Sustainability Appraisal
As part of the production of the Management Plan, the Authority undertook a Sustainability Appraisal incorporating the requirements under the European Directive on Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and consideration of the equalities agenda.
A scoping report which set out the baseline, key issues and how the Sustainability Appraisal would be carried out was produced and consulted on in November 2012. This was subsequently updated in light of responses from the consultation.
A Sustainability Appraisal was carried out on strategic options and the draft Ambitions and Priorities of the Management Plan as part of its production. A draft report identifying the significant effects and proposed mitigation measures was published alongside the draft Management Plan for consultation.
Following consultation a number of changes were made to the Management Plan and these are detailed in the final Sustainability Appraisal.
The Sustainability Appraisal was designed to fulfill the requirements of Equality assessment - it has a specific objective on inclusiveness 'To promote inclusiveness and participation and take account of the needs of all sectors of the community in understanding and enjoying the special qualities of the National Park'. Overall, it can be seen that the Management Plan is positive in relation to the sustainability objectives, scoring either strongly positive or positive in the majority of cases.