The Assembly, Planning and Design: Strategic Planning Introduction Key issues The Assembly and the Planning System Urban Design Transport Strategic Planning |
Strategic Planning
There is probably a need for an all-Wales tier of SPG that address issues relevant to the nation as a whole alongside a pattern of regional strategies (that could even con-tain sub-area strategies). SPG should (at the national and regional level) have statu-tory status so that it can offer a framework for emergent UDPs. Discussion Richard Jarvis highlighted the need to focus strategically on links with England, pointing to the very close links between NE Wales and the NW of England. N-S links were important to politicians but less so to industry! Investment in north Wales could be constrained by lack of investment in the NW; for instance the problem of the M56 bottleneck S of Chester. Likewise, Manchester International Airport was very important to the north Wales economy. Mike agreed that there was a need for strategic planning in the English regions to be linked to parallel issues in Wales. Lyn Owen noted that the strategic topics that had been identified reflected the fact that strategic planning was a key issue for the Assembly. The research scoping exercise will draw up its own list of issues and priorities and a lot of these will have been identified in the paper that had been presented. There are a number of ways in which strategic issues can be addressed alongside planning mechanisms. One is to link them through other programmes such as those of the WDA; another is to create linkages through the National Economic Strategy and the spending of Objective 1 money. This will need input from the planning side. He did not agree that there is no strategic context in Wales that provides connections to RPG in the English regions. PG (W) provides a strategic context at an all-Wales level. However, it was possible that more of a spatial dimension could be introduced to PG (W). He was not convinced that there was a particular gap in planning at the regional level in Wales. To date this had been addressed by encouraging local authority groupings to work together to evolve regional guidance. There has been progress in all four of the Welsh LPA groupings, although at different rates. It is also clear that the first issue of statements by these groupings will not prove very exciting in content, although it will offer the basis on which each can move ahead. The Assembly will continue to pursue this direction but will also need to address the issue of the status of such guidance. A paper was tabled for the NAW Local Government, Planning and Environment Committee on 20 October that looked at strategic and regional planning issues. There was room for this initiative to generate an active debate that would be listened to carefully by the NAW. Bob Croydon raised the issue of the nature of leadership within the NAW and pointed to structural problems that could arise within its hierarchy of divisions. Did economic development take precedence over planning and environmental matters? A senior appointment under Peter Law should be tackling design and sustainability issues. Lyn Owen pointed to the input that Planning Division has into the National Ec-nomic Strategy and other initiatives. There is the capacity for Planning to have an in-fluence over rural policy. Political engagement ensures a high profile for planning. He added that the Planning Division had already encouraged planners in north Wales to develop links with their English counterparts (Richard Jarvis responded that planners in the north-west of England tended to be very insular). Mike returned to the need to raise Welsh economic performance to a point close to the UK average. In the NE and SE regions faced the consequences of success reflected in the demand for land for development, leisure, housing and tourism. As a consequence there were significant environmental issues to be addressed in these areas, and the significant shortage of development land would lead to problems in ad-dressing social and economic aspirations. David Wilson suggested that the lack of development land in the SE indicated a need for decisions on regional policy that took account of issues in other regions. If the SE was overheating it was doing so at the expense of the rest of Wales. The Assembly needed to develop policies and resources to address this regional imbalance. A more effective framework was needed for regional planning. LPAs working together have not yet got to grips with the more fundamental issues. An alternative is therefore needed to the voluntary route if there is to be effective regional guidance. This needs to be done without creating more bureaucracy, and the solution needs to recognise that the NAW itself has not got the resources to deliver regional plans throughout Wales. The answer could lie in not only charging LPAs to liase with each other on cross boundary issues, but for them and to develop RPG that could be submitted to Regional Committees and the Assembly itself. RPG would then be endorsed/amended and issued by the Assembly and provide a framework for UDPs. The NAW would in this scenario oversee the process whilst allowing the unitary authorities to develop a bottom-up approach. This could be a robust way of working in the future. General discussion Simon Unwin asked what constituted success in a planning system. He suggested that the criteria for success seem to vary from case to case. Perhaps this whole question of success should be opened up for debate; it may have different answers dependent on the standpoint of the observer. If we do not bring this matter into the open there is the danger that different disciplines and sections will pursue their own separate agenda. An example might be to consider the quality of the urban environment. In what way is the quality of the