Core Strategy DPD
Habitats Regulations Assessment
In preparing the Core Strategy, the Council has undertaken a Habitats Regulations Assessment to ensure that the plan does not lead to adverse effects on the ecological integrity of internationally important habitats or species within or close to the District. The European Sites considered were: The South Pennine Moors Special Area of Conservation (SAC), the South Pennine Moors Special Protection Area (SPA) and the North Pennine Moors SAC and North Pennine Moors SPA.
The Assessment identifies a range of potential impact pathways and further work has been carried out in relation to recreational impacts and the potential for loss of supporting feeding sites to development. The earlier Report, May 2013, made a variety of recommendations and identified changes that needed to be made to the emerging Core Strategy Publication Draft, in particular to the overall distribution of housing and policy content of the plan.
The full Habitats Regulations Assessment Report, February 2014, sets out the outputs of the habitat and bird surveys in relation to settlements that lie close to the South Pennine Moors SPA and SAC, identifies changes that have been made and makes further recommendations.
A review (November 2015) of the HRA has been undertaken by the Council and its consultants in consultation with key stakeholders, in particular Natural England. The review sought to address several issues raised as part of the examination of the Core Strategy. The major element was technical review work focussing on the interpretation of bird data gathered during earlier survey work.
This review (November 2015) is assesses the Proposed Main Modifications to the Core Strategy Publication draft.