SEA of the Isle of Wight Transport Plan

Client: Isle of Wight Council

Project: SEA and HRA of the Island Transport Plan 2011- 2028

In March 2010 members of our team were instructed by Isle of Wight Council to carry out all stages of the Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Regulations Assessment for the Island Transport Plan, the third Local Transport Plan (LTP3) for the Isle of Wight.

The LTP3 was developed in a challenging financial climate, with uncertain levels of funding and a tentative national policy framework. Alongside, a significant aspect of the LTP3 is to be delivered through the Isle of Wight’s Highways PFI, which covers the period from 2013 to 2028. Through an investment of £487million over 25 years, the PFI seeks to rehabilitate the Island’s roads, footways, street lighting and most other aspects linked to the Island’s highway network to reverse decades of historic underinvestment.

In this context, the SEA and HRA for the LTP3 were designed with flexibility in mind, and focussed both on the shorter term measures which could be worked up in detail, and the less developed longer term proposals that had the potential to be delivered at a later date. The SEA therefore needed to reflect the role of the LTP3 as a facilitator for measures and schemes which had the potential to only come on line at an undetermined point in the future.

Through this approach the SEA sought to help ensure that the development of the LTP3 fully considered the needs of the Island’s exceptional environmental resource, including high quality landscapes and seascapes, a unique island biodiversity, a rich and varied historic environment and an internationally renowned geodiversity. A key role for the SEA was therefore to ensure that the proposals taken forward for the LTP3 limited effects on these assets, many of which are protected by international and national designations, whilst at the same time securing a wide range of environmental and complementary socio-economic benefits for the Island.

Key issues which were considered through both the SEA and HRA processes included the potential effect of road maintenance and structural repair on internationally designated coastal nature conservation sites, challenges linked to seasonal tourism and visitor traffic, rural accessibility issues, and potential effects on landscape quality from noise and light pollution.

The Island Transport Plan and the accompanying Implementation Plan were adopted by Isle of Wight Council in May 2011.