A TOUG NV1RONMENT
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Since 1 984 0-licence applicants have had to satisfy environmental criteria. CM has been to see one operator who has felt the impact of these regulations • It is just over two years since all appl cants for new operator's licences, and established operators seeking changes tc their existing licences, first had to satisfy new environmental criteria for their operating centres.
Those environmental criteria, originall mooted in the 1980 Armitage Report, were encapsulated in various strands of legislation during 1982 and 1983, largely as placatory measures to environmentalists and backbench MPs with rural const uencies when the introduction of heavier lorries was on the political agenda.
Environmental conditions to 0-licence along with sideguards and spray suppres sion, were part of the legislative package that legalised 38-tonners for British road Not surprisingly the professional associations attacked the measures as for th( first time the powers of the LAs were seen to stretch into the realms of planning.
Licensing authorities gained the powe to refuse an application or to impose con ditions if they thought an operating cent] was unsuitable on environmental ground
DERNMONS
There are no legal definitions of what "unsuitable on environmental grounds"! LAs have been encouraged to take account of the following areas when consic ering applications:
111 the nature and use of land adjoinir the operating centre;
O the centre's potential detrimental effect on that land; O any planning permission obtained or being applied for affecting the centre or surrounding land (this applies onl! to new 0-licence applications); LI the number, type and size of authorised vehicles; O the parking arrangements; o the nature and the times of the use the operating centre;