Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Main Environmental Report (Appendix 19 A)
Table 8.2 of the Environmental Report outlines the likely environmental impacts of the draft CDP, but only in very broad brushstrokes. The most important sections of any Strategic Environmental Assessment are its matrices/tables, where impacts are predicted, evaluated and mitigated in detail. However, over 45 pages of impact assessment matrices, not one policy decision contained in the draft CDP is predicted to be in ‘probably conflict’ with any environmental objectives whatsoever. I advocate putting an honest, broad appraisal at the beginning of the draft CDP:
NEW POLICY STATEMENT: The council commits itself to the goal of sustainable development, but the council explicitly recognizes that, despite the efforts made in this County Development Plan, the way of life we have in Waterford (and Ireland generally) is environmentally unsustainable at present. We need to change.
Such a policy statement honestly appraises the state-of-play in Waterford. It gives the plan an authenticity it does not get from the Environmental Report. I think the enviroinmental assessors who assessed the plan need to account for the predictions.