WIREDGOV

Natural England last week lodged an appeal against the judgment in the Easton Bavents High Court case brought last month by Mr Peter Boggis.

Shaun Thomas, Regional Director of Natural England, said: “The High Court’s judgment has unintended consequences that go far beyond the specifics of the case. It threatens to stifle the ways in which advice and expert opinion can be used to inform planning and development decisions and poses a real risk of unnecessary bureaucracy. Natural England wishes to work with Mr Boggis to find a solution to the predicament he faces, but we need to resolve the unworkable precedent that the judgment threatens to create.”

Contrary to recent publicity, the High Court was not asked to determine whether Mr Boggis should be allowed to build sea defences at Easton Bavents in an attempt to save his home from erosion. Instead, it considered whether Natural England acted lawfully in designating parts of the fossil-rich Easton Bavents cliffs as a site of national geological conservation importance. In the High Court hearing, the Hon. Mr Justice Blair confirmed that Natural England was entirely justified in notifying the Easton Bavents site on the conservation grounds that it did.

However in his judgment, Hon. Mr Justice Blair referred to comments made by Natural England officers at the time of notification of the site suggesting that they would be unlikely to consent to sea defences being built in front of the Easton Bavents site. Although no consent application has ever been made by Mr Boggis for Natural England to formally consider, Hon. Mr Justice Blair ruled that these comments amounted to a plan and, as such, an assessment of the effects of this plan on a nearby European Habitats Directive designated conservation site should have been carried out as part of the notification process.

Natural England disputes this part of the judgment and is concerned that Justice Blair’s definition of what constitutes a plan for the purposes of the Habitats Directive has been cast so wide that advice and consultation given in routine development and planning situations could easily become compromised by the need to carry out environmental assessments that are entirely unnecessary.

Shaun Thomas, concluded: "Natural England sympathises with the situation Mr Boggis faces but we believe that sea defences of the type and of the scale that he has put in place should be assessed by appropriate planning authorities. We would encourage Mr Boggis to make a suitable planning application to Waveney District Council to enable them to judge the matter and properly weigh the interests of the Easton Bavents conservation site, of adjacent homeowners and of the ways in which his sea defences impact coastal and erosion processes elsewhere along the coast.”

For further information:
National media: contact The National Press Office on 0845 603 9953, press@naturalengland.org.uk, out of hours 07970 098005.

Regional media: contact Linzee Kottman on 01223 533431 or 07824 475359 or Heather McMorland on 07919 228388 or 01733 455080

For further information about Natural England please visit: www.naturalengland.org.uk