Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment
Sustainability Appraisal is to ensure that the principles of sustainable development are fully taken into account during the plan preparation process.
The Council is required under the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to undertake a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of all local development documents. The main purpose of the SA it to appraise the social, environmental, and economic effects of proposals and policies.
The SA must also incorporate the requirements of the European Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA), which ensures that significant environmental impacts are identified and taken into account.
The first formal step in the process is the preparation of a Scoping Report, which will set out the framework for the appraisal and assessment of proposals and policies.
Sustainability Appraisal Reports
SA/SEA Reports are available on the webpage associated with the LDF document for which they were prepared. For example the Core Strategy SA/SEA report can be found on the Core Strategy page.
New Legislation concerning Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs)
The new Town & Country Planning Act Regulations no longer require a Sustainability Appraisal to be carried out on Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs). Previously the requirements of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) would have been incorporated into this process, which is now no longer the case.
In order to assess whether an SPD will still require SEA, we have produced a screening template.
This will enable us to see early on in the process whether SEA is required, and will raise any environmental concerns early on in the process. This approach has been supported by the Environment Agency and Natural England.
Last updated : 27/09/2011
