I.a. Strategic Environmental Assessment Non-Technical Summary
Section 1 Introduction and Terms of Reference
This is the Non-Technical Summary of the Environmental Report for the Chief Executive’s Carlow County Development Plan 2022-2028. The purpose of the Environmental Report is to provide a clear understanding of the likely environmental consequences of decisions regarding the adoption and implementation of the Plan. The Environmental Report has been prepared as part of a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process for the Plan.
What is SEA?
SEA is a systematic process of predicting and evaluating the likely environmental effects of implementing a proposed plan, or other strategic action, in order to ensure that these effects are appropriately addressed at the earliest appropriate stage of decision-making on a par with economic, social and other considerations.
Why is SEA needed? The Benefits
The SEA has been carried out in order to comply with the provisions of the European SEA Directive and in order to enable sustainable development and environmental protection and management. SEA is the planning authority’s and the public’s guide to what are generally the best areas for development in the County.
SEA enables the planning authority to direct development towards robust, well-serviced and connected areas in the County – thereby facilitating the general avoidance of incompatible areas in the most sensitive, least well-serviced and least well-connected areas. Compact development can be accompanied by placemaking initiatives to enable the County’s towns and villages to become more desirable places to live – so that they maintain and improve services to existing and future communities.
SEA enables requirements relating to environmental protection and management to be integrated into the Plan so that compatible sustainable development in the County’s sensitive areas is also facilitated.
SEA provides greater to the public and to developers. Plans are more likely to be adopted without delays or challenges and planning applications are more likely to be granted permission. Environmental mitigation is more likely to cost less.
Continue reading. Download the SEA Non-Technical Summary [PDF]