Sustainability Appraisal Partnership
The Joint Sustainability Appraisal partnership was set up in response to recent changes to the planning system. The partnership will operate initially for a 2 year period.
Sustainability Appraisal is the process by which the economic, social and environmental impacts of projects, strategies or plans are assessed. The aim of the appraisal process is to minimise adverse impacts and resolve as far as possible conflicting or contradictory outcomes of the plan or strategy.
Why carry out Sustainability Appraisals?The requirement to carry out Sustainability Appraisal came into force with the introduction of The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004). The Act brought fundamental changes to the planning system with the introduction of the Local Development Framework (LDF) and the Regional Spatial Strategy as the statutory development plan for local authority areas. In addition to the requirement to undertake Sustainability Appraisal, European Directive 2001/42/EC, which came into force in the UK on 21st July 2004, requires that local authorities undertake an ‘environmental assessment’ of any plans and programmes they prepare that are likely to have a significant effect upon the environment. This process is commonly referred to as ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment’ (SEA). The Sustainability Appraisal process meets the requirements of Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Who carries out Sustainability Appraisals?Sustainability Appraisals are carried out by Regional Planning Bodies and Local Planning Authorities.
What processes are carried out during Sustainability Appraisal?Sustainability Appraisal is an integral part of the preparation of new or revised Development Plan Documents and Supplementary Planning Documents. The initial stage of carrying out a Sustainability Appraisal involves identifying all relevant policies, plans and programmes, and sustainability objectives, and the collection of baseline data from a variety of disparate sources. Material identified as being relevant to the Sustainability Appraisal then, is a collection of documents and data that inform the study and enable the production of the Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report. Subsequent stages involve identifying issues, developing the Sustainability Appraisal framework, and consulting on the scope of the Sustainability Appraisal. The collection of such large numbers of documents and volumes of data can be a time consuming, and also a resource intensive, process. The main objective of the joint approach to Sustainability Appraisal is to simplify and make this process more efficient.