Strategic Environmental Assessment at Falkirk Council

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Strategic Environmental Assessment at Falkirk
Council
Presentation by Naomi Sandilands
Falkirk Council Development Services
4th November 2004
Falkirk CouncilStrategic Services
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Introduction

• Falkirk has completed 2 SEAs for planning
  documents
• Explain what we did when to comply with the SEA
  Directive
• Share experience and draw conclusions/reflect on
  our methodology
• Planning officer in development plan team,
  however, limited contribution to policy
  formulation, therefore relatively independent of
  plan process
• Working in same team means ability to easily
  track changes to Plan
• Set the spatial, environmental and planning
  context

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Spatial Context

• Central location within Central Belt of Scotland
• Industrial past
• Network of settlements
• Social and economic indicators average for
  Scotland

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Environmental Context

• Firth of Forth
• Slamannan Plateau and Denny Hills
• River Carron and River Avon
• Mix of environments

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Planning Context

• Two-tier development plan framework
• Prior to re-organisation Regional Structure Plan
  and 8 area Local Plans
• Falkirk Council Structure Plan with EA, approved
  June 2002
• Consolidate into a single Council Wide Local Plan
• Structure chosen was area wide policies and 8
  mini local plans
• During Council Wide Local Plan decided to Alter
  Structure Plan
• Both Council Wide Local Plan and Structure Plan
  Alteration would require SEA

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5 General SEA Requirements
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General SEA requirements cont.
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Report Requirements
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Environmental Indicators

• Derived from Structure Plans Environmental
  Appraisal
• Covers Directive Annex I(f)
• Just environmental not social or economic
• 10 Environmental objectives stock environmental
  criteria
• Accompanied with a series of objectives, targets
  and questions

• Land and Soil Quality
• Natural Resources minerals conservation and
  waste minimisation
• Landscape, Open Land, Open Space and Access
• Quality and Livability of Settlements
• Cultural Heritage

• Transport Energy Efficiency
• Built Environment energy efficiency/renewable
  energy
• Biodiversity
• Air Quality
• Water Quality/ Flooding

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Using Proformas Matrices

• Method to record the detailed assessment of all
  proposals and policies contained in the plan
  against all the environmental objectives in
  transparent way
• Benefits summarises all the info, user friendly,
  recorded in same format, cross-references
• But laborious tick-boxing exercise

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Using Symbols in Matrices

• Crudeness of symbols Simpler the better, but
  many mixed impacts.
• Danger of appearing more scientific than it is
• Consistency of symbol application, rules

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SEA proforma area wide policies
POLICY OBJECTIVE AREA As listed in the Plan index
KEY GUIDANCE Identification of key
documents/policies for scoping/screening in this
policy area NPPGs, legislation, structure plan
policies etc. 
STRUCTURE PLAN EA TARGET AREAS Identification of
key scoping concerns relevant to this policy area
POLICY APPROACH DESCRIPTION Brief description of
overall policy approach with cross reference to
Structure Plan and other relevant documents that
have shaped policy approach.
POLICY OPTIONS/ALTERNATIVES CONSIDERED Indication
of the extent to which there were alternative
approaches available, and if so, what these were.
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Policy proforma matrix
SUMMARY OF IMPACT cumulative environmental
impact of group of policies
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SEA proforma settlement assessment proposals
SETTLEMENT Settlement or group of settlements
being assessed
STRUCTURE PLAN CONTEXT Identification of
structure plan context to settlement
development   
SETTLEMENT APPROACH DESCRIPTION Brief description
of overall policy approach to settlement
development with cross reference to structure
plan and other relevant documents that have
shaped policy approach.
SETTLEMENT POLICY OPTIONS / ALTERNATIVES
CONSIDERED Indication of the extent to which
there were alternative approaches available, and
if so, what these were, and why the selected
option was chosen.
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Proposal Matrix
SUMMARY OF IMPACT cumulative environmental
impact of development proposals for the
settlement.
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Proformas Environmental Objectives

• Averaging the matrix score to summarise overall
  impact as negative, positive or neutral etc is
  not very scientific. Importance of commentary.
• Environmental stock criteria - improvements
  clearer questions, update targets, Scot. Exec.
  interim guidance recommended 18.
• Overlapping issues e.g travel/air quality/energy
  consumption. Avoid duplication.
• More explicit re human health?
• Keep the scope and level of detail relevant to
  the plan being assessed

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Scrutiny Groups

• Objective scrutinise and assess matrices, form
  consensus view through discussion
• Team of internal environmental specialists and
  area planning officers
• LP completed matrices discussed by scrutiny team
  
• SP each officer individually completed matrices
  (easier to see where discrepancies of view occur)
  before meeting
• Questions
• Agree with matrix? Any impacts missed?
• Any problems with implementation?
• What are the critical success factors?
• Recommendations to the wording to increase
  robustness and environmental protection?

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Improvements to Scrutiny Groups

• Whole group needs same understanding of the
  policy, proposal and of objectives/criteria
• Everyone has own assumptions
• Perception - where officers priorities lie
• Varying background knowledge of sites and
  application of policies.
• Pre-meeting briefing good idea to clarify above
  issues.
• Scrutiny group increases opportunity for a
  variety of staff to get involved in the
  development plan process

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Reflections on Assessment Process

• Relative vs. absolute values
• methodology is based on assessing the absolute
  impacts, not on a comparative analysis of
  impactsPositive does not mean less negative.
• However, on absolute terms, most development will
  have a potential negative impact. How
  constructive is this?
• E.g. landfill proposal - Forth Valley Area Waste
  Plan recommended to safeguard area for landfill
  expansion obvious environmental impacts,
  constructive to compare to other sites, not just
  assess on its own merits?

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Other Issues

• Alternatives
• most proposals are committed
• policies have little scope to change due to
  national guidance
• potential to confuse if too many options are
  presented
• could extend the alternatives to core of SEA by
  incorporating all site assessments
• alternatives have to be credible, not for the
  sake of it
• Mitigation
• mechanism showing commitment to implementing
  mitigation measures?

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Personal Reflections

• Its early days - watch this space
• Need to manage process to add value
• Is not that new - reuse and recycle
• Need clear rules for completing the matrices
• Keep matrix assessment score simple
• Continuous process - e.g remember there is a
  public inquiry at the end

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Personal Reflections

• The need to have Alternatives is likely to have
  the biggest impact
• If use consultants - best on focused sub tasks
• It has made a difference - SEA increases the
  mitigation/compensation agenda
• ER useful reference tool

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SEA Timetable for the Local Plan
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SEA Timetable cont.