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Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report

What is the Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report?

We are preparing a new district wide Local Plan, which will set out the planning policies to guide the development and use of the land in the district up to 2031. Sustainability Appraisal is an integral part of the plan making process and the overall aim of this process is to help ensure that the Local Plan makes an effective contribution to the pursuit of 'sustainable development'.

The Sustainability Appraisal process provides opportunities for plans to be improved, by assessing the extent to which emerging policies and proposals will help to achieve 'sustainable development'. Also by understanding the potential adverse effects these emerging policies and proposals might create.

There are a number of stages involved in the Sustainability Appraisal process:

  • Stage 1: Scoping Report - this identifies issues of particular importance to the district that should be considered and provides the context for the Sustainability Appraisal undertaken at each of the stages in the plan making process.

  • Stage 2: Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report - this is undertaken alongside the Issues and Options stage plan. It makes and provides information and analysis of issues, details of how alternative approaches were identified (and why alternatives were not considered reasonable), and a comparison of the potential impacts of those alternatives approaches.

  • Stage 3: Draft Final Sustainability Appraisal Report - this is undertaken alongside the draft plan stage and will assess the draft policies and allocations selected for the final plan. It will consider the likely significant effects of the plan as a whole, how they can be mitigated or enhanced, and how impacts can be monitored. At this point the appraisal will identify reasons why an option was eliminated.

  • Stage 4: Monitoring - the results of regular monitoring of the sustainability appraisal objectives are published in the Annual Monitoring Report. They are used to helping indicate when a review of the plan is required.

Interim Sustainability Appraisal (January 2013)

This is a joint Sustainability Appraisal prepared with Cambridge City Council, which considers the impacts of the issues and options set out in the Issues and Options 2 (Part 1) Report, on the sustainability objectives identified in the individual Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Reports prepared by both Councils.

View the Interim Sustainability Appraisal report [PDF, 1MB] and its appendices.

Supplementary Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report (January 2013)

This Sustainability Appraisal considers the impacts of the proposals included in the Issues and Options 2 (Part 2) Report on the sustainability objectives identified in the South Cambridgeshire Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report. It also includes additional technical information to support the issues and options contained in the Issues and Options 2 (Part 2) Report. The report and its appendices are available to download:

We sought views on the Interim Sustainability Appraisal, and the Supplementary Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report as part of the public consultation on the Local Plan Issues and Options 2 Report, which was carried out between 7 January and 18 February 2013.

Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report (July 2012)

This Sustainability Appraisal considers the impacts of the proposals included in the Issues & Options Report on the sustainability objectives identified in the South Cambridgeshire Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report. It also includes additional technical information to support the issues and options contained in the Issues and Options Report. The report and its appendices are available to download:

Errata - We have noticed a number of errata in Annex 1 (Detailed Site Assessments) of the Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report. These relate to matters which should have been corrected before publication.

We sought views on the Initial Sustainability Appraisal Report as part of the public consultation on the Local Plan Issues and Options Report, which was carried out between 12 July and 28 September 2012.