Legislation & Guidance

The RSPB has prepared guidance to assist regional and local authorities with the assessment of their spatial plans to ensure our most important wildlife sites are protected by the planning system. The guidance offers a practical approach to appropiate assessment as an integral part of plan preparation in England. This RSPB guide covers:- when AA is or is not required; what the AA should examine; the level of detail needed; using the results in the plan making process and differences and similarities between AA and other plan assessment i.e. SEA and SA. The guidance can be found here.

The ODPM has published full guidance for regional and local government on how to conduct sustainability appraisal (incorporating the requirements of SEA) of Regional Spatial Strategies and Local Development Documents. The publication of the full guidance in November 2005 follows publication of draft guidance for consultation (2004) and interim guidance in the form of frequently asked questions (April 2005). The full guidance can be accessed from here.

The ODPM have recently published a good practice guide on Local Development Framework Monitoring. This document will need to be considered when developing monitoring for the SEA of development plans.

The Scottish Executive has conducted a voluntary SEA of its Draft National Planning Framework in keeping with the commitment given to undertake SEA for all public sector plans, programmes and strategies in Scotland. The National Planning Framework Environmental Assessment Report summarises the voluntary SEA.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has published guidance for planning authorities on applying the SEA Directive to land use and spatial plans in England. The guidance is designed to be relevant to plans at both local and regional levels and to both the existing planning system and that proposed in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill. It also paves the way for the Sustainability Appraisals which are to be mandatory under the new arrangements; these will fully incorporate the SEA Directive's requirements. The guidance is available on the DCLG's environmental assessment webpage. 

The Scottish Executive has produced interim planning advice on Environmental Assessment of Development Plans that applies to development plans produced by Scottish local authorities. This can be found on the website of the Scottish Executive.

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has published a Guide to Sustainability Appraisal. This relatively short and readable guide presents a review of sustainability appraisal as a tool for integrating the concept of sustainable development into planning decisions. It is available from the website of the TCPA.

The devolved German state of Bavaria published recently non statutory guidance for the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of 'Bauleitplaene' (roughly equivalent to local land use plans) and 'Flaechennutzungsplane' (roughly equivalent to county level land use plans). First, it introduces aims and objectives of SEA process in general before turning to the SEA process of land use plans in Bavaria in particular. It also explains approaches to scoping, appropriate assessment and tiering. The suggested tiering arrangements avoid the re-evaluation of environmental effects which have been sufficiently dealt with on higher level land use plans, and hence aim to make the SEA process more resourceful.  The report illustrates the new SEA processes by giving three case studies for environmental reports of different types of developments: a proposed suburban residential area,  a new business park and for a updated 'Flaechennutzungsplan'. To download the full report in german please click here. 

Initiatives & Research

The South West Regional Assembly and certain local authorities in the region have collaborated to coordinate research to support the effective implementation of SEA in the South West of England. Phase 1 of the work investigated the availability of baseline data for SEA. Phase 2 involved pilot a review of the existing practice of SEA and case studies on SEAs and sustainability appraisals for various plans and programmes in the region. Information on this South West based project is available on the website of the South West Regional Assembly.