On the PROPOSAL of Cllr. Crosby

SECONDED by Cllr. Fitzmaurice

It was AGREED that the Chief Executive sign an Order to give effect to an Appropriate Assessment Determination under Section 177V of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, for the Roscommon County Development Plan 2022-2028

In carrying out this Appropriate Assessment (AA), the Council is taking into account the matters specified under Part XAB of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended), including the following:

·         The consolidated Natura Impact Report;

·         The Natura Impact Report for the Proposed Material Alterations;

·         The Natura Impact Report prepared for the Draft Plan;

·         Written submissions made during the Plan preparation process; and

·         Ongoing advice on AA from the Council’s agents.

As part of the AA, it was identified that the Plan may, if unmitigated, have significant effects on 59 (no.) European sites. Factors that could potentially affect the integrity of European sites include:

·         Provisions, such as those relating to settlement, place making, housing, community, built heritage, economic, retail, tourism, transport, water services, flood risk management, waste and environmental infrastructure, energy and information infrastructure and green infrastructure development, which introduce sources for effects through construction phase such as habitat destruction, light pollution, hydrological interactions and disturbance effects;

·         Loading pressures from the operational phase of developments – these sources could result in habitat loss, disturbance effects, interactions with water quality and habitat fragmentation; and

·         Increasing visitors to sensitive areas during the operational phase of, for example, recreational and tourism developments.

The Chief Executive, having carefully considered the information referred to above agrees with and adopts the reasoning and conclusions presented and determines that:

·         Implementation of the Plan would have had the potential to result in effects to the integrity of European sites, if unmitigated.

·         The risks to the safeguarding and integrity of the qualifying interests, special conservation interests and conservation objectives of the European sites have been addressed by the inclusion of mitigation measures that will prioritise the avoidance of effects in the first place and reliably mitigate effects where these cannot be avoided. In addition, any lower-level plans and projects arising through the implementation of the Plan will themselves be subject to AA when further details of design and location are known.

·         In-combination effects from interactions with other plans and projects have been considered in this assessment and the mitigation measures have been incorporated into the Plan – these measures are robust and will ensure there will be no effects on the integrity of European sites as a result of the implementation of the Plan either alone or in-combination with other plans/projects.

·         Having incorporated mitigation measures, the Plan is not foreseen to give rise to any effect on the integrity of European sites, alone or in combination with other plans or projects^[1]. This evaluation is made in view of the conservation objectives of the habitats or species, for which these sites have been designated.