Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report
The Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report (June 2012) and its appendices are available to download:
- Front Cover and Contents
- Executive Summary
- Chapters 1 to 9: The Scoping Report
- Chapters 10 to 19: Sustainability Themes
- Chapter 20: Habitats Regulations Assessment
- Appendices 1 to 10: Detailed Review of Plans, Programmes, Information Sources and Evidence Base for each Sustainability Theme
- Appendix 11: Habitats Directive Assessment Background Information
We sought views on the Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report as part of the public consultation on the Local Plan Issues and Options Report, which was carried out between 12 July and 28 September 2012.
What is the Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report?
We are preparing a new district wide Local Plan, which will set out the planning policies to guide the development and use of the land in the district up to 2031. Sustainability Appraisal is an integral part of the plan making process and the overall aim of this process is to help ensure that the Local Plan makes an effective contribution to the pursuit of 'sustainable development'.
By assessing the extent to which emerging policies and proposals will help to achieve 'sustainable development', and by understanding the potential adverse effects these emerging policies and proposals might create, the Sustainability Appraisal process provides opportunities for plans to be improved.
There are a number of stages involved in the Sustainability Appraisal process:
- Stage 1: Scoping Report - this identifies issues of particular importance to the district that should be considered and provides the context for the Sustainability Appraisal undertaken at each of the stages in the plan making process.
- Stage 2: Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report - this is undertaken alongside the Issues and Options stage of plan making and provides information and analysis of issues, details of how alternative approaches were identified (and why alternatives were not considered reasonable), and a comparison of the potential impacts of those alternatives approaches.
- Stage 3: Draft Final Sustainability Appraisal Report - this is undertaken alongside the draft plan stage and will assess the draft policies and allocations selected for the final plan, considering the likely significant effects of the plan as a whole, how they can be mitigated or enhanced, and how impacts can be monitored. At this point the appraisal will identify reasons why an option was eliminated.
- Stage 4: Monitoring - the results of regular monitoring of the sustainability appraisal objectives are published in the Annual Monitoring Report, and are used to help indicate when a review of the plan is required.