Miller Homes has submitted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report to Cotswold District Council (CDC). They have requested a ’scoping opinion’ from CDC, Basically, they have set out the ’topic areas’ that they think their EIA report and Environmental Statement should cover, when they submit their planning application in the summer. It is a long document, accompanied by other documents relating to archaeology, heritage and some other matters.
It is important that we go through the EIA with a fine-tooth comb, because we have already found it to contain multiple errors, inaccuracies and omissions. In a nutshell, Miller Homes has said that the only ’topic areas’ for which there will be ‘likely significant effects’ from building 130 houses are biodiversity and landscape. They are only planning to cover these topics in their EIA when the planning application is submitted.
Astoundingly, they say there are ’no likely significant environmental effects’ in the following topic areas, and they do not need to cover these in their final EIA.
• Air Quality;
• Noise and Vibration;
• Agricultural Land;
• Built Heritage and Archaeology;
• Climate Change;
• Water Environment;
• Ground Conditions and Contamination;
• Lighting;
• Major Accidents and/or Disasters;
• Socio-economics and Human Health;
• Transport and Movement; and
• Waste.
This absolutely beggars belief! Miller Homes is asking CDC’s opinion on the above, and they have around 5 weeks to respond from the April 10th date that Miller Homes submitted their Scoping Opinion documents. As a result, we are going through the EIA, and submitting our own comments, as we need to make sure that CDC do not let Miller Homes get away with this.
You can find the Scoping Opinion documents on the CDC Planning Portal site at:
https://publicaccess.cotswold.gov.uk/online-applications
The planning application number is 26/01167/SCOPE, or just type land south of longfurlong lane in the search box. Please feel free to add your own comments.
We believe that by attempting to put the above topic areas out of scope, Miller Homes are reneging on their environmental obligations.