Thank you very much to our wonderful members out there who never stop working even on Xmas Day This judgement blows apart the MOD’s policy on noise budget.
Judicial Review of (i)the policy of the Ministry of Defence in connection with safeguarding the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array, and (ii)the noise budget allocation table prepared and applied by the Ministry of Defence in that regard.
The issue in the present petition arises out of a distinction drawn in the policy of the MOD, as regards the allocation of noise budget, between the treatment of applications for developments with capacity greater than 50MW and of those with capacity not exceeding 50MW. In relation to a proposed development whose capacity does not exceed 50MW, noise budget is allocated to the development when the MOD is notified by the local planning authority of the developer’s planning application. However, in relation to a proposed development whose capacity exceeds 50MW, noise budget is allocated to the development when the MOD is notified by the Scottish Ministers of a scoping request by the developer in relation to an EIA report. The petitioner’s contention in these proceedings is that this difference in treatment creates a preference in favour of larger (capacity>50MW) proposed developments, which will be allocated noise budget at an earlier stage of the planning process than smaller proposed developments.
“In my view, it is clear that there is no rational justification for the current policy in that in allocating noise budget it adopts different dates in the planning process for larger and smaller developments respectively”.
The MOD has made clear its intention to revisit its policy on noise budget allocation, and to take account of the decision of the court in the present case in so doing.
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