Environmental Permitting

You must have an environmental permit if you operate a regulated facility in England or Wales.

What is a regulated facility?

A regulated facility includes:

installations or mobile plants carrying out listed activities;
waste operations;
waste mobile plant;
mining waste operations.

What is a Listed Activity?

Energy - burning fuel, gasification, liquefaction and refining activities
Metals - manufacturing and processing metals
Minerals - manufacturing lime, cement, ceramics or glass
Chemicals - manufacturing chemicals, pharmaceuticals or explosives, storing chemicals in bulk
Waste - incinerating waste, operating landfills, recovering waste
Solvents - using solvents
Other - manufacturing paper, pulp and board, treating timber products, coating, treating textiles and printing, manufacturing new tyres, intensive pig and poultry farming

Listed activities are divided into three categories, Part A(1), Part A(2) and Part B.

Part A

Part A permits control activities with a range of environmental impacts, including:

emissions to air, land and water
energy efficiency
waste reduction
raw materials consumption
noise, vibration and heat
pollution prevention

Part B

Part B permits control activities which cause emissions to air.

The permit your business requires depends on the specific processes involved and resulting emissions.

Permits are available from the Environment Agency or your local authority (the regulator) depending upon the category your business falls within:

Part A1 installations or mobile plants are regulated by the Environment Agency.
Part A2 and Part B installations or mobile plants are regulated by the local authority, except waste operations carried out at Part B installations which are regulated by the Environment Agency.
Waste operations or waste mobile plant carried on other than at an installation, or by Part A or Part B mobile plants, are regulated by the Environment Agency.
Mining waste operations are regulated by the Environment Agency

Read the guidance for A2 and Part B activities here.

Am I eligible for a permit?

Applications must be made on the form provided by the regulator, or online and must include specified information which will vary depending on the operation.

A fee may be payable if:

further information is required (the applicant will be notified by the regulator and they must provide this information or the application will be deemed to be withdrawn)
the application must be from the operator of the regulated facility

For waste operations no licence will be granted unless any required planning permission had first been granted.

How do I apply?

If you want to apply for an environmental permit, please email licensing@swdevon.gov.uk and we will work with you to complete your application.

You will be charged a fee when you apply for a Part A2 or B Environmental Permit.

Information on fees and charges can be found on our Licensing Fees page.

What happens next?

The regulator will pay regard to the protection of the environment taken as a whole by, in particular, preventing or, where that is not practicable, reducing emissions into the air, water and land.

The regulator may inform the public of the application and must consider any representations.

The application must be from the operator of the regulated facility.

The regulator must be satisfied that they can operate the facility in accordance with the environmental permit.

Will tacit consent apply?

No. It is in the public interest that we must process your application before it can be granted.

When will a decision be made?

We are required to either grant an application for a Part A2 or Part B process subject to conditions against which future enforcement action may be taken, or else refuse it. A statutory timeframe of four months is set within the legislation for assessing an application provide an application is considered "Duly Made".

An application will only be considered Duly Made by the authority if there is sufficient information submitted to enable us to determine the application. We must either determine an application Duly Made or return it to the applicant within 10 working days of submission.

Current Environmental Permit Consultations

Any current applications which are open for consultation are listed below. If there are no links visible, we currently do not have any applications.