PLYMOUTH PLAN Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report
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PLYMOUTH PLAN Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Planning Services September 2014 Contents Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report for The Plymouth Plan 1 INTRODUCTION 5 What is Sustainability Appraisal and what should it achieve? 5 What is the Plymouth Plan? 6 What does Sustainability Appraisal involve? 7 2 POLICIES, PLANS & PROGRAMMES REVIEWED: 9 3 BASELINE AND KEY SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES 11 Introduction 11 Plymouth Overview 11 4 NATURAL ENVIRONMENT 13 Biodiversity 13 Landscape protection 19 Accessible green space 19 Water quality 22 Air quality 23 Soils 24 5 CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY 27 Current Climate Change Predictions 27 Carbon Emissions 29 Plymouth’s Renewable Energy resource 32 Energy security 32 Fuel Poverty 33 6 POPULATION 37 Introduction 37 Ethnicity 37 Families and households 37 Growth and change 37 7 HOUSING 41 Introduction 41 Housing growth and renewal 41 Incomes and house prices 41 Care housing 41 Affordable housing 41 Housing standards 42 New housing delivered 42 Future development 42 1 Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report for the Plymouth Plan Contents 8 ECONOMY 45 Status 45 Productivity & competitiveness 46 Business & enterprise 46 Knowledge, technology & innovation 47 Skills & learning 47 Key Centres 47 Participation 47 Sustainable growth 48 9 TRANSPORT 49 Introduction 49 Road travel 49 Air travel 49 Cycling 49 Workforce travel 49 Traffic 50 Road safety 50 Freight 50 Rail travel 50 Water travel 51 10 WASTE 53 Waste tonnages and projections 53 Recycling statistics 53 New facilities 54 11 HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT 55 Naval influences 55 Designated sites 55 Preservation and access 55 12 EQUALITY & INCLUSION 57 Defining social exclusion 57 Deprivation 57 Participation in decision-making 59 Community cohesion 59 Community and Voluntary Sector 60 13 HEALTH AND WELLBEING 61 Life expectancy 61 Health inequalities 61 Children’s social care need 61 2 Contents 14 LEARNING 63 School places 63 Investment in schools 63 School standards 63 Educational attainment 64 Further and Higher education 64 Inequalities 64 15 CULTURE, RECREATION & LEISURE 67 Introduction 67 Culture and leisure 67 New sports developments 67 16 SUSTAINABILITY APPRAISAL FRAMEWORK 69 17 APPENDIX 1: COMPLIANCE WITH SEA DIRECTIVE AND SA GUIDANCE 73 18 APPENDIX 2: RELEVANT POLICIES, PLANS & PROGRAMMES 75 19 APPENDIX 3: COMPLETING AND RECORDING THE ASSESSMENT 101 3 Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report for the Plymouth Plan Contents 4 1 1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 1.1 Planning Authorities are required to produce a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of a Local Plan. This document is the Scoping Report for the Sustainability Appraisal of the Plymouth Plan. The Plymouth Plan will constitute a Local Plan and the first drafts will be published in 2014. 1.2 This Scoping Report has been consulted upon in order to provide an opportunity for those with an interest in the Plymouth Plan to make their views on the SA Scoping Report and Framework known, prior to the first drafting of the Plymouth Plan and its formal submission for independent examination. What is Sustainability Appraisal and what should it achieve? 1.3 It is necessary to appraise planning documents for sustainability as the policies and proposals they contain can have far reaching direct and indirect effects. Sustainability Appraisal is a process which is designed to ensure that possible significant environmental, social and economic effects of the Plymouth Plan are fully considered during the process of developing the plan. By undertaking SA that incorporates national and local sustainable development objectives, the quality of the Plymouth Plan should be improved. 1.4 This SA Scoping Report provides a statement about Plymouth, defining the state of the environment, existing constraints and problems as well as opportunities. This information is used here to create a Sustainability Appraisal Framework which constitutes a tool for testing whether the Local Plan’s objectives, policies and proposals will deliver sustainable development. The SA seeks to ensure that the full range of environmental, social and economic effects of the plan is considered during its formulation, and asks the following questions about these effects: Could these effects be of special significance? Are there ways of reducing or mitigating adverse effects? Can any beneficial effects be further enhanced by positive planning? 1.5 Sustainability Appraisal is a mandatory requirement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (section 19, 5a and 5b) for the production of all Development Plan Documents. This SA will also fulfil the requirement for the Plymouth Plan to be assessed in line with the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (2001/42/EC). 