Scottish Government

Scottish Executive Response to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution's Twenty-third Report Environmental Planning

INTEGRATED SPATIAL STRATEGIES

We recommend that the use of land for agriculture, forestry and countryside recreation should be issues covered in all spatial planning in future.

We recommend the introduction of integrated spatial strategies which take account of all spatially related activities and all spatially related aspects of environmental capacity. They should be four-dimensional, covering the atmosphere and groundwater as well as the land surface, and looking at least 25 years ahead.

An integrated spatial strategy must specify exactly what contributions are expected from local development plans and from the activities of other public bodies.

To ensure that all the relevant bodies contribute fully to preparation of the integrated spatial strategy, and are committed to its implementation, it should have a firm statutory basis, and the lead body should be clearly designated. All other public bodies should be placed under a duty to co-operate in its preparation and comply with it where it affects their activities.

It should be a statutory requirement that local plans or local development frameworks must comply with the integrated spatial strategy. Wherever appropriate, the policies and targets in the integrated spatial strategy should also be reflected in the community strategy or plan.

We recommend that the strategic development plans the Scottish Executive has proposed for the conurbations centred on Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee should take the form of the integrated spatial strategies we have recommended, and that consideration should be given to introducing integrated spatial planning in the remainder of Scotland.

The Scottish Executive shares the Commission's concern to ensure that the spatial distribution of activities safeguards sustainability by protecting and enhancing the environment. For projects likely to have significant environmental effects this is accomplished in part by the requirement for EIA. The introduction of Strategic Environmental Assessment will strengthen the way environmental information is brought into spatial decision making. As the Commission knows, the SEA Directive concerns plans and programmes in 11 sectors: town and country planning or land use, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, energy, industry, transport, waste management, water management, telecommunications and tourism.

Where we do not agree fully with the Commission is on the extent to which a single all-embracing mechanism is needed to plan and deliver on the environment. In coming to that view we have been mindful of the value of having one body responsible for both the preparation of a plan AND its implementation. We understand that the Commission's proposal would retain the existing consent and authorisation systems and not seek to replace them with a new Integrated Spatial Permission or some other such instrument. To go forward with an integrated spatial strategy would therefore separate plan making from implementation. This, we believe, could potentially have an adverse effect on the environment.

We believe that spatially related activities will be properly addressed under the proposals for Scottish Planning Policies (SPPs), a national planning framework and 4 city region plans which emerged from the Review of Strategic Planning. Crown development and that authorised under other procedures already involves planning authorities and, if appropriate, the Scottish Ministers in their planning capacity. These spatial planning documents already influence other Executive policies. The key spatial planning issues raised by mineral working will be considered as part of any future review of national minerals planning guidance. This should better enable a framework to be set which provides long-term, sustainable solutions, which balance economic, social and environmental priorities with the many local impacts that quarrying raises. Forestry is dealt with by indicative forestry strategies in structure plans. We do not think agriculture could sensibly be regulated through an integrated spatial strategy.

The Water Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003, which implements the Water Framework Directive, ensures that surface waters and groundwaters will be managed together. It also provides for control of land-based impacts on the water environment.

The national planning framework will provide a national spatial context for the preparation of development plans and other policy development. It will focus on a limited number of key issues which have a spatial dimension at the national level and where planning has an important role to play in delivering sustainable solutions. The framework is being prepared by the Scottish Executive with extensive stakeholder involvement.

We consider there should continue to be rights to object and provision for a public inquiry into a draft local plan or local development framework, on the ground that this kind of public challenge is fundamental to the purpose of the town and country planning system.

The Executive does not propose changing the rights to object and the provision for an inquiry into local plans.