As a coastal city, and the largest urban area in Hampshire, Southampton faces competing environmental, economic and social pressures.
To help shape the future development of the city, Southampton City Council decided to create a local development strategy which would provide a sustainable structure for planning up to 2026.
The supporting research for the plan had two key elements: a sustainability appraisal (including a strategic environmental assessment), which involved a thorough analysis of the economic, social and environmental issues facing a large coastal city, and a habitats regulations assessment (HRA) which addressed coastal and marine challenges.
As lead consultant, Halcrow delivered approximately 90 per cent of the services. Among the factors we addressed were: high unemployment, social deprivation, increasing water abstraction demand and recreation disturbance to coastal Natura 2000 sites.
A wide range of interested parties from across Hampshire were consulted during the process. A key priority was to ensure that the strategy met all the regulatory requirements including planning and habitats regulations.
Halcrow brought the following expertise to the project:
- specialist skills in the SA,SEA and HRA of local development framework plans
- close liaison with the client throughout the whole development of the core strategy
- inclusion of capacity building in our programme
- final support for the examination in public which assisted in the strategy’s adoption by the Secretary of State.