South West Policy Project Officer Update Report
January 2014
Yet another year of system changes, but development plan progress
It has become my convention to begin the first Update of each new year with a brief reflection on
what has happened over the past year. 2013 has seen the formal ‘revocation’ of the draft South
West RSS ; further progress in getting Core Strategies/Local Plans in place ; significant activity on
the Neighbourhood Planning front, with the region very well represented in the national context as
far as pioneering plans completed was concerned ; and new Planning Practice Guidance emerging
[ at least in draft form]. The influence of the region’s six LEP’s has continued to grow steadily and
there has been significant activity around the region’s coast, with the designation of 12 new Marine
Conservation Zones and the start of work on the South Marine [Spatial] Plan for the stretch from
east Dorset to south Devon. On the energy front, Hinkley Point C has come significantly closer to
being a reality and photo-voltaic energy ‘farms’ have become big news , but offshore wind power
generation has suffered a set back with the cancellation of the Atlantic Array. Finally, and true to
form, just before Christmas, the Government used the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement to
announce [amongst other things] more ‘prescription’ for how to revive ailing city centres and high
streets ; more infrastructure investment to ‘unlock new large housing sites ; and proposals to
toughen up the ‘special measures’ regime. At the same time, it launched consultations on a review
of the 2008 Planning Act regime; measures to improve development plan making; a draft NPS on
National [Road & Rail] Networks; and shale gas production.
This Update begins by looking at the planning of our high streets ; moves on to look at
infrastructure ; the rise and rise of the LEP’s ; marine and coastal planning ; developments on the
energy front, including the emergence of shale gas exploration and extraction ; the latest work by
Natural England and others on National Character Area Profiles ; and the draft NPS for the
National Networks. It concludes by reviewing progress on Cornwall’s Eco-town.
Re-imaging our High Streets
The last 12 months have seen a number of high profile national campaigns to help our ailing high
streets ,such as the Daily Telegraph’s ‘Reinventing the High Street’ [ launched in April by, of all
people, Tesco’s Sir Terry Leahy !] and continuing pressure on the Government by Mary Portas,
who appeared before the Commons Communities & Local Government Select Committee in
September with robust answers to concerns about the effectiveness of her Portas Pilots scheme.
In addition, there have been reports by planner John Parmiter, of Peter Brett Associates, in May,
advocating a new ‘town centre investment management’ approach, in which these areas are
brought under unified control to facilitate real change ; by ‘retail veteran’ Bill Grimsey, in
September, which suggested that high streets could no longer rely on shops to survive, but had to
diversify, in a ‘hi-tech future’, to meet health, entertainment and housing needs as well ; and by the
‘Distressed Town Centre Property Task Force’, in November, which suggested that town and city
centres should be designated ‘national infrastructure’, in order to open up significant funding
opportunities not otherwise available. Then, in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, on 5
December, came central government financial and planning action in the shape of a decision to
put a cap of 2% on the business rate increase for 2014-15 [ it would have been 3.2% ] and to
extend the higher level of small business rate relief until April 2015 and of development
management measures to permit greater flexibility in change of use from retail to leisure uses .All
of these have made 2013 the ‘year of the high street’, and for us in the South West, this all came
together in our final CPD Conference, in Bath, on 6 December on ‘Re-imaging our High Streets’.
In the context of an ever changing retail sector and formal government policy in the NPPF still
seeking to promote ‘town centre first’, a range of expert speakers looked at past history, the
various 2013 reports; progress following the Portas Review ; some local case studies and some
prescriptions for the future. It became clear that planners needed to help ‘positive change’ to take
place and there were examples nationally and more locally of how successful ‘retail places’ could
be nurtured. Bath, for example , was one of 162 centres in the UK making use of the government
promoted Business Improvement District ( BID) mechanism, whilst Wiltshire Council was working
hard to promote and develop four of its major town and city centres – Chippenham, Trowbridge,
Salisbury and Calne - within the context of its emerging Core Strategy. Using a partnership
approach, ‘visions’ had been put in place for each of the first three, whilst in Calne, a more overtly
community-based way forward was being tested.
