LAA Cross Cutting Issues - Sustainability

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Sustainability

We have made specific reference to the UK’s Sustainable Development Strategy, ‘Securing the Future’, and the Regional Sustainable Development Framework and intend to review the whole submission against the Regional Sustainable Development Framework version. This will help to ensure it is effectively contributing to the achievement of a sustainable West Midlands.

In order to do this, we will apply the principles via a proofing exercise that is based on the ‘scoping template’ within the Framework and we will incorporate the findings in the development of the delivery arrangements for the LAA.

Central Government is proposing a Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 'Planning and Climate Change', (currently out for consultation) that sets out how planning, in providing for the new homes, jobs and infrastructure needed by communities, should help shape places with lower carbon emissions and be resilient to the climate change now accepted as inevitable. When finalised, the PPS will be published as a supplement to Planning Policy Statement 1: Delivering Sustainable Development (PPS1)

Local Planning Authorities have a central part to play in enabling local action on climate change - to focus, reinforce and clarify policy and emphasise the need to adapt to its impacts. In particular, it is proposed that be integrated with policy on all other planning issues;

include adaptation to the effects of climate change as well as mitigating its causes;
require trajectories for the expected carbon performance of new residential and commercial development to be produced;
require developments to be accessible by non-car means of transport;
preclude from consideration for development those sites that perform poorly in terms of climate change mitigation and/or adaptation.

The national guidance for the planning system on energy includes a strong emphasises on:

maximising the opportunities for decentralised energy supplies i.e. small scale/micro-generation (e.g. including domestic wind turbines);
Giving favourable consideration to renewable energy projects – even if they are for sites not allocated for development – without the need for them to be demonstrated;
avoiding policies that set stringent requirements for minimising the impact on landscape and townscape if they effectively prevent certain types of renewable energy;
requiring a significant proportion of the energy supply of ‘substantial developments’ to be generated on site or from a decentralised source.

Some of the implications of this are that both private and public sector alike will be faced with refusal of planning permission or the higher initial costs of, for example, producing trajectories for the expected carbon performance of their proposals and building-in facilities to secure a significant proportion of the energy supply required to be generated on site. Local authorities will, in addition, have the costs of obtaining the specialist advice on proposals and monitoring their impacts. The ‘costs’ of climate change policy will not be confined to the private sector (and its customers). Public sector bodies will have to factor-in the additional costs to capital projects to meet climate change policy requirements. At the same time, objectors to renewable energy proposals will find it difficult to base their cases for rejection on the lack of a site allocation, in-principle landscape or townscape arguments or the absence of a demonstrated need for the project.

The main impact of the RSS Review in this area will be in the area of municipal waste because of the higher levels of housing growth being addressed. The size and number of facilities required in Warwickshire will vary from 5 (@ 50k tonnes to none or just 1 @ 500k tonnes capacity, depending on the technology chosen.

In the Sub-Region, the Waste Disposal Authorities are already working together on the issue and the spatial strategy for provision of facilities in Warwickshire will be brought forward through the Warwickshire Waste Development Framework’s Core Strategy. Facilities for handling industrial and commercial waste are likely to range between 10-15 facilities operating at around 50,000 tonnes per annum or 3 large scale operations handling 250,000 tonnes per annum. For similar reasons as for municipal waste, new facilities for treating this industrial and commercial waste should be located in or close to the ‘Core Development Area’ – Nuneaton – Coventry – Warwick/Leamington and Rugby. Construction and demolition waste will continue to be managed largely on site and reused in the construction and development processes.