Sustainability Appraisal

207 Pages·2014·7.99 MB·English

Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of
the Vale of White Horse District
Local Plan 2031 Part One

SA Report

October 2014
SA of the Vale of White Horse Local Plan 2031 Part 1

Revision schedule
Rev Date Details Prepared by Reviewed by Approved by
1 August 2014 Draft for client comment Anthony Whitaker, Nick Chisholm-Batten, Steve Smith,
Environmental Principal Consultant Technical Director
Planner
2 September Final SA Report Anthony Whitaker, Nick Chisholm-Batten, Steve Smith,
2014 Environmental
Principal Consultant Technical Director
Planner

Limitations

URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited (“URS”) has prepared this Report for the use of the Vale of White Horse
District Council (“the Client”) in accordance with the Agreement under which our services were performed. No other
warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to the professional advice included in this Report or any other services
provided by URS.
The conclusions and recommendations contained in this Report are based upon information provided by others and
upon the assumption that all relevant information has been provided by those parties from whom it has been requested
and that such information is accurate. Information obtained by URS has not been independently verified by URS,
unless otherwise stated in the Report.
The methodology adopted and the sources of information used by URS in providing its services are outlined in this
Report. The work described in this Report was undertaken in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and is based on the conditions
encountered and the information available during the said period of time. The scope of this Report and the services
are accordingly factually limited by these circumstances.
URS disclaim any undertaking or obligation to advise any person of any change in any matter affecting the Report,
which may come or be brought to URS’ attention after the date of the Report.
Certain statements made in the Report that are not historical facts may constitute estimates, projections or other
forward-looking statements and even though they are based on reasonable assumptions as of the date of the Report,
such forward-looking statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from the results predicted. URS specifically does not guarantee or warrant any estimate or projections
contained in this Report.
Copyright
© This Report is the copyright of URS Infrastructure & Environment UK Limited.
URS Infrastructure and Environment UK Limited
6-8 Greencoat Place
London, SW1P 1PL
Telephone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................................5
1 BACKGROUND.......................................................................................................................................6
2 THIS SA REPORT....................................................................................................................................7
PART 1: WHAT’S THE SCOPE OF THE SA?.....................................................................................................10
3 INTRODUCTION (TO PART 1)..............................................................................................................11
4 WHAT IS THE PLAN SEEKING TO ACHIEVE?...................................................................................12
5 WHAT’S THE SUSTAINABILITY ‘CONTEXT’?....................................................................................14
6 WHAT’S THE SUSTAINABILITY ‘BASELINE’?...................................................................................20
7 HOW WOULD THE BASELINE EVOLVE WITHOUT IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PLAN?..............33
8 WHAT ARE THE KEY ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES THAT SHOULD BE A FOCUS?........................35
PART 2: WHAT HAS PLAN-MAKING / SA INVOLVED UP TO THIS POINT?...................................................38
9 INTRODUCTION (TO PART 2)..............................................................................................................39
10 OVERVIEW OF PLAN-MAKING / SA WORK UNDERTAKEN TO DATE............................................39
11 HOUSING DELIVERY............................................................................................................................47
12 STRATEGIC SITES................................................................................................................................51
13 HARWELL OXFORD CAMPUS SITE OPTIONS..................................................................................58
14 SCIENCE VALE RING FENCE..............................................................................................................62
15 MEETING BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT NEEDS...........................................................................67
16 DIDCOT POWER STATION (DIDCOT A)..............................................................................................70
17 AFFORDABLE HOUSING.....................................................................................................................71
18 HOUSING DENSITY..............................................................................................................................73
19 HOUSING MIX........................................................................................................................................74
20 GYPSIES AND TRAVELLERS..............................................................................................................76
21 DEVELOPMENT TO SUPPORT THE VISITOR ECONOMY................................................................78
22 RETAILING AND OTHER MAIN TOWN CENTRE USES.....................................................................79
23 SUSTAINABLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION................................................................................81
24 THE HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT...........................................................................................................83
25 NEW EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT ON UNALLOCATED SITES..................................................84
26 CHANGE OF USE OF EXISTING EMPLOYMENT LAND AND PREMISES........................................87
27 BOTLEY CENTRAL AREA....................................................................................................................88
PART 3: WHAT ARE THE SA FINDINGS AT THIS STAGE?.............................................................................89
28 INTRODUCTION (TO PART 3)..............................................................................................................90
29 SA SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED SITE PACKAGE.......................................................................93
30 POLICY APPRAISAL...........................................................................................................................127
31 DRAFT PLAN APPRAISAL.................................................................................................................198

