Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the Neighbourhood Plan for Belper Civil Parish Environmental Report Belper Town Council October 2019 SEA for the NP4B Environmental Report Quality information Prepared by Checked by Approved by Cheryl Beattie Alastair Peattie Alastair Peattie Environmental Planner Associate Director Associate Director Rosie Cox Environmental Consultant Sam Stone Industrial Placement Revision History Revision Revision Details Name Position date V1 01/03/19 Draft Environmental Report for internal review Cheryl Beattie Environmental Planner V2 04/03/19 Draft Environmental Report for client review Alastair Peattie Associate Director V3 11/03/19 Draft Environmental Report for public consultation Alastair Peattie Associate Director V4 07/10/19 Draft Environmental Report update for ‘re-run’ of Cheryl Beattie Senior Environmental public consultation (client reviewed) Planner Prepared for: Belper Town Council Prepared by: AECOM Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited 3rd Floor, Portwall Place Portwall Lane Bristol BS1 6NA United Kingdom T: +44 117 901 7000 aecom.com © 2019 AECOM Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited. All Rights Reserved. This document has been prepared by AECOM Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited (“AECOM”) in accordance with its contract with Locality (the “Client”) and in accordance with generally accepted consultancy principles, the budget for fees and the terms of reference agreed between AECOM and the Client. Any information provided by third parties and referred to herein has not been checked or verified by AECOM, unless otherwise expressly stated in the document. AECOM shall have no liability to any third party that makes use of or relies upon this document. AECOM SEA for the NP4B Environmental Report Table of Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................... 1 2. What is the plan seeking to achieve? ............................................. 3 3. What is the scope of the SEA? ...................................................... 7 Part 1: What has plan-making/ SEA involved to this point? 4. Introduction .................................................................................. 12 5. Establishing the reasonable alternatives ...................................... 13 6. Assessing reasonable alternatives ............................................... 22 7. Developing the preferred approach .............................................. 25 Part 2: What are the SEA findings at this stage? 8. Introduction .................................................................................. 27 9. What are the appraisal findings at this current stage? ................. 28 Part 3: What are the next steps? 10. Next steps .................................................................................... 41 Appendix I: Regulatory requirements ............................................... 42 Appendix II: The SEA scope............................................................... 44 Appendix III: Alternatives assessment .............................................. 55 AECOM SEA for the NP4B Environmental Report THIS PAGE IS INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK AECOM SEA for the NP4B Environmental Report 1. Introduction Background 1.1 AECOM is commissioned to lead on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in support of the emerging Neighbourhood Plan for Belper Civil Parish (NP4B). 1.2 The NP4B is being prepared by Belper Town Council in the context of the saved policies of the 2006 Amber Valley Borough Local Plan. Once the NP4B has been ‘made’ it will have material weight when deciding on planning applications, alongside the latest adopted Amber Valley Borough Local Plan. 1.3 SEA is a mechanism for considering and communicating the likely effects of an emerging plan, and alternatives, with a view to avoiding and mitigating negative effects and maximising the positives. SEA of the NP4B is a legal requirement.1 SEA explained 1.4 It is a requirement that SEA is undertaken in-line with the procedures prescribed by the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004, which transposed into national law EU Directive 2001/42/EC on SEA. 1.5 In-line with the Regulations, a report (known as the Environmental Report) must be published for consultation alongside the draft plan that ‘identifies, describes and evaluates’ the likely significant effects of implementing ‘the plan, and reasonable alternatives’.2 The report must then be taken into account, alongside consultation responses, when finalising the plan. 1.6 More specifically, the Report must answer the following three questions: 1) What has plan-making / SEA involved up to this point? - Including in relation to 'reasonable alternatives’. 2) What are the SEA findings at this stage? - i.e. in relation to the draft plan. 3) What happens next? 1 Regulation 15 of the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations (2012, as amended) requires that each Neighbourhood Plan is submitted to the Local Authority alongside either: A) an environmental report; or, B) a statement of reasons why SEA is not required, prepared following a ‘screening’ process completed in accordance with Regulation 9(1) of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations (‘the SEA Regulations’). The NPfB was subject to screening in 2018, including through consultation, at which time it was determined that SEA is required. 2 Regulation 12(2) of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004. AECOM 1 SEA for the NP4B Environmental Report This Environmental Report 1.7 This report is the Environmental Report for the NP4B. It is published alongside the draft – ‘pre-submission’ – version of the plan, under Regulation 14 of the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations (2012, as amended). This report is the second iteration of the Environmental Report, following changes made to the NP4B after Regulation 14 consultation undertaken between March and May 2019. Regulation 14 consultation is being ‘re-run’ to allow stakeholders further chance to comment on the changes made to the Neighbourhood Plan before it is submitted for Examination. 1.8 This report essentially answers questions 1, 2 and 3 in turn, in order to provide the required information.3 Each question is answered within a discrete ‘part’ of the report. However, before answering Q1, two initial questions are answered in order to further set the scene; what is the plan seeking to achieve? And what is the scope of the SEA? 3 See Appendix I for further explanation of the regulatory basis for answering certain questions within the Environmental Report, and a ‘checklist’ explaining more precisely the regulatory basis for presenting certain information. AECOM 2 SEA for the NP4B Environmental Report 2. What is the plan seeking to achieve? Introduction 2.1 With a view to introducing the aims and objectives of the NP4B, this section gives consideration to the strategic planning policy context provided by the current and emerging Amber Valley Borough Local Plan. It then presents the NP4B vision and objectives. Figure 2.1 (at the end of this chapter) shows the area covered by the NP4B. Relationship with the Amber Valley Borough Local Plan 2.2 The NP4B is being prepared in the context of the adopted and emerging Amber Valley Borough Local Plan. The NP4B must be in general conformity with the strategic policies of the Local Plan, supplementing these with locally specific policies as appropriate. Once the NP4B has been ‘made’ (following a successful referendum) it will form part of the Amber Valley Borough Local Plan, at which time it will have material weight in the determination of planning applications, i.e. applications relating to changes in land use. 2.3 The saved development management policies of the 2006 Amber Valley Borough Local Plan continue to shape development within the Borough; however, the strategic context for growth will be outlined through the emerging Local Plan. 2.4 Work has been underway to produce a new Local Plan which will set a strategic vision and framework for the future development of the Borough as well as updated development management policies to replace the saved policies of the 2006 plan.. A Submission version of the emerging Local Plan was published under Regulation 19 of the Local Planning Regulations in early 2018, and subsequently submitted to the Secretary of State for Examination in March 2018. 2.5 Hearing sessions took place over June and July 2018 and, having considered the housing supply matters and in particular the deliverability of permitted sites, the inspector (following communication with Amber Valley Borough Council) paused the Examination, to enable the Council to undertake a borough-wide Green Belt review, to inform the process of identifying and proposing additional housing sites for allocation in the Local Plan. Following this review, Amber Valley Borough Council resolved in May 2019 to withdraw the Submission Local Plan and prepare a programme and timetable for a new Local Plan. This has, at a late stage of development in terms of the NP4B, left a strategic policy ‘vacuum’ with little guidance in reference to the level and locations of future growth in Belper. 2.6 The NP4B has been developed alongside the withdrawn draft of the Local Plan and has worked to ensure conformity with this strategic planning context, as outlined below. In the absence of further evidence, this has remained the most relevant strategic context for the NP4B, though it is recognised that this may change in future Local