25.4 Assessment Methodology
25.4.1 Legislation, Policy and Guidance 21.
The assessment of potential effects on archaeology and cultural heritage resources has been made with specific reference to relevant National Policy Statements (NPS); these form the principal policy framework within which decisions on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) are made.
22.
Those NPS of specific relevance to the project comprises the EN-1 Overarching Energy NPS and EN-3 Renewable Energy Infrastructure both designated in July 2011. Also of relevance is NPPF Section 12: Conserving and enhancing the historic environment; this sets out the principal national guidance on the importance, management and safeguarding of heritage assets within the planning process.
23.
EN-1 Paragraph 5.8.8 states that ‘as part of the ES the applicant should provide a description of the significance of the heritage assets affected by the proposed development and the contribution of their setting to that significance. The level of detail should be proportionate to the importance of the heritage assets and no more than is sufficient to understand the potential impact of the proposal on the significance of the heritage asset’.
24.
EN-1 Paragraph 5.8.9 requires that ‘where a development site includes, or the available evidence suggests it has the potential to include, heritage assets with an archaeological interest, the applicant should carry out appropriate desk-based assessment and, where such desk-based research is insufficient to properly assess the interest, a field evaluation. Where proposed development will affect the setting of a heritage asset, representative visualisations may be necessary to explain the impact’.
25.
EN-3 Paragraph 2.6.141 requires that the ‘assessment should be undertaken as set out in Section 5.8 of EN-1. Desk-based studies should take into account any geotechnical or geophysical surveys that have been undertaken to aid the wind farm design’.
26.
To summarise, government guidance provides a framework which: Recognises that heritage assets are an irreplaceable resource;
Requires applicants to provide proportionate information on the significance of heritage assets affected by the proposals and an impact assessment of the proposed development on that significance;
Preliminary Environmental Information April 2014
East Anglia THREE Offshore Windfarm
Chapter 25 Onshore Archaeology Page 10
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