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32 CUMULATIVE EFFECTS.....................................................................................................................201
33 CONCLUSIONS AT THIS CURRENT STAGE....................................................................................203
PART 4: WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS (INCLUDING MONITORING)?.........................................................204
34 INTRODUCTION (TO PART 4)............................................................................................................205
35 PLAN FINALISATION AND ADOPTION.............................................................................................205
36 MONITORING......................................................................................................................................205

FIGURES

FIGURE 6.1: OVERALL DEPRIVATION IN THE VALE (IMD, 2010).....................................................................1
FIGURE 6.2: BARRIERS TO HOUSING AND SERVICES IN THE VALE (IMD, 2010).......................................22
FIGURE 6.3: DESIGNATED HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT ASSETS IN THE VALE OF WHITE HORSE
DISTRICT...............................................................................................................................................25
FIGURE 6.4: NATURE AND LANDSCAPE DESIGNATIONS IN THE VALE......................................................26
FIGURE 6.5: AGRICULTURAL LAND QUALITY ACROSS THE DISTRICT......................................................27
FIGURE 6.6: VALE OF WHITE HORSE LANDSCAPE TYPES...........................................................................28
FIGURE 6.7: AREAS ACROSS THE DISTRICT COVERED BY FLOOD ZONES 2 AND 3...............................29
FIGURE 6.8: ALL CAUSE MORTALITY RATE PER 100,000.............................................................................30
FIGURE 6.9: LIVING ENVIRONMENT DEPRIVATION (IMD, 2010)....................................................................31
FIGURE 12.1: SITE SELECTION PROCESS.......................................................................................................51
FIGURE 13.1: PLAN OF THE EIGHT SUB-PARCELS ASSESSED IN THE LVIA.............................................59
FIGURE 14.1: OPTION A: SCIENCE VALE RING-FENCE.................................................................................63
FIGURE 14.2: OPTION B CORE AREA RING FENCE........................................................................................64
FIGURE 14.3: OPTION C KEY SCIENCE VALE LOCATIONS RING-FENCE....................................................65
FIGURE 29.1: LPP1 PROPOSALS MAP..............................................................................................................92

TABLES

TABLE 2.1: QUESTIONS THAT MUST BE ANSWERED BY THE SA REPORT IN ORDER TO MEET
REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS..........................................................................................................8
TABLE 2.2: SCHEDULE 2 REQUIREMENTS AND WHERE THEY ARE MET IN THE REPORT........................9
TABLE 8.1: SA FRAMEWORK.............................................................................................................................35
TABLE10.1: LOCAL PLAN PART 1 STRATEGIC SITE ALLOCATIONS:.........................................................42
TABLE 10.2: HOUSING DELIVERY UPDATE STRATEGIC SITE ALLOCATIONS...........................................43
BOX .11.1: DIFFERING LEVELS OF ALTERNATIVES.......................................................................................47
TABLE 12.1: FEBRUARY 2013 LPP1 CONSULTATION DOCUMENT PROPOSED SITE PACKAGE............52
TABLE 30.1: LOCAL PLAN 2031 PART 1 POLICY LIST.................................................................................127
TABLE 31.1: LIKELY SIGNIFICANT EFFECTS OF THE DRAFT PLAN..........................................................198

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TABLE 32.1: KEY POTENTIAL NEGATIVE CUMULATIVE EFFECTS............................................................201
TABLE 33.1: IDENTIFIED SIGNIFICANT NEGATIVE EFFECTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES.................203
TABLE 36.1: MEASURES ENVISAGED CONCERNING MONITORING..........................................................205(cid:3)

