Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Update July 2017

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Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Update July 2017 Three Rivers District Council Local Plan Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Update July 2017 Report details Three Rivers District Council Local Plan Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Update Report prepared for: Three Rivers District Council Reference: Project Report: CPR2415a Copyright: © TRL Limited Report date: July 2017 Report status/version: Scoping Report Update Quality approval: Katie Millard Project Manager Rob Gardner Technical Reviewer Disclaimer This report has been produced by TRL Limited (TRL) under a contract with Three Rivers District Council. Any views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of Three Rivers District Council. The information contained herein is the property of TRL Limited and does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the customer for whom this report was prepared. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the matter presented in this report is relevant, accurate and up-to-date, TRL Limited cannot accept any liability for any error or omission, or reliance on part or all of the content in another context. Contents amendment record This report has been amended and issued as follows: Version Date Description Editor Technical Reviewer Draft v0.1 09-05-2017 Draft for review KM RG Draft v0.2 10-05-2017 Technical review KM RG Final v0.3 11-05-2017 Final version, draft previously seen by client KM RG Post- 28-07-17 Scoping Report Update to take account of KM RG consultation comments made during the consultation from 12th update May to 16th June 2017. Post Consultation Update CPR2415a SA Scoping Report Update 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background to Sustainability Appraisal/ Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Single Local Plan 1 1.2 The SA/SEA Process 1 1.3 Relationship with Other Assessments 3 1.4 Report Structure 4 1.5 Three Rivers Local Plan 4 2 Environmental and Sustainability Planning Context 5 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 Biodiversity, including flora and fauna, and Geodiversity 7 2.3 Climatic factors 15 2.4 Air Quality 21 2.5 Landscape and Townscape 24 2.6 Historic Environment 30 2.7 Material Assets 35 2.8 Soil 42 2.9 Water 45 2.10 Population 52 2.11 Health and Wellbeing 56 2.12 Housing 68 2.13 Transport and Accessibility 76 2.14 Economy, employment and education 84 2.15 Key environment and sustainability issues within the District 93 3 SA Framework 97 3.1 Environmental and Sustainability Objectives 97 3.2 Compatibility of SA Objectives with Local Plan Objectives 107 3.3 Inter-relationships between SA/SEA topics 107 4 Proposed Methodology 109 4.1 Introduction 109 4.2 Approach to Assessment 109 4.3 Proposed Structure of the SA Report 111 5 Next Steps 113 Appendix A Scoping Report Consultation Representations 115 Post Consultation Update i CPR2415a SA Scoping Report Update List of Figures: Figure 1-1: Relationships between Local Plan preparation and SA processes (Source: Planning Practice Guidance, 2016) ........................................................................................................................ 2 Figure 2-1: Distributions of different habitats in Hertfordshire ........................................................... 11 Figure 2-2: Sectoral split of CO2 emissions 2010-2014 for Three Rivers............................................... 17 Figure 2-3: Geological map of the main mineral resources for Hertfordshire ..................................... 39 Figure 2-4: Groundwater Source Protection Zones in Three Rivers ..................................................... 47 Figure 2-5: Three Rivers Population Pyramid- Comparison of 2014 and 2039..................................... 53 Figure 2-6: Crime rate in Three Rivers and Hertfordshire local authority areas in 2016...................... 64 Figure 2-7: Core Strategy Housing Trajectory at 2010 .......................................................................... 71 Figure 2-8: Most heavily used roads in Hertfordshire .......................................................................... 78 Figure 2-9: Meeting the Demand for Primary and Secondary School Places Summer 2016/17 .......... 90 Post Consultation Update ii CPR2415a SA Scoping Report Update List of Tables: Table 2-1: SSSI within or partially within Three Rivers District ............................................................... 9 Table 2-2: Per capita Local CO2 emission estimates 2005-2014 (t CO2 per person) ............................. 17 Table 2-3: Levels of light pollution and dark skies split for Three Rivers, Hertfordshire and East of England.................................................................................................................................................. 27 Table 2-4: List of conservation areas within Three Rivers District ........................................................ 32 Table 2-5: Resident population (rounded to nearest 100) ................................................................... 54 Table 2-6: Age breakdown in Three Rivers ........................................................................................... 54 Table 2-7: Sports facilities within Three Rivers’ towns: ........................................................................ 60 Table 2-8: Distribution of parks and gardens in Three Rivers ............................................................... 61 Table 2-9: Distribution of natural and semi-natural sites in Three Rivers ............................................ 61 Table 2-10: Distribution of public rights of way in Three Rivers ........................................................... 62 Table 2-11: Amenity greenspace provision in Three Rivers .................................................................. 62 Table 2-12: Distribution of provision for children and young people in Three Rivers .......................... 63 Table 2-13: Distribution of allotment sites within Three Rivers ........................................................... 63 Table 2-14: Three Rivers Recorded Crime 2012/13 - 2015/16 ............................................................. 65 Table 2-15: Households with at least 1 usual resident (rounded to nearest 100) ............................... 69 Table 2-16: Average House Prices in Three Rivers, main towns and Hertfordshire – 1st Quarter 2017 to the nearest 100 (4th Quarter 2016 in brackets) ....................................................................... 71 Table 2-17: Recommended Housing Mix for southwest Hertfordshire ................................................ 72 Table 2-18: Authorised Gypsy and Traveller Sites at 31 March 2016 ................................................... 74 Table 2-19: Percentage of new residential development within 30 minutes public transport time of services/key activities ....................................................................................................................... 77 Table 2-20: Vehicle Kilometres in Three Rivers (based on 2014 and 2015 data) ................................. 78 Table 2-21: Travel to work mode share for Three Rivers and Hertfordshire ........................................ 81 Table 2-22: Birth and Death of Enterprises in Three Rivers 2010 - 2015 ............................................. 86 Table 2-23: Employee job numbers 2006-2014 .................................................................................... 86 Table 2-24: Employee jobs by industry group in Three Rivers (2015) .................................................. 87 Table 2-25: Claimant Count (unemployment %) .................................................................................. 87 Table 2-26: Male and female unemployment rates (%) ....................................................................... 88 Table 2-27: Annual Population Survey: unemployment (%) ................................................................. 88 Table 2-28: Primary school provision forecast for Three Rivers 2016/17 to 2019/20* ....................... 89 Table 2-29: Secondary school provision forecast for Three Rivers 2016/17 to 2026/27* ................... 90 Table 2-30: Key sustainability issues and opportunities ....................................................................... 93 Table 3-1: SA Framework ...................................................................................................................... 99 Table 4-1: Proposed Structure of SA Report ....................................................................................... 112 Post Consultation Update iii CPR2415a SA Scoping Report Update This page is intentionally blank Post Consultation Update iv CPR2415a SA Scoping Report Update 1 Introduction 1.1 Background to Sustainability Appraisal/ Strategic Environmental Assessment of the Single Local Plan Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) are in the early stages of preparing a single Local Plan which will replace the Core Strategy (adopted on 17th October 2011), the Development Management Policies Local Development Document (adopted on 26th July 2013) and the Site Allocations Local Development Document (adopted on 25th November 2014). The Core Strategy was developed and adopted prior to the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the update will therefore need to take account of the new policy landscape introduced by the NPPF in March 2012. The new Local Plan will incorporate strategic policies, development management policies and site allocations into a single document. During its preparation this Local Plan must be subject to both Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and
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