Overall, it was clear that despite such examples of positive action, with planners centrally involved,
and the undoubted success of the Portas initiative in putting the high street firmly on the agenda –
with particular local benefits in the South West in Liskeard, ‘Great Bedminster’, Bristol, and
Tiverton [ the region’s only ‘Portas Pilots’ ] , all of this was really only a start. Major issues, such the
typically fragmented ownerships and the need to establish the kind of overall control of assets in
order to encourage investors, not to mention the thorny matter of business rates, all need to be
resolved in order to see a future for our high streets.
A big week for infrastructure
It seems that in planning nowadays, the matter of infrastructure is always a key consideration. The
Government raised its profile once again with the publication, on 4 December 2013, of the latest
version of the National Infrastructure Plan. This 152 page document is less [wish?] ‘list-heavy’ than
its predecessors, and sets out the 40 top infrastructure investment schemes in England and Wales
.It confirms the setting up, ‘early in 2014’, of a specialist planning court to deal with judicial review
matters and welcomes the Insurance industry’s commitment to invest £25bn over the next five
years as part of a ‘UK Insurance Growth Action Plan’.
Also flagged-up in the NIP is a proposed review of the 2008 Planning Act regime, with the aim, in
the light of experience, of shortening the currently complex and lengthy pre-application phase and
of ‘streamlining’ the Development Consent process. The Government is anxious to help deliver
both key projects [ such as nuclear power stations and new power lines ] and ‘more ordinary
development’ in a more streamlined fashion. There is also to be consultation on measures to
improve [ for which read ‘speed-up’ !] development plan making, including a ‘statutory requirement
to put a Local Plan in place ‘ [ some might have assumed that this was already implied within
existing legislation and regulations, but it is a move which a number of South West authorities will
need to watch carefully !]. On consultations, there are plans to reduce the number of ‘unnecessary’
statutory consultations [ though quite where the line will be drawn here is not easy to predict ] and
plans for single point of contact across a range of bodies for planning authorities. There is to be
new legislation which will mean that where an authority has failed to discharge a planning condition
‘in time’, the development will be treated as approved. Finally, and rather less easy to visualise,
there is reference to the Government working with councils to develop a pilot project designed to
pass a share of the [ financial] benefits of development directly to individual households.
The continuing rise of the LEP’s
Previous recent Updates have already charted the emergence of the region’s six Local Enterprise
Partnerships as major players in the strategic policy arena. [ See May, July & November 2013
editions ] On 12 December 2013, hard on the heels of the critical, but constructive All Party Group
report on LEP’s and local growth strategies, published at the end of October [ see November
Update ], a conference organised jointly by the South West Forum and South West Stakeholders
looked at the emerging relationship between the LEP’s and civil society, where there were seen to
be both opportunities and challenges. A whole range of civic society bodies, co-ordinated for
example by the National Council of Voluntary Organisations ( NCVO) ,is now, like local planning
authorities, seeking to ‘engage’ with their respective LEP’s, since it is now clear that these
Partnerships are here to stay, at least for the near future. For their part, the Partnerships are
themselves engaging increasingly with the big sources of finance – from central government, from
Europe and now, Big Lottery Funding There now evidence of increasing central government
emphasis on supporting those representing big cities/conurbations – not good news for most of the
South West, apart from the West of England. At the same time, the Government appears to be
moving towards public sector support via smaller ‘local’ schemes, facilitated by the LEP’s, rather
than via massive national programmes.