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INTRODUCTION

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1 BACKGROUND
1.1.1 URS and Vale of White Horse District Council are working together to undertake Sustainability
Appraisal (SA) in support of the emerging Vale of White Horse Local Plan 2031 Part 1 (LPP1).
1.1.2 The Vale of White Horse Local Plan 2031 provides a policy framework for the delivery of
sustainable development across the District. It replaces the Local Plan 2011 and is made up of
a number of separate parts. The most significant include:
• Local Plan 2031 Part 1: Strategic Sites and Policies. The Local Plan 2031 Part 1 sets out the
spatial strategy and strategic policies for the District to deliver sustainable development. It
identifies the number of new homes and jobs to be provided in the area for the plan period
up to 2031. The Local Plan 2031 Part 1 sets out the spatial strategy for the location of
development across the District and allocates large-scale (referred to as strategic)
development sites. It includes District-wide policies to ensure that development contributes
to meeting the strategic objectives of the plan, such as policies relating to sustainable
construction and conservation of the built, historic and natural environment.
• Local Plan 2031 Part 2: Detailed Policies and Local Sites. The Local Plan 2031 Part 2 will
contain detailed planning policies to guide day-to-day decisions on planning applications.
The document will provide more detailed policies to those within Part 1 of the Local Plan
2031, and identify and allocate supplementary and predominantly smaller (referred to as
non-strategic) development sites.
• Science Vale Area Action Plan: A Joint Area Action Plan (AAP) is being prepared in
partnership with South Oxfordshire District Council and Oxfordshire County Council to set
out in more detail how the planned growth across the Science Vale Oxford area will be
effectively delivered and implemented.
• The council’s Local Development Scheme (LDS) sets out the timetable for preparing each
part of the Vale of White Horse Local Plan 2031 and is available on the council’s website.
1.2 SA explained
1.2.1 SA is a process for considering and communicating the likely environmental and sustainability
effects of a draft plan, and reasonable alternatives, with a particular emphasis on preventing,
reducing and as fully as possible offsetting any significant adverse effects on the environment
of implementing the plan. SA of the Local Plan is a legal requirement.1
1.2.2 It is a requirement that SA is undertaken in line with the procedures prescribed by the
Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004, which were
prepared in order to transpose into national law the European Union Strategic Environmental
Assessment (SEA) Directive.2
1.2.3 In line with the Regulations, a report (which we call the SA Report) must be published for
consultation alongside the draft plan that ‘identifies, describes and evaluates’ the likely
significant effects of implementing ‘the plan, and reasonable alternatives’.3 The report must
then be taken into account, alongside consultation responses, when finalising the plan.

1 Since provision was made through the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 it has been understood that local planning
authorities must carry out a process of Sustainability Appraisal alongside plan-making. The centrality of SA to Local Plan-making is
emphasised in the National Planning Policy Framework (2012). The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England)
Regulations 2012 require that an SA Report is published for consultation alongside the ‘Proposed Submission’ plan document.
2 Directive 2001/42/EC
3 Regulation 12(2)

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1.2.4 The Regulations prescribe the information that must be contained within the SA Report.
Essentially, the SA Report must answer the following four questions:
1. What’s the scope of the SA?
– The scope must be established subsequent to a review of the sustainability
context and baseline, and consultation with designated agencies.
2. What has Plan-making / SA involved up to this point?
– Preparation of the draft plan must have been informed by at least one earlier
plan-making / SA iteration at which point 'reasonable alternatives’ are appraised.
3. What are the SA findings at this stage?
– i.e. in relation to the draft plan.
4. What happens next (including monitoring)?
2 THIS SA REPORT
2.1.1 This document is the SA Report for the Vale of White Horse District Local Plan 2031 Part 1
and hence needs to answer all four of the questions listed above with a view to providing the
information required by the Regulations. Each of the four questions is answered in turn.

