Marine Planning
The UK Government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government and Northern Ireland Executive are introducing a new system of marine planning through the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009; the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010; and the Northern Ireland Marine Bill to achieve their shared vision of having ‘clean, healthy, safe, productive and biological diverse oceans and seas’.
Marine planning is a process that allocates the spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve economic, social and ecological objectives. Defra has developed a commonly used definition
"strategic, forward-looking planning for regulating, managing and protecting the marine environment, including through allocation of space, that addresses the multiple, cumulative, and potentially conflicting uses of the sea"
A Marine Policy Statement agreed by all the UK Administrations will provide a framework for preparing Marine Plans and decision making. It will also set the direction for new marine licensing and other authorisation systems in each administration. Currently being drafted, the Marine Policy Statement is likely to be formally adopted in Spring 2011.
One of the aims of the new marine planning system is to ensure that coastal areas, the activities within them and the problems faced are managed in an integrated and holistic way. As such, the Marine Policy Statement reflects that integration. This includes close interaction with town and country planning regimes and, in England and Wales, the new regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) in key sectors, such as energy and transport.
In England, the newly formed Marine Management Organisation will begin developing Marine Plans from April 2011 in the East Inshore and East Offshore areas, off the coast between Flamborough Head in East Riding of Yorkshire and Felixstowe in Suffolk. It will take two years to develop the Marine Plans with the first two being adopted in 2013 and which point a further two marine areas will be chosen from the remaining eight. The final Marine Plans (ninth and tenth marine areas) will be adopted in 2021.
In Scotland, a consultation on the Scottish Marine Region Boundaries that began in November 2010 sets out examples that exist currently for dividing the sea into regions and discusses the possible approaches to identifying Scottish marine regions for marine planning purposes. The options presented would result in 10-12 Scottish Marine Regions. The consultation ends in February 2011
For more information and publications on UK Marine planning see:
For England
- http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/legislation/planning.htm
- http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/marine/documents/legislation/201003msp-news.pdf
The Marine Management Organisation
- http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/marineplanning/index.htm
- http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/marineplanning/documents/newsletter01.pdf
The first two marine plan areas
- http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/marineplanning/documents/first_marine_plan_areas_report.pdf
- http://www.marinemanagement.org.uk/marineplanning/documents/spp_workshops.pdf
For Scotland
- http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/seamanagement
- http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/295194/0103895.pdf
The Scottish Marine Region Boundaries consultation
For Wales
For Northern Ireland
For more information on the UK Marine Policy Statement see: