Mr. Colin Ryan:

The recognised environmental concerns, REC, are strategically environmentally assessed in the first instance. The second issue then is that each plan stands on its own two feet and requires an SEA to be done in relation to that proposal. The issue is that we might have to combine them, which poses issues from the point of view of the plan itself and the individual four walls of that plan, notwithstanding that there might be a number of plans taking account of one another.

Certainly, we would agree that skills and things like that would be utilised across local authorities to a degree. It poses more fundamental questions to do with the sanctity of the plan that is going through, however, because there are individual requirements, policies and objectives that relate to that particular local authority, notwithstanding that fact it obviously has a wider context it works within.