Habitats Regulations Assessment of the City of York Council Local Plan October 2020 Waterman Infrastructure & Environment Limited 2nd Floor, South Central, 11 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 5QR www.watermangroup.com Client Name: City of York Council Document Reference: WIE13194-104-3-1 Project Number: WIE13194-104 Quality Assurance – Approval Status This document has been prepared and checked in accordance with Waterman Group’s IMS (BS EN ISO 9001: 2015, BS EN ISO 14001: 2015 and BS OHSAS 18001:2007) Issue Date Prepared by Checked by Approved by First April 2020 Bernie Fleming Bernie Fleming Niall Machin Fleming Ecology Fleming Ecology Associate Director Second August 2020 Bernie Fleming Bernie Fleming Niall Machin Fleming Ecology Fleming Ecology Associate Director Third October Bernie Fleming Bernie Fleming Niall Machin 2020 Fleming Ecology Fleming Ecology Associate Director Comments Third In response to comments by Natural England Disclaimer This report has been prepared by Waterman Infrastructure & Environment Limited, with all reasonable skill, care and diligence within the terms of the Contract with the client, incorporation of our General Terms and Condition of Business and taking account of the resources devoted to us by agreement with the client. We disclaim any responsibility to the client and others in respect of any matters outside the scope of the above. This report is confidential to the client and we accept no responsibility of whatsoever nature to third parties to whom this report, or any part thereof, is made known. Any such party relies on the report at its own risk. Contents SUMMARY 1 INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH ..................................................................................... 5 2. THE NEED FOR ASSESSMENT AND IDENTIFYING EUROPEAN SITES AT RISK ....... 11 3. SCREENING THE POLICIES – PROCESS AND OUTCOMES ......................................... 32 4 APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENT AND INTEGRITY TEST .................................................. 63 5. APPLICATION OF THE EFFECT ON INTEGRITY TEST................................................. 137 6. OVERALL CONCLUSION OF THE HRA .......................................................................... 139 Figures Figure 1 Location of proposed allocations with distance from SAC boundary ............... 68 Figure 2 Map of Strensall Common with survey points ...................................................... 72 Figure 3 Combined plot showing Footprint and PCP visitor data (Footprint 2020) ....... 110 Tables Table 1: Potential mechanisms and initial list of European sites that could be affected 12 Table 2: Description of European Sites ................................................................................ 25 Table 3: Summarised, initial list of European sites, features and potential effects ........ 30 Table 4: Screening Categories .............................................................................................. 32 Table 5 Summary of initial screening exercise .................................................................. 33 Table 6: Summary of the Screening of the Policies and Allocations ................................ 59 Table 7 Comparison of Footprint and PCP visitor survey data ........................................ 81 Table 8 Summary of mitigation measures for recreational pressure ............................. 102 Table 9 Summary of the Appropriate Assessment .......................................................... 135 Appendices A. Citations and Qualifying Features B. Record of initial screening of proposed policies Separate Appendices Volume C. Lower Derwent and Skipwith Common Visitor Surveys D. Strensall Common Visitor Surveys E. Policy Changes F. Review of DIO Hearing Statement/PCP Study by Footprint Ecology G. Strensall Training Area Conservation Group Minutes H. City of York Air Quality Modelling Assessment I. Maps of Nature Conservation designations, open space and public rights of way J. Natural England Correspondence Page 1 HRA of the City of York Local Plan (October 2020) Project Number:WIE13194-104 Document Reference:WIE13194-104-3-1 SUMMARY The role of a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) is to assess the impact of the proposed policies and allocations on the internationally important wildlife sites in and around the City. Together, these Special Protection Areas (SPAs), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) and Ramsar sites are known as European sites. HRA asks very specific questions of a local plan. Firstly, it screens the plan to identify if there is a risk that certain policies or allocations may have a likely significant effect on a European site, alone or (if necessary) in-combination with other plans and projects. If the