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ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT - NON TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Background

(i) The Scottish Government is consolidating existing national planning policy into a single, shorter Scottish Planning Policy ( SPP). The consolidated SPP will set out a clearer, more concise statement of national planning policy. Duplication, advice and background text are being removed from the main body of existing policy documents, and policy is being significantly reworded to create a new style of planning policy. The SPP sets out planning policies on: economic development, town centres and retailing, housing, rural development, coastal planning, fish farming, historic environment, natural heritage, open space and physical activity, green belts, transport, renewable energy, flooding, waste, minerals, opencast coal and radio telecommunications.

(iii) The consolidation is not a review of national planning policy. Most policies that are set out within the existing SPP series are not being changed, merely rationalised and reworded to present them in a single, shorter document. However, during the consolidation process the opportunity was taken to make a small number of changes to existing policies.

(iii) Under the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Scottish Government is required to undertake a Strategic Environmental Assessment ( SEA) of its plans, programmes and strategies before they can be adopted. An SEA has therefore been undertaken of the draft SPP, focusing on the effects of proposed policy changes and of omissions.

(iv) The SEA focuses only on the substantive policy changes that have been proposed within the draft SPP. It does not examine the environmental effects of established policies. The key changes are as follows:

1. No separate section on skiing developments has been included in the draft SPP. Development plans will no longer be required to include specific policies on skiing development, although relevant authorities may choose to retain or include specific policies.

2. The requirement to classify the entire coast into one of the three types in the development plan has not been included, although the distinction between the types has been retained to act as a general guide to development on the coast.

3. National maximum parking standards applied to specific types and scales of development have not been included but the overall policy on using maximum parking standards has been retained.

4. The policy on new junctions on trunk roads and motorways has been amended to reflect the current policy position of Transport Scotland.

5. Policy on protection of prime quality agricultural land has been strengthened to clarify the circumstances in which development may be acceptable.

6. A new section on the Scottish Government's expectations for community engagement in the planning system has been included.

Approach to the SEA

(v) At the beginning of the SEA process, the environmental context for the SPP was defined. This included a review of relevant environmental objectives contained within wider environmental policy documents, and consideration of the current state of the Scottish environment.

(vi) This information formed part of the SEA scoping report, which was submitted to the SEA Gateway in January 2009. The scoping report also provided background information on the SPP, and explained the proposed assessment methodology and consultation timescale. The SEA Consultation Authorities commented on the scoping report, and agreed with the proposed approach to the assessment, including its focus only on substantive changes to the existing planning policies. Their comments helped to shape the approach to the next stage of the assessment.

(vii) As the assessment of the SPP progressed, the key proposed changes to policy were then tested against a set of SEA objectives that were defined on the basis of the SPP's environmental context. The assessment was initially undertaken using professional judgement to define the likely environmental effects of each of the proposed changes to the SPP. This was then strengthened and adjusted by exploring the baseline information and wider sources of evidence in more detail. The full findings from the assessment are set out in this Environmental Report and are summarised below.

Environmental context

(viii) Many wider plans and strategies set out strategic aims for Scotland's environment, forming an important context for the SPP:

• The Habitats and Birds Directives and Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004 primarily aim to avoid damaging habitats and species which have been designated for protection. The value of wider natural heritage resources is also recognised within the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.
• Relevant population and health objectives focus on reducing health problems arising from environmental pollution and promoting higher levels of physical activity, including active transport options.
• The Scottish Soil Framework provides an emerging policy commitment to addressing natural and man made pressures on soil quality
• The Water Framework Directive and the Water Environment and Water Services Act emphasise the importance of sustaining adequate water supplies and improving water quality. Emerging measures within the draft River Basin Management Plans provide a national perspective on where remedial action is required to achieve this. The Scottish Government is also in the process of preparing a Flood Risk Management Bill which, when finalised, has the potential to influence national planning policy.
• The European Air Quality Directives and UK's national air quality strategy aim to reduce air pollution, including greenhouse gases and other damaging emissions.
• The Scottish Government is currently in the process of preparing new legislation on climate change in Scotland. This is likely to set ambitious targets to reducing emissions. This is complemented by the emerging Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
• The Scottish Historic Environment Policy aims to ensure that the historic environment and cultural heritage assets are protected and enhanced where appropriate. Like those relating to biodiversity, policies for the historic environment extend beyond sites and buildings that have been formally designated for protection, recognising the value of wider townscapes and landscapes.
• Similarly, landscape objectives that have traditionally focused on the protection of designated areas (e.g. National Scenic Areas) have broadened to reflect the value of wider landscapes, partly in response to the approach promoted within the European Landscape Convention.