Our LEP’s are now taking on the role of ‘channelling’ major public sector funding, including the
Regional Growth Fund and, most recently, that within the 6.2bn Euro EU SIF Programme for 20142020, for which three of them have just submitted their draft strategies for handling their respective
shares [ see November 2013 Update ].These allocations range in size from 593million Euros for
Cornwall & The Isles of Scilly, to 80m for the Heart of the South West, down to 38m for
Gloucestershire. However, overall, the budget for local economic growth in the South West has
been hugely reduced compared to that in the RDA days. Another issue would appear to be that of
establishing a credible ‘business case’. This the LEP’s must do as part of their respective ‘strategic
economic plans’ as well as in their bids for particular funding. They are currently not strong on
equality matters[ LEP’s are required to promote equal pay and opportunities within their areas ] ,
but are working hard to develop their social inclusion strategies, usually expressed in their
documents under headings such ‘People’. Their work has only had limited input from the housing
and land use planning sectors and some, and even less input from the representatives of local civil
society and some, if not all, of them are now re-thinking their governance structures, to address
such issues as public accountability, highlighted in the All Party report, and the need for more local
community engagement.
Overall, although the main thrust of the Conference was intended to be looking at the relationship
between civil society – in its many dimensions, and the region’s LEP’s, it soon became clear that
there are just as many issues for the Partnerships themselves in working out how best to engage
with the multiplicity of central government departments and agencies with whom they are expected
to work ! Much is being expected of the LEP’s , not least in coping with funding systems
themselves undergoing significant changes, and as the RTPI nationally pointed out in its evidence
to the All Party group, more joined-up thinking and spatial awareness across Whitehall
Departments and co-operation from all of them and from non-departmental bodies, will be required
to achieve sustainable economic growth. This will in turn, require integrated local planning on the
ground, with LEP’s and local planning authorities working together. In the South West, the
Partnerships are already drawing heavily on planners’ skills, especially those within the County and
Unitary Planning Departments .
The South West gets the lion’s share of the new Marine Conservation Zones
Further statutory protection for the environment within the seas around our coast took the form of
the formal designation, by DEFRA, on 21 November 2013, of 27 Marine Conservation
Zones,(MCZ’s) of which 15 are off the coast of the South West. In the announcement, by Marine
Environment Minister George Eustice, we are informed that these new zones cover an area
‘roughly three times the size of Wiltshire’ [ though how many people, there would be, even among
South West residents, able to relate to this, must be questionable !] The figure is actually some
10,000 square km and these zones now join over 500 other marine protected areas in the UK, to
which central government was committed under the Marine & Coastal Access Act, 2009. MCZ’s
are designated under Section 116(1) of this Act.
My March 2013 Update referred to the then on-going DEFRA consultation on proposals to
designate 31 MCZ’s within English inshore and offshore and Welsh offshore waters - a significant
reduction compared to the 173 identified back in September 2011 by four ‘regional projects’. One
of these, ‘Finding Sanctuary’ looked at potential sites around the coast of the South West , and all
15 of its proposals have now been confirmed.
The 12 Inshore Zones [ waters out to 12 nautical miles ] stretch from ‘Chesil Beach & Stennis
Ledges, off the Dorset coast , all the way round to ‘Lundy’ in northern Devon, and they range in
size from ‘The Manacles’, off the southern coast of Cornwall, 3.5 sq km to the ‘Skerries Bank’, off
south Devon, 250sq km. Most are contiguous areas, but some, like the Isles of Scilly, comprise up
to 11 spatially separate areas. Generally, each zone has one ‘conservation objective’ which applies
to all the natural features there being protected. There is a separate document, with a designation
map and explanation for each zone and an overall Explanatory Note about the designation process
and how the zones are to be managed. Lundy has long been recognised for its ecological
importance and became England’s first Marine Nature Reserve back in 1986, which has now been
‘converted’ into a MCZ.
The 3 Offshore Zones [ waters beyond 12 nautical miles and out to 200 ] are ‘The Canyons’, a
661sq km area 330 km off the south west tip of Cornwall and the most remote of all the 27 new
zones ; ‘East of Haig Fras’ , 400 sq km in the Celtic Sea, 67 km north of Lands End ; and ‘SouthWest Deeps (West)’, 1,800 sq km along the edge of the Continental Shelf, 230 km south west of
Lands End.
