Seeing the bigger picture: why good strategy makes for good planning and protects the environment

6 September 2010

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is today (Monday) calling on ministers not to abandon strategic planning in their drive to forward the government's localism agenda. In a new report The Bigger Picture: the case for Strategic Planning, CPRE sets out how the loss of strategic planning, without a viable replacement, would be bad news for environmental protection, for the countryside, and for the development of necessary local infrastructure.

The government has made clear that it intends to abolish regional strategic planning and has already revoked Regional Strategies. This forms part of the government's localism agenda which should give local people more influence over development in their area. The removal of top-down housing targets has been welcomed by CPRE as all too often they lacked public support and threatened to damage the countryside needlessly.

At the same time the government is encouraging the creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships to promote economic development across local authority boundaries. The publication of this CPRE report coincides with the deadline for submitting proposals for possible schemes. CPRE is concerned that these Partnerships will be too narrowly focused to address broad strategic planning issues.

Removing the strategic level of planning altogether means there will be nothing between national projects, such as High Speed Rail, and small scale local development proposals. It could undermine local authorities’ ability to ensure adequate protection for the Green Belt and other important green spaces. It could also hinder the delivery of necessary development such as transport links and affordable housing in the most suitable locations.

Gerald Kells, campaigns coordinator for CPRE, says: "We support the government's drive to give local people more say in the planning decisions that affect their area but some issues need to be looked at more strategically. It’s no good planning public transport only up to the local authority border, nor can every community consider suitable locations for housing provision or waste management in isolation from their neighbours. These decisions need to be looked at collectively if they are to deliver the most sensible outcomes.

"The government has instigated a major review of the planning system and we can not afford, when flushing out the bad, to lose the baby with the bathwater."

CPRE has set three key benchmarks that must be met by any viable replacement to the now debunked Regional Strategies.

• A spatial strategic framework - There should be a framework for meaningful debate about the consequences of large scale development and cumulative impacts of individual local developments. It should set out policies on countryside and Green Belt protection, housing delivery, economic development, transport, environment, minerals and waste.

• Manage conflicting agendas – There should be a means of managing debate between local authorities and resolving disputes over the level and general location of development. In many areas of land use policy, particularly those which are politically contentious or where authorities are in competition for development, local authorities tend to struggle to resolve issues on their own in a way that addresses local concerns alongside wider objectives.

• Maintaining an overview of implementation – There needs to be strategic monitoring of progress against wider land use objectives and goals, as well as understanding the cumulative impacts of development trends. This understanding should inform decision making and enable local authorities to appreciate, and react where necessary, to unforeseen environmental, social or economic impacts.

Gerald Kells concluded: "This government has set itself ambitious goals by setting out to be the ‘greenest government ever’, to protect the Green Belt and to provide new homes where they’re needed. However, these goals can not be realised through local action alone. There must be a bridge between the local and national level if we are to make the sensible land use decisions. The cumulative impact of myriad local decisions will not necessarily result in an effective strategy."

Download the full report with regional examples of the importance of strategic planning at: The Bigger Picture:the case for strategic planning

http://www.cpre.org.uk/filegrab/TheBiggerPicture-thecaseforstrategicplanning.pdf?ref=4433