SA Scoping Report Re-Affirms the SA Framework Which Informs the First Stage of Consultation on the Development & Site Allocations Plan (Regulation 25)
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August 2016 1 2 Rother Development and Site Allocations Plan Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Rother District Council Town Hall Bexhill-on-Sea East Sussex TN39 3JX www.rother.gov.uk 3 4 Contents Context ......................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment . 7 1.2 The SA Stages and Process............................................................ 8 1.3 Requirements of the Scoping Stage .............................................. 10 1.4 The Scoping Stage in Rother......................................................... 11 1.5 Rother‟s Development and Site Allocations Plan (DASA) ............. 12 1.6 Application to Neighbourhood Plans within Rother District Area .... 13 Task A1 Identifying the Relevant Policies, Plans and Sustainability Objectives .................................................................................................. 17 Task A2 Collecting Baseline Information .................................................... 22 Task A3 Identifying Sustainability Issues ................................................... 23 Environment ............................................................................................ 23 Social ...................................................................................................... 30 Economic ................................................................................................ 33 Task A4 Developing the Sustainability Appraisal Framework .................... 35 Task A5 Consulting on the Scope of the Sustainability Appraisal .............. 41 Appendix 1: Baseline Information: Sustainability Appraisal Profile for Rother District ........................................................................................................ 43 5 6 Context 1.1 Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment 1.1.1 Sustainability Appraisal (SA) is a requirement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) deriving from the European Union Directive 2001/42/EC. It is common practice in the UK to combine the two processes into one, which is referred to as Sustainability Appraisal (SA). This process incorporates the requirements of the SEA Directive. 1.1.2 SA is a tool used to ensure that the principles of sustainable development are fully taken into account when preparing development plans (in this case the Rother District Local Plan 2011-28). The overall aims of the SA are as follows: Make the DPD as sustainable as possible by integrating sustainable development into the strategy making process, influencing all stages of plan development. Provide a high level of environmental protection and balance environmental, economic and social considerations in the plan‟s preparation. Consult on the SA process at various stages to allow the public and stakeholders to input into its production. Provide an environmental, social and economic audit. 1.1.3 The Council is required by law to produce a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) (incorporating Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for all of its Local Plan (2011-2028) documents except for the Statement of Community Involvement, the Annual Monitoring Report, Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) and the Local Development Scheme. So far, several SA 7 reports have been produced supporting Part One of the Rother District Local Plan (2011-28) – the Core Strategy. The documents in question can be found here http://www.rother.gov.uk/sa. 1.1.4 This SA is being undertaken to inform Part Two of the Local Plan (2011-28) - the Rother District Development and Site Allocations Plan (DASA). There are a number of stages to the SA, the first stage is the Scoping Report (this document) which sets out the framework for the SA. 1.2 The SA Stages and Process 1.2.1 The SA/SEA is an on-going and iterative process that feeds into and informs plan-making. This SA Scoping Report re-affirms the SA Framework which informs the first stage of consultation on the Development & Site Allocations Plan (Regulation 25). 1.2.3 The process of SA is set out in the national Planning Practice Guidance, as in the figure below. SA Stage A results in the production of the SA Scoping Report. Hence Tasks A1 through to A5 are all elaborated upon in more detail later in this document. 8 Figure 1: Sustainability Appraisal Process for Local Plans 9 1.2.4 This report, along with the existing LDF Core Strategy SA Scoping Report and the scoping elements in the Proposed Submission Core Strategy SA (August 2011) represents Stage A shown above. The SA Framework needs to be set within the context of existing plans and policies and an understanding of the current baseline situation is essential to help predict effects and identify key sustainability issues. 1.2.5 During the forthcoming Stage B, where sites are being assessed it will be necessary to establish initially which use(s) a site is considered a reasonable option for. In some cases it may be appropriate to assess the effects of more than one use for an individual site. 1.3 Requirements of the Scoping Stage 1.3.1 As set out in the national „Planning Practice Guidance‟, the scoping stage (Stage A) must identify the scope and level of detail of the information to be included in the sustainability appraisal report. It should set out the context, objectives and approach of the assessment; and identify relevant environmental, economic and social issues and objectives. 1.3.2 Although the scoping stage is a requirement of the process, a formal scoping report is not required by law but is a useful way of presenting information at the scoping stage. A key aim of the scoping procedure is to help ensure the sustainability appraisal process is proportionate and relevant to the Local Plan being assessed. 1.3.3 When deciding on the scope and level of detail of the information that must be included in the report, the plan-maker must consult the consultation bodies. Where a consultation body decides to respond, it should do so within five weeks of receipt of the request. (See regulation 12(5) and 12(6) of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004.) 10 1.4 The Scoping Stage in Rother 1.4.1 The scope of the Local Plan (2011-28) SA was first defined in the first SA Scoping Report, which underwent statutory consultation in August 2006. This set out the context and objectives for the SA, collected baseline data and identified key issues / problems for the District and devised a Sustainability Appraisal Framework against which options and strategies can be tested. An updated revision of the Scoping Report was issued to the statutory consultees in December 2007 and this was approved in February 2008, and published in June 2008. 1.4.2 In addition, it should be noted that the Proposed Submission Core Strategy SA (August 2011) updated many of the elements of the Scoping Report, including: Reviewing list of Relevant Policies, Plans, Strategies and Programmes (See Section 3 and Appendix 7 of August 2011 PSCS SA) Updated Baseline Information (Appendix 1) A revised SA Framework (Appendix 2) Spatial Portrait (Section 3) 1.4.3 All the above SA work was effectively done alongside the production of Part 1 of the Local Plan (2011-28) – the „Core Strategy‟. SA Scoping alongside the Development and Site Allocations Plan 1.4.4 The Council is now in the process of preparing Part 2 of the Local Plan (2011-28) – the „Development and Site Allocations Plan (DASA)‟. As a consequence it is considered a useful opportunity to update some of the above scoping information. In particular the SA Framework needs to be updated to reflect the site specific nature of Part 2 of the Local Plan. This builds on and elaborates upon earlier SA Scoping information published to inform the Core Strategy (as set out in the preceding section above). 11 1.4.5 As part of the process, this scoping report will assess whether the previous SA Framework is fit for purpose for the DASA in order to assess sustainability. This includes considering how the SA of the DASA relates to other plans, policies and programmes, outlining the “baseline” social, environmental and economic information on which the SA will be based, identifying key sustainability issues in the area and developing the framework which will be used to assess the sustainability of the DPD. 1.4.6 This scoping report has been developed in an iterative consultative manner via public consultation and liaison with the statutory environmental bodies (SEBs) - Historic England, Environment Agency and Natural England. An initial consultation (which was also open to the public) closed on Wednesday 5 November 2014, having received three responses from the three SEBs. A second consultation (on a version which incorporated SEB comments) was also open to the public and closed on 5:00pm, 16 February 2015, once again only having received input from the three SEBs. This led to publication of the DASA SA Scoping Report in March 2015. Reasons for this October 2015 review of the Scoping Report are set out under „Task A5 Consulting on the Scope of the Sustainability Appraisal‟. 1.5 Rother’s Development and Site Allocations Plan (DASA) Role and Context 1.5.1 This document will form Part 2 of the Council's new Local Plan, and will develop the spatial strategies and core policies set out in the 'Core Strategy', which represents Part 1 of the Local Plan. It will do this by reviewing existing site allocations and development