Planning Policy Wales - Brecon Beacons National Park

13.9.2 Where acceptable measures can overcome instability, planning permission may be
granted subject to conditions specifying the necessary measures. If instability cannot be overcome
satisfactorily, the authority may refuse planning permission. When planning permission is granted,
a notice should be issued to inform the applicant that the responsibility and subsequent liability for
safe development and secure occupancy of the site rests with the developer and/or landowner.
It should also advise the applicant that although the local planning authority has used its best
endeavours to determine the application on the basis of the information available to it, this does not
mean that the land is free from instability.
13.10 Improving the quality of water and air
13.10.1 The planning system should determine whether a development is an acceptable use of
land and should control other development in proximity to potential sources of pollution rather than
seeking to control the processes or substances used in any particular development.
13.10.2 Planning authorities should operate on the basis that the relevant pollutant control regimes
will be properly applied and enforced by other agencies. They should not seek to control through
planning measures, matters that are the proper concern of the pollution control authority. These
regimes are set out in the Environment Act 1995, the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the
Water Resources Act 1991 and the regulatory regimes introduced by the Pollution Prevention and
Control Act 1999. Each of these may have a bearing on the environmental controls imposed on the
development in respect of environmental and health concerns and planning authorities will need
to ensure that planning conditions do not duplicate or contradict measures more appropriately
controlled under these regimes.
13.10.3 Where pollution considerations, which may be relevant to a pollution control authorisation
or licence or result from the need to comply with any statutory environmental quality standards or
objectives, affect the use and development of land they can be material planning considerations.
This provision extends to air quality objectives set out under Part IV of the Environment Act 1995
and the local authority’s action plans for Air Quality Management Areas 12 and, in the case of water,
to environmental objectives developed as part of the implementation of the European Union’s Water
Framework Directive 13 . The weight attached to such considerations will depend on the scope of the
pollution control system in each case and the effect on land use and amenity.
13.10.4 Local authorities are required to carry out periodic reviews of the air quality in their areas
in relation to seven regulated pollutants and to assess this against the air quality objectives set out in
the regulations. Where a local authority believes that there is currently, or that there is likely to be in
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future, a breach in an air quality objective, it must declare an ‘Air Quality Management Area’.
13.10.5 The EU Water Framework Directive establishes a strategic approach to water management
and a common means of protecting and setting environmental objectives for all groundwaters and
surface waters, integrating the various preceding directives into a new framework 16 .
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Planning Policy Wales Edition 3 - July 2010 - Chapter 13 Minimising and Managing Environmental
Risks and Pollution