Sustainability Appraisal Overview

To view the sustainability appraisal, click here, or go to the Plan Documents page

Introduction

The purpose of this Sustainability Appraisal Report (incorporating the Strategic Environmental Assessment) is to provide an assessment of significant environmental, social and economic effects resulting from the policies and proposals of the Submission version of the Goring-on-Thames Parish Neighbourhood Plan.

The designated Neighbourhood Plan Area coincides with the parish boundary. The District Council issued a screening opinion requiring an SEA. GPC has met this obligation by preparing a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) under the Environmental Assessment of Plans & Programmes Regulations 2004.

The SA was consulted on for the statutory six-week period alongside the Pre-Submission Plan in October–December 2017 during the Regulation 14 consultation. The comments made on both documents were analysed and appropriate modifications made. In addition, AECOM was commissioned to provide independent advise on the SA and has confirmed that this SA report presents the required information in relation to:

“An appraisal of the Plan and reasonable alternatives” (Regulation (12(2));
“An outline of the reasons for selecting the alternatives dealt with" (Schedule 2(2)).

Sustainability context of Goring

Goring is located in the County of Oxfordshire and is 19 miles from Oxford, 10 miles from Didcot and 11 miles from Reading in Berkshire. Transport links include the Great Western Railway’s local stopping service to Oxford, Reading and London.

The village of Goring lies within one of the most protected landscapes in the country, located entirely within the Chilterns Area of Natural Beauty (AONB) and directly facing the North Wessex Downs AONB on the west bank of the River Thames. Goring’s location, at the point where the Thames flows through the narrow gap between the Chilterns and Berkshire Downs is in a natural valley containing a substantial amount of floodplain. Goring is joined with Streatley in Berkshire by an iconic bridge across the river. This location is both part of its charm and the reason for its protected status, but it is also a significant constraint to large amounts of new development. The whole area is known nationally as the Goring Gap and is a beautiful and biodiversity-rich locality.

AONBs are designated by the government to ensure that the special qualities of England’s finest landscapes are conserved and enhanced. In terms of planning policy, they have the same status as National Parks. Their legal framework is provided by statute which places a duty on relevant authorities (including Local Authorities) to ‘have regard to the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the AONB’ when ‘exercising or performing any functions in relation to, or so as to affect, land in an AONB.’ This includes the selection of new sites for development and the design and mitigation of these sites.

In addition to the clear guidance in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), there are many statutory policies to protect and conserve the AONB setting of Goring and its Conservation Areas. These are summarised in Section 3 of this SA and in more detail in Appendix A. They include the Chilterns AONB Management Plan, North Wessex Downs AONB Management Plan, saved policies from South Oxfordshire District Council’s Local Plan 2011 and Core Strategy 2012. The evidence and strategies behind the Emerging Local Plan 2033 have also been taken into account. The surroundings of AONBs are important to their landscape character and quality. Proposals that affect views into and out of an AONB need to be carefully assessed to ensure that they conserve and, if possible, enhance its natural beauty and landscape character.

Goring is a physically and socially integrated village located within the Chilterns AONB. However, there are differences in the way the geographic areas of the village and the specific parts of the AONB relate to each other, to the river Thames setting and to the North Wessex Downs AONB. There are five distinct landscape areas in the Goring parish, which each have different characteristics, but which together contribute to the unique landscape and visual amenity of the Goring Gap. To the south east of the village is open Chilterns escarpment and farmland; to the east is a grass hilltop overlooking Goring with wooded valleys beyond; to the north east is wooded countryside bordering the open countryside of the north with its rolling farmland and chalk hilltops with typically clean-cut crests; while the river on the western border is characterised by tree-lined meadow land. Each area is highly visible and contributes in its own way to the beauty of the integrated landscape and setting of the Chilterns AONB, the setting and character of the river Thames and the North Wessex Downs AONB. The unique role and function of each of these areas is explained in more detail below.

Most potential development sites for housing allocations will be on greenfield sites on the periphery of the village. They are likely to be highly visible over an extremely wide area. They must be carefully and sensitively selected to have the least damaging effect on landscape character and visual amenity and minimise harm to the wider environment and river setting.

The richness of Goring’s heritage is well demonstrated by the fact that it has an extensive archaeological record, contains two Conservation Areas and 29 listed buildings and structures. They, and other non-designated heritage assets, play a significant role in defining the appearance and character of the parish. Goring Conservation Area was designated in 1978 and extended in 1988; Gatehampton Conservation Area was designated in 1984.

At the Census in 2011 the population of Goring was 3,187. Assuming it has grown since then in line with the national average of 2.2%, the population at the time of this report is estimated to be over 3,250. The Census recorded 1,491 dwellings, concentrated in Goring itself, in Cleeve to the north and in Gatehampton to the south. About one in three of these are occupied by retired or semi-retired people, many of whom brought their young families to Goring during the 1960s and 1970s to occupy major new housing developments.

The Census shows that 31.7% of Goring residents were aged 65 or over, the highest percentage in South Oxfordshire and almost double the national average. In contrast, in 2011 there were 525 young people aged 0 to 15, which, at 16.5% is below the South Oxfordshire ratio of 19.2% and the ratio for England of 18.9%. This age profile has an important bearing on the social and economic sustainability of the village and on the housing need going forward.

