The Arnside and Silverdale AONB Partnership published the first AONB Management Plan in April 2004. This statutory document is required to be reviewed on a five yearly basis. That means that in order to produce either a reviewed and updated plan - or a completely new plan by April 2009, we have to start the review this year. In fact several major steps have already been taken and considerable progress has been made.

Since the first Management Plan was written, additional requirements have been placed on all those who write development plans of any kind. Firstly all Plans must undergo a Stategic Environmental Assessment. This is designed to prevent environmental damage occuring through the effects of a management or development plan. It is likely that the AONB Management Plan will not cause damage, as its raison d'etre is to deliver the conservation and enhancement of the AONB.

Secondly, the Plan must undergo an Appropriate Assessment, this is focused on the effects of the Plan as it may affect Natura 2000 sites in and around the AONB. Again it should be largely benign in effect, but the AA process will provide a useful health check for the policies contained in the Mangement Plan.

What will the SEA cover

The five detailed stages in the SEA process (A to E) that each AONB Partnership or Conservation Board will need to undertake are summarised below:

• Stage A       Context, Baseline and Scope
  Key Issues, Environmental Baseline, Predicting Trends, Relevant Plans and Policies, Objectives, Consideration of AONB Options, Scoping Report, Consultation
• Stage B       Assessment
  Developing and refining the Environmental Assessment and assessing effects
• Stage C       Preparation of Environmental Report (ER)
  The ER accompanies the draft management plan during public consultation and identifies shortcomings in information /suggests new research required.
• Stage D       Consultation and Review
  Public and Official Consultation on the Environmental Report and feedback
• Stage E       Monitoring Takes into account effects of the ER on the implementation of the AONB Management Plan

What stages of the Assessment have already happened

The SEA Process was launched at the AONB Executive meeting in July 2007 - and has so far produced a draft scoping report, which is now subject to formal consultation. The Scoping Report has been produced by an Environmental Consultant, as the Assessment Process should be completed externally to the body that is responsible for the Plan subject to the SEA!

What will happen next

The process has already got to the stage where we are about to embark on Stage B set out in the SEA Regulations. This will see the formal adoption of the scoping report and the assessment of Management Plan Objectives against an agreed list of SEA Objectives, to ensure there are minimal detrimental environment effects associated with the Management Plan. The SEA Process will be used to highlight any conflicts and point to ways in which Objectives can be re-drafted so as to negate negative impacts where they do arise.

The Scoping Report will feed into the Management Plan review process, which essentially runs in parallel with the SEA Process. The outcome of the SEA is the production of an Environmental Report on the Management Plan and an audit report of how the Management Plan has been affected or modified by the SEA.

Consultation on the SEA

You can download a copy of the SEA scoping report here, this document has been subject to official consultation with Natural England, English Heritage and the Environment Agency. It was also the subject of the AONB Annual Conference in October last year, where the "Points of View" session formed part of the public consultation on the content of the SEA.

Click the link here to look at the scoping report - SEA Scoping Report (3.1Mb pdf file).

If you wish to comment on this document please return your comment via email to info@arnsidesilverdaleaonb.org.uk before the end of May 2008. Your consultation comments will be used in the development of the Environmental Report that will be published later in the Management Plan Review process.