Archived decisions
APPENDIX 1
SOUTH HAMPSHIRE SUSTAINABILITY APPRAISAL CONCLUSIONS
1. Urban Capacity
Development within the urban areas will not in itself provide sufficient housing to meet PUSH strategy vision/objectives. Achieving strategy objectives will be dependent upon a combination of urban capacity, SDAs and urban extensions.
The implications of the re-use of urban land for housing will require careful planning having regard to sustainability issues such as the impacts on the transport network and flood risk etc.
2. SDAs
A more detailed assessment is required once the boundary of each SDA has been identified. Irrespective of the specific locations, past experience suggests that it will be a significant challenge to create and sustain vibrate communities where none have previously existed.
It will also take time to develop any SDAs (unlikely before 2016) . Alternative options (development on previously developed land and urban extensions) may be necessary before this date.
3. Urban Extensions
The absence of specific development locations has resulted in much of the assessment being caveated. A further assessment will need to be undertaken once specific development locations have been identified.
These options score particularly poorly compared with the other options on sustainable travel objectives. Although many urban extensions can be located within walking or cycling of key services and facilities, most are likely to be too small to create opportunities in modal shift from private to public transport. On the other hand, higher scales of development are likely to create a fragmented distribution pattern giving rise to increasingly complex travel patterns and more trips by car, for which public transport alternatives may not be viable.
Option C also performs less well generally since in spatial terms it would provide the least benefits to the western part of the sub-region as opposed to both options A and B.
4. Developing a Preferred Option
Many of the sustainability objectives can only be properly assessed when more information is available on the proposed locations. Even then, some can only be answered when detailed development proposals are known as they could have a major bearing on the outcome of the appraisal.
The development of a preferred option may ultimately depend on the relative weighting given to each of the objectives. A combination of urban capacity, SDAs and urban extensions provide an opportunity to secure a balanced phasing regime with development within the urban areas and urban extensions providing development opportunities up to 2016 with an increasing reliance on SDAs, linked through new or improved public transport corridors to existing urban areas for the period post 2016.
For all three types of location there are some aspects that have emerged from the appraisal that will require further consideration at the appropriate stage in the plan making process. These issues include:
Urban Areas
o The level of housing proposed in Southampton and Gosport is unlikely to match the future need arising from people living within them.
o Parts of Portsmouth, Southampton and other locations, notably Hayling Island will require enhanced flood defences in future years in response to the increasing risk of flooding as a consequence of sea level rise. The alternative option would be to develop a long term plan to secure the withdrawal of development activities (especially housing and business) from those areas most at risk of flooding.
o Further development within the towns and cities may threaten local biodiversity and put pressure on some facilities (e.g. open space).
o Further development will also put pressure on water resources and infrastructure unless efficiencies are made in both new development and the wider housing stock.
Strategic Development Areas
o The SDAs will require careful planning and implementation if the objective of creating sustainable communities is to be realised. Opportunities to be more water and energy efficient must be taken and behavioural change in travel patterns secured through appropriate and timely investment. The challenge to achieve social cohesion and integration should not be underestimated.
o The SDAs will also require careful planning to ensure that local biodiversity is enhanced and not lost as a consequence of development.
o The SDAs must be developed in tandem with a programme of urban renaissance to ensure that they complement rather than compete with established urban areas.
Urban Extensions
o Options A to C show a clear shift of emphasis from west to east. The distribution in Option A roughly matches the current population split between the eastern and western parts of the sub-region, whilst Option C places much greater emphasis on development in the east, particularly in two larger urban extensions. The change in emphasis would not only be housing but also employment related development, which are also planned for the larger urban extensions.
o The east-west distribution will also affect the amount and location of affordable housing provision. Some 1,500 affordable homes might be created in the western part of the sub-region and 2,250 in the east under option A, compared with 750 in the west and 3,000 in the east under option C.
o Because option C concentrates development in two very large urban extensions there will be a greater prospect of securing investment in public transport to serve them than is likely under the other two options.
o The total amount of housing proposed for Totton and the Waterside (through urban capacity and urban extensions) is unlikely to meet the future housing needs of people living within these areas under all three options. Option C would provide the greatest, and option A, the least shortfall. Annual completions would need to be in excess of 185 dwellings per annum to re-dress this issue (in comparison, Option A plus urban capacity provides 125 dwellings per annum and option C plus urban capacity just 75 dwellings per annum).
o Urban extensions will require careful planning at the LDF stage to ensure that local biodiversity is enhanced and not lost as a consequence of development.
The appraisal has been unable to show that urban extensions will support the renaissance of the two cities and older urban areas to the extent expected from the SDAs and urban capacity. The larger extensions are expected to offer new employment opportunities and could compete with both the SDAs and established areas unless managed. The proposed extension to Whiteley (common to all options) will, however, create an opportunity to develop a more sustainable community in this location.
In developing a preferred strategy it will be necessary to show how potentially adverse impacts identified in the SA proformas (or of sub-regional problems generally) will be mitigated. This will need to be tempered against how the future regional policy framework might be implemented in Hampshire in such a way that addresses the identified impact concerns (avoiding the need for mitigation).