Development Management

Jim Newton – Assistant Director for Planning Policy and Development 		
	Bicester Heritage
c/o Edgars
The Old Bank
39 Market Square
Witney
OX28 6AD		
Bodicote House
Bodicote
Banbury
Oxfordshire
OX15 4AA
www.cherwell.gov.uk	
Please ask for:	Maria Philpott	Direct Dial:	01327 322261	
Email:	Planning@cherwell-dc.gov.uk	Our Ref:	18/00061/SO	
16 August 2018
Dear Sir,
Application Nos:	18/00061/SO	
Applicant’s Name:	Bicester Heritage	
Proposal:	Request for a screening opinion under Part 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 for proposed employment development (New Technical Site)	
Location:	Bicester Heritage Buckingham Road Bicester  	
Parish(es):	Launton		 	

I write with regard to the above application, received on 30th July 2018, which represents a formal request for a Screening Opinion under Regulation 6 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017, as to whether the proposal set out in your submission requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This letter constitutes a Screening Opinion of the Local Planning Authority of the proposed development under Regulation 6 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017.

Summary of Determination

The Local Planning Authority agrees with your assessment that the proposal falls under Schedule 2, Section 10 (a) “Industrial estate development projects”.  The site area would exceed the applicable threshold (0.5ha) in column 2 of Schedule 2 but the development is not within a ‘sensitive area’. 

For the development to be considered an EIA development, it would be likely to have significant effects on the environment by virtue of factors such as its nature, size or location. In determining whether the proposals are likely to constitute EIA development, regard has been had to the criteria set out in Schedule 3 of the EIA Regulations 2017. Government guidance relating to EIA as set out in the Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) is also material and has been taken into account. The Local Planning Authority considers that the proposal is unlikely to have significant environmental effects for the purposes of the EIA Regulations when the cumulative impact of this development is considered in the context of other significant development surrounding the site and that the proposal is not therefore EIA Development. An Environmental Statement is not required to be submitted with a future application for the reasons set out below.

Reasons for Determination

Site

The site covers an area of 1.61ha and occupies an area to the south-western boundary of the Bicester Heritage site adjacent to the Skimmingdish Road.  It is part of the former RAF Bicester technical site and airfield which extends some 140hectares to the north and east of the proposal site.  

Constraints

The site itself is not within a sensitive area as defined by the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017 but it has a number of site constraints as follows:

•	The site is located within the Conservation Area of RAF Bicester;

Adjacent to the proposed site, within or adjacent to the wider Bicester Heritage site are a number of other constraints as follows:

•	All the buildings within the wider site are either Grade 2 listed or locally listed;
•	There are a number of Scheduled Monuments located within the main technical site area and around the flying field;
•	There is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) within 2km of the site (the quarry to the north); 
•	There is a District Wildlife Site to the south of the site on the opposite side of Skimmingdish Lane;
•	The site is adjacent to a Local Wildlife Site (which also extends to the outer edges of the rest of the flying field);
•	The site is bordered to the south by the A4421 Skimmingdish Lane and to the west by the Buckingham Road;
•	There are residential properties to the south, south-west and west of the site (opposite sides of the road);
•	The site is allocated in the Cherwell Local Plan for ‘Tourism Development’ (Policy Bicester 8) and there is a site adjacent to the east which is allocated for ‘New Employment Development’ (Policy Bicester 11).

Proposal

The proposal to which this screening opinion relates is for an extension to the existing technical site, providing new industrial buildings, car parking and landscaping.  The new buildings will provide a total GIA of 6530sq m with a maximum ridge height of 8.1m.

Appraisal

The proposed development does not fall under Schedule 1 development but is considered to fall under Section 10(a) of Schedule 2 of the Regulations which relates to ‘industrial estate development projects’ and it does exceed the associated threshold of 0.5ha in column 2 for this type of development.  

In considering proposals for EIA development, an assessment as to whether the proposal will be ‘likely to have significant effects on the environment’ needs to be made having regard to the indicative criteria and thresholds set out in the PPG.  The development is not within a ‘sensitive area’ as defined in the regulations (AONB, National Park etc.) and does not exceed the indicative threshold of 20 hectares in Column 3 of the Annex to the PPG.  However this on its own does not mean that the proposal is or is not EIA development and it should still be assessed in relation to Schedule 3 of the Regulations.