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Table 2.1: Questions that must be answered by the SA Report in order to meet Regulatory4 requirements
SA REPORT QUESTION IN LINE WITH SCHEDULE II… THE REPORT MUST INCLUDE…
What’s the plan • An outline of the contents, main objectives of the plan and
seeking to
relationship with other relevant plans and programmes
achieve?
• The relevant environmental protection objectives, established at
What’s the international or national level
sustainability • Any existing environmental problems which are relevant to the plan
‘context’? including those relating to any areas of a particular environmental
importance
What’s the • The relevant aspects of the current state of the environment and the
scope of the
likely evolution thereof without implementation of the plan
SA?
What’s the • The environmental characteristics of areas likely to be significantly
sustainability affected
‘baseline’?
• Any existing environmental problems which are relevant to the plan
including those relating to any areas of a particular environmental
importance
What are the
key issues &
• Key problems / issues and objectives that should be a focus of (i.e.
objectives that
provide a ‘framework’ for) appraisal
should be a
focus?
• Outline reasons for selecting the alternatives dealt with (and thus an
explanation of the ‘reasonableness’ of the approach)
What has plan-making / SA • The likely significant effects associated with alternatives
involved up to this point?
• Outline reasons for selecting the preferred approach in-light of
alternatives appraisal / a description of how environmental objectives
and considerations are reflected in the draft plan.
• The likely significant effects associated with the Final Draft
What are the appraisal
(Publication Version) Local Plan 2031 Nov 2014
findings at this current
stage? • The measures envisaged to prevent, reduce and offset any significant
adverse effects of implementing the draft plan
What happens next? • A description of the draft monitoring measures envisaged

2.1.2 N.B. The right-hand column of Table 2.1 does not quote directly from Schedule II of the
Regulations. Rather, it reflects a degree of interpretation. This interpretation is explained in
Appendix I of this report. For clarity, Table 2.2 shows where each of the requirements of
Schedule 2 of the Regulations are met within the report.

4 Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004

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Table 2.2: Schedule 2 Requirements and where they are met in the report
SEA Regulations Schedule 2 requirements Where requirements are met in the SA Report
Part 1 of this SA Report. An outline of the contents and
1. An outline of the contents and main objectives of the
main objectives of the plan can be found at Section 4. The
plan or programme, and of its relationship with other
relationship of the plan with other relevant plans and
relevant plans and programmes.
programmes can be found in Section 5.
2. The relevant aspects of the current state of the
The baseline is set out in Section 6 and the likely evolution
environment and the likely evolution thereof without
of the baseline is set out in Section 7.
implementation of the plan or programme.
3. The environmental characteristics of areas likely to be
Section 6.
significantly affected.
4. Any existing environmental problems which are relevant
to the plan or programme including, in particular, those
relating to any areas of a particular environmental
Section 6.
importance, such as areas designated pursuant to Council
Directive 79/409/EEC on the conservation of wild birds and
the Habitats Directive.
5. The environmental protection objectives, established at
international, Community or Member State level, which are Section 5 and 6; and taken into account in Part 2
relevant to the plan or programme and the way those (assessing the reasonable alternatives) and Part 3
objectives and any environmental considerations have (assessing the effects of the draft plan).
been taken into account during its preparation.
6. The likely significant effects on the environment,
including short, medium and long-term effects, permanent
and temporary effects, positive and negative effects, and Part 3 of the SA Report. The likely significant effects are
secondary, cumulative and synergistic effects, on issues set out in Section 30 (on a policy by policy basis) and 31
such as biodiversity; population; human health; fauna; (against the SA Framework). There is a specific
flora; soil; water; air; climatic factors; material assets; cumulative effects section in Section 32). Section 33 sets
cultural heritage, including architectural and archaeological out the conclusions of this SA Report.
heritage; landscape; and inter-relationships between the
above issues.
7. The measures envisaged to prevent, reduce and as fully
Mitigation is set out in the tables listed in Sections 29, 30,
as possible offset any significant adverse effects on the
31, 32 and 33.
environment of implementing the plan or programme.
8. An outline of the reasons for selecting the alternatives
dealt with, and a description of how the assessment was The ‘story’ of plan-making is set out in Part 2 of this SA
undertaken including any difficulties (such as technical Report, Sections 9 to 27. Detailed appraisal matrices are
deficiencies or lack of know-how) encountered in compiling located in Appendices 4 to 32.
the required information.
9. A description of the measures envisaged concerning
Section 36.
monitoring in accordance with regulation 17.
10. A non-technical summary of the information provided
See stand-alone non-technical summary
under paragraphs 1 to 9.

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