Sustainability appraisals

Introduction

It's vital that all environmental, economic and social considerations are at heart of the new Local Plan. To make sure this happens, we apply the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) to everything we do. These assessment tools allow us to consider environmental issues in our plans, policies and projects. They're a method for checking our 'green' performance, and monitoring the impact of development on our surroundings.  This page includes the documents that helped inform the adopted Local Plan.  The Local Plan is being updated and a new evidence base prepared.

Sustainability Appraisal of the Hastings Planning Strategy Main Modifications

The Sustainability Appraisal of Main Modifications provides a supplement to the Final Sustainability Appraisal Report submitted alongside the Hastings Planning Strategy in October 2012. This supplementary report is required to ensure that the potential social, environmental and economic effects of the proposed Main Modifications are fully assessed for significant sustainability impacts, and reported on as part of the plan making process.

• Sustainability Appraisal of the Hastings Planning Strategy Main Modifications

Final Sustainability Appraisal of the Hastings Planning Strategy

The final Sustainability Appraisal report presents the appraisal of the Councils 'preferred plan approach' as set out in the Proposed Submission Planning Strategy, and provides the reader with a better understanding of why this approach has been selected.

• Final Sustainability Appraisal report of the Hastings Planning Strategy (May 2012) (.pdf 2113KB)

Sustainability Appraisal of Core Strategy Issues and Option and Preferred Approaches

This Sustainability Appraisal was consulted upon between 27 May and 09 July 2008. It preceded the Final Sustainability Appraisal Report, and identified key sustainability issues for Hastings, discusses the appraisal of options considered and sets out what mitigation measures should be incorporated in taking forward the Core Strategy (now called The Planning Strategy), Preferred Approaches.

Please note since it was originally published in May 2008, minor errors have been identified on pages 9, 10 and 11 of the non technical summary and missing colour on pages 81-83 of the main Sustainability Appraisal document. These have now been corrected and amended pages are available to download of the main document, however, if you obtained the Non-Technical Summary before 27 November 2009, please contact us and we will replace the affected pages.

This full document has been split into sections of a size suitable for downloading. A non-technical summary is also available.

• Contents 
• Summary and Outcomes
• Appraisal Methodology
• Background 
• Stage A - Sustainability Objectives, Baseline and Context 
• Developing the Core Strategy Options
• Preferred Approaches
• Implementation 
• Appendix A - Plans, Policies, Programmes and Sustainability Objectives 
• Appendix B - Baseline Review 
• Appendix C - The Sustainability Appraisal Framework
• Appendix D - Detailed Assessment of Core Strategy Issues and Options Objectives and Sustainability Objectives 
• Appendix E - Appraisal of the Core Strategy Issues and Options
• Appendix F - Additional approaches appraised in the development of the Preferred Options
• Appendix G - Core Strategy Preferred Approaches 
• Appendix H - Appraisal of the Core Strategy Preferred Options 
• Sustainability Appraisal amended pages
• Hastings Local Development Framework Core Strategy Preferred Approaches - Non-Technical Summary 

Development Management Plan Sustainability Appraisal of the Inspector's Preliminary Findings

Further to receipt of the Inspectors Preliminary Findings and his proposed Main Modifications to the Development Management Plan (DMP) the Council undertook a proportionate Sustainability Assessment (SA) of these proposals.

• Development Management Plan Sustainability Appraisal of the Inspector's Preliminary Findings (ID9) Inspectors Proposed Main Modifications (MM1-MM9)

The Sustainability Appraisal of the Development Management Plan

The Sustainability Appraisal of the Development Management Plan (DM Plan) was undertaken to consider the impacts of the emerging Plan, consider alternatives and possible mitigation measures that could be applied to ensure sustainability impacts of the Plan could be addressed. This was prepared to support the Proposed Submission version of the Development Management Plan published in January 2013.

• Sustainability Appraisal full report
• Sustainability Appraisal non-technical summary

Supplementary Sustainability Appraisal of the Development Management Plan

The Sustainability Appraisal of the Revised Proposed Submission Development Management Plan provides a supplement to the Sustainability Appraisal of the Development Management Plan, published in November 2012. The revised document focuses on the changes to the Development Management Plan only, rather than being a complete appraisal of the entire revised Plan.

This supplementary report was undertaken to ensure that the potential social, environmental and economic effects of the significant changes in the Revised Proposed Submission Development Management Plan were fully assessed for significant sustainability impacts, and reported.

• Sustainability Appraisal of the Revised Submission Development Management Plan incorporating non-technical summary 

Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report

This scoping report sets out the key sustainability issues that need to be taken into account in the preparation of the new Local Plan. It forms the initial scope of the Sustainability Appraisal for the whole of the town.

• Revised Scoping Report 
• Scoping Report background paper 1 
• Scoping Report background paper 2 

Habitats Regulations Assessment

We are required under the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC to prepare an Appropriate Assessment (AA) to support Local Plan documents. The  documents below assessed the likely impacts of development set out in the Hastings Planning Strategy and Development Management Plan on the integrity of the Hastings Cliffs Special Area of Conservation (SAC) or the Pevensey Levels Ramsar site, both internationally designated areas.

The first stage of the Appropriate Assessment process was undertaken in May 2008:

• Appropriate Assessment Consultation version
• Appropriate Assessment: Figure 1 
• Appropriate Assessment: Figure 2 

Following consultation with statutory organisations on this document, further research was done to assess the 'in-combination' impact on the European Sites and site traffic impact for Ashdown Forest:

• Appropriate Assessment (March 2010) main document including Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Supplementary Habitat Regulation Assessment for Ashdown Forest (March 2012)

A screening report was undertaken in 2014 to support the Development Management Plan. This screening report determined that the Plan policies, either in isolation or in combination (including with other plans and policies) were not likely to result in significant adverse effects on the European sites, and as such, a more detailed Stage 2 HRA was not considered necessary.