Ayrshire Structure Plan Monitor: Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2000
AWARD FOR DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
13. AYRSHIRE JOINT STRUCTURE PLAN MONITOR 2000
nominated in 2000 by the Ayrshire Joint Structure Plan and Transportation Committee.
The approval of the Ayrshire Joint Structure Plan by Scottish Ministers in January 2000 marked the successful conclusion to the first structure plan to be prepared jointly by adjoining Councils in Scotland - and indeed led to a commendation in the 1999 Awards. Planning, however, is a continuous process. If the structure plan is to remain both successful and useful it must be able to respond to changing circumstance. This requires policy monitoring and review on a regular basis. As part of the approved plan the Councils indicated that a monitoring statement would be prepared on a 2-yearly cycle from the date of approval. This would mesh with the requirement to review the plan as a whole once every 5 years. Large amounts of data are already collected on a range of topics on a regular basis, including industrial and residential land take-up, vacant land, together with a variety of other data sources that must be updated as part of a statutory obligation. All these provide an indication of what is happening within a particular topic and are reported on a regular basis to the Joint Committee. They do not, however monitor the overall performance of the plan against its stated objectives. Monitor 2000, therefore, provides the opportunity to explore how the plan itself is progressing.
Monitor 2000 is a strategic monitoring statement presenting a range of economic, social and environmental data. Its purpose is twofold: 1) to indicate how the structure plan policies are achieving their declared objective as defined by the Vision Statement and the Statement of Strategic Intent - the overall performance of the plan; and 2) to extend the Strategic Environmental Appraisal carried out throughout the plan preparation stages into policy monitoring and development. The structure of the report is based on the four key Statements of Strategic Intent - on economy, community, environment and sustainable development. The document defines key challenges for each category, sets out a series of key objectives for each and registers a set of measurable criteria. These criteria become the "baseline indicators" for policy and performance testing, and will be reviewed every 2 years. This is the start of a new type of monitoring process for Councils in Ayrshire. The indicators have taken time and effort to determine through discussion and debate with the many agencies listed in the back of the document. Inevitably, for some topics, data is scarce or not available; new data emerges as more agencies move towards performance monitoring. There will be a need, therefore, for the indicators to evolve - particularly at this early stage, and a community input is required. With the structure plan likely to be reviewed only once every 5 years it is important that the status and intent of the plan is kept in the public domain, with issues open to debate. With this in mind the document has been made available either as hard copy or through our website to all our listed consultees. Again in time we hope this will result in a more informed debate at the next review of the structure plan.
The judges called for a presentation on this nomination. It is often said that planning is a continuous process, but development planning just as frequently seems to go forward by fits and starts. Monitoring and review can represent the kind of undivided attention essential to unlock the value of development planning, and strategic planning is no exception. The three Ayrshire councils, working together through a joint structure plan team, have prepared an extremely effective first monitoring report. This has kept the strategic issues before members and the public and informed the debate. "Lest we forget" might be the joint team's motto. Looking at the Ayrshire Monitor 2000 again and again, the judges found it admirably reports key policy areas in a helpful and succinct way, with useful pointers to sustainable development issues. As the team admits, the process and the indicators will evolve with time, but the judges believe that on this evidence the Ayrshire councils have made an outstanding start. They strongly and unreservedly recommend an Award in this category for the Ayrshire Joint Structure Plan Monitor 2000.