Crawley is
situated in an area of serious water stress. The majority of
Crawley is supplied with water by Southern Water from its Sussex
North Water Resource Zone (SNWRZ). This supply is sourced from
abstraction points in the Arun Valley, which includes locations
such as Amberley Wild Brooks Site of Special Scientific Interest
(SSSI), Pulborough Brooks SSSI and Arun Valley Special Protection
Area/Special Area of Conservation and Ramsar site.
On 14 September 2021, the Local Planning Authority (LPA) received a
Position Statement from Natural England. The Natural England
position is that it cannot be concluded that the existing
abstraction within the SNWSZ is not having an impact on the Arun
Valley sites. It advises that developments within this zone must
not add to this impact.
The effect of the position statement is that all applications made
to the LPA that are within the SNWRZ have to demonstrate that they
do not increase pressure on water resources – in other words
show that they are “water neutral”. The position
statement placed the LPA as the body with overall responsibility
for ensuring compliance with these requirements.
As a consequence of the position statement, all decisions on
applications within the SNWRZ which the LPA was minded to recommend
positively have had to be held to allow for further legal
clarification on its implications and in order to understand the
synergy between the Habitats Regulations (referred to in the
position statement) and the Planning process.
The LPA is the ‘Competent Authority’ and has
responsibility for undertaking the Habitats Regulations Assessment
(HRA) process under the Conservation of Habitats and Species
Regulations 2017 (as amended). These regulations add a new
requirement into the planning process as the LPA has to decide
whether each application has an impact on the Arun Valley sites as
result of increased water demand. Under the regulations, the
‘Assessment’ process for making this decision is in 2
stages.
Step 1 is a Screening Process to determine whether the application
is either (1) exempt (because it is directly connected with or
necessary to the management of a European site), (2) whether it can
be excluded (because it is not a project), or (3) eliminated
(because there would be no conceivable effects), from the HRA
process. If none of these conditions apply, it is next necessary to
identify whether there are any aspects of a project which may lead
to likely significant effects at the Arun Valley sites. This
informs the requirement to progress to Stage 2 ‘the
Appropriate Assessment’.
The LPA has been developing a framework to allow certain types of
application to be screened out of this assessment process,
therefore avoiding time and costs for applicants and agents in
preparing this information to support their applications. This work
has resulted in two Habitats Regulations Assessment Screening
Reports having been prepared by the LPA with input, advice and
feedback from an independent ecological consultant and Natural
England, who have endorsed the two Screening Reports for use.
The first screening report covers the following applications:
• Householder Applications (excluding annexes and swimming
pools) including those defined under Schedule 2, Part 1 of the Town
and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England)
Order 2015 (as amended)
The HRA report concludes that despite a gradual increase in
floorspace of houses across Crawley as extensions are built, both
household size and water usage per capita are declining.
Consequently, the Council considers that the evidence suggests that
house extensions (excluding annexes and swimming pools) will not
increase water usage, even cumulatively. Therefore, they will not
increase water usage within the Sussex North Water Resource Zone
and do not therefore require further assessment.
The second screening report covers the following application
types:
• Applications for Advertisement Consent
• Applications for Tree Works
• Full and Prior Approval applications for Telecommunications
Infrastructure, including those defined under Schedule 2, Part 16
of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development)
(England) Order 2015 (as amended)
• Minor developments where there is no water usage (e.g.
surface car parks/hardstanding, vehicular crossovers, shopfronts,
recladding)
• Applications for Development comprising Minor Operations as
defined under Schedule 2, Part 2 of the Town and Country Planning
(General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015 (as
amended)
• Applications for Non-Material Amendments involving no
increased water usage
The HRA report concludes that as none of these applications involve
connection to a water supply, they will not increase water usage
within the Sussex North Water Resource Zone and would have no
conceivable effect on any of the designated sites due to increased
water demand.
A screening template has also been developed for use for other
applications which do not fall within the categories listed above
for applicants to complete and will enable the LPA to decide
whether the application should be subject to an ‘Appropriate
Assessment’.
The production of these two screening reports allows the LPA to
resume the positive determination of planning applications for the
above categories of development within the SNWRZ. This will allow
householders to progress with home improvements and other minor
works to proceed.
Decision type: Non-key
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Notice of proposed decision first published: 29/11/2021
Decision due: 26 Nov 2021 by Head of Economy and Planning
Contact: Clem Smith, Head of Economy and Planning 438577 - email jean.mcpherson@crawley.gov.uk clem.smith@crawley.gov.uk.