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Technical Paper 2: Sustainability Appraisal
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Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Structure Plan 1996-2016Technical Paper 2Sustainability AppraisalPlease note that you will need excel to
be able to view Graph 1 and the Summary Matrices linked to this document Introduction1. The aim of the revised Structure Plan is to secure the most
appropriate development in the most appropriate locations, while taking into account environmental,
social and economic well-being. That is, a strategy which successfully addresses sustainable development
issues. Incorporating the objectives of sustainable development requires a new way of thinking that
will contribute towards a continued improvement to the quality of life. The appraisal of emerging policies
is an important mechanism which will help to ensure the objectives of sustainable development are incorporated
into the Plan. 2. Planning Policy Guidance Note 12 (Development Plans), published
in January 2000, states that in carrying out a full environmental appraisal of the plan, the same methodologies
can be developed to encompass economic and social issues. Guidance to assist planning authorities has
been published by government departments. In 1993, the Department of the Environment produced a Good
Practice Guide for carrying out the Environmental Appraisal process. 3. In
1998, DETR published a good practice guide " Planning for Sustainable Development: Towards Better
Practice". It has also published, in 1999, research on a methodology for undertaking sustainability
appraisals of regional planning guidance. More recently EU Directive 2001/42/EC
was adopted that requires certain plans and programmes to undergo a strategic environmental assessment. 4.
In the light of this guidance, the Three Councils developed an appraisal methodology which addresses
the issue of sustainable development. The appraisal process ensures that the potential impact of policies
on people’s environmental, social and cultural and economic well-being is systematically and comprehensively
assessed while the policies are being developed. It ensures an iterative approach to policy formulation.
This provides the opportunity to revise policies to mitigate any identified potential negative impacts
and enhance identified beneficial impacts. It is also a means of ensuring consistency between the aims
and policies of the Plan and gives greater justification for policy decisions. 5.
Sustainability appraisals have also been carried out at other tiers of land use planning within the
East Midlands including the Regional Planning Guidance and Local Plans. The appraisal process helps
to ensure that the concept of sustainable development is integrated into the policy formulation process
at all these levels. 6. This document outlines the methodology used to carry
out the appraisal of the emerging Structure Plan policies and describes the main findings. Methodology7.
The appraisal process was co-ordinated by an officer group set up to address sustainable development
issues and was undertaken by those groups of officers responsible for preparing each of the Chapters.
This enabled the potential impacts of policies to be better understood by those preparing them and also
allowed the results to be immediately fed into the re-examination and revision of policies. The membership
of each group included a range of professional interests from the County, Unitary and District Councils. Defining the Factors8. The first stage of establishing the appraisal methodology
was to define the factors that were to provide the framework for the appraisal. The responses to the
1996 Issues Paper provided useful information on the factors that people considered contributed to their
quality of life. The factors were also chosen in consultation with officers preparing the policies and
external experts from a variety of organisations including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,
English Nature, the Government Office for the East Midlands and Universities. Definitions of each of
the factors used are listed in Appendix One. Undertaking the Appraisal9. In undertaking the appraisal the primary effects of
the
policies on each factor were recorded and any potentially significant secondary effects were also noted
for information. The groups had to decide whether the policy was likely to have the desired effect on
each factor and therefore help in moving towards the objectives of sustainable development or whether
it is likely to move us further away from the objectives. Once this had been decided an assessment was
made as to whether this move is likely to be marginal or significant. 10. Where
a policy showed significant movements away from sustainable development a more detailed commentary of
the discussion was recorded. After appraising the policy a short written summary of the impacts and
points to note were prepared. 11. The Consultation Draft Plan, the Deposit
Draft Plan and the Proposed Modifications have all been appraised. Reports of the appraisals of the
Consultation draft and Deposit Draft were published as Technical Papers along with the Plans themselves.
The Proposed Modifications were only appraised where there was a significant difference from the Deposit
Draft, or where a new policy had been drafted, for example, the Strategic River Corridors policy. The
matrices in Appendix Two show where the impact on a factor has changed since the Deposit Draft. The ResultsGeneral Summary12.
The appraisal of the Consultation Draft, on balance, indicated a move towards the objectives of sustainable
development. It was particularly positive in terms of accessibility, the local economy, built environment,
vitality of centres, equity and transport mode. This would suggest that key objectives of the Plan were
being achieved. 13. There were also some moves away from sustainable development,
most notably on movement, landscape, health and air quality factors. This reflects the fact that by
accepting a certain level of development needs to occur, for economic and social reasons, some ‘trade-off’
with environmental factors will need to take place. Other policies within the Plan will help to mitigate
the impact on the environment and ensure that the most important environmental assets are given full
protection. 14. The appraisal process was repeated for the Deposit Draft. Overall,
there was little change. However, on balance, housing, accessibility and biodiversity showed improvement,
whilst the effects on the vitality of centres and land and soil became less positive compared with the
Consultation Draft. 15. The appraisal of the Proposed Modifications used the
same methodology and process. Again, this generally gave rise to little change. This is illustrated
by Graph 1 which summarises the number of positive and
negative impacts on
each of the factors considered. An important element however is the increase in the overall positive
effect on landscape, land, soil and biodiversity resulting from modifications to some policies and the
introduction of other policies. Appendix OneDefinitions of FactorsQUALITY OF LIFE AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENT
NATURAL RESOURCES
GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY
Appendix OneSummary Matrices |
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