Goring has a high percentage of large properties, 45% with four or more bedrooms. As a consequence, housing in Goring is expensive by UK and Oxfordshire standards, making it difficult for young people and lower-income groups to buy a property in the village.

The implications of these figures for the future balance of housing in the village are clear. There is a need for new dwellings that are lower in cost and smaller in size to widen the housing mix.

Plan Overview

While its unique location in and overlooked by two AONB's and its proximity to the river Thames places statutory and physical constraints on development, these constraints do not prevent all development.
The neighbourhood plan is required to take a balanced view which supports the strategic priorities of the Local Plan while at the same time giving great weight to conserving the landscape and scenic beauty of the AONB's, and in the case of Goring, steering development away from areas of flood risk.
The Plan has identified ALL available development sites where the harm to the AONB and potential flood risk can be mitigated sufficiently.
To support this, the Plan has commissioned expert analysis in areas of Landscape and Visual Impact, Biodiversity and Habitats and Flood Risk Management.
In addition, a Sustainability Appraisal "Health Check" was commissioned with AECOM using funding from Locality, to ensure that the SA meets its statutory obligations.
The Plan contains 19 policies for the use and development of the land in the parish of Goring in the Plan period up to 2033.
These policies, together with the policies of the Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will be used by SODC to help determine planning applications once the Plan is approved.
Although the Emerging Local Plan has not yet been adopted, the Plan has been informed by its reasoning and evidence base.
The Plan allocates four sites for housing development supporting approximately 94 new dwellings, 80% of which will be 1-3 bedroom properties and 40% will be affordable.
A total of 44 site-specific requirements have been defined across the four allocated sites to ensure that development of the sites is acceptable given the unique constraints in Goring. A document identifying the sources that supports the details of the site specific requirements can be found here.

The Vision for Goring

Goring must continue to be a friendly, open, vibrant and energetic village community that is able to evolve and develop whilst ensuring its beauty is maintained and enhanced in all areas for the benefit of the people who live and work in it.

Plan Objectives

To achieve this vision, the Plan has confirmed the fifteen Objectives shown below (click on the objective to show its text):

Sustainability Objectives

The Plan must contribute to the achievement of sustainable development to meet its basic conditions. The Sustainability Objectives shown below have been derived from the International, National and Local (INLO) policy context, the sustainability context of Goring and feedback from statutory consultees on the SA Scoping Report issued in March 2016. These 30 Sustainability Objectives are shown in the table below:

Consideration of reasonable alternatives

Consideration of reasonable alternatives is at the heart of the sustainability process. To achieve the Plan’s preferred alternative, a step-by-step process has been followed. Click here for more detail

Sustainability Vs Plan Policies

The Plan has fifteen objectives, nineteen policies (relating to land use) and ten actions (proposals and projects which are not related to land use but are important to the community and will contribute towards achievement of the Plan’s objectives and vision).

There is a strong correlation between the Plan’s policies and sustainability objectives. Click here for more details.

Summary

This SA is a mechanism for considering and communicating the likely effects of the emerging Neighbourhood Plan, and alternatives, with a view to avoiding and mitigating negative effects and maximising the positives. The SA Report should present an appraisal of ‘the Plan and reasonable alternatives’, in accordance with Article 5(1) of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive (EG/42/2001) and ‘tell the story’ of how consideration of reasonable alternatives occurred in a timely fashion and influenced finalisation of the Plan.

Extensive consultation took place with residents, local businesses, school governors and the Diocese, the medical centre, developers and landowners and relevant agencies such as SODC, the EA, CCB and OCC, and is explained in detail in the Plan Consultation Report. An analysis of relevant International, National and Local Obligations (INLO) was produced. A detailed appraisal of the sustainability context of Goring was carried out. This led to the production of a Sustainability Scoping Report which was sent out to statutory consultees for comment. The feedback from this consultation was fundamental input to refining the Sustainability Objectives for the Neighbourhood Plan. A reasonable range of alternatives and options were considered.

The SA Report explains a step-by-step ‘story’ of refining understanding of issues and options, the final step of which was identification of reasonable alternatives for housing development, specifically:

‘top-down’ consideration was given to a range of ten strategic issues and also five broad spatial areas surrounding the village;
‘bottom-up’ consideration was given to 14 site options, applying a systematic, objective, criteria-based methodology developed to reflect the Plan’s sustainability objectives. A site selection process was thoroughly and systematically followed including evidence provided by expert external consultancies. A detailed assessment of each potential development site was produced;
an analysis of how the spatial options relate to the Plan’s sustainability objectives;
drawing upon the above and in parallel, eight initial spatial options for housing growth were established and subjected to appraisal, two of the eight alternatives were selected as reasonable alternatives and one of these was assessed as the preferred option for the Neighbourhood Plan.

The outcome of this process is that four small to medium sites have been allocated for development. Site specific requirements have been identified covering areas such as housing density, design, flooding, biodiversity, heritage, landscape, access and parking.

In summary, because of Goring’s unique characteristics, there is an important balance to be achieved to maximise the benefit of new dwellings and the social and economic sustainability of the village whilst minimising harm to its natural environment, environmental sustainability and infrastructure. The Plan and SA explain in detail how this balance will be managed in the most sustainable way.

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