Schedule 3 of the Regulations requires the proposal to have regard to the 1) characteristics of the development, 2) the location of the development and 3) the type and characteristics of the potential impact.

Whilst the proposal will be a large extension to the existing technical site area, it is nonetheless considered to be of an appropriate scale, utilising previously developed land and sensitively designed with appropriate materials.  It is not considered to give rise to any issues relating to the use of natural resources, production of waste, pollution or risk of accidents or risks to human health.  

There are a number of constraints affecting the site as set out above raising issues such as impacts on heritage assets, ecological impacts, landscaping and visual impacts.  The proposal will also generate its own impacts such as traffic, noise and air quality.  However, these impacts can all be addressed through the submission and assessment of specific reports through the normal planning and consultation process and are not considered to give rise to significant environmental impacts warranting the submission of an Environmental Statement.

Schedule 3 makes it clear that the size of the proposed development and its consequent potential impact needs to be considered cumulatively with other development. In this respect the PPG states in ID: 4-024-20140306 that “local planning authorities should always have regard to the possible cumulative effects arising from any existing or approved development. There could also be circumstances where two or more applications for development should be considered together….. where the overall combined environmental impact of the proposals might be greater or have different effects than the sum of their separate parts”.

This proposal for an extension to the existing technical site at Bicester Heritage has been formally submitted as a planning application (18/01333/F) concurrently with another proposal for a hotel (18/01253/F) which is to be located adjacent to the western boundary of the site, utilising another access from Buckingham Road.  These two planning applications will be considered concurrently.

A Screening Opinion has already been carried out on the hotel on its own merits (18/00044/SO) and was deemed not to be EIA development (decision June 2018).  At that time, this proposal had not been finalised.  This proposal for the extension to the existing technical site now needs to be considered cumulatively with the hotel proposal.  The hotel proposal is to be a significant new building located to the north of the existing technical site, 5 storeys in height and providing over 300 bedrooms.  It will be affected by similar constraints to this proposal (ecology, heritage, landscaping and visual impacts) as well as generating its own impacts such as traffic, noise and air quality.  However, the cumulative impacts of all of these issues when considering both the proposals together, is not considered to be so significant as to consider the proposals EIA development.  This proposal, as with the hotel, can consider mitigation measures in the form of on/off site mitigation secured via the imposition of conditions and in some cases (such as highways issues) via a S106 legal agreement.  As such it is not deemed that the cumulative impact of this proposal when considered with the hotel proposal would give rise to significant environmental effects.  

As the site is allocated in the Local Plan (Policy Bicester 8) for “heritage tourism uses, leisure, recreation, employment and community uses”, there could still be other proposals that come forward at a later date.  However this allocation is non-specific and could include proposals that range in size, scale and intensity from very small proposals to much larger proposals (especially given the site area).  However there are currently no other existing or approved proposals across the wider site or adjacent to the site that this hotel proposal needs to be considered alongside at this time.  Furthermore, in terms of proposed development, it would be difficult at this stage to quantify the cumulative impacts as proposals are not fully developed and could change significantly.   

Whilst the development will be a large area of development within the site, it will still be contained within the Bicester Heritage site area which extends to some 140ha which will therefore lessen the impact on its surroundings and enable plenty of scope for mitigation of any likely impacts.

The most significant impacts are likely to relate to the impact on the heritage assets, ecology and landscape and visual impacts, traffic, emissions and noise amongst others for which specific reports can be submitted and as such all matters can be dealt with through the normal planning application process and consultation procedures as mentioned above.

In conclusion the development is listed in Schedule 2 of the Regulations but I am of the opinion that due to the scale of development, the site characteristics, its location and context and the nature of the development, the proposal is unlikely to give rise to significant environmental effects and hence an EIA is not required in this instance.

In reaching this opinion the Local Planning Authority has considered the factors above, the criteria to Schedule 3 to the EIA Regulations 2017 (as amended) and the Planning Practice Guidance together with the thresholds and criteria set out in the Annex. 

This opinion has been made by an appropriately authorised officer at the Local Planning Authority.  In accordance with the 2017 Regulations, a copy of this screening opinion has been placed on the Planning Register.

If you have any further queries, please contact the Case Officer Maria Philpott.

Yours faithfully 

Tracey Hill
for Assistant Director for Planning Policy and Development