Draft Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report
To support the development of the new Local Plan, the Council is required by law to undertake a Sustainability Appraisal (SA). The SA is an integral part of the plan making process and from the outset; it must consider ways by which the plan can contribute to improvements in environmental, social and economic conditions as well as a means of identifying and mitigating any potential adverse effects that the plan might otherwise have.
The first stage in the SA process is to produce a SA Scoping Report. A previous scoping report was consulted upon and published in 2020/2021 alongside our Direction of Travel Consultation. However, we have now updated our SA Scoping Report to ensure it accounts for recent plans, policies and programmes, the most up-to-date baseline information, as well as considering sustainability issues and updating our SA Framework accordingly.
This is a focused consultation on our SA Scoping report only and we are asking for Statutory Consultees, colleagues from neighbouring authorities and other relevant organisations, as well as our communities to take part in the SA Scoping Report consultation.
The Consultation on the SA Scoping Report will run from 26th June 2023 to 05.00pm on the 7th August 2023. Whether you have comments on the Plans, policies and programmes, the baseline data, the sustainability issues and objectives or the sustainability framework or methodology, we would like to hear from you.
This is your opportunity to feed into the SA process for the new Wealden Local Plan.
Comments are welcome on the content of the report and interested parties are asked to consider in particular:
- Are there any plans, policies and programmes set out in Appendix 1 that have not been included, which are considered relevant to the sustainability appraisal of the Local Plan?
- Are there any sources of baseline data, which have been omitted or need to be updated?
- Are the Sustainability Issues and Objectives suitable and relevant to the district? Do any of the sustainability issues and objectives need to be added to or amended? If so, why?
- Are the objectives and indicators set out in the SA Framework appropriate?
- Is the sustainability appraisal methodology suitable? Is the methodology clear and complete?
To make any comments and to view the documents please use our consultation portal. An electronic comments form is also available using the consultation portal link above. A paper copy of the comments form can be collected from the Council offices where a hard copy of the Draft SA Scoping Report can also be viewed. Please return the comments form to planningpolicy@wealden.gov.uk or by post to Wealden District Council Offices, Vicarage Lane, Hailsham, BN27 2AX. Please note that we will not acknowledge forms received by post.
If you are having issues accessing or commenting on our Draft SA Scoping Report consultation then please contact us on 01892 602008 or email us at planningpolicy@wealden.gov.uk
Future communication with you
In line with government guidance, the Council’s preferred method to communicate in relation to planning policy updates and consultations is electronically. This is the most efficient way of ensuring that we can get in touch to notify you of local plan consultations. If you currently receive local plan communications via the post and you have an email address, please log into our consultation portal and update your preferences to be notified by email.
If you do not state a preference and we hold an email address for you, we will contact you by email only. Please also ensure that we have the correct details for you. If you no longer wish to receive future notifications or you would like assistance with updating the details and preferences that we hold, then please contact us.
If you are having issues accessing or commenting on our Draft SA Scoping Report consultation, or need any help or information then please contact the Planning Policy team on 01892 602008 or email planningpolicy@wealden.gov.uk