Article 4 distinguished between certain types of major project, listed in Annex I, in respect of which an assessment was mandatory, and other kinds of project, listed in Annex II, in respect of which an assessment had to be undertaken "where Member States consider that their characteristics so require".Quarrying fell within Annex II, and the United Kingdom was thus required to establish criteria for determining whether a grant of "development consent" for quarrying should require an assessment. The Town and Country Planning (Assessment of Environmental Effects) Regulations 1988 were intended to establish such criteria, but applied only to a grant of planning permission.In the case of an old mining permission, although the source of the developer's right to proceed was and remained the planning permission of 1947, even after conditions had been imposed under the 1991 Act, the developer nevertheless could not proceed to implement the permission unless the planning authority had determined the appropriate conditions. That was sufficient to bring the determination within the European concept of a "development consent".The Directive did not apply to decisions which involved merely the detailed regulation of activities for which the principal consent, raising the substantial environmental issues, had already been given. The purpose of the procedure created by the 1991 Act, however, was to give the mineral planning authority a power to assess the likely environmental effects of old mining permissions which had been granted without, to modern ways of thinking, any serious consideration of the environment at all..

WIMBLEDON'S ANSWER to David Ginola would soon find himself being carried off in agony tonight if he attempted just one of the Frenchman's twisting runs. And yet despite being only 80 per-cent fit and unable to cross the ball in certain situations (something of a drawback for a winger), Michael Hughes remains arguably the biggest threat to Tottenham Hotspur reaching their fourth League Cup final. Hughes has been struggling along with a double hernia for almost the entire season, but so important is he - even in this shape - to the hopes of the south London club that not until Wimbledon are out of the running for silverware will he have the operation done. At the moment it is scheduled for 22 March - the day after the Worthington Cup final, by which time he hopes to be too well anaesthetised with champagne to care one way or the other. If Wimbledon are to conjure the victory needed at Selhurst Park after a goalless first leg in this semi-final, it may well be to Hughes whom they will look. Except when he is cutting in on goal to unleash the kind of shot which ought to earn him more goals, he is not one of those attacking midfielders who automatically grab one's attention, like Ginola. But he has an uncanny eye for the main chance, that little pass played with perfect timing, precision and, not least, weight, that can kill the opposition.Hopelessly prejudiced though he is, Joe Kinnear was not completely off his head when he suggested recently that Hughes should be a contender for Player of the Year.

The man himself looked deeply embarrassed about the suggestion, replying: "Well, you know the gaffer - there must have been somebody looking to buy me." Yet there is definitely something exceptional about this much underrated player.As he said with a wisdom which could apply to himself in his present condition: "A good player can control a game without exerting too much effort. I like to think that when I get the ball, 80 per cent of the time I can pass it to a team-mate."That may sound like a very minor boast but, at the pace at which the English game is played nowadays it is actually quite an achievement. He owes his ability to do that to three years playing in Ginola's homeland for Strasbourg, where Franck Leboeuf was a team-mate, which he believes improved him as a player by 30 per cent. The French club obviously saw a quality in him which Peter Reid, the then manager of Manchester City, did not, when he agreed to sell him for pounds 600,000.The irony is that Hughes did not really want to go, but he was so hurt by Reid's indifference as to whether he stayed or went that, like so many players, he bid a sad farewell to Maine Road. The players whom that club have let slip through their fingers does not bear thinking about, if you are from the blue half of Manchester.I suppose it could have been a case of mistaken identity, and certainly some of the French fans must have thought so when they saw the local paper's headline: "Hughes from Manchester joins Strasbourg". But instead of the Welsh bruiser they got this scrawny Irishman - or at least that's what he became after three years of eating just chicken, fish and pasta and without any sauce.

Not even ketchup."We only played one game a week, so we were out on the training ground all the time practising," he said. "We did lots of close work, six or seven-a-side, so it was bang, bang, bang stuff, and you got used to the bodily contact because they always go man-to-man As soon as you got the ball you were under pressure. For the first six months I didn't know whether I was coming or going, but I got used to it in the second season and really enjoyed it."Our coach was Gilbert Gress - who coached Switzerland last season - a long-haired guy who used to go completely mad on the touchline It was all about attack, attack, attack. You had to work hard but I enjoyed it and it definitely improved me as a player."That's one of the differences I've noticed coming back.