Sustainability Appraisal

Introduction

This document is intended to accompany the Issues and Options consultation paper for the Havant Borough Core Strategy. It provides information on the likely effects the options set out in the consultation paper will have for Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Development is often referred to as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The Government requires that all local planning authorities test their plans using ‘Sustainability Appraisal’ to ensure that they do not conflict with the aims of sustainable development.

The Core Strategy sets out the spatial vision, spatial objectives and core policies for the development of the local planning authority area. The Core Strategy will be influenced by a number of documents including the South East Plan (which is the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South East), and the vision for the Borough that is contained within Stronger Together (which is the Community Strategy for Havant Borough, 2005-08).

The Council is required to conduct a Sustainability Appraisal as part of the process to produce the Core Strategy. Sustainability Appraisal is a process where draft plans and programmes are repeatedly assessed to see how they contribute towards the aims of Sustainable Development. It is an integral part of the plan-making process and allows the likely social, economic and environmental effects of an emerging Plan to be assessed to ensure that sustainability considerations are taken into account at each stage.

Sustainability Appraisal incorporates requirements by EU Directive 2001/42/EC that a Strategic Environmental Assessment is carried out on all Plans likely to have a significant effect on the environment. Further information on the requirements for Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment can be found in the ODPM document Sustainability Appraisal of Regional Spatial Strategies and Local Development Documents on their website.

To comply with the requirements for Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment the Council must produce a Scoping Report setting out the Council’s approach to conducting the Appraisal.

It is not the case that the Council’s final preferred option of the plan must be the most sustainable option identified by the final Sustainability Appraisal Environmental Report. Instead, Sustainability Appraisal is a tool to be used during the preparation of a plan to inform the decision making process to ensure that sustainability considerations are taken fully into account.

Progress to Date

The Council carried out Sustainability Appraisals as part of the Leigh Park Strategic Framework and Havant Town Centre Supplementary Planning Documents. This work is now being developed further for the Core Strategy.

The Council has commissioned consultants Entec to produce a Scoping Report for the Sustainability Appraisal of the Core Strategy and other documents. This sets out the key sustainability issues for Havant Borough and sets out the economic, social and environmental objectives which should be addressed in the core Strategy and other Local Development Documents. The Scoping Report has been prepared in consultation with the statutory consultees (English Nature, English Heritage, the Countryside Agency and the Environment Agency) as well as representatives of Havant Community Partnership, the body responsible for the Community Strategy.

A summary of the Scoping Report setting out the identified issues and objectives is available here along with the full Scoping Report.

The Report identifies 16 key Sustainability Issues for Havant Borough. They are as follows:

Identified Sustainability Issues for Havant Borough

A. Climate Change

B. Biodiversity

C. Landscape and Townscape

D. Countryside

E. Regeneration

F. Housing

G. Employment

H. Skills / Education

I. Resource Efficiency

J. Waste

K. Health and Well-being

L. Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture

M. Community Safety, Crime and the Fear of Crime

N. Transport / Accessibility

O. Anti-Poverty

P. Equality

A description of each issue is contained in the full Scoping Report and the non-technical summary.

The Scoping Report then sets out 18 Sustainability Objectives for the Borough. The proposals in the Core Strategy will be tested against these Objectives to see if the Plan is contributing towards sustainable development.

Sustainability Objectives for Havant Borough

1. Housing

2. Health and Well-being

3. Equality, Poverty and Social Inclusion

4. Education and skills

5. Safety and Security

6. Liveability and Sense of Place

7. Accessibility / Transport

8. Flooding

9. Regeneration and Land Use

10. Air Quality

11. Climate Change

12. Biodiversity

13. Natural Landscape

14. Built and Historic Environment

15. Waste and Natural Resources

16. Water Quality and Quantity

17. Energy

18. Economy, Opportunity and Innovation

The Scoping Report has undergone a formal period of consultation with the four statutory consultees which ended 17 July 2006. The results of that consultation will be considered and may result in the social, economic and environmental objectives for the Borough to be amended.

The full Sustainability Appraisal Report

Following the Scoping Report, the Council’s next statutory requirement is to produce a final report along with the preferred options for the Core Strategy. This will include a very formal assessment of the Council’s preferred options for the Core Strategy, measuring each policy against the 18 Sustainability Objectives. The assessment must show the likely short, medium and long term effects as well as any cumulative impacts and will necessarily be a very long document. The Scoping Report sets out the likely structure of the final report. An example of the detailed format of the proposed final report follows as an appendix to this paper.

The Purpose of this Report

At this stage in the process the Issues and Options are wide ranging and have yet to be refined into the Council’s preferred option. Rather than be too detailed it is therefore appropriate that this report includes notes on the likely sustainability effects of each of the options put forward by questions 1 to 10 of the Issues and Options Questionnaire so that respondents can see an assessment of the implications of each option in sustainability terms.

Likely Sustainability effects of Options contained within the Issues and Options Paper

There now follows a discussion of the likely effects of each of the points raised by questions 1 to 10 in the Issues and Options consultation. They do not represent a full appraisal of each option but are a first step in the appraisal process - an initial discussion of some of the likely impacts each option has for sustainable development.

Further work on developing the Council’s Sustainability Appraisal and assessment of options will be undertaken as work on the Core Strategy progresses. For now, the likely positive and negative effects for each option have been noted, with reference to the 18 Sustainability Objectives listed in this paper and the Scoping Report. Where the potential effects are unknown or uncertain these have also been noted.

Links to Likely Sustainability Effects

and

Appendix The Final Sustainability Appraisal Report