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The EIA Screening Decision

Before a major development can be approved, planning law requires the council to consider whether it needs a full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), a detailed, independent study of how the development would affect the surrounding environment.
 

Shropshire Council has already ruled that this proposal does not require one.

We believe that decision should be revisited.
 

What Is an EIA Screening Opinion?

Before a developer submits a full planning application, they can ask the council for a "screening opinion" - a formal decision on whether their proposal is likely to have significant environmental effects, and therefore needs a full EIA before it can be properly assessed.
 

If the council decides no EIA is needed, the development can proceed to a full application without that deeper, independent environmental study ever taking place.
 

This proposal has a screening reference: 26/00239/SCR. Shropshire Council's planning officers have already issued their opinion: no EIA is required.
 

Why We Disagree

A great deal has come to light about this site since that decision was made, evidence we believe points clearly toward likely significant environmental effects:
 

  • Eight confirmed skylark breeding territories, identified through a BTO-standard ecological survey

  • An active barn owl nestbox, in continuous use since 2005, alongside a roost tree barn owls have used for generations, a Schedule 1 protected species in serious national decline

  • A wider, well-documented ecosystem, evidenced by a 2019 survey recording 168 plant species and 96 animal species on this land in a single day

  • A second large-scale solar development already within 3km of this site, a cumulative impact the council's own planners have acknowledged needs consideration
     

Taken together, we believe this evidence shows the kind of likely significant environmental effects that an EIA screening process exists to catch — and that this proposal should not move forward without one.
 

What We're Asking

We're asking Shropshire Council to revisit its screening opinion in light of the evidence gathered since the original decision was made, and to require a full Environmental Impact Assessment before this application is determined.


A proper EIA means independent, rigorous scrutiny of exactly the issues we've raised, not a decision made without one.

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