Most of the guidance that follows is directed at the identification and, where appropriate, amelioration of any conflicts between the option and the planning policy. However, practitioners should not ignore consideration of whether the option might bring benefits in terms of facilitating the achievement of land-use aspirations.
A preliminary appraisal of the option's fit with established land-use policy and environmental designations at a local and, where appropriate, national level should be carried out in Part 1 Appraisal. This will allow any serious conflicts to be identified early and so avoid any wasted effort in working up an option that is not viable. In its most specific sense, this is a test of whether any land required for the option is preserved for uses that are entirely incompatible with transport. There is a second, more general question of whether the option fits with the policies of local authorities and the Scottish Government concerning transport and land-use. If, however, objectives for the study have been derived in accordance with the advice in Section 3 - Objective Setting, problems should be unlikely to arise.
Whilst the Part 1 Appraisal largely determines the option's performance under this sub-criterion, there is scope for additional analysis to be carried out in the Part 2 Appraisal. It may be appropriate to do this, for example, where an option has not been precisely located until the later part of the study; here it would be necessary to revisit planning policy once a final location or alignment was proposed to check that no conflicts arose.
For the Part 2 Appraisal, the relationship between an option and any major existing or proposed developments should be considered to determine the likely impacts of an option in terms of existing and planned land-use developments.
The main aspect of appraisal under this sub-criterion consists of comparison and consultation. Nevertheless, practitioners should show a more general awareness of the need to promote sustainability and reduce the need to travel, by identifying key relationships between the option and relevant existing or future developments and analysing them in sufficient detail.