South West energy
Nuclear power
Though it has been somewhat caught up in the high profile national debate about future energy
sources and energy policy, Hinkley Point C has recently moved a step closer to reality thanks to a
Chinese finance agreement. It was announced by Chancellor George back in October, whilst he
was in a place called Tishan, that ‘the UK Government had agreed’ to China investing in our new
nuclear power plants .Amongst other things, this has paved the way for a significant Chinese stake
in the Hinkley Point project, to replace that formerly held by Centrica. The deal appears to have
been made possible because EDF was already working in collaboration with a major Chinese
power group on a new plant there. In a different spin, the Government hailed these negotiations as
‘ triumph for British diplomacy’, as they potentially open up China’s rapidly expanding nuclear
energy market [ 17 plants so far , with a further 30 or so planned !] to British companies, as well as
‘ helping to keep electricity bills down for British consumers’.
Quite what kind of ‘deal’ this will work out as remains to be seen however. The eventually agreed
‘strike price’ for HPC’s electricity, of £92.50 for every megawatt hour generated, over a period of 35
years [ almost twice the current wholesale cost of electricity ], is higher than the Government had
been hoping for. This would however come down to £89.50, should EDF go ahead with a second
new plant at Sizewell in Suffolk. It was also confirmed in October, that the cost of HPC had risen to
£16bn, to include provision for the accommodation works already carried out. Then, in December,
it was confirmed that the whole HPC deal is to be investigated by the European Commission, to
determine whether or not it breaches EU rules on state subsidies for private companies – a
process that could take until summer 2015. South West MEP, Sir Graham Watson, has expressed
every confidence that the UK Government has addressed these matters and stated that whilst the
Commission’s inquiry may delay the project, it ‘will not derail it’ ! EDF has, understandably, yet to
make a final decision to go ahead.
Meanwhile, the future of the Hitachi project at Oldbury-on-Severn, remains unclear. Horizon
withdrew its interest here last year, but would still appear to be involved, with Hitachi, in plans for a
new nuclear plant at Wylfa, Anglesey. Tucked away in the latest version of the National
Infrastructure Plan, published in December [ see above ], in a section on the UK Guarantee
Scheme for major infrastructure projects, is the announcement of a new co-operation agreement
with Hitachi and Horizon to support the financing a new Wylfa plant , ‘subject to due diligence and
ministerial approval’.
Solar power
In January 2013, plans were announced for one of the largest solar PV energy ‘farms’ in the UK so
far. This £500m, 38 MW project, involving 160,000 solar panels on 200 acres of the former RAF
Wroughton Airfield just south of Swindon was being proposed by Swindon Commercial Services
(SCS) in partnership with the Science Museum, which took over the maintenance of the airfield in
the 1970’s when it began to use the hangers to store some 30,000 large objects not on display in
London. The land is classified as part light industrial and part agricultural. Public consultation took
place at this time, with a view to submitting a planning application in April, but this was delayed due
to change of status of SCS.
In June, it was admitted that SCS, a company which had been spun out of Swindon Council back
in 2010, had failed to win bids for the expected range of public sector contracts, with only those for
the Council’s waste collection, pothole repairs and street cleaning being secured. All these
services and the staff involved were then transferred back to the Council, with the remainder of
SCS left to concentrate on renewable energy projects. Following the submission of the planning
application and further public consultation during the summer, the Council granted approval on 11
December 2013, for what had become, by then, a 40 MW scheme, with 150,000 solar panels over
an area of 170 acres, making it the largest solar PV farm of its kind to gain a planning consent to
date. Benefits were said to include a secure and reliable income for the Science Museum to help
its work and a community benefit fund, with the potential to ‘generate’ [ ! ] around £40,000 a year
for local projects in Wroughton. Swindon Council has, however, itself referred its decision to the
Secretary of State because of his ‘declared interest’ in solar power projects in October, when he
rejected a planned 24 MW scheme on an airfield in Suffolk on grounds of environmental harm. The
Wroughton site is within an AONB and significant concerns have been expressed by Natural
England !
