Marine planning in the UK.
The Marine and Coastal Access Act means that the UK is one of the first countries to strategically plan for all of its marine area. This will make a great difference to the way the marine environment is managed. It is supporting the delivery of the Government's vision for clean healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas.
All licensing decisions will be made in accordance with the Marine Plan, and will provide greater certainty for developers and regulators alike.
How Marine Planning will work
The Marine and Coastal Access Act created at two tiered system of planning:
- The Marine Policy Statement outlines the Government's policies for delivering sustainable development in the marine environment. The Act enabled the Marine Policy Statement to be created for all UK waters, and it has been adopted by UK Government, Scottish Ministers, Welsh Ministers and the Northern Ireland Executive.
- The Marine Policy Statement is now being interpreted into local management by the creation of local marine plans.
Marine plans in English waters are being developed two at a time. The first marine plans will be the Eastern Inshore and Offshore plans, with the inshore plan covering the territorial sea from Flamborough Head to Felixstowe. WAG are consulting on the marine planning process in Wales at present. Their plans will be developed in the near future.
How marine plans link to terrestrial planning is important. Marine planning will overlap with land planning, along with other planning systems such as shoreline management plans and water framework river basin management plans.
Our role in the Marine Plan
We are required to make our authorisation or enforcement decisions in accordance with the appropriate marine plans and policy documents, unless relevant considerations indicate otherwise. We must also take into account the appropriate plan or policy document when making any other decision or action that may impact on the marine environment. Because of this, it is important that we engage in the marine planning process.
We will be working with the plan making authorities to clarify our aims and objectives for the marine environment. We will also ensure that our legal obligations, such as those in relation to the Water Framework Directive and Shoreline Management Planning are clearly expressed and contained within the marine plans.
We worked in partnership with Natural England, the Countryside Council for Wales and the National Trust to suggest solutions and best practice when working across the coastal zone.
The report came up with recommendations which include:
- Ensuring land planning reciprocal arrangements with marine planning.
- Ensuring that planning policies (e.g. PPS20/TAN14) include references to marine planning.
- Involving land planners in marine planning from the beginning.
- Developing cross functional coastal specific planning guidance.
- Creating a specialist planning liaison group made up of delivery bodies in the coastal zone.
The Marine Plan
Planning at cross border estuaries
Planning at cross border estuaries will be carried out by two different planning authorities because of the devolution settlement. We worked in partnership with Natural England and Countryside Council to examine the issue, to see how it might impact us and to discover the best plan for these ecosystems. The main recommendation was that planning authorities need to have a duty to collaborate to ensure that plans are cohesive.
