Marine Planning in England Organising the process through pre-planning

International MSP Symposium14th -15th May 2012

Marine Planning in EnglandOrganising the process through pre-planning

Paul GillilandMarine Planning

Development Manager

Outline• Why – drivers• Legislation• Principles, goals, objectives• Timing and funding• Building capacity – people

• Challenges• Lessons

• National (England) vs plan area

Why did we want marine planning – 10 years of advocacy• Sustainable use of marine resources• Greater certainty for investors/developers• Improved basis for addressing cumulative effects• ‘Regional seas’ governance (ecosystem approach)• Proactive and forward planning• Plan for new activities and changing technologies• Framework for consistent decision making• Cohesion with coastal and terrestrial plans (ICZM)• Early involvement of stakeholders (“democratic deficit”)

Why do we need marine planning?Overarching driver – Increasing and competing use of marine space and resources, impacting on the sustainability of the marine environment

Future needs, e.g. Offshore Wind

• Target: renewables = 15% (but aim for more) of the UK’s total electricity needs by 2020

• 50,000+ new jobs?

• Existing/planned plus ‘Round 3’ wind = total potential capacity of up to 40 GW

• 6,000 turbines footprint

• Other renewables, i.e. Wave, tidal

Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 • Long lead in time and preparatory work• Supported by main political parties (commitment)

• Complex piece of legislation (delivery!)• Licensing (Consenting)• Nature Conservation• Fisheries• Coastal Access• Marine planning

• Marine Management Organisation (MMO)• Planning, licensing, fisheries management,

conservation delivery, enforcement functions• Vested April 2010• Cross-government ‘agency’

The legal requirement for marine planning

• Marine Policy Statement (MPS): the overarching policy framework for the UK marine area (UK Govt and Devolved Administrations)

• Marine Plans will translate the MPS into detailed policy and spatial guidance for each plan area (MMO, SoS)• All 10 plan ‘areas’ (sub-divisions around the coast)• Guide and direct decision makers, including Licensing• No timetable prescribed but report/review every 3-6 years

• Aim: contribute to and help deliver sustainable development• Economic, Environment, and Social• Across all sectors• Potentially changing emphasis (link to terrestrial planning)

stay close to relevant department(s)

Principles and goals – development & consultation

2002

UK vision ‘clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse oceans and seas’

2009 2011

•Ecosystem approach•Streamlined, efficient•Take account of other plans etc

A long time in the making, much consultation

Goals, Objectives, Policies• 22 Goals (High Level Marine Objectives):

• Achieving a sustainable marine economy• Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society• Living within environmental limits• Promoting good governance• Using sound science responsibly

• Policy objectives for key sectors, generally broad• Renewables: only explicit target• Oil & Gas: maximise economic development of resources• Aggregates: as a minimum make provision for a level of

marine contribution to adequate and continuing UK supply

• No prioritisation

• The ‘big picture’ to set plan area in context• Includes analysis of potential future opportunities• Inform plan-level objectives (targets?)

National picture of resources and activities

Just undertaken consultation on plan-specific objectives (but planning rather than ‘pre-planning’)

Where and whenOverall timetable• Estimate 2 years for each plan

(2.5 if Independent Investigation needed)

• Assume two at a time• Complete first cycle by 2021• Evaluate ≤ 3 years Review?

Reassessed recently, end date unchanged but overlap (lead in time)

Revising at same time as drafting new plans

East marine plan areasTimeline (two years)• Dec 2010: Announce, prep• April 2011: Start• Feb 2012: Evidence & Issues• May: Draft Objectives/Vision• July: Options • Sept: draft plan to government• Jan 2013: consultation • April 2013: revised

Relentless share ‘lead’ role; more time to pause?

Developing whilst doing take longer the first time?

58,700 km2

Inshore and Offshore2 plans, 1 process (87%)

“Show me someone that’s never made a mistake and I’ll show you someone that’s never made anything” a difficult message to get over and work around

Resource planning : Costs (and Benefits)• ‘Impact Assessment’ of planning vs ‘do nothing’. Benefits:

• Best estimate: £487 million [$779m] over twenty years• Environmental benefits difficult to quantify• Savings to business sectors, e.g. activity costs

• Costs• £2.7 million [$4.3m] per plan (all elements, e.g. Staff > evidence

gathering > Sustainability Appraisal > consultation) • £0.54 million [$0.86m] per review (assumes 20% of original

costs) every six years

• Resources : core funding from UK government

• Too early to judge but for now £ seems less limiting than time• Demands may fluctuate over time but ‘same’ resource

Capacity building - establishing a planning team

• New, from scratch opportunity to build a ‘team’

• Range of capability, skills and disciplines• Strategic thinkers, communicators, analysers • Marine specialists, terrestrial planners, GIS/IT users• In or outside of core team?

• Core ‘planning team’ (partly for longevity)

• Other MMO teams and input

• New organisation settle ahead of planning team?

MMO – core team and supporting teams

Marine Planning (>18) 

‘Future’ plan areasDevelopment Policy 

Appraisal 

Plan‐making in plan areas

Data, Evidence and Knowledge

Regulation & Licensing

3 ‘Liaison’ officers in East plan area

Stakeholder and Communications

Team leads

Challenges and lessons (some MMO-specific?)

• Recruitment challenges (at difficult time for public sector) Buy in interim help, e.g. Cefas (scientific advisory body),

economists Help ‘grow’ inexperienced staff but needs time

• Few or no ‘marine planners’ to hand Deliberately recruit from different backgrounds Team dynamic - different ‘types’ of people

• Very demanding programme = strain, long hours culture Recruit to planned timetable if possible ‘Pull together’, galvanise team etc but monitor

Wider capacity – other institutions and stakeholders

Some headline lessons• Development and ‘buy in’ can take a long time• Political support essential, as are ‘allies’• Legislative basis almost certainly essential• A framework of principles, goals/objective and policies is a

good start• Establishing more plan-specific objectives is preferable but

<100% is OK and even then is potentially difficult• Need allocated resources preferably over a sustained period• Need a timetable but also some flexibility if possible

particularly in the early days• (Dedicated planning body) with a dedicated team essential• Do NOT underestimate the challenge

Questions?

Plan-level objectives• Focussed consultation/workshops with selected parties

• Conclusions• Not just about ‘SMART’ objectives• Integrated/cross-cutting over topic/sector, e.g. Economic productivity,

or ecosystem health rather than fisheries or ports (except renewables) • Result is plan-level set of ‘goals’ with local emphases, e.g. C Change

• Wider consultation• 70 responses, > 1000 substantive comments• Broadly agree with above approach• Need more ‘plan-specific’ points (including possible ‘priorities’) not in

the Objectives themselves but in detailed ‘plan policies’ (=actions)

• Lot of effort at national ‘high level’, also to agree approach at plan-level, not essential to be 100% SMART but still some way to go to be SMARTer