planning application to the statutory consultees and publicise it, and take the information provided in the statement and in comments made on it into account when determining the planning application. The functions of the authority in relation to planning applications which are accompanied by environmental statements are thus not essentially different from those which they discharge in determining all other planning applications. The expenditure likely to be incurred by authorities in determining planning applications is taken into account in the annual settlement along with other burdens, the potential for savings and, more generally, what the country can afford.