1.6 Sustainability Appraisal is an iterative process which generates specific outputs at particular stages. This document forms the first output and a key future output will be the SA Report which will describe which elements of the Plymouth Plan have been appraised and how, and the likely significant sustainability effects of the implementation of the plan. 5 Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report for the Plymouth Plan 1 Defining sustainability INTRODUCTION 1.7 In 1987 the Bruntland Commission defined sustainable development as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. For the purposes of this SA scoping report we apply the term in relation to social, economic and environmental considerations. The SA framework will be used to assess to what extent the policies, plans and proposals in the Plymouth Plan are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. What is the Plymouth Plan? 1.8 The Plymouth Plan will constitute a Local Plan, as defined by the National Planning Policy Framework in 2012. Local Plans set out the planning policies for the local authority area and are used to inform planning application decisions. The Plymouth Plan will set out a vision and path to improvement, providing strategic policies to guide future change and actions to deliver them. It will include both a ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ approach, so as to provide a context for improving the city’s neighbourhoods as well as the city as a whole. It will set out how Plymouth’s potential for long term sustainable growth can be realised, focusing on the city’s key strategic priorities setting out how these can be delivered through a combined approach. 1.9 In preparing the Plymouth Plan there is an opportunity under the 2011 Localism Act to substantially consolidate a number of the Council’s current corporate strategies and plans, rationalising the current position and achieving savings. The intention is to develop one overarching strategic Plymouth Plan for the city, which will: Be about both people and place, outward facing, outcome focused and provide the context for all other plans and the allocation of resources – the focus will be on what Plymouth will be like as a place to work, rest and play in and how the city and its services need to be configured to address the major quality of life issues that are seen across the city; Provide an integrated approach for key areas such as the economy, education, health, housing, transport and communications, culture, the environment, social inclusion, neighbourhoods, older people and children and set this within a sub-regional context; Place sustainable development at the centre of the city’s agenda by: increasing efficiency of the transport network and providing greater choice of high quality and reliable modes of travel; responding and building resilience to the threat of climate change and its impact on communities; and establishing the management and enhancement of green infrastructure and the marine environment as key components of sustainable growth and quality of life; Enable a significant streamlining of the strategies that currently exist, with those that remain feeding into the Plan in a way that they both influence and are influenced by it – with the focus on operational delivery; 6 1 Offer a single point of reference for articulating the city’s vision and long term direction of travel, providing a framework to guide decisions on infrastructure INTRODUCTION investment and service priorities; Be supported by a shared source of evidence and information to assist demographic modelling and scenario planning; Be produced in an inclusive and cooperative way with our partners and all other stakeholders in the city and sub region, showing what cooperative public services might look like in the future. What does Sustainability Appraisal involve? 1.10 Plymouth City Council’s SA of the Plymouth Plan follows the stages set out in the National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG) on strategic environmental assessment and sustainability appraisal. 1.11 These are: Stage A: Scoping - Setting the context and objectives, establishing the baseline and deciding on the scope of the appraisal Stage B: Appraisal and Options - Developing and refining options and assessing effects Stage C: Reporting - Preparing the SA Report Stage D: Consulting on the draft plan and the SA Report and Local Plan Stage E: Post-adoption reporting and monitoring. 1.12 This document comprises Stage A of the appraisal process, and is broken down into the following chapters: Chapter 2 summarises the plans and policies relevant to this scoping report Chapter 3 sets the context and baseline and identifies the key sustainability issues for Plymouth Chapter 4 sets out the SA objectives in the form of an SA Framework. This framework will be used to appraise the Plymouth Plan. 1.13 The geographical scope of the appraisal will extend beyond the boundaries of the City's administrative area, for two reasons. First, the Plan making process will necessitate the consideration of sites beyond the city boundary, such as at Sherford where development identified in the existing core strategy is already underway. Second, the Habitats Regulations Assessment must consider potential effects of the plan on Natura 2000 sites within a 15km radius, and the sustainability appraisal will need to reflect and address any issues identified in the HRA.