UK Planning System Research Articles

Attitudes to Sustainable Development in Planning: Policy integration, participation and Local Agenda 21, a case‐study of the Hertfordshire Structure Plan

This paper explores the debate about the pursuit of an integrated and participatory approach to sustainable development within the UK planning system, using the Examination in Public (EiP) of the Hertfordshire Structure Plan as a case‐study. The Hertfordshire Structure Plan incorporated a concept called ‘whole settlement strategies’, requiring that the major settlements in the county were planned holistically to assess their potential to meet development needs. The debate at the EiP sheds light on issues associated with the operationalism of key themes of sustainable development in planning, and on the relationship between emerging approaches to Local Agenda 21 and the development plan system. It also highlights the contested meanings of sustainable development between those promoting a strong approach and those holding to a weak definition based on meeting development needs.

Securing Housing Choice: New Opportunities for the UK Planning System

ABSTRACT This review paper is primarily concerned with the fall and potential rise of housing tenure choice in the UK. It reviews those policy directives, implemented during the 1980s, which were instrumental in eroding social renting opportunities and, more broadly, 'tenure choice'. In the second part of the paper, reductions in tenure choice are explored at the district level using a Census derived 'choice index'. This description of changing patterns is followed by an examination of policy shifts in the 1990s. Emphasis is placed on changes to the planning system at the local level. It is argued that new mechanisms for bringing forward affordable rented housing may contribute towards restoring tenure choice. But this may only be achieved if the new UK government can contain pressures for prioritising sale housing; pressures inherent in the recent household projections and the 'affordable housing thresholds' found in new planning guidance.

Development Plans and Hazardous Installations

For the land-use planning system, which often deals with tangible, physical matters, situations where a large-scale hazard (or potential for harm) may have only a very small risk (or probability) of being realised, can be especially problematical. One widespread example relates to the storage or use of hazardous substances, where, in the event of a major accident and release of toxic, explosive or flammable materials, local people and the nearby environment may be seriously affected. The UK planning system has been taking account of such hazardous installations for the last two decades, with European legislation further reinforcing this position under a forthcoming revision of the EU 'Seveso' Directive. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the treatment of such hazard issues within local develpment plans. A survey of local planning authorities and an analysis of plan policy content, is used to reveal the extent to which development plans are addressing the land-use implications of major accident hazards, the approaches and types of policies that are being employed, and the implications for both land-use policy and developing spatial patterns of major hazard in the UK. Before discussing the results of the survey and policy analysis, the context within which major accident hazards are now incorporated within land-use planning practice is first reviewed.

Civil Remedies in Law Enforcement: The Planning Experience

Enforcement of regulatory controls has traditionally been left to the criminal law. In the last 15 years there has been an increasing interest in using civil remedies for this purpose. Most of the attention has been on financial services, but there have been recent developments in the UK planning system, which provide interesting parallels.

Enduring decisions: Evaluating environmental impacts for sustainability planning

Abstract This paper aims to establish a framework in which potential methods for evaluating environmental impacts can be considered, with particular reference to the UK planning system. To do this a number of complementary ways of conceptualising sustainable development and making it more practical are outlined. Some basic arguments about the meaning of sustainability are reviewed; and some common misconceptions about the concept exposed. The concept of sustainability constraints is outlined and a functional distinction between quantitative and qualitative constraints is proposed. The adoption of sustainability constraints based on measures of environmental capacity is proposed. These suggest significant reductions in consumption of most environmental resources. The efficiency and sufficiency strategies that would be needed to meet the proposed quantified constraints are outlined. In conclusion, evaluation processes and indicators of sustainability, including environmental foot‐printing and environmental ...

Assessing the performance of the EA process

The focus of the article is on evaluating ‘how well’ the environmental assesssment (EA) process is working in practice, particularly within the UK planning system. Two approaches to performance measurement are proposed and the methods for developing performance indicators within each of these are analysed. Initial results from using these two approaches are presented which are helpful in providing some preliminary evidence on the performance of the process as a whole, and of its constituent stages, in the UK situation. Recommendations are made on the further development and refinement of performance indicators for the EA process and for their use, as part of a quality control system, to improve future performance.

EC and UK Legislation on Environmental Assessment and its Effect on the UK Water Industry

AbstractThe development of the practice and purpose of environmental assessment (EA) both in the UK and overseas is reviewed, and the implementation of European Commission EA legislation into the UK planning system is examined, together with its relevance to the water industry. The effects and obligations on the industry are discussed with reference to practice prior to and since the introduction of EA legislation. The process of EA is illustrated by reference to the River Avon Sluices Scheme being undertaken by NRA (Severn Trent), and the environmental statements being prepared in accordance with SI 1217. Likely future developments in EA are suggested.

The impact of environmental assessment on local planning authorities

Abstract Studies of two samples of 24 selected local planning authorities (LPAs) in the UK were undertaken to determine the effect of environmental assessment (EA) regulations on planning practice during their first 18 months of operation. EA has been integrated into the UK planning system without significant recourse to the courts and many LPAs regarded EA as a worthwhile and helpful procedure. However, several LPAs did not consider whether to request EA for projects that might be likely to have significant impacts and some LPAs did not follow statutory and recommended consultation procedures. LPAs did not evaluate environmental statements systematically and their quality was often unsatisfactory. However, mitigation of environmental impacts took place in many cases though two‐fifths of the 20 determined applications involving EA were refused. Half the decisions took longer than the 16‐week time limit. While practice is evolving as experience is gained, there is obvious scope for further improvement and ...

EIA in the UK planning system

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) resulted from a growing concern at the increase in environmental degradation, and the realization of the necessity to assess the effects of human impacts on the environment. This article looks at the preparation of the directive on ‘the assessment of certain public and private projects on the environment’, and the resulting lists of projects for which an EIA would be required. The Department of the Environment is responsible for incorporating EIA into the UK planning system, and the authors look at the way in which the government has attempted to deal with this problem.