The planning system, coastal regeneration

Regional planning

The key planning policy vehicle in the last ten years has been the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS, formerly ‘Regional Planning Guidance’ or RPG). This is part of a tripartite approach. The Regional Economic Strategy, essentially prepared by the Regional Development Agency as an expression of its priorities for spending, but by extension for the economic development of the region, is an important input. The Regional Transport Strategy is incorporated in the RSS, as are the priorities of the Regional Housing and other key documents, such as the Regional Environmental Strategy.

RSSs have been prepared by Regional Planning Bodies (RPBs), their powers being vested in Regional Assemblies, which are federations dominated by local authority representatives but also involve the private and voluntary sector bodies, universities and others.

The RSS is also the document which allocates housing numbers to be delivered at a local authority level. These figures are usually ‘annualised’ (the total figure is divided by the number of years the plan covers), and this gives a general indication of the scale of development expected each year. Each local authority will have to distribute that housing development through the Local Development Framework, and this may have a particular impact on coastal towns where new housing can be significant contributors to the local economy.

From 2010 it is expected that there will be a single regional strategy prepared by the Regional Development Agency, as the Regional Planning Board (RPB). Regional Assemblies are being replaced by ‘leadership boards’ representing local government, and the Regional Strategy will be endorsed by the new boards. In some regions the Regional Strategy is already under preparation, in anticipation of the legislation. Although the nature of the strategy and its ‘ownership’ will change, for the purposes of local planning and coastal regeneration this ‘higher level’ planning context will remain much the same.

Early Regional Strategies tended to include ‘coastal’ with ‘rural’ areas. This remains understandable in some regions, where the coast is predominantly rural; but in others areas the coast is extensively built up. In the late 1990s, the emergence of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) led to a better appreciation among regional planners of the need to take a holistic look at the onshore coastal zone, the economy and at coastal communities. In the North West of England, for example, a quarter of the regional population can be regarded as coastal.

Additionally, the Regional Strategy can be a vehicle for taking forward development concepts which otherwise might founder on lack of will among local authorities to work together. One example is the concept of the ‘regional park’, which is not a less grand version of a National Park but a means of developing concepts of linked attractions or developments that can be marketed and enjoyed as a larger whole.

The Mersey waterfront regional park, for instance, includes the urban waterfront of Liverpool, plus country parks on the Wirral and around the estuary, and other visitor destinations such as parks, museums and stately homes. A North West regional coastal trail, with individual stretches linking towns on the coast and connecting into residential neighbourhoods in those towns, is similarly being promoted using the Regional Park policy in the Regional Spatial Strategy.

The ongoing Partial Review of the East Midlands Regional Plan will be informed by the Lincolnshire Coastal Study, mandated by the Secretary of State. This will consider long-term spatial planning options for the Lincolnshire coastal districts of East Lindsey, South Holland and Boston, which include extensive areas and settlements within the coastal flood plain. The study considers the environmental, social and economic consequences of sea level rise and climate change and is a partnership between local authorities, the Environment Agency, Government Office East Midlands, East Midlands Regional Assembly and Natural England.