Offshore windpower
Meanwhile, in the Western Approaches, another renewable energy scheme appears to have been
abandoned. It was announced in November 2013 that the planned ‘Atlantic Array’ offshore
windfarm had been abandoned. This scheme, by Bristol Channel Energy Ltd [ a subsidiary of
RWE NPower ], involved between 187 and 416 turbines, with an installed capacity of 1,500 MW,
located 13 km off the northern Devon/ Somerset coast and 16km off the South Wales coast and
with a proposed landward National Grid connection at Alverdiscott, four miles east of Bideford.
Having been originally proposed in Spring 2010, the scheme had reached the stage of being
submitted to the National Infrastructure Planning Unit of PINS as a scoping report, requesting ‘an
opinion’.
Fracking for shale gas
The RTPI believes that it is crucial for those local authorities found to have significant reserves of
shale gas within their areas to develop appropriate planning policies for dealing with exploration
and extraction within their local development plans. Within the South West this means essentially
‘historic’ [ pre- 1974] Somerset – no doubt much to the relief of authorities in Cornwall, Devon, and
most of the rest of the region !
On 17 December 2013, DECC published ‘Next steps for shale gas production’ as as consultation
document following on from the findings of an SEA report, by AMEC, setting out the potential
economic and environmental effects of further oil and gas extraction activity in Britain, including
that of shale oil and gas. There would appear to be huge potential for shale gas extraction by
fracking [ rock splitting deep below the surface by high pressure water injection to release the gas
], with a figure of up to 25% of the UK’s current gas demand delivered in this way within a decade
or so, being quoted. The consultation runs until March 2014.
The first major confirmed gas reserve is on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, identified by Cuadrilla.
Here, fracking was resumed in December 2012,[ subject to new controls to ‘mitigate seismic
activity risk’ !] following an 18 month suspension while an investigation was made into earth
tremors felt back in 2011. Since then, there have been high profile demonstrations at another
Cuadrilla site in Balcombe, West Sussex. Other companies now want to explore in Fermanagh,
Vale of Glamorgan, Kent, Sussex and Somerset. and perhaps, here in the South West, the
documented experience of the Dorset County planners in successfully dealing with major scale oil
extraction in the Isle of Purbeck area, some five done decades ago, should be quickly dusted off ?
[ see also, the RTPI’s useful ‘Facts about fracking’ 20 Dec.2013 ]
National Character Area profiles
A day seminar in Bath on 20 November 2013 organised jointly by Natural England and CPRE
Branches in the South West, provided an insight into the work now being carried out to revise and
‘refresh’ the data within the 159 or so [English] National countryside Character Areas.(NCA’s)
Each of these area profiles is accompanied by a ‘Statement of Environmental Opportunity’(SEO)
and together, this data - now to be produced comprehensively in digital form for the first time – and
using the new ‘ecosystem services approach’ , can be freely used by anyone to help shape
environmental projects and aid decision making. A particularly exciting development was the
prospect of being able to link all of this into other data on human health, well-being and prosperity.
A guide to the new NCA Profiles is to be produced by Natural England in 2014, which will ‘signpost’
uses and applications, such as the use of SEO’s to help stimulate debate about appropriate
development and change. The seminar went on to look at a number of local case studies, including
the use of NCA information in the Mendip Hills [ NCA 141]; by the Exmoor [NCA145] and Dartmoor
[NCA 150]National Parks, to inform the ecosystems work there ; and in the Somerset Levels and
Moors [NCA 142] by the Avalon Marshes Landscape Partnership. Also referred to was the growing
importance of the new Local Nature Partnerships (LNP’s) , who were now starting to engage with
the NCA data, as also was English Heritage, in its work on historic landscapes
Overall, there was plenty of evidence that not only were the NCA Profiles getting better from a data
point of view, including new detail at the scale of local authorities, parishes, wards and even
individual farms, they were also being increasingly used. To an extent, the Seminar was ‘preaching
to the converted’, but the new NCA work offered the hope of being able to bring others with a
different, ‘development-based’, outlook and brief into discussion to help everyone achieve better
solutions for change.
