Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Adopted Plan Sustainability Appraisal Report December 2015 1 Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Adopted Plan: Sustainability Appraisal Report Contents Page 1. Executive Summary 4 2. Introduction 13 3. Background 16 4. The Context, Issues and Baseline Characteristics 26 5. The Sustainability Appraisal methodology 27 6. The Issues and Options sustainability appraisal 31 7. The Preferred Options sustainability appraisal 49 8. The Revised Preferred Options Draft Development Management 62 Policies sustainability appraisal 9. The Revised Preferred Options (sites) sustainability appraisal 69 10. The Final Plan sustainability appraisal 82 11. Implementation 116 Appendices 120 Tables 1. How the Final Plan policies were derived 7 2. SAMDev Final Plan policies; significant effects 8 3. European Directive 2001/42/EC and the Environmental Assessment of 14 Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 requirements and where they have been met 4. Consultation periods for SAMDev Plan documents 16 5. SA Objectives and supplementary questions 17 6. The link between the established SA objectives and the SA criteria for the 21 Stage 2a site assessment process 7. The relationship between the SA process and Plan stages 27 8. SAMDev Plan production and SA stages 28 9. SA of Preferred Options Development Management Policies 29 10. Summary of the SA for the Preferred Options Development Management 51 Policy Directions 11. Summary of the SA for the sites considered at the Preferred Options 55 stage 12. SA summary assessments for the Draft Development Management 63 Policies 13. Summary of the SA for the extra sites considered at the Revised 70 Preferred Options stage 14. SA summary for the Final Plan policies 83 15. Summary of the SA for the extra sites considered at the Final Plan stage 88 2 Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Adopted Plan: Sustainability Appraisal Report 16. SA summary for Final Plan Hubs and Clusters 89 17. SA Indicators 117 Appendices A Final Plan representations on SA, summary and analysis 121 B Review of relevant plans, programmes, policies and strategies 134 C Issues and Options SA scoring matrices 155 D Preferred Options Policy Directions SA scoring matrices 223 E Preferred Options site assessment SA summaries 274 F Revised Preferred Options Draft Policies SA scoring matrices 370 G Revised Preferred Options site assessment SA summaries 400 H Final Plan policies SA scoring matrices 508 I Final Plan site assessment SA summaries 545 J Hubs and Clusters scoring matrices 547 3 Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Adopted Plan: Sustainability Appraisal Report 1. Executive Summary 1.1 This Report explains the purpose of Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and how it fits in with the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process. The SEA process is similar to sustainability appraisal but has a narrower focus. It evaluates the effects that certain plans have on the environment whereas sustainability appraisal assesses the impact of plans on the environment, plus the economy and the community. SEA is required by a European Directive which has been translated into UK law. The government encourages Local Authorities to combine SEA and SA in one report. 1.2 Shropshire Council carried out most of the SA work for the Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) in-house. The sustainability appraisal took place at the same time as the SAMDev documents were being prepared, published and consulted on. This means that we started work on it at the same time as we prepared the SAMDev documents in 2010. 1.3 This report summarises the sustainability appraisal process which has been undertaken at the various Plan preparation stages. We have also asked the public for comments on each sustainability appraisal of our SAMDev documents. This report also shows how the sustainability appraisal fits with the preparation of the SAMDev Plan. 1.4 The process of developing a method for sustainability appraisal requires an understanding of the main social, environmental and economic characteristics of Shropshire. From these, the key issues that should be considered if new development is to take place can be determined. After this, the sustainability objectives (or questions used to assess the sustainability of the policies in the SAMDev documents) can be drawn up. As the SAMDev Plan follows on from and implements the Core Strategy, the key issues and sustainability objectives used for the evaluation of SAMDev are the same as those used for the Core Strategy. They are as follows: Key Issues Promote adaptable and sustainable communities that nurture vitality and local distinctiveness; Avoid over-exploitation of existing resources and assets including cultural sites and areas and maximise their efficient use; Support rural regeneration which is compatible with environmental objectives and delivers increased prosperity for all; Overall scale of new housing development; Distribution of new housing development; Type and affordability of new housing; Quality and sustainability of new housing development; Location and distribution of economic development and employment growth; Level of employment land provision; Network and hierarchy of centres; Shrewsbury’s strategic role; Development of tourism; Safeguard, improve and strengthen environmental networks; Implement design guidance to deliver high quality places and spaces; 4 Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Adopted Plan: Sustainability Appraisal Report Balance the economic and environmental impacts of mineral working; Maximise the environmental and economic benefits of greater resource efficiency; Providing adequate infrastructure, including utilities, transport infrastructure, green infrastructure and social infrastructure; Ensuring the Core Strategy can be effectively implemented by the many delivery partners; Use new development to reduce the need for car travel and encourage greater use of public transport, cycling and walking; Improve access to facilities and services and reduce isolation Reduce the negative impacts of traffic on the environment and society whilst ensuring vital and viable communities; Ensure continued improvements to public transport provision; Reduction of our carbon footprint and contribution to mitigation measures, including renewable, decentralised and low carbon energy; Adaptation to climate change. Sustainability Objectives (SOs) SO1: Promote safer communities; SO2: Provide a sufficient quantity of good quality housing, which meets the needs of all sections of society; SO3: Promote a strong and sustainable economy throughout Shropshire; SO4: Encourage high quality inward investment, and support existing businesses to expand and diversify; SO5: Encourage a modal shift towards more sustainable forms of transport; SO6: Reduce the need of people and businesses to travel; SO7: Promote community participation in a diverse range of sporting, recreational and cultural activities; SO8: Create active and healthier communities for all and reduce inequalities in health services; SO9: Reduce Shropshire’s contribution to climate change; SO10: Adapt to the impacts of climate change; SO11: Protect, enhance and manage Shropshire’s landscapes and townscapes; SO12: Preserve and enhance features and areas of archaeological, historical and cultural heritage importance; SO13: Protect and enhance the range and populations of species, the quality and extent of wildlife habitats and Shropshire’s geological heritage; SO14: Protect and enhance Shropshire’s water resources; SO15: Improve local air quality; SO16: Reduce the risk of flooding to people, property and wildlife; SO17: Protect and improve soil quality and soil retention; SO18: Ensure the efficient use of land and material resources 5 Shropshire Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) Plan Adopted Plan: Sustainability Appraisal Report The stages of the Plan preparation process 1.5 The SAMDev Plan has been prepared in several stages: Issues and Options: levels of development, directions for growth, policy areas, opting in to development as a hub or cluster Preferred Options: proposed site allocations and directions for policies Draft Development Management Policies (Revised Preferred Options): revised draft policies Revised Preferred Options; revised proposed site allocations Pre-Submission Draft Plan (Final Plan): development management policies and site allocations 1.6 The sustainability objectives were used to assess the options put forward in the SAMDev Issues and Options document. Similarly, the objectives were used to assess the Preferred Options, the Revised Preferred Options and the Final Plan policies. Consideration of alternative policy options 1.7 The Core Strategy sets the framework for the development management policies. The Issues and Options stage outlined key policy themes based on the direction set by the Core Strategy. The Issues and Options consultation asked whether there were ‘any other policy areas that you think we need to cover?’ Responses to this as well as the Issues and Options SA were taken into account in the preparation of all subsequent versions of the Plan. 1.8 However, once the Issues and Options stage was complete, policies were refined, developed, subject to SA and consulted on, but alternative approaches to each policy theme were not generated (Table 1). This