Proposals for new marine planning regime unveiled

Ministers have set out proposals for a new two-stage planning system for marine areas around the coast.

The proposals will mean that for the first time there will be a UK marine policy statement agreed by all departments across Whitehall and the devolved administrations.

Following this agreed statement ministers have signalled there will be a series of marine plans which will implement the policy statement in specific areas using information about spatial uses and needs.

Ministers are proposing to create a new organization, a Marine Management Organisation (MMO), which will take on much of the responsibility for marine planning and assume a number of existing government agencies and functions.

New primary legislation will be required. According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) which is leading on these issues, a policy statement will be published within two years of a Marine Bill receiving the Royal Assent.

Responsibility for the marine planning system will be a matter in some territorial waters for the devolved administrations, sometimes jointly with the UK government. Off the English coast the UK government will be responsible for marine planning.

Plans will cover the area from mean high water springs (MHWS) to the fullest extent of the UK's current marine jurisdiction (that is, the UK Continental Shelf and Fisheries Limits) and will overlap between MHWS and mean low water mark with the current land-use planning system.

Defra has stressed that "…the differing nature of activity in different areas of UK water means that some areas may need far more detailed plans than others. Where use of a marine area is particularly heavy or complex (e.g. estuaries or near busy ports) or local issues or conflicts have already arisen, plans may need to be developed on a smaller scale or in more detail".

The plans will consider current uses and activities (including offshore wind farms) and "emerging and future marine uses technologies" like carbon capture and storage in the sub-seabed, tidal and wave energy initiatives, and the new Marine Conservation Areas.

The plans will initially cover a period of 20 to 25 years and will be subject to review and revision at least every six years.

They may deal with, among other things, coastal land use including tidal barrages, plans for desalination plants, sewage disposal, mineral extraction, oil and gas exploration, and production, gas storage and renewable energy connectors.

The new-look planning system will not be responsible for development control, however. This will remain a matter for licensing although ministers have promised a less complex licensing regime than at present.

In a related development responsibility for the consenting and licensing of marine aggregates will be undertaken by the Marine Fisheries Agency, which from April will be renamed the Marine and Fisheries Authority. Currently Communities and Local Government oversees this activity.

Consultation on a Marine Bill White Paper, A Sea Change

Roger Milne

23 March 2007