COAL & POWER – SOME GOOD NEWS AND SOME BAD…

The decision by power company EON to postpone construction of the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent  - New Kingsnorth coal plant delayed‎ - provides some good news, at the same time as the Government’s decision to allow UK Coal to develop an open cast mine in Shropshire provides some bad  : www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/630

Both decisions point to the inadequacy of sustainable energy planning in Britain, and indeed, the need for a UK-wide strategy in the context of devolved planning in Scotland and Wales, together with the prospect of Single Integrated Regional Strategies or SIRS  for the English Regions, albeit that these may not survive a change of government.

Key to such a national strategy will, of course, be the evidence-base, including forecasts and future scenarios. As someone opposed to both the nuclear option and indefinite dependence upon non-renewal resources, I nevertheless accept that there may be a transitional period between the present situation and a “clean energy” end state.

The key questions for me relate to the main components of this transitional period, it’s likely timescale and, most importantly, the likely spatial implications of these including remedial measures. I don’t sense that this information currently exists in any meaningful,coherent and accessible form, and therein lies another problem for energy planning : a rather more serious one in my view than so-called Nimbyism.

From Forum for the Future to Fight the Future ! Forum

Whilst doing a little surfing (of the net rather than the sea) yesterday, I came across a web  ”community” for scientists called Network Nature – www.network.nature.com/groups/futures I was delighted to find a forum on this called “Fight the Future !”, moderated by Nature (the highly regarded scientific journal) writer Henry Gee, and, even more pleased to note that one of the latest forum topics is science fiction.

Now I have to confess to being something of a science sceptic – I know this isn’t fashionable just now ! – and to regarding many “scientific” environmentalists as suppressed technocrats with strong top down planning inclinations. So Mr Gee’s Fight the Future ! Forum, and, indeed, his personal blog, is most refreshing.

This helps me put in perspective the likes of the self-proclaimed leading think-tank on sustainability issues Forum for the Future – www.forumforthefuture.org.uk- which seems to have increasingly become a haven for techno greens and all their science-based visions of the future, based on, I would suggest, a fetishism for forecasts which many more down-to-earth folk might want to fight.

WMRSS Phase 2 Revision EIP CLOSING SUBMISSION

My written closing submission is provided below :

This submission comprises 2 parts :
1. Summary of Key Points made to the Examination
2. A New Mercian Hymn (for WMRSS) based on A Re-Construction of the opening to Geoffrey Hill’s Mercian Hymns*

1. Summary of Key Points made to the Examination

My original response to the WMRSS Phase 2 Spatial Options Consultation (2007) identified the need to align the development of options with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and expressed scepticism about the potential scale of housing-based growth, even prior to the subsequent economic downturn.

In the event, the issues of SEA compliance, in relation to the development of spatial options in both the West Midlands Regional Assembly’s Preferred Option and subsequent work for the Government Office by Nathaniel Litchfield and Partners, have been highlighted during the Examination Process.

2. A New Mercian Hymn (for the Regional Spatial Strategy)

King of the West Midlands Heritage, Local Distinctiveness :
Overlord for Sustainable Transport : Architect of
Renaissance in the Major Urban Areas and Telford,
Regeneration in the North Staffordshire Conurbation :
Master of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment :
Protector of Natural Habitats : Contractor to Location
Appropriate Place-Making in the Shire Counties :
Financier : Manufacturer : Commissioner for Rural
Communities : Friend of the Social Landlord, the Old
And New Economies.

“I like that” said Offa, “SEA EU again”.**

* In the original poem a metaphorical King Offa is part-humorously invoked as the Genius Loci of Mercia/the West Midlands Region
** My poem is also an invocation to Offa, this time re-constructed as Contractor for Eco-Logical Infrastructure and Low-Carbon Development, and, indeed as “Sewer King” – re-calling the Fisher King of Ancient British and Anglo-Celtic Arthurian Myth – to allay the Welsh Assembly’s and others’ concerns about “Water Issues”.

24 June 2009

Further posts (3 & 16 June)  on King Offa & Mercian Hymns can be found @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com

West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy Proposed Phase 2 Revision – SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment) Compliance Issues

The following note should be read in the context of  the series of letters posted on 22 June  in respect of the SEA Directive @ www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk/pins/rss/west_midlands_phase_two/ 

WMRSS Proposed Phase 2 Revision Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (SEA)  Compliance Issues  – Note following Matter 1 Hearing

The SEA Directive requires : “An outline of the reasons for selecting the alternatives dealt with, and a description of how the assessment was undertaken including any difficulties (such as technical deficiencies or lack of know how) encountered in compiling the required information” (Par 4.9 Sustainability Appraisal/Non-Technical Summary of Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP) Report for GO-WM: Development Options for the West Midlands RSS in Reponse to the NHPAU Report October 2008/CD 182)

In the previous paragraph (4.8) entitled “Difficulties” the NLP SA acknowledges the following issues : “….uncertainties in the 2007 SA (for the West Midlands Regional Assembly Preferred Option), limited consultation which may have generated further information, and that spatially specific effects cannot always be identified”.

