Conservation Areas and Strategic Environmental Assessment
How will the environmental impacts of proposed conservation areas be taken into account?
All Councils are required to identify areas of special architectural or historic interest and designate these as conservation areas.
There are currently 6 proposed conservation areas identified within the approved Highland Area Local Plan 2000, the Strathearn Area Local Plan 2001 and the Kinross Area Local Plan 2004: Pitlochry, Blair Atholl, Aberfeldy, Strathtay, Crieff and Scotlandwell.
The extension of Coupar Angus and the designation of Blairgowrie are identified within the draft Eastern Area Local Plan.
The proposed conservation areas for Pitlochry, Blairgowrie and Blair Atholl and the proposed extension to Coupar Angus have been prioritised as the first areas for attention.
Under the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 the Council must determine whether its plans, programmes and strategies require Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The Council carries out a Screening procedure and consults with the Consultation Authorities (Historic Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage) to decide whether SEA is required.
Owing to the relatively untested nature of these appraisals both within Perth & Kinross and nationally, there was no clear national view on whether they required Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) under the Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005.
It was therefore decided to take the precautionary approach and proceed with SEA. Environmental Reports have been produced alongside the Pitlochry and Coupar Angus Appraisals which assess the environmental implications of the designations, investigate alternatives and set out ways of preventing or reducing any likely significant negative effects of the designations on the environment.
Following discussion with the Consultation Authorities however it has been decided that future conservation area appraisals should not require SEA unless they contain proposals with particularly significant environmental effects. A revised Screening Report has therefore been produced for the Blairgowrie and Blair Atholl Conservation Area Appraisals. The Council has determined that SEA is not required for these plans.
The Environmental Reports and conservation area appraisals for each area can be found on the individual web pages for the Pitlochry Conservation Area and the Coupar Angus Conservation Area extension. Find out more about Strategic Environmental Assessment generally from the SEA pages on this web site or from the Scottish Executive SEA pages.
