Ms Helen Gelletlie:

The strategic environmental assessment requires that an SEA be carried out of any plan or programme which is likely to have an effect on the environment. In terms of Codling Bank, which is a huge development beside another huge development and in respect of which an SEA should have been carried out, there was no plan because the developers felt they did not have to carry out a strategic environmental assessment. One cannot carry out an SEA of a plan if no plan exists with the result that all of these developments take place in an ad hoc manner.