Cumulative effects

It is a self evident truth that what matters ecologically is the sum total of all the developments – the cumulative effect. The issue is how and when to apply it. I well recall a situation on the Humber when ABP was contemplating three projects, the Environment Agency had 21 projects in their urgent flood defence programme. We had started to get to grips with these when Yorkshire Water announced the need for a major new sewage treatment plant, and BP wanted to build a gas fired power stations with river water cooling. This tangle caused the English Nature marine team to convene a meeting in London to discuss the whole cumulative effects issue. I was not present, but did submit notes. That meeting produced a list of questions. The intention was that DETR (as it was at the time) should consider the questions and probably hold a seminar after a few months to review the situation. But nothing has ever happened.

Cumulative effects remains one of the easiest ways to apply the Loop and take difficult projects into the long grass, and leave them there. It has certainly been cited in relation to minor development projects in Southampton Water in relation to Dibden Bay.

It simply is not acceptable for a major in