Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Local Government Association (including Planning Officers Society submission as an annex)

  1.  The Local Government Association, which represents local authorities throughout England and Wales, is grateful for the opportunity to comment on this important issue. The evidence submitted here focuses on the main issues affecting local authorities.

SUMMARY

 (A)   Flooding and planning authorities—revision of PPS25 and development on flood plains

  The LGA feels it is in appropriate for the EA to call for a "power of call-in" (including referral to the Secretary of State), where planning authorities permit schemes against their advice. Resources would be better used trying to improve relationships at a local level in these cases, rather than opting for removing the local democratic aspect and indeed "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut".

 (B)   Making Space for Water

  Defra has recently given the EA responsibility for approving all flood defence and coast protection works and is considering giving EA further responsibilities in this area. This would cut democratically elected councils out of the process, remove the framework where coast protection is integrated with other council functions and may lead to loss of local knowledge/experience.

 (C)   Working through Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs)—improving effectiveness

  Management of the environment in a geographical locality is fragmented between many different organisations. The LGA believes the EA could achieve their objectives more effectively through joining LSPs convened by councils, establishing a set of objectives for the year based on local needs.

 (D)   "Working better together"

  Relationships with the Agency vary at the local level. The LGA and EA have established "working better together" protocols. Defra and EA need to ensure this type of liaison is valued and properly resourced.

 (E)   Waste management

  EA decisions on waste management issues often have an impact on councils. Officers feel EA do not always thoroughly investigate the likely impacts (often financial) on councils.

 (F)   Capacity in the Environment Agency

  There is evidence to suggest that the delivery capacity of the Agency is struggling to cope with the growing amount of functions that are being taken on.

 (G)   Waste planning

  (1)  Waste Planners believe the EA needs to ensure that the appropriate resources and management priority is given to waste data issues so that the Mineral and Waste Planning Authorities can plan on a secure information base. (2) There is a body of evidence that the EA is not investing appropriate in the Planning Liaison business of responding to consultations from Minerals and Waste Planning Authorities. (3) There is concern that the Agency and Mineral and Waste Planning Authority enforcement staff do not liaise in the most effective ways. (4) It is frustrating for planning staff to deal with different Agency staff in their council area because of the different geographical boundaries which the EA and councils have.

LGA EVIDENCE

 (A)   Flooding and planning authorities—revision of PPS25 and development on flood plains

  2.  The Environment Agency (EA) has been concerned that a number of local authorities are granting planning permission against the EA's advice. The LGA is very concerned to ensure that development on flood plains only happens in appropriate conditions. There are two key points:

    —  often disagreements relate to differing advice on whether proposed defences are adequate;

    —  the number of instances where the local authority and the EA disagree has reduced to very small numbers. The numbers of such instances are statistically small and are decreasing, with a handful of authorities being responsible for the majority of these cases.

  3.  Given these issues—the LGA feels it is in appropriate for the EA to call for a "power of call-in" including referral to the Secretary of State, where planning authorities permit schemes against their advice. Resources would be better used trying to improve relationships at a local level in these cases, rather than opting for removing the local democratic aspect and indeed "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut".

  4.  (The LGA supports the majority of the PPS 25 revision.)

 (B)   Making Space for Water

  5.  Defra has recently given the EA responsibility for approving (and administering the funding system for) all flood defence and coast protection works (a responsibility which used to be held by Defra). Under the Making Space for Water review, Defra is also considering giving the EA responsibility for producing Shoreline Management Plans, as well as promoting and building flood defences inland and on the coast.

  6.  This is worrying for a number of reasons:

    —  Effectively, this will cut democratically elected local authorities out of the process, leaving important decisions in the hands of unelected and unaccountable officials. The proposal does not sit easily the 1998 Agriculture Select Committee report which was concerned about the possible transfer of coast protection to another body and stated that "were this [transfer] to come about, there would be considerable disadvantages in terms of political accountability, especially at a regional and local level".

    —  It will break-up a framework where the coast protection function is integrated with a range of other local authority functions such as strategic planning and development control, amenities and tourism, environmental health and economic regeneration.

    —  Local knowledge and experience may be lost and there are realistic fears (based on the lack of capacity in local EA offices) that the EA will not be able to provide as good a service as local authorities do presently.

 (C)   Working through Local Strategic Partnerships—improving effectiveness

  7.  Management of the environment in a geographical locality is fragmented between many different organisations. The LGA believes organisations like the EA could achieve their own objectives more effectively through joining Local Strategic Partnerships convened by local authorities. One small example: the EA is currently concerned that SMEs are not complying with environmental regulation. The solution to this is likely to lie in local-authority led Business Partnerships which forge a joined-up approach to supporting local SMEs.

  8.  Local EA offices could work with the Local Authority and other local environmental bodies to establish a set of objectives for the year based on local needs.

  9.  This could be facilitated by EA geographical boundaries being aligned with local authority boundaries (this issue is also raised in the context of Waste Planning below).

 (D)   "Working better together"

  10.  Relationships with the Agency vary at the local level. The LGA and EA have worked together to establish "working better together" protocols which aim to address this issue. Where relationships are not effective, there is often a feeling that there is limited understanding from Agency staff about the functions and responsibility of local authorities. The LGA and EA are therefore currently working to do more along these lines.

  11.  This needs to be backed up by an approach nationally which sees the EA consulting local authorities more closely on issues which will have an impact on their work. LGA believes both Defra and EA need to ensure this type of liaison is valued and properly resourced.

 (E)   Waste management and Environment Agency policy: EA policy has an operational and financial impact on local authorities—not always recognised by the EA or Government

  12.  Agency decisions on waste management issues often have a financial or operational impact on councils. Council officers sometimes feel EA policy has "come out of the blue" and feel they have not been consulted or that consultation did not investigate or make explicit the likely impacts on local government. There are many examples, which are often rather complex. One relates to the decision on how to measure "MBT residuals going to landfill"—which has had financial and operational impacts not spelled out in the consultation. Further details can be submitted on request.

 (F)   Capacity in the Environment Agency

  13.  There is evidence to suggest that the delivery capacity of the Agency is struggling to cope with the growing amount of functions that are being taken on.

  14.  Corporately the EA are keen to take on larger roles in issues such as coast protection, however discussions with regional EA staff suggest they may not be able to deliver such new roles. Local authority networks point to examples such as the National Flood and Coastal Defence Database where the inability of the EA to deliver on projects cis causing organisational and financial difficulties to authorities.

 (G)   Waste planning

  15.  The Minerals and Waste Committee of the Planning Officers Society have submitted some more detailed comments—submitted alongside this LGA submission (see Annex A). In summary, Waste Planners have the following comments:

    —  The EA needs to ensure that the appropriate resources and management priority is given to waste data issues so that the Mineral and Waste Planning Authorities can plan on a secure information base.

    —  There is a body of evidence that the EA is not investing appropriate in the Planning Liaison business of responding to consultations from Minerals and Waste Planning Authorities. (four key points are made in detail in the POS Annex B paras 8 to 10.)

    —  There is concern that the Agency and Mineral and Waste Planning Authority enforcement staff do not liaise in the most effective ways.

    —  It is frustrating for planning staff to deal with different Agency staff in their council area because of the different geographical boundaries which the EA and councils have. It is not being suggested that the EA reorganise, but that the Agency teams may be more effective if they coordinated functions on a "county area" basis. This approach is being considered with Primary Care Trusts as it is thought there are efficiencies and service benefits to be realised.

Local Government Association

December 2005


 
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