Examination of Witness(Questions 593-599)
DR JOE
HOWE
WEDNESDAY 11 DECEMBER 2002
Chairman
593. Dr Howe, you are at the School of Planning
and Landscape at Manchester University, but could you spell out
what you are there, for the record?
(Dr Howe) I am Director of Graduate Planning Studies
at the University of Manchester
594. We were particularly anxious in the course
of this investigation not to get so involved with diffuse pollution
from agricultural sources in the countryside that we overlook
the enormous implications of this Directive for planning within
the urban environment. We were not overwhelmed with submissions,
it has to be said, from planners, which made me wonder how many
were aware of this, but we did do some investigations and we turned
you up, if I may say it like that.
(Dr Howe) I think that is fair to say.
595. From a planning point of view and looking
at the terms of the Directive, and you heard the Minister say
that the planning guidances were likely to remain instrumental
here, but could you tell us how do you think this is actually
going to work in practice? If you had to give a seminar to some
people from local authorities and they said, "What on earth
is the Water Framework Directive and what does it mean for us?",
what would you tell them?
(Dr Howe) It is going to have huge implications and
I think it is fair to say that to date local authorities and planning
bodies are not up to speed with the potential implications of
the Water Framework Directive. I think that is probably reflected
in the lack of submissions before the Committee. Some of the work
that I have been doing at the University of Manchester has been
to try to argue that planning and planners need to become aware
of the spatial implications of the Water Framework Directive.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the Water Framework Directive
will be the implication for forward planning and at the moment
there appears to be a lack of synchronisation, shall we say, between
the spatial scales that local authorities are responsible for
in their development plans and the spatiality of the river basin
management plans. They do not sit very comfortably together. Inevitably,
some local authorities will sit across two river basin management
plans, for instance, so spatiality is problematic. I think, secondly,
that there is an issue of who is going to be responsible for the
implementation of these particular management plans. Much discussion
has taken place about whether or not the Environment Agency is
the most appropriate body to oversee this particular initiative
and they probably are, in my opinion. Nevertheless, at the moment
the Environment Agency is not known for employing too many planners
and there are going to be huge land-use planning implications
here, so it is important that planning bodies and the Environment
Agency get together to familiarise themselves with the various
land-use management implications of this.
596. So we should really be asking the Minister
whether or not the Environment Agency is involved with his Department
in discussing with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister the
planning guidances?
(Dr Howe) Absolutely.
597. And are planning guidances sufficiently
strong instruments in order to deliver this?
(Dr Howe) They could be, but they are not at the moment.
598. What needs to happen to them to make them
strong enough?
(Dr Howe) Certainly PPG25, which is on flooding, potentially
could have some implications for this, and also PPG13, which is
on the development plans aspect, really needs to spell out the
implications of river basin management plans and perhaps a way
forward which the Committee might like to consider is that in
future the development plans or planning policy guidance has in
it some recommendation that river basin management plans should
be incorporated within development plans per se so that
there is an incorporation to ensure that there is consistency
across various local authorities within a river basin district,
if you will.
599. So if I ask the question, "What legal
status will the river basin management plans have in regard to
land-use planning?", the answer may well be that the legal
status might be impeccable, but the means to translate that into
action is deficient?
(Dr Howe) Very much so and they will be there to be
challenged unless they are incorporated into the development plans
and I imagine that the courts will have quite an important role
to play in all of this unless they are incorporated very clearly
within legislation and into the development plans.
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