Appropriate Assessment

Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are internationally important sites that are designated as a requirement of the EU Habitats Directive and Birds Directive respectively. These key biodiversity sites are afforded the highest level of protection under EU and national law and any plan or project likely to affect the integrity of such sites will normally be subject to an appropriate assessment.

Baker Shepherd Gillespie has developed good experience of undertaking or advising on the preparation of appropriate assessments for many different projects and plans. We have worked on a range of schemes including:

• The upgrading of a national footpath through a moorland SAC/SPA in the north of England.

• A road scheme running through and adjacent to a SAC in Cambridgeshire noted for great crested newts and stoneworts.

• A housing development adjacent to part of a heathland SAC/SPA in Dorset.

• An upland quarry application on a wetland and woodland SAC in Derbyshire.

• A quarry application within the hydrological catchment of a lowland fen in Oxfordshire.

• A new airport close to a lowland raised bog SAC/SPA in Yorkshire.

Local development documents, including strategic development plans, are now considered to be plans and projects and as such are also subject to the appropriate assessment process.