Sustainability appraisal

Sustainability appraisal (SA) is a statutory process that assesses the effects of plans and strategies against a range of economic, social and environmental considerations. Carrying out SA allows us to:

• Consider how a plan contributes to improvements in environmental, social and economic conditions
• Identify any significant adverse effects that a plan might have
• Amend proposals in a plan to avoid any significant adverse effects
• Propose mitigation measures to counter any remaining significant adverse effects

In this way, SA can help make sure that a plan’s proposals are the most appropriate given the reasonable alternatives. The SA for SAMDev can be downloaded below from the related documents section of this page.

Habitat regulations assessment

The purpose of an HRA is to ensure that the proposals from any plan or project, or the cumulative effect of a number of plans or projects, won't adversely affect the integrity of internationally designated wildlife sites. It's a legal requirement for local authorities to prepare an HRA for plans and projects that have the potential to impact on habitats of European importance. The HRA document for SAMDev can be found under the related documents on this page.

Please note that we've recently been advised that the ‘Petroleum Exploration and Development’ licence areas shown as part of our core strategy and SAMDev policies maps are now out of date. However, the ‘Mineral safeguarding areas interactive map’ above has been updated to accurately reflect the current situation, and a national map of currently licensed areas is available from the government’s Oil and Gas Authority webpages.