(ix) The SPP has a Scotland-wide focus and so nationally important environmental baseline characteristics form a relevant baseline for the SEA. The following key environmental problems are of particular relevance to the SPP:

• There is a growing need to tackle climate change through mitigation measures that primarily aim to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, and to address its impacts through appropriate adaptation measures
• There has been a long term decrease in the area of semi natural habitats in Scotland, and there is a continuing need to protect designated biodiversity sites, and enhance them where appropriate.
• There are continuing high levels of preventable disease arising from low levels of physical activity and continuing social and health inequalities which are at times linked with environmental pollution.
• Changing soil quality, functionality and stability are concerns, with issues arising from climate change, loss of organic matter, soil sealing and cultivation.
• Around 40% of Scotland's waterbodies are currently classified as being in less than 'good' ecological condition, requiring improvement to meet stated targets. Key problems include diffuse and point source pollution, abstraction and flow regulation and changes to morphology.
• Parts of Scotland are at significant risk of flooding, and this will be exacerbated by climate change in the long term.
• Some parts of Scotland have poor air quality, largely as a result of emissions from transport.
• There is continuing reliance on the car to travel to work and growing travel distance overall.
• There are continuing levels of vacant and derelict land particularly concentrated in west central Scotland that bring both challenges and opportunities for development.
• There are opportunities for mineral extraction throughout the country that require appropriate planning and management to mitigate any potential environmental effects.
• Scotland continues to generate increasing levels of waste, and there is a continuing need to reduce reliance on landfill sites. Whilst this has been offset to an extent by an increase in recycling and composting, it is not being sufficiently assisted by provision of appropriate waste management facilities.
• Many of Scotland's historic buildings, sites, areas and cultural landscapes are vulnerable to insensitive developments.
• There has been a loss of landscape diversity and distinctiveness in some areas, as a result of inappropriate development and land use change. In particular, urban edges and the landscape character of Lowland Scotland have been eroded by suburbanisation, intrusion and loss of distinguishing features.

(x) Together, these accepted policy objectives and ongoing environmental challenges provide a complex environmental framework within which the SEA of the SPP has been framed. Although planning may have a limited influence over many of these issues, the SEA of the SPP has provided an opportunity to explore the potential contribution of the planning system to this broader environmental context.

Likely significant environmental effects of the proposed changes to the SPP

(xi) The proposed changes to policy will generate no significant environmental effects. To confirm this, the assessment has explored the effects of key changes in detail:

• Removal of specific policy relating to skiing development could increase risks to upland biodiversity, water, and landscapes. The potential impacts are, however, addressed by broader policies in the draft SPP including those on natural heritage, landscape and transport. Whilst the change could also generate some minor adverse effects on climate change, climate change impacts are also likely to minimise the risk of any large scale skiing development occurring in Scotland in the long term.
• Removal of the requirement to classify the coast within development plans could raise issues for biodiversity and landscape, particularly in areas where environmental sensitivity coincides with the developed coast. As with skiing developments, the broader content of the draft SPP means that these effects are not expected to be significant.
• Changes to the policy which required that certain types and scales of development to comply with national maximum parking standards may generate some minor effects in relation to sustainable transport, air quality and consequently secondary risks to health. These are not expected to be significant, given the continuing requirement for locally defined standards within the SPP.
• Adjustment of the wording of the policy relating to new junctions and motorways raises minor issues in relation to sustainable transport, air quality and health. There is also potential for localised impacts on biodiversity, soil, water, landscape and cultural heritage. However, mitigation of these impacts should be largely deliverable at the project level, as a result of existing environmental regulatory and consenting regimes.
• Strengthening of policy on prime agricultural land to indicate the circumstances under which its development may be acceptable should generate positive effects for biodiversity, landscape, cultural heritage, water and soils. This may also help to achieve more sustainable management of land and resources and will complement the emerging soil and climate change policy agendas.
• Finally, the inclusion of an additional paragraph on community engagement in planning provides obvious potential benefits for population and health, and should also complement wider aspirations for greater inclusion in environmental management.

(xii) The assessment also explored the potential for cumulative effects arising from the combined changes to the draft SPP. No significant cumulative effects were identified, but issues were raised around achieving a shift to more sustainable modes of transport, and combined negative effects on air quality. Some synergistic effects were also explored, including links between biodiversity, coastal management and climate change. However, these were not considered to be significant in light of the wider content of the draft SPP and in particular the retained coastal planning policies. The possibility of localised synergistic effects arising from the construction of road junctions was noted, but it was expected that in most cases these could be mitigated at the project level, and they were not therefore predicted to be significant when considered from a national perspective.

(xiii) The assessment did not identify any specific requirements for environmental mitigation, given that no significant effects had been identified. Although it was acknowledged that the SPP as a whole would be subjected to regular monitoring, the SEA did not define any specific areas of concern that would merit any additional detailed evaluation in addition to the regular review of the SPP as a whole.

(xiv) Consultation is an important part of the SEA process. Consultees are now invited to comment on this Environmental Report, and to express their views on the draft SPP, taking into account the environmental information provided by the SEA.

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