The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994

Duties of agriculture Ministers with respect to European sites

88.—(1) Where an application for a farm capital grant is made as respects expenditure incurred or to be incurred for the purpose of activities on land within a European site, the Minister responsible for determining the application–

(a)shall, so far as may be consistent with the purposes of the grant provisions, so exercise his functions thereunder as to further the conservation of the flora, fauna, or geological or physiographical features by reason of which the land is a European site; and

(b)where the appropriate nature conservation body have objected to the making of the grant on the ground that the activities in question have destroyed or damaged or will destroy or damage that flora or fauna or those features, shall not make the grant except after considering the objection and, in the case of land in England, after consulting with the Secretary of State.

(2) Where in consequence of an objection by the appropriate nature conservation body, an application for a grant as respects expenditure to be incurred is refused on the ground that the activities in question will have such an effect as is mentioned in paragraph (1)(b), the appropriate nature conservation body shall, within three months of their receiving notice of the Minister’s decision, offer to enter into, in the terms of a draft submitted to the applicant, a management agreement–

(a)imposing restrictions as respects those activities, and

(b)providing for the making by them of payments to the applicant.

(3) In this regulation–

“farm capital grant” means–

(a)a grant under a scheme made under section 29 of the Agriculture Act 1970(1), or

(b)a grant under regulations made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(2) to a person carrying on an agricultural business within the meaning of those regulations in respect of expenditure incurred or to be incurred for the purposes of or in connection with that business, being expenditure of a capital nature or incurred in connection with expenditure of a capital nature; and

“grant provisions”means–

(i)in the case of such a grant as is mentioned in paragraph (a) above, the scheme under which the grant is made and section 29 of the Agriculture Act 1970, and

(ii)in the case of such a grant as is mentioned in paragraph (b) above, the regulations under which the grant is made and the Community instrument in pursuance of which the regulations were made.