REPORT Leicester Transport Plan 4 Strategic Environmental Assessment Environmental Report Client: Leicester City Council Reference: PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 Status: S0/P01.03 Date: 27 May 2021 Open HASKONINGDHV UK LTD. Stratus House Emperor Way Exeter EX1 3QS Industry & Buildings VAT registration number: 792428892 +44 1392 447999 T +44 1392 446148 F [email protected] E royalhaskoningdhv.com W Document title: Leicester Transport Plan 4 Strategic Environmental Assessment Document short title: LTP4 SEA ER Reference: PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 Status: P01.03/S0 Date: 27 May 2021 Project name: LTP4 Project number: PC2203 Author(s): Laura Covington Drafted by: Kitty Taylor Checked by: Laura Covington Date: 23/04/2021 Approved by: Peter Thornton Date: 26/04/2021 Classification Open Unless otherwise agreed with the Client, no part of this document may be reproduced or made public or used for any purpose other than that for which the document was produced. 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Before publication or any other way of disclosing, this report needs to be anonymized. 27 May 2021 LTP4 SEA ER PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 i Open Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 The Need for the Leicester Local Transport Plan 1 1.3 Aims and Objectives of the LTP4 3 1.4 Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) 3 1.5 Consultation and Scoping 6 2 Assessment Framework and Methodology 7 2.1 SEA Objectives 7 2.2 Impact Prediction 13 2.3 Impact Significance 13 2.4 Relevant Plans, Policies and Strategies 21 2.5 Issues Identified as Priorities through Regulatory and Plan Review 21 3 The LTP4 22 3.1 Introduction 22 3.2 Development of the Leicester LTP4 22 3.3 Study Area 22 3.4 Strategies and Schemes 22 3.5 Consideration of Alternatives 28 4 The Scope of the SEA 29 4.1 Introduction 29 4.2 Population, Communities and Human Health 29 4.3 Historic Environment 32 4.4 Soils 34 4.5 Water 34 4.6 Air Quality and Climatic Factors 36 4.7 Landscape 37 4.8 Critical Infrastructure 38 4.9 Biodiversity, Flora and Fauna 39 5 Assessment and Evaluation of Impacts 44 5.1 Populations, Communities and Human Health 44 5.2 Historic Environment 47 5.3 Soils 47 27 May 2021 LTP4 SEA ER PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 ii Open 5.4 Water 48 5.5 Air and Climatic Factors 48 5.6 Landscape 49 5.7 Critical Infrastructure 49 5.8 Biodiversity, Flora and Fauna 50 6 Cumulative and In-Combination Impacts 50 6.1 Introduction 50 6.2 Strategy Level (In-Combination Effects) 51 6.3 LTP4 Level (Cumulative Effects) 51 7 Conclusion and Next Steps 52 7.1 Conclusion 52 7.2 Next Steps 53 8 Abbreviations and Acronyms 54 9 References 56 Appendix A: Consultation responses 60 Appendix B: Water Framework Directive (WFD) Assessment 65 Appendix C: List of legislation, policy and guidance relevant to the LTP4 67 Appendix D: Figures 74 Appendix E: Assessment Tables 75 Table of Tables Table 1.1 Schedule of Strategic Environmental Assessment Requirements 4 Table 1.2 Scoping of Environmental Issues 6 Table 2.1 SEA Framework 9 Table 2.2 Impact significance 16 Table 2.3 Assessment matrix colour coding and symbology 16 Table 2.4 Scoring criteria 17 Table 2.5 Key strategic priorities from other plans and programmes 21 Table 3.1 Summary of the Leicester LTP4 Strategies and Schemes 24 Table 3.2 Consideration of alternatives for achieving a local public transport transformation 29 Table 3.3 Consideration of alternatives for managing demand for car use over the urban area 29 Table 4.1 List of Local Wildlife Sites in Leicester City Council UA 40 Table 4.2 Local Nature Reserves in Leicester 41 Table 4.3 Protected species found in Leicester as listed in Biodiversity in Leicester Supplementary Planning Guidance (2003) 42 27 May 2021 LTP4 SEA ER PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 iii Open Table 4.4 Bird species observed at birding sites in Leicester 43 Table of Figures Figure 1.1 SEA Process 5 Figure 2.1 The Source-Pathway-Receptor approach as applied in this SEA 13 27 May 2021 LTP4 SEA ER PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 iv Open 1 Introduction 1.1 Background Leicester City Council are in the process of drafting their fourth Local Transport Plan (LTP4) to cover the period from 2021to 2036, which follows on from, and replaces, the LTP3 which covered the period 2011 to 2026. The LTP4 is being developed alongside the emerging draft Leicester Local Plan 2020-2036 which provides the overall strategic and spatial vision for the future of the greater Leicester area. The new plan also takes into account Leicester’s Climate Emergency Strategy (2020-23), Leicester’ Air Quality Action Plan (2015-26) and the draft Local Plan (2020-2036). The