From the Chairman - Tim Harrold

Tim reports on some of the developments in regional planning over the past few months

 

Walking in the wilderness

 

The prospects for a speedy introduction of a ‘Spatial Strategy’ for the South East now look problematic. The positive work done on the draft 20-year Plan for the

SE Region is in turmoil and the morale of all concerned with its preparation badly affected. Alterations in Government policy are also seriously undermining progress on the Local Development Frameworks that are to be the new Local Plans of the future.

 

CPRE played a prominent participatory role throughout the 42 day Examination in Public of the draft SE Plan which was produced under great time pressure against a constant background of new policy announcements from the Government. Now that the SE Plan has obtained a ‘seal of approval’ from the Panel Report on 11 of the 12 tests of soundness required, it was anticipated that the Government would respond without delay. But to the contrary, there has been no momentum forward and a good deal of credibility in the process lost as a result. It is as if we have all been walking in the wilderness for 40 days but there is still no sight of the promised land.

 

 

Reform delay and planning uncertainty

 

In fact none of the Regional Spatial Strategies in England have yet been signed off by the Government, a situation which contrasts strangely with its repeated calls for more rapid decisions on planning. What has happened in the meantime is that a hastily prepared Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration (SNR) has been issued by the Government, announcing that Regional Assemblies will not continue in their current form beyond 2010. Responsibility for the Regional Spatial Strategy is to pass from the South East England Regional Assembly, which includes elected councillors from local authorities, to the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) which is a Government-appointed ‘quango’.

 

The new proposal calls for a single Integrated Regional Strategy to be issued in the South East which will replace the draft South East Plan, the Regional Economic Strategy and the Regional Housing Strategy. The Regional Development Agency (in this case SEEDA) will become the single body with executive responsibility for producing this strategy, working it is to be hoped closely with local government and other partners and stakeholders such as CPRE. A great deal of dedicated hard work, professional expertise, and time appears to have been sacrificed at huge expense whilst Whitehall attempts to discover what it wants in terms of local government reform. All this could not come at a less propitious moment with the leadership at SEEDA changing, the Mayoral election in London in process, the economy weakening, and many experienced planning staff leaving local government in frustration to make careers elsewhere.

 

 

Democratic deficit

 

Excellent local working relationships built up during the drafting of the South East Plan are being undermined by all these uncertainties. A ‘democratic deficit’ is now apparent that is not overcome by the appointment of Regional Ministers, undefined new scrutiny arrangements for RDAs, or proposals for Parliamentary select committees for the Regions. Local planning is being damaged by an unbalanced emphasis, led by the Treasury, on economic growth and housing provision even at the expense of everything else.

 

The public tends not to be interested in planning reform issues. But planning is critical to the future quality of life of all those who live and work in the ‘Greater South East’ including London and Surrey. Our ‘green and pleasant land’ looks increasingly threatened unless a change of direction takes place. Can we really allow more power to those unelected exponents of economic priority who accept that a progressive erosion of the Metropolitan Green Belt is necessary and inevitable? CPRE Surrey believes that this is an issue on which the public feels strongly and on which compromise is not the answer. After all it is everyone’s quality of life that is at stake and no one will benefit from planning chaos.

 

Tim Harrold

Chairman, CPRE Surrey