Sustainability Appraisal of the Sandwell Local Plan 2024-2041

Ended on the 11 November 2024

17 Monitoring

17.1 Context

17.1.1 Regulation 17 of the SEA Regulations states "The responsible authority shall monitor the significant environmental effects of the implementation of each plan or programme with the purpose of identifying unforeseen adverse effects at an early stage and being able to undertake appropriate remedial action".

17.1.2 The purpose of monitoring is to measure the environmental effects of the Plan as well as its success against its objectives. However, monitoring can place a heavy burden on financial and human resources, and it may therefore be practical to focus on monitoring residual adverse effects and to build on existing monitoring systems.

17.1.3 Monitoring the impacts of the Local Plan should seek to answer:

Was the likelihood of sustainability impacts identified in the SA process accurate?
Is the Local Plan successful in achieving its desired sustainability objectives?
Are mitigation measures performing as expected?
Are there any unforeseen adverse impacts of the Local Plan, and if so, are these within acceptable limits or is remedial action required?

17.2 Monitoring proposals

17.2.1 Monitoring proposals are set out in Table 17.1 for SMBC to consider in the implementation of the SLP.

Table 17.1: Proposals for monitoring adverse sustainability impacts of the SLP

Theme/ SEA Regulations	Indicator	Scale and frequency	Target
Air	Concentration of NO₂ and PM₁₀	Annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Air	Traffic flows on main roads	Bi-annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Air	Rates of public transport uptake	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Biodiversity, flora and fauna	Percentage of SSSIs in favourable condition	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Biodiversity, flora and fauna	Number of planning approvals granted contrary to the advice of Natural England or Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust	Annually, Plan area wide	Zero
Biodiversity, flora and fauna	Percentage loss of the ecological network	Annually, Plan area wide	Zero
Biodiversity, flora and fauna	Quality and extent of priority habitats	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Biodiversity, flora and fauna	Canopy cover within Sandwell	Every 3 to 4 years, Plan area wide	Increase
Climatic factors	CO₂ emissions per capita	Annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Climatic factors	Percentage of energy generated from renewable sources	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Climatic factors	Number of properties at risk of flooding	Annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Climatic factors	Extent of surface water flood risk within Sandwell	Annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Cultural heritage	Number of conservation area appraisals	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Cultural Heritage	Number of heritage assets identified as 'heritage at risk'	Annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Human health	Percentage of physically active adults	Bi-annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Human health	Number of GP surgeries	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Landscape	Quantity of development in sensitive landscapes	Annually, Plan area wide	Zero
Population and material assets	Number of affordable housing completions	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Population and material assets	Percentage of economically active residents	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Population and material assets	LSOAs in Sandwell within the 10% most deprived in Great Britain	Every 3 to 4 years, Plan area wide	Decrease
Population and material assets	Quantity of household waste sent to landfill	Annually, Plan area wide	Decrease
Soil	Number of dwellings built on PDL	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Soil	Area of contaminated land remediated	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Water	Number of planning permissions granted contrary to EA advice	Annually, Plan area wide	Zero
Water	Number of waterbodies classified as 'good' ecological status	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Water	Number of overflow events of untreated sewage discharges into rivers	Annually, Plan area wide	Zero
Water	Water efficiency in new homes	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase
Water	Water availability for extraction	Annually, Plan area wide	Increase

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