draft Local Plan includes a requirement to build 29,104 dwellings and an estimated 45 hectares (ha) of employment land in order to support the city’s economic and population growth. The LTP4 will therefore identify a strategy that supports jobs and housing growth as well setting out an approach to future transport provision that aims to be carbon neutral, healthy and well connected. The development of the LTP4 follows a successful bid to the Transforming Cities Fund (TCF) of approximately £70 million which will provide funding to carry out changes over the next four years. It will contain a plan to deliver infrastructure and other measures such as the policy context for Workplace Parking Levy, taking into account: • The ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which will lead to significant ongoing change and challenges both to the economy and in people’s daily lives; and • Commitments made by the council in relation to climate change. This document presents the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that has been undertaken for Leicester City Council’s LTP4. It has been carried out in line with the requirements of the European Union European Commission (EC) Directive 2001/42/EC (SEA Directive). This document also incorporates a Water Framework Directive (WFD) Assessment. Collectively these form the Leicester LTP4 SEA. 1.2 The Need for the Leicester Local Transport Plan Leicester City Council is required to produce a LTP for Leicester City under the Local Transport Act of 2008. LTPs are required under the Act to perform the following functions: • Outline the current baseline with regard to transport, accessibility and pollution; • Set out challenging but achievable objectives; and • Set out the programme for achieving these objectives. The recent successful bid to the Government’s TCF and other funding through the Connecting Leicester vision and programme alongside the increased emphasis on good quality, clean and healthy transport options has brought forward the need for a new plan to be developed. The draft Leicester City Local Plan for 2020 to 2036, which this LTP4 supports, has been developed in the context of the Leicester and Leicestershire Strategic Growth Plan (SGP) (2018) which presents the long- term strategy for future development in the region and proposes strategic development locations. The SGP identifies the Strategic Regeneration Area and A46 Priority Growth Corridor to the south and east of Leicester City as areas to focus future development with major infrastructure improvements needed to accommodate this growth. It will be delivered through Local Plan documents including the draft Leicester City Local Plan (2021-2036) which is currently in development. 27 May 2021 LTP4 SEA ER PC2203-RHD-ZZ-XX-RP-Z-0002 1 Open The Leicester and Leicestershire Strategic Transport Priorities (LLSTP) (2018) document supports the principles of the SGP by setting out the long-term approach to transport improvements for the City of Leicester and Leicestershire over the next 30 years through a range of programmes and packages. Key priorities of the LLSTP are: • Investment in city transport infrastructure to support improved accessibility to and within the city – principally through the ‘hub and spoke’ plan for bus corridors, park and ride and cycling/walking corridor improvements; • Rail and bus station enhancements in the city centre to improve it as a travel hub; • A new A46 link road to the south and east of Leicester, connecting the M1 to the southwest and the A46 to the northeast, creating a new priority growth corridor (subject to extensive consultation and development); and • New railway lines and services between Leicester, Coventry and Birmingham and a link to HS2. One of the aims of the LTP4 is to deliver the goals of the LLSTP that apply to the City of Leicester, taking into account the ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has changed people’s daily lives. This includes more people choosing to walk or cycle, changes to retailing, an increase in people working from home and technology increasingly being used in different ways in work and in life. The LTP4 will focus initially on building new infrastructure for improving public transport, walking and cycling with the emphasis then changing to prioritising greater use of cleaner and healthier transport across the renewed and improved networks. Although the plan covers the area within the Leicester City Council Unitary Authority (UA) area, it also recognises that many journeys will begin or end outside the City boundaries and therefore there is a need to consider transport across the whole Leicester Urban Area. The Leicester City Council UA area covers nearly 7,500 ha with a population of about 355,000 and is the focus of this LTP.