Initial Climate Change Impact Assessment

The intention of this document is to help the council to gain an initial understanding of the impact of a project or decision on the environment. This document should be completed in consultation with the supporting guidance. Dependent on this initial assessment you may need to go on to complete a full Climate Change Impact Assessment. The final document will be published as part of the decision-making process.

If you have any additional queries, which are not covered by the guidance please email climatechange@northyorks.gov.uk

Title of proposal	North Yorkshire Local Plan Issues and Options Consultation
Brief description of proposal	To seek approval to undertake public consultation during May/June/July 2025 on the North Yorkshire Local Plan: our first conversation and to note the draft Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report
Directorate	Community Development
Service area	Planning
Lead officer	Linda Marfitt, Head of Policy and Place
Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the impact assessment	Rachael Hutton, Planning Policy and Place Manager

The chart below contains the main environmental factors to consider in your initial assessment – choose the appropriate option from the drop-down list for each one.

Remember to think about the following;

· Travel

· Construction

· Data storage

· Use of buildings

· Change of land use

· Opportunities for recycling and reuse

Environmental factor to consider	For the council	For the county	Overall
Greenhouse gas emissions	No effect on emissions	No Effect on emissions	No effect on emissions
Waste	No effect on waste	No effect on waste	No effect on waste
Water use	No effect on water usage	No effect on water usage	No effect on water usage
Pollution (air, land, water, noise, light)	No effect on pollution	No effect on pollution	No effect on pollution
Resilience to adverse weather/climate events (flooding, drought etc)	No effect on resilience	No effect on resilience	No effect on resilience
Ecological effects (biodiversity, loss of habitat etc)	No effect on ecology	No effect on ecology	No effect on ecology
Heritage and landscape	No effect on heritage and landscape	No effect on heritage and landscape	No effect on heritage and landscape

If any of these factors are likely to result in a negative or positive environmental impact then a full climate change impact assessment will be required. It is important that we capture information about both positive and negative impacts to aid the council in calculating its carbon footprint and environmental impact.

Decision (Please tick one option)	Full CCIA not relevant or proportionate:	P	Continue to full CCIA:
Reason for decision	The Issues and Options Document explores themes for the plan to cover and some potential options, but it does not set policy. The consultation makes direct reference to the Climate Change Strategy. A Sustainability Appraisal (SA) is required by legislation to support the development of all Development Plan Documents including Local Plans and a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report has been prepared and forms part of the Issues and Options Consultation. The SA scoping (currently draft) considers all the social, economic and environmental impacts of the Local Plan as well as appropriate mitigation and therefore considers proportionately the climate change implications at this stage in the process. It also considers a wider range of documents (plans policies and strategies) to be considered in the SA/SEA process. The Issues and Options consultation as an event uses established events and meetings (both in person and on teams) to reduce travel by Staff and Members for briefings. The consultation utilises digital/web platforms (with some paper material) and is conducted to reduce travel for the distribution of paper materials to Council offices and Libraries via delivery using existing vans or by post.
Signed (Assistant Director or equivalent)	Trevor Watson
Date	10.04.2025