West Midlands Spatial Planning : Quantum & Little Solace
Posted by crookbarrow on October 28, 2008
The public consultation on Preferred Options for the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy (SWJCS) closes on 31 October, whilst the consultation on the Preferred Option for the Phase 2 Revisions of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Stategy WMRSS) has been extended until 8 December. Comments on the WMRSS Phase 2 Revision were orginally due last March.
However, the Government Office for the West Midlands (GOWM), in response to a National Housing & Planning Advice Unit Report, commissioned consultants to consider how additional housing development could be accommodated in the WMRSS Revision, and, therefore, local development frameworks such as SWJCS. It should also be noted that further consultation on the WMRSS Phase 3 Revision, which deals with major environmental issues, has been postponed.
If all this sounds needlessly complicated, the obvious answer is that it is probably intended to be. Moreover, to complicate matter still further, the West Midlands Regional Assembly, which has hitherto been responsible for regional planning, is in the process of being abolished and its powers transferred to the Regional Development Agency (RDA), Advantage West Midlands, and the County Councils.
From the Crookbarrow perspective, the problem is basically this : too much development “quantum” (particularly housing) is proposed in the SWJCS and WMRSS Preferred Options, and even more in the GOWM consultant’s report; and there is little solace by way of proposals for genuinely sustainable development and environmental conservation.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending upon one’s perspective), reality has imposed checks on the spatial planning process, notably in the Summer floods of last year (see below), and in the so-called “Credit Crunch”, global financial crisis and impending economic recession which have unfolded in the past 12 months or so. The question remains, however, as to whether these “quantum” developments have yet properly registered on the collective planning psyche, and the answer almost certainly offers little solace.
Drivers braving the Worcester ring road (TheMailOnline July 2007)
