Carmarthenshire Local Development Plan Sustainability Appraisal SA Report: Publication LDP Version (Revision 1) November 2014 This report has been updated to incorporate the review of the Matters Arising Changes. Document Control Sheet BPP 04 F8 Version 15; March 2013 Project: Carmarthenshire County Council Client: Carmarthenshire Local Development Project No: B1204150 Plan Document title: Sustainability Appraisal – SA Report Ref. No: B1204150\005\R3 Originated by Checked by Reviewed by NAME NAME NAME ORIGINAL Vicky Smith Scott D. Johnson Scott D. Johnson Suzy Yendell NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the INITIALS above document(s) have been subjected to Ian Johnson Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and [omitted from Approved by that I approve them for issue published version] DATE 18/03/2011 Document status: Internal draft to incorporate SA recommendations REVISION NAME NAME NAME Vicky Smith Scott D. Johnson Scott D. Johnson Suzy Yendell NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the INITIALS above document(s) have been subjected to Ian Johnson Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and [omitted from Approved by that I approve them for issue published version] DATE 07/04/2011 Document status: Draft completed SA Report for consultation REVISION NAME NAME NAME Scott Johnson Voirrey Costain Voirrey Costain NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the INITIALS above document(s) have been subjected to Wendy Bateman Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and [omitted from Approved by that I approve them for issue published version] DATE 23/08/2013 Document status: Final ‘non-statutory’ draft to accompany Publication LDP REVISION NAME NAME NAME Lynne Bonsall Jennifer Wade Jennifer Wade NAME As Project Manager I confirm that the INITIALS above document(s) have been subjected to Wendy Bateman Jacobs’ Check and Review procedure and [omitted from Approved by that I approve them for issue published version] DATE 24/11/2014 Document status: Final ‘non-statutory’ draft to accompany Publication LDP following review of MACs Jacobs U.K. Limited This document has been prepared by a division, subsidiary or affiliate of Jacobs U.K. Limited (“Jacobs”) in its professional capacity as consultants in accordance with the terms and conditions of Jacobs’ contract with the commissioning party (the “Client”). 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Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Purpose of this Report 1 1.2 What is Sustainability Appraisal? 1 1.3 The Stages of Assessment and LDP Development 2 1.4 Structure of this Report 3 2 About the LDP and Study Area Overview 5 2.1 Purpose of the LDP 5 2.2 Structure of the LDP 5 2.3 Relationship between the SA Report and the LDP Document 6 2.4 About the Study Area for this SA 7 3 Sustainability Appraisal Methodology 9 3.1 Guidance on SA 9 3.2 Overall Approach 9 3.3 Scoping of Issues for this SA 10 3.4 Method of Assessment 10 3.5 Limitations and Uncertainties 11 4 Planning Policy Context Review 13 4.1 Introduction 13 4.2 International Summary 13 4.3 National Summary (UK and Wales) 14 4.4 Regional / Local Summary 14 5 Options and Policy Development 16 5.1 Scoping Stage and Consultation 16 5.2 LDP Objectives Compatibility Assessment 17 5.3 Initial SA Report 19 5.4 Assessment of Strategic LDP Alternatives 19 5.5 Initial Assessment of Strategic Policies 20 5.6 Consultation on the Initial SA Report 21 5.7 Options for Growth 21 5.8 Further LDP Development 26 TOPIC PAPERS 27 6 Biodiversity 27 7 Air Quality 50 8 Climatic Factors 63 9 Water 76 10 Material Assets 94 11 Soil 108 12 Cultural Heritage 119 13 Landscape 135 14 Population 152 15 Health and Well Being 162 16 Education and Skills 175 17 Economy 182 18 Social Fabric 196 19 Summary, Conclusions and Recommended Monitoring 206 19.1 Summary of the Assessment 206 19.2 Summary of Recommendations 208 19.3 Indicators for Statutory SEA Monitoring 209 19.4 Next Steps 214 20 References 215 Appendix A LDP Policy Assessment Screening Map 218 Appendix B SEA Regulations Compliance Checklist 222 Appendix C Scoping Stage Consultation Responses 223 Appendix D Assumptions About Construction of Projects – Hazards and Controls 233 Appendix E Initial SA Report Consultation Responses 235 1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose of this Report This is a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) Report provided for Carmarthenshire County Council and the Welsh Government as supporting evidence for the submission to the Welsh Government of the Publication Deposit Local Development Plan (LDP). It summarises the ‘likely significant effects’ predicted of the LDP as a result of the SA process conducted between 2008 and 2014. It is not a statutory document. As an update to the 2011 SA Report, it incorporates the statutory requirements of SA and SEA, however previous iterations of SA reporting should be referred to in order to consider the full statutory process as integrated with LDP development. Jacobs was commissioned by Carmarthenshire County Council in 2008 to conduct an SA of their Local Development Plan (LDP) as required by the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. SA incorporates the requirement to conduct Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) under The Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004, as discussed in Section 1.2 below. The LDP sets out the policies and proposals for future development and land use within Carmarthenshire. The adopted LDP will supersede the current Unitary Development Plan (UDP) and will include detailed policies and proposals to guide new development, for example the location of new housing and employment provision. This report presents the final SA assessment of the LDP, documenting previous recommendations of the SA to improve its policies in order to improve and monitor the performance of the LDP, whether and how they have been addressed within the adopted LDP. 1.2 What is Sustainability Appraisal? The 2004 Act requires planning bodies, in preparing plans, to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. Sustainability Appraisal (SA) addresses this requirement and is an iterative process that identifies and reports on the likely significant effects of a plan. SA is used to assess LDPs and other plans and polices against a set of sustainability objectives in order to identify the relative economic, social and environmental effects of the LDP policies. The process also evaluates whether polices can be more sustainable and identifies mitigation measures to reduce any potential risks associated with the polices, this may be through amending policy wording or identifying potential new policies for the LDP. Sustainability Appraisal can be defined as: a systematic and iterative process undertaken during the preparation (and review) of a plan which identifies and reports on the extent to which implementation of the plan will achieve the environmental, economic and social objectives by which sustainable development can be defined and identifies opportunities for improving plan performance in relation to these (Welsh Assembly Government, 2002). 1 The European Directive 2001/42/EC (SEA Directive) came into effect in the UK in 2004 in the form of The Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 (The SEA Regulations). SA also incorporates the requirements of the SEA Regulations. Detailed SA Guidance has been prepared which incorporates the requirements of the SEA Directive and SEA Regulations namely guidance from the Welsh Assembly Government’s (now Welsh Government) Sustainability Appraisals of Unitary Development Plans: A Good Practice Guide (2002) and comparable guidance in England through the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) (last updated 2012). 1.3 The Stages of Assessment and LDP Development 1.3.1 SA Scoping Report The SA Scoping Report was the first stage of the SA process.