The draft Report to Inform Appropriate Assessment (RIAA) and supporting documents for the Five Estuaries project have been prepared to support the habitats regulations assessment (HRA) of the project which will ultimately be carried out by the Secretary of State as the decision-maker for the DCO application. The draft RIAA has been prepared on a non-statutory basis and does not form part of the Stage 2 Consultation which ends on 12 May 2023.
The draft RIAA builds on the HRA screening report published previously and assesses the impact of the project, both alone and in-combination with other plans and projects, on the European sites (special protection areas (SPAs) and special areas of conservation (SACs)) and Ramsar sites which were ‘screened in’ to the appropriate assessment stage of the HRA process.
In accordance with the Planning Inspectorate’s Advice Note 10 on the HRA process and good practice, the draft RIAA and supporting documents has been shared with Natural England, Suffolk and Essex Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The purpose of preparing and sharing the draft RIAA is to provide the statutory nature conservation bodies (SNCBs) and other key stakeholders with an update on the process and preparation of the HRA at this stage of the project’s development, to obtain their comments and to seek to reach agreement on the conclusions of the assessment prior to the submission of the DCO application.
Five Estuaries will consider any comments raised by the SNCBs and other stakeholders on the draft RIAA and will seek to address these prior to the submission of the DCO application, together with ongoing engagement with the SNCBs as part of the evidence plan process.
In addition, we also invite feedback on the draft RIAA from other stakeholders until 15 June 2023.
Please send any comments directly to fiveestuaries@rwe.com.
Should the DCO application be accepted for examination by the Planning Inspectorate, stakeholders will have a further opportunity to comment on the RIAA as part of the statutory examination process.
Updated Screening Report
RIAA and Appendices
Derogation Documents
or contact us directly if you have any questions or feedback via our Contact page
