Commission v United Kingdom: ECJ 20 Oct 2005

ECJ Failure of a Member State to fufil obligations – Directive 92/43/EEC – Conservation of natural habitats – Wild fauna and flora.
The respondent had failed properly to transpose the Habitats Directive into National Law. The regulations were too general and did not impose sufficiently precise obligations: ‘As the Commission has rightly pointed out, section 54A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which requires applications for planning permission to be determined in the light of the relevant land use plans, necessarily means that those plans may have considerable influence on development decisions and, as a result, on the sites concerned.
It thus follows from the foregoing that, as a result of the failure to make land use plans subject to appropriate assessment of their implications for SACs, Article 6(3) and (4) of the Habitats Directive has not been transposed sufficiently clearly and precisely into United Kingdom law and, therefore, the action brought by the Commission must be held well founded in this regard.’

Citations:

Times 27-Oct-2005, C-6/04, [2005] EUECJ C-6/04

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Town and Country Planning Act 1990 54A, Directive 92/43/EEC

Cited by:

CitedBoggis and Another v Natural England CA 20-Oct-2009
Natural England appealed against the quashing of an SSSI.
Held: The notification of an SSSI was not the making of a plan as respects the land affected, but the flagging up of it. The real purpose of the proceedings was to allow the land owners . .
CitedMorge, Regina (on The Application of) v Hampshire County Council CA 10-Jun-2010
Over time, an abandoned railway line had become a habitat for local wildlife. The claimant now objected to the grant of planning permission for a light railway.
Held: The claimant’s appeal failed. For an act to fall within 12(1)(b) of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

European, Environment, Planning

Updated: 04 July 2022; Ref: scu.234610