The Sustainability Appraisal incorporates the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and has been carried out by Environmental Resource Management. It provides an independent appraisal of the likely implications of proposals and policies as they are developed.

To assist in the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) process, the Assembly established a Sustainability Appraisal Sounding Board. The Board offered advice to the Assembly throughout the process and ensured input from outside the Assembly which provided greater legitimacy to the process.

A non-technical summary of the Sustainability Appraisal Report was submitted to Government along with the draft South East Plan. This version builds on earlier drafts of the report.
Non-Technical Summary - 474 KB
Sustainability Appraisal Report (March 2006) - 854 KB

Supporting Annexes

Annex A - Review of Regional and National Strategies - 320 KB
Annex B - Review of Baseline Data - 3,874 KB
Annex C - Detailed Sustainability Appraisal of the Preferred Spatial Strategy - 149 KB
Annex D - Detailed Sustainability Appraisal of the Regional Policy Framework - 342 KB
Annex E - Detailed Sustainability Appraisal of the Sub-regional Policy Framework - 1,641 KB
Annex F - Summary of recommendations and actions taken (the detailed audit trail) - 156 KB
Annex G - List of all Recommendations/Mitigation Measures - 104 KB
Annex H - Quality Assurance Checklist - 80 KB
Annex I - Glossary - 75 KB
Annex J - Responses to Issues Raised in Public Consultation - 78 KB
Annex K - Members of the Sustainability Sounding Board - 63 KB
Annex L - Analysis of Potential Cumulative Impacts - 156 KB

Scoping Report

The consultants commissioned to undertake the SA produced a Scoping Report that sets out the scope of the Sustainability Appraisal.
Scoping Report - Working Draft (October 2004) - 3.88 MB

Compliance

To assist the Assembly in carrying out the SA, consultants were commissioned in spring 2004 to provide guidance on what is required to comply with the SEA directive and Government's Planning Policy Statement 11.
Guide to SA/SEA of the South East Plan - 561 KB

Sustainability Appraisal of Implementation Plan

A key recommendation of the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of the draft South East Plan was that an independent SA of the draft Implementation Plan (March 2006) should be undertaken. This was completed in August 2006. This SA has informed the further development of "Delivering the South East Plan" (the revised Implementation Plan - October 2006). This revised Implementation Plan has also been appraised. An audit of how the recommendations arising from the SA of the original Implementation Plan have been incorporated into this revised Plan is included below as annex B.
Final Sustainability Appraisal of Implementation Plan (October 2006) - 344 KB
Annex A (Detailed Appraisal Matrix) - 139 KB
Annex B ( Audit Trail) - 103 KB
Annex C (Cross-Cutting Policies Audit) - 192 KB

Initial Sustainability Appraisal of draft Implementation Plan - 324 KB