risk of likely significant effects can be ruled out, then the plan may be adopted but if they cannot, the plan must be subjected to the greater scrutiny of an appropriate assessment to find out if the plan will have an adverse effect on the integrity of the European sites. Typically, a Plan may only be adopted if an adverse effect on the integrity of the site can be ruled out. If necessary, a plan should be amended to avoid or mitigate any likely conflicts, which usually means that some policies or allocations will need to be modified or, more unusually, may have to be removed altogether. This document takes full account of up to date policy and law. Where appropriate, this HRA also draws on draft HRAs completed in 2014 and 2017 and, in particular, those produced in 2018 and 2019 which accompanied formal submission of the Plan. It also refers to further evidence provided by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation in late 2019. The City of York Council (the Council) formally submitted its Regulation 19 Publication Draft of its Local Plan in May 2018. This was accompanied by an HRA dated April 2018. Following advice by Natural England and the production of new evidence, the 2018 HRA was replaced by a new version in February 2019 which was subsequently presented during the initial stages of the Examination in Public in December 2019. As the Plan and HRAs evolved, the outcomes changed. These changes are important and are summarised below. The 2018 HRA concluded that the Plan would not have an adverse effect on the integrity of any European sites. However, Natural England challenged this outcome in terms of possible impacts from recreational pressure at the Strensall Common, Skipwith Common, Lower Derwent Valley and River Derwent European sites, and from air pollution on Strensall Common and the River Derwent. This prompted the production of visitor surveys and the re-evaluation of existing air quality data. The changes required to take account of this new advice and evidence prompted production of the 2019 HRA which, importantly, recommended the deletion of policies SS19/ST35 and H59(A)1 from the Plan. These outcomes persist in this, the 2020 edition which not only includes greater scrutiny of relevant policies but, at the request of the Inspectors, also comprises changes to confirm compliance with case law. The findings of the current HRA are summarised below. All policies and associated allocations within the Regulation 19 Publication Draft (and subsequently proposed modifications) of the Local Plan (2018) have been screened; the ‘screening’ results can be found in Table 5, Table 6 and Appendix B. Overall, this HRA found that likely significant effects could be ruled out for the vast majority of policies and allocations which meant they could be excluded from any further scrutiny. However, it was not possible to rule out likely significant effects in respect of a number of policies for the reasons listed below: 1 Note, to distinguish housing allocations from housing policies, all allocations are further identified with an ‘(A) and policies with a (P) where relevant Page 2 HRA of the City of York Local Plan (October 2020) Project Number:WIE13194-104 Document Reference:WIE13194-104-3-1 European site Potential effect Policies Recreational pressure and urban- SS19/ST35, E18 & H59(A) edge effects SS9/ST7, SS10/ST8, SS11/ST9, SS12/ST14, SS15/ST17, SS17/ST32, H1a(A), H1b(A), Recreational pressure H3(A), H7(A), H22(A), H23(A), Strensall Common H31(A), H46(A), H55(A), H56(A), H58(A), SH1 Windfall development H1(P) Air pollution SS19/ST35, E18 & H59(A) Wetland features SS19/ST35, H59(A), E18 Mobile species SS13/ST15 Lower Derwent Valley Recreational pressure SS13/ST15 & SS18/ST33 River Derwent Air pollution SS13/ST15 Accordingly, an appropriate assessment was carried out. The outcome of this further scrutiny is described in Table 9 and Section 5 and is summarised below. Site, issue and policies Outcome Strensall Common SAC Adverse effect on the integrity on the site will be Wet and dry heathland avoided if mitigation in the form of modifications to the policy wording is adopted Wetland features SS19/ST35, E18 & H59(A) Strensall Common SAC Adverse effects on the integrity of the site avoided by Wet and dry heathland removal of policies. SS19/ST35 and H59(A) Recreational pressure and urban-edge effects SS19/ST35 & H59(A) Strensall Common SAC Adverse effect on the integrity on the site will be Wet and dry heathland avoided if mitigation in the form of modifications to the policy wording is adopted Recreational pressure and urban-edge effects E18 Strensall Common SAC Adverse effect on the integrity on the site will be Wet and dry heathland avoided if mitigation in the form of modifications to the policy wording is adopted Recreational pressure SS9/ST7, SS10/ST8, SS11/ST9, SS12/ST14