National [ Road & Rail ] Networks
Just as the Government announced its intention to review the whole NSIP/Planning Act 2008
regime, another National Policy Statement (NPS) has emerged. The ‘Draft NPS for the National [
Road & Rail] Networks’ was published for consultation by the DfT on 4 December 2013. It sets
itself a major challenge – ‘to provide the right balance between a well-connected and high
performing road and rail network, with sufficient capacity to meet the Country’s [ England] long
term needs, whilst protecting the environment and minimising social impacts’. It also includes the
following statement in justifying the need for developing these networks – ‘ such networks are
drivers of growth ‘ which ‘in their current state, without development’ will’ act as a constraint to
sustainable economic growth, quality of life and wider environmental objectives’. Readers will
probably agree that this statement sums up the situation in the South West exactly !
As usual, there is a package of documents for this consultation ; the 21 page Consultation
Document itself ; the Draft NPS [ published as an 88 page Annex A ] ; an Appraisal of
Sustainability [ 500 + pages as five further Annexes] ; and an Appropriate Assessment under the
Habitats Regulations [ Annex G with just 17 pages]. The Draft NPS contains an introduction
followed by chapters on the need for network development ; wider Government policy ;
assessment principles ; and [ the biggest chapter] ‘generic impacts ‘, covering emissions,
biodiversity, geological conservation etc. There are also maps showing firstly, levels of congestion
on the current strategic road network [ little congestion shown in the South West, compared to
other areas of England, apart from short stretches of trunk road in Dorset, Devon and Wiltshire and
predicted future serious congestion on the M5 just south of Bristol ] Secondly, there are maps of
the strategic rail network [ in which the South West features very little – just London – Swansea ,
Bristol north to Birmingham, and London down to Salisbury ]
The Consultation Document contains 9 Consultation Questions. The number has been kept short,
but, some of them are very big ones, such as’ [ 2] Does the draft NN NPS adequately explain the
Government’s policy for addressing need as set out/ If not, why not ?’ Helpfully however, each
question is prefaced by reference to the relevant chapter in the draft NN NPS. The consultation
period ends on 26 February 2014.
This draft NPS does not cover HS2, which is being handled by means of a hybrid bill. There are
however, some related references to this project, such to new networks and strategic rail freight
interchanges ‘ which will be needed as a result of the extra rail capacity and connectivity which
HS2 is expected to generate. Finally, sitting alongside the NPS, but not forming part of it, is a
promised statement of the Government’s current investment programmes for the road and rail
networks – ‘ Road & Rail Investment Strategies’, providing details of funding and timing.
Progress once again on Cornwall’s ‘Clay Country Eco-town’
Back in 2012, developer Eco-Bos decided to put its original plans on hold as a result of the
economic downturn, and since then, Cornwall Council has been seeking ways to progress the
project. Following a bid for financial support to DCLG early in 2013, a £1.4m grant has now been
secured, which will support the next stage – a new master plan and planning application for the
West Carclaze site, including 1,500 new homes , a new primary school, local centre, employment
space, green space, and new cycling and pedestrian routes. Cornwall Council will now be working
with Eco-Bos and other partners on this first element of the new eco-community, involving
significant local community consultation, as well as local Town and Parish Councils and a specially
set up ‘Peoples’ Panel’.
Geoff Walker
RTPI SW Policy Project Officer
12.01.14
SWPolicy@rtpi.org.uk