14 Consultation and next steps

14 Consultation and next steps

A key part of the SA process is consultation. The draft scoping report will be subject to consultation with the statutory consultation bodies (Natural England, Historic England and the Environment Agency) for a 5-week period. Comments received will be reviewed and the scope of the assessment revised accordingly.

The next stage of the SA process will be preparation of an interim SA report.  This will document the assessment of the new Local Plan and will involve appraising any reasonable alternatives to the spatial strategy, policies and allocations. All reasonable alternatives will undergo a high-level sustainability appraisal using the objectives identified within this scoping report.

Consultation will be undertaken on the interim SA report and the findings will be integrated into the Local Plan and SA report, as part of an iterative process.  Once the spatial strategy, policies and allocations have been revised, they SA process will be re-visited to assess the sustainability effects of the update policies and allocations.  There will be consultation with members of the public and statutory consultees at each stage.