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Sustainability appraisal toolkit
Background to the sustainability appraisal toolkit
Corporate Development Unit - July 2006
nick.howe@kirklees.gov.uk
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a process of identifying and evaluating the environmental impacts of a
plan or programme and integrating these considerations into the preparation stages. Sustainability Appraisal (SA)
extends the concept of SEA to include economic and social concerns.
The Government's approach is to incorporate the requirements of the SEA Directive into a wider SA process. The
council has developed a single corporate framework that combines SA and SEA into one overall appraisal method
(referred to as SA for simplicity on the rest of this page).
The aim of SA is to make sure plans are doing as much as they can to support the delivery of social, economic
and environmental objectives. Although plan makers do their best to address these issues, it is easy to miss
opportunities to incorporate the various factors and reduce any conflict which may arise. SA offers a systematic
way for checking and improving plans as they are developed. The process provides a mechanism to identify ways to
maximise the benefits and minimise the dis-benefits through a series of trade offs and mitigation taking the above
factors into account.
Apart from the obvious benefits to the environment, SA also provides officers and members with a transparent
evidential base for plans or programmes requiring a formal decision. Although sustainability issues and options
to how a plan should be delivered will have been considered, elected members who will ultimately take the formal
decisions often have little knowledge or the opportunity to comment before they are formally agreed. SA provides
an opportunity to see how the options were developed and what the effects are likely to be at the same stage as
the plan or programme is formally approved. This will ensure elected members have a clearer understanding of the
plan or programme and a greater evidential base when taking decisions.
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