 In turn, the report by URSUS Consultants for WMRA entitled “Review of the Sustainability Appraisal of the NLP Housing Study Relating to the West Midlands RSS Phase 2 Revision” (CD236) notes a number of difficulties with the NLP study, and observes that : “The (NLP SA) report does not describe the reasons for choosing the options or scenarios…”

This difficulty, I would argue, is also central to the URSUS SA. Moreover, a crucial weakness of the URSUS SA, I suggest, is a lack of evidence that “spatially specific effects” have been have been properly integrated into the process for selecting the “Preferred Option”, which emerges from WMRA’s 3 housing “scenarios”.

On the issue of the “limited consultation” to which the NLP Report “Options” have been subject, this clearly raised difficulties about how far these can be tested through the present Examination, and, therefore, whether a further “Review” process will be required, as I submitted in the context of wider procedural compliance issues.

Of relevance to the above comments is the recent judgement on the East of England Plan SEA, where legal advice indicated that there were legitimate grounds to lodge a challenge, principally on the failure of the strategic environmental assessment to consider reasonable alternatives to the four strategic growth proposals.

The following information is taken from the website of Landmark Chambers (www.landmarkchambers.co.uk) :

“Following a hearing earlier this week [last], Mitting J. has held in response to a challenge by Hertfordshire County Council and St Alban’s District Council under s. 113 of the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, that the Secretary of State’s approval of the East of England Plan (RSS for the east of the country) has breached certain requirements for strategic environmental assessment in regulation 12 of the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004 .

The challenge concerned the decision to require significant additional housing to be met in Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield and Harlow by means of significant releases of land from the Green Belt without a lawful strategic environmental assessment which considered the reasonable alternatives to the proposals, given the changes made to the policies at the Proposed Changes stage. The Judge rejected the claim so far as it related to Harlow, but upheld the claim relating to the other settlements (and the implications for St Albans). “

WMRSS Proposed Phase 2 Revision/SEA Compliance Issues Respondent 586/Janet Mackinnon/26 May 2007

Landmark Ruling Heralds SEA Change for Regional Planning ?

Extract from “Region home goals at risk” by  Susanna Gillman in Planning, 29 May 2009

A landmark ruling that the East of England Plan failed to comply with environmental law could affect other regional plans, the barrister leading the case has argued. Hertfordshire County and St Albans District Councils’ challenge (Planning, 22 May, p1) was the first on the application of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) rules in England to be successful. High Court judge Mr Justice Mitting ruled that the government flouted SEA regulations by failing to consider alternatives to building thousands of homes in the Hertfordshire green belt. He has ordered communities secretary Hazel Blears to re-examine policies for 12,000 additional homes at Hemel Hempstead and a further 10,000 at Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield.

Landmark Chambers’ David Elvin QC, who represented Hertfordshire in last week’s case, said the government lacked rigour in applying the regulations “Because SEA is working its way through the system on plans due for adoption, these issues will continue to present themselves,” he said. “The ruling could have implications for other regional plans. The South East Plan has just been adopted and may prompt challenges.”

A judicial review of the South West regional spatial strategy has recently been threatened on housing numbers, although it is not clear whether this would be contested on similar grounds (Planning, 15 May, p2).

The DCLG said it is considering whether to appeal. A spokesman said: “We are determined to deliver the housing that is desperately needed in the region.” However, the prospect of further expense may deter it. The DCLG has to foot a legal bill including 80 per cent of Hertfordshire’s costs – likely to exceed £50,000 – and £15,000 of St Albans’ estimated £28,000 costs. Tory MP for Welwyn and Hatfield Grant Shapps said the ruling is “an important step towards holding the government to account for failing to consider the effect of top-down housing targets”.

See also : www.unece.org/env/eia/sea_protocol.htm

Need for “SEA” Change amongst Sustainability & Environmental Activists

Now that the United States President and his First Lady have declared themselves “Activists”, the activist is once again a respectable member of society; and it is from this respectable position that I want to reflect on the relationship between sustainability and environmental activists.

On the radio recently – I think in the context of Severn Barrage Saga – the Chairman of the UK Commission for Sustainable Development (who support a barrage), Sir Jonathon Porritt, distinguished himself from “environmental activist” organisations like the Royal Society for the Protection of the Birds (who oppose a barrage), as, primarily, a “sustainability” activist.

For my own part, I have noticed a great many “sustainability suits” – many of them stuffed ! – in recent years and, I would suggest, quite a number of these work for and with the good Sir Jonathon, although I would not include him amongst them.

The fact is that those of us who are genuinely concerned about the future of the planet – and who are acting locally, as well as thinking globally – need to be both sustainability and environmental activists. A good starting point for this is some understanding of Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment or SEA.