Environmental statements, environmental information, environmental assessment and the UK planning process

Abstract

Since 1988 and the introduction into UK planning of the requirement for formal environmental impact assessment (EIA) of major projects, there has been much research on the quality of the environmental statements (ESs) submitted with planning applications. Yet the ES is only one part of the total environmental information (EI); its quality does not necessarily reflect the overall quality of the EIA process or of the decisions which flow from it. Ten case studies demonstrate this point, the complex process of gathering environmental information, and its relationship to the ES and decisionmaking. While the ES remains a key feature of EIA, it is often far less significant than the mass of other information assessed by local planning authorities in making decisions on major projects.