What is the Sustainability Appraisal?
The Sustainability Appraisal (SA) is a key requirement of the Local Plan and is a process that repeatedly assesses how the Plan performs in terms of environmental, social and economic impacts at several points during the Plan’s progression. It compares Reasonable Alternative options and helps identify the most sustainable approach against SA objectives to inform the council’s final decision to agree the Local Plan.
What it shows
The appraisal found that focusing growth in sustainable locations, such as larger towns and planned communities, performs similar overall to reasonable alternatives including to develop in the Green Belt. These locations in the Proposed Approach are able to provide the supporting infrastructure, reduce overall travel by creating self-contained communities, and make most efficient use of land. All scenarios score equally against climate change, soils and air quality SA objectives. SA alternative scenario 6 including using Green Belt land does score highest on the SA objective on homes. However, against other objectives, the Proposed Approach scores best for communities and health. On the SA theme of water, the impact from the proposed approach and reasonable alternatives is uncertain, this is largely due to the water cycle study stage 2 having limited evidence on infrastructure upgrades from water companies beyond 2030.
In terms of the Regulation 19 Local Plan sites and policies, the SA also highlights where there may be environmental impacts and how these can be reduced through policy approaches, future site masterplanning and policy mitigation measures.
Why it matters
The Sustainability Appraisal is a legal requirement and plays a key role in shaping the Plan. It ensures that decisions are made with a full understanding of their wider impacts.