Sustainability Appraisal

News

On 30 January 2012 key stakeholders attended a presentation by consultants Scott Wilson on the Sustainability Appraisal process at the 'Preferred Options' stage for the Minerals and Waste Site Documents. View the presentation (PDF, 1.21mb). 

Sustainability Appraisal

The preparation of Development Plan Documents is subject to appraisal and testing through Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal.

Strategic Environmental Assessment is a systematic process of identifying and addressing the environmental consequences of plans and programmes. It is required by European Union Directive 2001/42/EC. More information on Strategic Environmental Assessment is available from the European Union's website.

In the United Kingdom, planning authorities are required to undertake Sustainability Appraisal for planning documents, which incorporates the requirements of Strategic Environmental Assessment. Sustainability Appraisal involves systematically identifying and evaluating the economic, social and environmental impacts of a plan.

Appropriate Assessment under the Habitats Directive

Appropriate Assessment will consider the impacts of our proposed Development Plan Documents against the conservation objectives of a European site (Natura 2000).

The aim is to determine whether our plans would cause adverse affects to that site.

There are a number of European sites in Kent and we will apply Appropriate Assessment to the Development Plan Documents as neccessary.

Minerals and Waste Development Framework Sustainability Appraisal

A Sustainability Appraisal is required to ensure the Minerals and Waste Development Plan Documents are environmentally sound and promote sustainable development. Government guidance recommends a five-stage approach for the Sustainability Appraisal process:

Stage A:

Setting the context and objectives, establishing the baseline and deciding on scope. A Scoping Report will identify baseline information on a wide range of topics and develop the framework for the appraisal of policies and proposals. Following consultation (02 September to 14 October 2009) the report has now been finalised. View the Scoping Reports. All consultation comments are still available to view on our portal.

Informal commentary:

A Sustainability Appraisal informal commentary was published along side the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy Issues consultation (24 September to 19 November 2010). It looked at the sustainability implications of some of the key issues to help inform the next stage of the Core Strategy. Read the Issues Sustainability Appraisal commentary (PDF, 341k) and the Habitat Regulations Assessment screening (PDF, 378k).

An intial Sustainability Appraisal (PDF, 932k) was produced for the Kent Minerals and Waste Sites Options consultations which took place between 31 May to 09 August 2011. This was followed by an appraisal at the same stage for the Minerals and Waste Supplementary Site Options consultation: Sustainability Appraisal (PDF, 382k)

Stage B:

Developing and refining options and assessing effects.

A Sustainability commentary (PDF, 434k) and Habitat regulation assessment (PDF, 525k) were published to support to the Core Strategy - Strategy and Policy Directions consultation (31 May to 09 August 2011). 

Stage C:

Preparing the Sustainability Appraisal report.

Stage D:

Consulting on the preferred options of the Development Plan Documents and Sustainability Appraisal report.

Stage E:

Monitoring the significant effects of implementing the Development Plan Documents.