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| Wales' Russian Dolls' |
| by Marc Welsh, Director, Wales Wildlife and Countryside Link |
The recent publication of Planning Policy Wales (PPW) and the consultation on 'Planning: Delivering for Wales' reveal how the National Assembly is ploughing its own furrow in public policy-making especially in terms of Land Use Planning.
The National Assembly has devolved powers in relation to Town and Country Planning and now with its application of Clause 121 (the duty to draw up a scheme for sustainable development) of its founding Act, the Assembly is forging a series of policies that will give the country a more defined direction.
The three pillars of all National Assembly policies are
These are three legs of the Assembly's stool in putting together proposals for the future and, believe it or not, there is an emerging coherence of public policies that when viewed together can formulate a cohesive programme. These plans fit together, framework within framework like the proverbial Russian Dolls and are illustrated here.
The overarching policy framework is the Sustainable Development Scheme, 'Learning to Live Differently'. In recognition of the nature of the country - mountainous and uneven distribution of population and under the leadership of the Environment Minister, the Assembly - or should we say WAG? (Welsh Assembly Government) - is now formulating a strategic land use plan - Wales Spatial Plan, Pathways to Sustainable Development. The concept behind this is "managing territorial development and co-ordinating the spatial impact of sectoral policies,' and, currently, the Spatial Plan is seen as a means of absorbing vision statements, strategic frameworks of key principles and themes and large scale plans. It is a concept to the liking of overall EU thinking and Wales is in the vanguard! Another way of saying that, is that things are at an early stage at the moment and people are gathering all over the country to work out what exactly it is going to mean!
The public policy suite was contained in Betterwales.com which has now been updated to 'Putting Wales First' and the economic programme is contained in the National Economic Development Strategy (NEDS)
Planning policy for the country is contained in Planning Policy Wales (PPW), with the final contemporary version published on April 16th and this is supported by a series of Technical Advice Notes (TANs). These inform the formation of Unitary Development Plans, (for the 25 Local Planning Authorities that include the 3 National Parks), which are at various stages of formation.
Whilst all these seem to fit together nicely - just like the Russian Dolls - what we must remember is that there are other public policy documents not included above, Two such examples are the Transport Framework and the Mineral Planning Policy for Wales (MPPW). Also, there are broad plans emerging in the various sub-regions of Wales. In addition, what is not included is other public fields like health and education which are also in the frame as emerging and distinctive policies.
There is no doubt that our new constitutional baby is already into early childhood and growing fast and the dolls it's playing with are going to form a major influence on our day-day lives.
As described in the last edition of Rural Wales, what we have now to input into this evolving pattern are the repercussions of the Planning Green Paper for England which seemed to put at risk the whole basis of the Land Use Planning System in England. Fortunately for Wales, in Sue Essex AM, we have a Planning Minister who understands what Planning is about and appreciates its significance.
Thus the equivalent consultation in Wales, entitled Planning: Delivering for Wales is much more sympathetic to the values of land use planning and we were able to state in our response:
"CPRW concurs with the view that there is a need to improve the system, but, at the same time, is firmly of the opinion that the merits of the original must be retained. We therefore welcome the Minister's commitment in her Foreword to the Consultation of keeping the fundamental structure of the planning system in place."
In fact, such was the importance we attached to the Consultation, we encouraged and organised maximum participation from our membership in formulating our response. In addition to receiving comments from individuals and Branches, we conducted four meetings at Llandudno, Aberystwyth, Llandrindod Wells and Swansea and had a full session of debate in Council. The views expressed at these meetings, as well as the other responses, were collated and a final version of our submission agreed by a Sub-Panel of the Executive Committee.
Of course, this Consultation is not about planning policies as such but process and procedure. Whilst welcoming many of the proposals there are some concerns for CPRW.