MARINE SPATIAL PLANNING
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has responsibility for preparing marine plans for the English inshore and offshore regions according to the policies and objectives set out in the Marine Policy Statement. The MMO (and others) will then have a duty to take decisions in accordance with the Statement and marine plans in respect of proposed developments in the areas covered by the plans, unless relevant considerations indicate otherwise. There are two levels in the marine planning system: the Marine Policy Statement at a UK level and marine plans at national and sub-national level.
Once the Marine Policy Statement (draft expected October 2010) has been produced for the entire UK marine area (and not before), work will begin preparing individual marine plans. A statement of public participation will be published by the MMO for any area that they produce a plan for, establishing the exact boundaries. The current proposed boundaries were produced by CEFAS, with the inshore area boundaries relating to those of Coastal Groups in order to maintain a focus on the coast. These boundaries could potentially be changed following the recent consultation. A marine plan will not be able to cross boundaries, and each area mush have an offshore and inshore plan. Marine plans will be produced for two areas at a time and may take a number of years to complete, costing around £3.8 million each. A review will begin 3 years after the plan is produced. The order in which plans are produced will be decided based on evidence. This will not be decided until the Marine Policy Statement in published.
Nationally Significant Projects
The Infrastructure Planning Commission is the independent body that decides applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects. These are the large projects that support the economy and vital public services, including railways, large wind farms, power stations, reservoirs, harbours, airports and sewage treatment works.
Role of Coastal Partnerships
Defra recommend that Coastal Partnerships’ such as the Solent Forum would be an ideal starting point to assist with the communication for the proposed marine plan areas. The Solent Forum could provide blanket communications to stakeholders in the proposed South Central Inshore Plan area. This would not in any way preclude more detailed bespoke communication but would act as a means of introduction. Should stakeholders find this acceptable, Defra will make this recommendation to the MMO. There are no statutory consultees in marine planning, but the MMO both want and need the involvement of Local Authorities.
EU Policy
The European Commission has published a roadmap for marine spatial planning across the Community. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires each Member State to achieve ‘Good Environmental Status’ in the marine area by 2021 at the latest. In the UK, the planning system will be an important vehicle for delivering obligations under the MSFD. Marine Policy Statement (MPS) and marine plans will steer the actions of public authorities so that they deliver the Directive’s requirements.
MSP for the Solent
It is possible that the Solent could be a sub regional area in a larger regional marine spatial plan. Reforms to the planning system on land mean that there are now regional strategies and Local Development Frameworks. Sub regional strategies are being developed for areas to address issues that cannot be dealt with either by individual or joint development plan documents or by other policies in the regional plan. If the MSP system was to mirror that of terrestrial planning, it is likely that the same approach will be taken with overarching plans being developed at the regional seas level and sub regional strategies being developed for areas where there are specific issues to be addressed or a concentration of many activities and interests in a specific area. The Solent may be considered such an area and as such play a role in the development of a sub regional MSP pilot.
The Solent Forum has been considering the idea of MSP and has developed a project called Towards Marine Spatial Planning (SoMap) to look at how a MSP would function in the Solent. Work on this commenced in spring 2009. Visit our SoMaP pages for more information.
