


Environmental Impact Assessments

Tuesday, 05 December 2017 at 9:00AM - 4:30PM
£399 for RTPI members (From £199 with a season ticket)
£199 for licentiate members and independent consultants; £140 for students, unemployed and retired; £499 for non-members
RTPI Conferences

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations require developments which have the potential to be harmful to the environment to go through a rigorous assessment process. The EIA process ensures that potentially significant environmental effects of developments are identified and assessed, and that mitigation is proposed and applied to the final scheme to reduce impacts as far as is practicable. The EIA process is complex, involving screening, scoping and assessment stages. This workshop will cover the relevant legislation, provides explanatory examples and will assist with contributing to, reviewing and submitting a successful EIA.

Key benefits

The masterclass will help you understand:

  1. The legislation, where it comes from, where it has changed and any future proposals
  2. Stages in an EIA including screening, scoping and the Environmental Statement
  3. How mitigation can help to reduce impacts to acceptable levels
  4. What can be expected of EIA consultants
  5. The role of the planning officer in the decision making process
  6. The speciailist inputs required including a specific case study
  7. Guidance and methodologies commonly used

Who should attend?

  • Planning Officers – the role and responsibilities of the competent authority and a thorough approach to the process.
  • Developers – how can we best get the results we want?
  • EIA Consultants – robust and cost effective delivery?
  • Statutory Consultees – how to participate most effectively. 


9.00 Registration and coffee

9.30 Welcome and introductions

9.40 EIA – What is it?

An introduction to the purpose and legislative context of the EIA Directive and its transposition into UK statutory procedures in the context of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2011 and subsequent amendments in 2015.

  • Who are the key stakeholders?
  • What are their respective roles?
  • What are the key stages in the process?

10.00 Screening

  • What is the purpose of screening, who is responsible and how is it done?
  • Exploration of what constitutes an EIA project
  • How to establish if a specific project falls within the remit of the Regulations
  • What constitutes a significant effect?
  • Procedural pitfalls with reference to current case law.  

11.15 Coffee

11.30 Scoping

  • What is the purpose of scoping, who is responsible and how is it done?
  • Exploration of how to establish and agree the scope of an Environmental Statement
  • What constitutes relevant environmental information in accordance with the requirements of the Directive and Regulations
  • Procedural pitfalls with reference to current case law.  

1.00 Lunch

2.00 The Environmental Statement

  • The role of the ES and what it must include
  • What constitutes a competent project description?
  • How to address alternatives
  • What constitutes a method of assessment and impact criteria?
  • The relationship between the description of the baseline environment and the impact assessment
  • What constitutes mitigation and how do you secure commitments made in the ES?
  • What is the role of the technical summary? 
  • Ideas on how best to structure an ES

3.30 Competent evaluation

  • How does the competent authority evaluate a project ES?

4.00 Further questions

4.30 Close

Trainer: Dorian Latham, Technical Director, JBA Consulting