SEA IN THE CONTEXT OF LANDTUSE PLANNING

the Directive, only in connection with the following matters, i.e. defining responsibleauthorities, designing organisation to be consulted, setting time limits and arrangement forconsultation and information to the authorities and the public. Other guidance regarding theimplementation of SEA in England, as well as other parts of the UK, include ‘SEA andBiodiversity Guidance’ (English Nature et al 2004), SEA Good Practice Guidelines’(Environment Agency 2005), guidance on ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment and ClimateChange: Guidance for Practitioners' (Levett-Therivel Consultants et al 2004), and guidancefor strategic environmental assessment for transport plans and programmes: ‘StrategicEnvironmental Assessment – Core Guidance for Transport Plans and Programmes’ (DfT2005). In Scotland and Wales separate guidance on the SEA application has been preparedand published. Furthermore, the ODPM has published a guide on monitoring of localdevelopment frameworks (Local Development Framework Monitoring: A Good PracticeGuide. March 2005) which will need to be considered when developing monitoring for theSEA of development plans. 166.4.2 ResearchConsiderable research has been carried out in the UK on the application of SEA and relatedinstruments and UK-based authors have a high input to the international SEA literature(Fischer 2004). However, with regard to application of SEA in land use planning, moststudies focus on the application of Environmental or Sustainability appraisal, and casesdealing exclusively with the application of SEA (as defined in the EU directive or theproposed EU directive) have been thinner on the ground, some examples include Curran et al(1998), Russel (1999) and Therivel (1998). However some studies examining SEA applicationat the local authority level have been published since the introduction of the directive, e.g.Short et al (2004), Therivel and Walsh (2006).With regard to development research an extensive study conducted to support theeffective implementation of SEA was initiated and coordinated by the South West RegionalAssembly and certain local authorities in the region in collaboration. Phase 1 of the workinvestigated the availability of baseline data for SEA. Phase 2 included a review of the existingpractice of SEA and case studies on SEAs and sustainability appraisals for various plans andprogrammes in the region. The studies have resulted in two reports: ‘Implementing the SEADirective: Analysis of existing practice’ and ‘Implementing the SEA Directive: Five pilotstudies’. Some attempts have been made of carrying out integrated SEAs and SAs, prior tothe EC requirements. Those include: Rushmoor Borough Council's Local DevelopmentFramework (LDF), Dover and Sevenoaks councils' LDFs, East of England region's RegionalPlanning Guidance/RSS 14, West Sussex's Local Transport Plan and Tower Hamlets UDP.6.5 Pre-directive experience of SEA applicationPrior to the introduction of the EU directive 97/11/EC no legal requirements of SEAexisted. However, considerable experience has been assembled with so-called ‘SEA-typeassessment instruments’ in England as well as in other parts of the UK. Within the categoryof SEA-type assessment instruments a wide range of instruments have been applied andformally promoted at strategic decision-making levels (Levett-Therivel 2002). Whilst mostexperience has been accumulated in land use and transport planning, other sectors have alsoundertaken assessment that can be categorised as SEA related assessment. These includewaste and water management, energy and economic development planning, as well as16 The above publications were issued by the former department, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister(ODPM). ODPM became Communities and Local Government on 5 May 2006.85