Transcript The Campaigner Perspective

The future for planning:
a campaigner’s
perspective
East Midlands Councils
27 February 2014
Paul Miner, MA MRTPI FRGS
Senior Planning Campaigner
What is CPRE?
• National campaigns to
protect wider countryside,
and to reduce noise and light
pollution
• Local planning expertise:
network of county branches
and district groups
• Planning Hotline, Thursday
afternoon, available to CPRE
members
• Planning Help website
Planning to protect the countryside
The Coalition and planning
• Pledge to maintain
national protective
designations
• New legislation aims:
• deregulation
• more local
autonomy
• community
involvement
•Planning policy changes
Planning to protect the countryside
The NPPF One Year On: Good, Bad and
Ugly…But uglier than we hoped
CPRE: ‘Countryside Promises,
Planning Realities’
• Major housing schemes
allowed against local wishes
• Less brownfield development
or affordable housing
• Many local councils without
adopted local plans in place
Planning to protect the countryside
Localism and Growth and Infrastructure Acts
• General power of
competence
• Neighbourhood plans
• Pre-application consultation
• Town / village greens
• National projects
• ‘Poorly performing’ LPAs in
special measures
Planning to protect the countryside
The wider countryside: Going…going…gone?
• Some take up of Local
Green Space
• Major development test:
transport schemes in
Chilterns, Peak District
and Blackdowns
• Green Belt under more
threat
• Reduction of 26% in
National Park cash grant
• Death by a thousand
plans: PDRs, offsetting
Planning to protect the countryside
CPRE’s Charter to Save the Countryside
•Don’t sacrifice our
countryside
•A fair say for local
communities
•More housing – in the right
places
Planning to protect the countryside
Our vision for 2026: Built environment
• Most development is on
urban brownfield sites
• A small expansion of urban
areas
• Green Belt is reinvigorated
• More ‘green infrastructure’
• Better urban design
• More people living in the
countryside
The built environment
Our vision for 2026: planning and democracy
• Government-wide duty to
consider land use
implications of new policy
• GDP replaced by new
methodologies
• Strong democratic input
• A new role for
neighbourhood planning –
a lead role in transition
to a zero-carbon society
Planning and local democracy
Our vision for 2026: Lifestyles and values
• Significant reduction in
travel
• The countryside a place
for enjoyment for
everyone
• People are more
engaged in how their
food is produced
• Changes to the national
curriculum
Lifestyles, values, and attitudes
Our vision for 2026: Climate change and energy
• Land management helps retain
and absorb carbon
• The countryside protects us
from flooding
• Rural renewables, including
small wind turbines
• Wood fuel from wildlife-rich,
low input coppices
• New habitats, coastal marshes
and wildlife corridors
Climate change and the countryside