Habitats Regulations Assessment of the South Worcestershire Development Plan Review
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Habitats Regulations Assessment of the South Worcestershire Development Plan Review Interim HRA to support the plan making process November 2019 Habitats Regulations Assessment of the South Worcestershire Development Plan Review Interim HRA to support the plan making process Preferred Options LC-578 Document Control Box Client Malvern Hills District Council Habitats Regulations Assessment of the South Worcestershire Development Report Title Plan: Preferred Options Status Final Interim HRA Filename LC-578_SWDPR_HRA_Screening Report_11_141119SC.docx Date November 2019 Author LB Reviewed SC Approved ND Photo: Bredon Hill by Lepus Consulting South Worcestershire Interim HRA Report to support the plan making process November 2019 LC-578_SWDPR_HRA_Screening Report_11_141119SC.docx Contents 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 The HRA process ....................................................................................................................................................... 2 2 SWDPR ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 2.1 South Worcestershire Development Plan Review ....................................................................................... 5 2.2 Background to the Local Plan Development ................................................................................................. 5 2.3 Previous HRA Work .................................................................................................................................................. 7 2.4 Purpose of Report ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 10 3.1 HRA guidance ........................................................................................................................................................... 10 3.2 Identification of European sites ......................................................................................................................... 10 3.3 HRA methodology ................................................................................................................................................... 12 3.4 Stage 1: Screening for likely significant effects ............................................................................................ 12 3.5 What is a Likely Significant Effect? ................................................................................................................... 14 3.6 In-combination effects ........................................................................................................................................... 16 3.7 Case law ....................................................................................................................................................................... 18 3.8 Stage 2: Appropriate Assessment and Integrity Test .............................................................................. 20 3.9 Dealing with uncertainty ..................................................................................................................................... 20 3.10 The Precautionary Principle ................................................................................................................................. 21 3.11 European sites ........................................................................................................................................................... 21 3.12 Ecological information .......................................................................................................................................... 24 4 Threats and pressures .............................................................................................................................. 27 4.2 Air quality ................................................................................................................................................................... 33 4.3 Hydrology ................................................................................................................................................................... 38 4.4 Habitat fragmentation and loss ........................................................................................................................ 44 4.5 Public access and disturbance ........................................................................................................................... 45 4.6 In-combination screening .................................................................................................................................... 47 5 Screening ...................................................................................................................................................... 48 5.1 Bredon Hill SAC ....................................................................................................................................................... 48 5.2 Lyppard Grange Ponds SAC .............................................................................................................................. 50 5.3 Dixton Wood SAC ................................................................................................................................................... 52 5.4 Downton Gorge SAC ............................................................................................................................................. 54 5.5 River Clun SAC ......................................................................................................................................................... 57 5.6 River Wye SAC ......................................................................................................................................................... 59 5.7 Severn Estuary SAC/SPA/Ramsar/EMS ......................................................................................................... 61 5.8 Walmore Common SPA/Ramsar ..................................................................................................................... 64 5.9 Fens Pools SAC ........................................................................................................................................................ 66 5.10 Draft policy screening ........................................................................................................................................... 68 5.11 Sites screening ......................................................................................................................................................... 69 6 Next Steps .................................................................................................................................................... 70 6.1 Summary .................................................................................................................................................................... 70 6.2 Recommendations ................................................................................................................................................. 70 6.3 Next steps ................................................................................................................................................................. 70 Appendix A: Draft policies – screening Appendix B: In-combination assessment Appendix C: Europoean site conservation objectives Appendix D: European sites and corresponding SSSI conservation status Appendix E: European sites threats/pressures © Lepus Consulting for Malvern Hills District Council i South Worcestershire Interim HRA Report to support the plan making process November 2019 LC-578_SWDPR_HRA_Screening Report_11_141119SC.docx List of Figures Figure 1.1: Stages in the Habitats Regulations Assessment process. .................................................................. 4 Figure 3.1: Outline of steps in stage 1; the whole screening process. ................................................................ 13 Figure 3.2: Outline of the in-combination pre-screening assessment methodology ................................... 16 Figure 3.3: European sites within HRA study area ................................................................................................... 23 Figure 4.1: Traffic contribution to pollution concentration at different distances from road centre ... 35 List of Tables Table 2.1: Potential LSEs upon European sites identified in SWDP Pre-Submission HRA 2012. .............. 7 Table 3.1: Assessment and reasoning categories from Part F of the DTA Handbook ................................. 14 Table 4.1: Pressures and threats for Qualifying Features of European sites that may potentially be affected by the Local Plan. ................................................................................................................................................. 29 Table 4.2: Inflow and outflow traffic over 1,000 AADT for each district within South Worcestershire ......................................................................................................................................................................................................