What Network Rail’s permitted development rights are in respect of conservation areas and sites of special scientific interest.

Class 34 of Schedule 1 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Scotland) Order 1992 (the GPDO), grants a general planning permission (or permitted development right) for development by railway undertakers or their lessees on their operational land, required in connection with the movement of traffic by rail. Class 34 does cite specific exceptions, including the construction of a railway, hotel, railway station or bridge. The GPDO does not contain a general restriction on the use of these permitteddevelopment rights in conservation areas or sites of special scientific interest.
Permitted development rights generally may be restricted in individual cases and a planning application required as a result. For example, most conservation areas, designated under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, are subject to directions under the GPDO which specify restrictions on classes of permitted development rights particular to the individual conservation area. A further example is where areas are designated Natura Sites under the EC Habitats or Wild Birds Directives. The Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 contain restrictions on permitted development rights which may have the potential to affect Natura Site qualifying interests. Where a development may be likely to adversely affect the integrity of designated site an appropriate assessment of this a legal necessity. Also, where a project required environmental impact assessment under the planning provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment (Scotland)Regulations 1999 (Bib.number 4851), then the permitted development rights would not apply and a planningapplication would be required.