The purpose of Sustainability Appraisal is to assess the social, environmental and economic effects of the Waste Core Strategy by considering how each part of the Waste Core Strategy contributes towards the achievement of a set of 'sustainability objectives'.

The Sustainability Appraisal for the Waste Core Strategy also incorporated the requirement of a Strategic Environmental Assessment.

The Sustainability Appraisal was carried out alongside the Waste Core Strategy to ensure that sustainable development forms an integral part of its development and an appraisal has been undertaken at each stage in the development of the Waste Core Strategy:

Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report for the Waste Core Strategy

To ensure that the appraisal process in preparing the sustainability report was as comprehensive as reasonably possible, a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping report was prepared to outline the scope and level of detail of the Sustainability Appraisal.

The Scoping Report was produced and consulted on between September and November 2008 and accompanied the Waste Core Strategy Refreshed Issues and Options document.

This document was an update to the Scoping Report prepared for the Waste Core Strategy that was withdrawn in February 2008.

Sustainability Appraisal of the Refreshed Issues and Options Report

The next stage of the Sustainability Appraisal process involved an appraisal of the Waste Core Strategy Refreshed Issues and Options report.

This assessment was undertaken during March and April 2009 and was reported as an Interim Sustainability Appraisal (2009)

The Interim Sustainability Appraisal was taken into account by the Council in developing the Emerging Preferred Options Report.

Sustainability Appraisal of the Emerging Preferred Options

An appraisal was undertaken of the Emerging Preferred Options Report. This was reported in the Sustainability Appraisal of Emerging Preferred Options for the Waste Core Strategy for Worcestershire

We consulted on this report between November 2009 and February 2010 alongside consultation on the Emerging Preferred Options Report.

"First Draft Submission" consultation stage of the Waste Core Strategy

The Statutory requirements did not require an assessment to be undertaken to accompany this stage of the Waste Core Strategy's development. However to check the document's progress an Interim Sustainability Appraisal (2010) was undertaken.

This formed part of the iterative processes between the development of the Waste Core Strategy and the Sustainability Appraisal process. 

Sustainability Appraisal of the Publication Document

The Sustainability Appraisal of the Publication document was open to comment between 22 March and 4 May 2011.

Natural England made comments on the Sustainability Appraisal. These are addressed in the Addendum to the Waste Core Strategy Document.

Sustainability Appraisal of the Waste Core Strategy Submission Document Addendum 

A Sustainability Appraisal of the Waste Core Strategy Submission Document Addendum was prepared. Comments on this element of the Sustainability Appraisal were invited between 3 October and 5.30pm on 15 November 2011 alongside consultation on the Addendum to the Submission Document.

Sustainability Appraisal of the Proposed Changes to the Waste Core Strategy

A Review of Sustainability of Proposed Changes to the Worcestershire Waste Core Strategy was prepared which sets out a commentary on the sustainability of the Proposed Changes to the Worcestershire Waste Core Strategy of 5 April 2012

Given the limited scope of the changes in the Proposed Changes, and the absence of a further full public consultation stage, it was considered inappropriate to undertake a further full Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and reissue an amended full SA Report, but we considered the sustainability impact of the proposed further changes to ensure that they would not compromise the substantially positive sustainability impacts of the Waste Core Strategy, and to comment on any sustainability issues arising.

This Review was published for comment alongside the consultation on the proposed changes from 5 April 2012 to 5.30pm on 21 May 2012.

Sustainability Appraisal at Waste Core Strategy Adoption

A consolidated Sustainability Appraisal report accompanied the final published Waste Core Strategy as part of the formal adoption procedures. A post-adoption statement was also issued.

How the work has been carried out

We have used external consultants to undertake the Sustainability Appraisal and Habitats Regulations Assessment of all the earlier stages of the development of the Waste Core Strategy in order to give us impartial advice.

In order to save costs however, we undertook the assessment of the First Draft Submission consultation with in-houses staff.