urban environment in Wales poor? We need to analyse what makes up urban quality if we are to make progress. This position suggested that he differed from some of David Wilson's conclusion. We also needed to consider the interna-tional dimension of planning for Wales. The Assembly should look outside as well as inside Wales. Exciting linkages were possible with Ireland and Scotland. International contacts would be beneficial; meanwhile the national identity seemed quite robust. Mike Hollingsworth suggested that when good work is done in Wales in raising the quality of the urban environment this does evoke public response and recognition. Equally, people can be critical of poor environments. We should not regard environmental quality as something that is recognised only by élites. The purpose of the NAW was inter alia to protect the distinctive character of Welsh culture. Was this something that could be pursued directly? Simon White stressed the importance of national identity; the issue is the nature of the mechanism that will define local, regional and national identities. One example could be the way in which the land map process is enabling assessments of local and regional landscape quality. There is no equivalent for this process in the context of urban design and the urban environment. The Assembly could take a lead in establishing processes for urban design practice; it should also be looking at the way in which local identities and strategies can be defined. Confidence would arise from audits of this kind. Should regional guidance identify identity and distinctiveness alongside is role in land use? David Eager There is no current methodology to address quality in the urban context. Good practice could be brought to bear; we could learn from the methodologies ap-plied in wider environmental contexts. He was concerned that in Wales a high natural environmental quality sat alongside low urban quality. He wondered whether endless physical development should be equated with human well-being. Specifically there was a need to identify those factors that contributed to environmental quality and a need to plan for an environment that people were content with. Did this imply a vision of a small but beautiful Wales? Mike Hollingsworth acknowledged the unfortunate truth that affluence puts pressure on land for development. Alison Brown returned to the theme of transport. There was a need to look at trans-port systems at the local level and in design terms. There was a lack of linkage be-tween the concerns of planners and the work of highways engineers. She made a plea to look at highways design standards and to consider integrated transport policy at the urban and suburban level. More broadly she felt that there was a public relations role for the Assembly in promoting innovative thought in Wales. The Assembly should publicise and promote ideas and thereby stimulate debate. John Punter Raised the issue of environmental capital. Perhaps we should be consid-ering environmental design more broadly than the narrower issue of urban design. We needed to treat rural and urban issues together rather than separately.. Owain Wyn referred back to Simon White's query about success indicators. The RTPI would be happy to work with other individuals and institutions to develop these. Commenting on the international dimension of the Assembly he noted the increased pace of activity within the institute as an impact of devolution. Matthew Griffiths suggested that many of the issues that were being mentioned re-lated to an agenda for social inclusion. In this context, the earlier discussion on the importance of Built Environment Education as a means of empowering communities and the voluntary sector should not be set aside. Given the Assembly's powers on education as much as its engagement with sustainability, this was an issue that it could take up and develop positively, both in the context of school curricula and the wider framework of lifelong learning. On the international dimension he wondered whether it was likely that the Assembly would mirror the Scottish government's inter-est in architecture and design policy. David Eager (who had recently visited Scotland and discussed some of these issues with the Scottish Civic Trust) commented that Wales had never had any equivalent to Scotland's Chief Architect, and that this factor had presumably influenced divergent approaches to the selection of projects for the National Assembly and Scottish Par-liament. Bob Croydon agreed that there was need for a higher sense of civic interest in the public realm. Civic pride was stronger in other countries than in Wales. Should civics, he asked, be a core curriculum issue? Lyn Owen noted that the Welsh Office had in the past possessed and in-house building/architectural service but that this had been wound up some time ago. Recently, a change had taken place in that some responsibility for building matters had been allo-cated to the Housing Division of the Assembly. Simon Unwin agreed that BEE and civic mindedness were important. At present the most important person in any development proposal is the client, developer or patron. The power of patronage is the most powerful force in shaping development. Raised civic mindedness would not empower the public it might also influence developers and patrons. A fundamental shift in quality might take place when the money bags have a civic awareness. John Punter suggested that in this context it was positive that CABE had appointed Stuart Lipton as its chair. Generally, he suggested that there was a need for debate in Wales about the role of planning in relation to environmental quality. The lead taken by architects in Scotland as noted; was there a similar need for leadership in Wales? |
Introduction Key issues The Assembly and the Planning System Urban Design Transport Strategic Planning |