Sustainability Appraisals and other assessments

The plans produced as part of Local Development Framework (LDF) process are subject to a series of assessments to ensure they deliver sustainable development.

Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic Environmental Assessment (SA/SEA) is a process of appraising the social, environmental and economic effects of plans strategies and policies from the outset of plan preparation. All Development Plan Documents are required to undergo a SA/SEA. The results of these assessments can be found on the sustainability assessments page.

Equalities Impact Assessments are intended to make sure that policies contained within a document do not adversely discriminate against any equality group (based on age, disability, gender, race, faith or sexual orientation). It does this by identifying issues of concern to the equalities groups and then assessing whether each policy addresses these issues. If an adverse impact is found then an action plan is required to address the impact. The results of these assessments can be found on the equalities impact assessments page.

Habitat Regulations Assessments have been produced to determine whether policies and proposals of the Council’s LDF documents will have a significant adverse impact on sites of European Importance for Nature Conservation. These assessments identify any potential conflicts between the LDF documents and the conservation objectives for these sites, and suggest options for avoiding any damaging effects. The results of these assessments can be found on the habitat regulations assessments page.

We have produced an SA/SEA Scoping Report, which sets out the framework by which the documents will be appraised. Assessments have been produced for the Core Strategy, Area Action Plans and the Waste Development Plan Document. The results of the Sustainability Appraisals have been informed by the Equalities Impact Assessments and the Habitat Regulations Assessments.

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