{"id":20230,"date":"2018-09-21T17:51:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T16:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=20230"},"modified":"2018-09-21T17:51:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T16:51:30","slug":"government-faces-court-action-from-foe-over-illegal-planning-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=20230","title":{"rendered":"Government faces court action from FoE over ‘illegal’ planning policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"people\"<\/a>Friends of the Earth (FoE) says revised national planning policy makes it \u2018virtually impossible\u2019 for councils to refuse fracking schemes, and threatens legal action.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Friends of the Earth writes:<\/p>\n

As reported in The Guardian\u2026 the government failed to carry out a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) on its new planning rules,?putting our climate and environment at risk. Through High Court action Friends of the Earth wants to force the government to undertake an SEA, consult the public and modify the framework based on those findings.<\/p>\n

The National Planning Policy Framework, which was released on the very last day of parliament (24 July), promotes fracking, holds the door open for future coal, and makes it difficult for wind power projects to get off the ground.<\/p>\n

Friends of the Earth is concerned that:<\/p>\n

Harsh rules for the development of wind energy could block new schemes from coming forward.<\/p>\n

By requiring planning authorities to plan positively for shale extraction, the approach gives the go-ahead for fracking and will make it virtually impossible for councils to refuse schemes they and their communities do not want or consider right for their area.<\/p>\n

The new rules failed to ban coal and have kept the door open for future coal developments \u2013 whilst the \u2018great weight\u2019 of the benefits of coal to the economy is no longer an overriding factor for coal development, a new coal mine could still get the go ahead if \u2018it provides national, local or community benefits which clearly outweigh its likely impacts\u2019.<\/p>\n

The government failed to carry out a \u2018strategic environmental assessment\u2019 of the plans; leaving the public in the dark over the major environmental impacts of the new changes, and whether less damaging alternatives have been considered and discarded (or considered at all).<\/p>\n

Kate Gordon, Friends of the Earth senior planner, said: \u2018What we build, and how we build it \u2013 from new homes to power stations \u2013 has an impact on our health, our lives and the environment around us.<\/p>\n

\u2018The new planning rulebook was a chance to put an end to dirty coal, boost renewable power and energy efficiency, and put climate risks front and centre \u2013 to create a more sustainable environment for us all to enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Instead, the government has further threatened our already warming climate – and yet no strategic environmental assessment was ever made of the plans.\u2019<\/p>\n

Friends of the Earth\u2019s Head of Legal, Will Rundle, added: \u2018The government pays lip service to leaving the environment in a better state for future generations but in reality does the opposite. Publishing a new national framework for development in England without any assessment of its major environmental implications begs the question of what happened to good governance.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re taking legal action over the complete failure by the government to environmentally assess the major impacts of this new planning framework, which we think is unlawful and shows contempt for people and our planet.\u2019<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n

Read the full report<\/a> in The Guardian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends of the Earth (FoE) says revised national planning policy makes it \u2018virtually impossible\u2019 for councils to refuse fracking schemes, and threatens legal action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20232,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20230\/revisions\/20232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}