Environmental assessment and sequential development

The High Court has held that a local authority was legally correct in refusing to subject a planning application to environmental assessment where it fell below statutory thresholds, even though it formed the first proposal in a series of much larger applications. The decision raises the prospect of developers avoiding environmental assessment requirements by what is sometimes known as "salami" development, although this was clearly not the intention in this case. The High Court, however, considered there were sufficient protections in the regime to avoid this happening.