The SoS granted planning permission on appeal last year to Bellway Homes following refusal by Teignbridge District Council. The development site is near the Exe Estuary which is designated as special protection area (SPA) under the Birds Directive.
Residents association Get Involved Exminster (GEI) launched a challenge the permission, claiming that an EIA should have been carried out and that the planning inspector carrying out the public inquiry for the appeal was not entitled to conclude that the development would not have an "appreciable adverse affects on the integrity" of the protected site.
The judge, in a judgment seen by Out-Law, said that both the Council and the inspector had concluded that the scheme was unlikely to have any significant environmental effects, subject to conditions on mitigation measures. She noted that no parties at the appeal had raised any EIA issues.
"The key was whether the mitigation measures proposed were going to operate within acceptable parameters. As set out, it was the inspector's planning judgment that they were and he had a reasonable basis on which to conclude that was the position. It follows that failure to conduct an EIA did not undermine the legality of the planning process," the judge said.
The GEI claimed that the SoS decision letter should be quashed because the inspector had not had sufficient regard to ecology legislation and EU obligations. However the judge said that it was "clear" that there had been an evidential base for the inspector to conclude that the proposed development would not be likely to give rise to significant effect on the SPA and that no appropriate assessment under the Habitats Directive was required.
