M. Greg Lloyd

Tracing a spatial turn in planning practice in Scotland

The maturing of the idea of strategic spatial planning in land-use and development policy in European member states is the subject of considerable political, policy and academic attention, which has served to focus attention on the (contested) concept of spatiality (Umberto & Faludi, 2005). In broad terms, Kunzmann, for example, described the parentage of the European Spatial Development Perspective as ‘‘the brainchild of three European planning traditions, of spatial planning in France (aménagement du territoire), of planning in the Netherlands (ruimtelijke ordeningen) and Germany (Raumordnung)’’ (2001, p. 153). Effectively, it may be considered a product principally of established north-west European planning traditions (Faludi, 2004a). The spatial idea is being put into practice in different ways across the European space. Thus, in Northern Europe (Faludi, 2004a) and the Mediterranean member states (Giannakourou, 2005), spatial planning takes different forms and is conceptualised differently in terms of principles and architecture. Moreover, this ‘creeping’ effect of the European spatial idea has now extended to the accession member states (Zonneveld, 2005). What this literature illustrates is that the spectrum of spatial practices may be differentiated according to motivation, circumstance, political concerns and priorities, central – local power relations, institutional arrangements, roots and style of planning practices, and vintage. It is important, however, to note that the adoption and implementation of the spatial idea has been met with varying degrees of enthusiasm (Richardson & Jensen, 2000). In the context of the United Kingdom (UK), for example, Tewdwr-Jones & Williams (2001) observed that there was a resistance to conflating the European spatial idea with British local land-use planning practice. Indeed, the differential interpretation of the spatial planning idea into practice may be understood, in part, as a consequence of specific planning cultures and institutional arrangements. Here, Newman & Thornley (1996), for example, highlighted the significance of the administrative and legislative contexts in their elaboration of the different ‘families’ of European planning practice. Context, tradition and practice have thus been variously influential in the evolution of the concept of spatial planning within member states, and its diverse lineage continues to spawn different interpretations (Faludi, 2004b). Significantly, the conceptual frameworks for understanding, articulating and implementing national spatial practice have a specific national resonance, which will reflect, inter alia, the historical provenance of strategic planning. Indeed, it is clear that much can be learned by tracing the roots of ‘state planning’ in terms of better understanding the specificities of culture and practice, and the established relationships between, for example, traditional land-use planning and economic development. Thus, Kunzmann (2001) assered that whilst Germany has an established reputation for spatial planning

Devolution, decentralization and dispersal: Asserting the spatiality of the public sector in Scotland

Abstract Through a case study of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), a Non-Departmental Public Body in Scotland, this article considers the arguments associated with changes in public sector location in the UK in the wider context of devolution and decentralization. The policy issues of location and relocation are discussed in light of the wider government interest in modernization, spatial planning and regional development. The case study illustrates an active concern in Scotland with the decentralization of decision-making, and a move to community planning. Notwithstanding the perceived benefits of the governments policy objectives, however, the relocation process, in this instance, has proved to be difficult and protracted in practice, illustrating many of the tensions in a policy which seeks to deliver different and layered policy objectives.

Great Expectations? Planning for New Settlements in Grampian Region.

Abstract New settlements play an important role in planning for new residential needs. These arise from population growth, household change or de‐concentration from urban centres. The designation of a new settlement is a complex process as shown by the experience in Grampian Regional Council. This case study raises a number of questions for the effectiveness of strategic and local planning in Scotland and the rest of the UK.

Planning Reform in Northern Ireland: Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011

In the post-devolved UK considerable attention has been paid to reforming, rationalising, and modernising the established arrangements in the public sector at large to secure efficiency gains, greater effectiveness, and broader civic engagement (Jeffery, 2007). Statutory land-use planning has been, and remains, no exception to this political agenda of recasting the forms, processes and instruments of state intervention and regulation in the UK. Reflecting the differentiated character of devolution itself, the reforms to the statutory land-use planning systems have also tended to deviate— influenced, in part, by the various interpretations of practical strategic spatial planning (Davoudi&Strange, 2009).Here, theorigins, rationale and subsequent maturation of the National Planning Framework in Scotland offer a case in point in this divergent palette of change (Lloyd & Peel, 2010). Similarly, Northern Ireland has devised its own agenda—a reflection of its political and cultural history, its relative economic and industrial performance, its governance, politics and institutional capacities, and the evolving nature of its community relations. The Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998 led to the setting up of a devolved government in Northern Ireland, although civil society events prompted its prorogation and the reinstatement of direct rule in 2002. Significantly, changed political, electoral and paramilitary circumstances and the procedural changes associated with the St Andrews Agreement (2006) enabled the subsequent restoration of power-sharing and devolution (Wilford, 2010). The return of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly and its Executive in May 2007 heralded a fresh focus on revising public policy at large. These ambitions were asserted in the Programme for Government 2008–2011 (Northern Ireland Executive, 2007). This articulated a political agenda for substantial change across a range of social, economic, environmental and institutional policy priorities. This reformistprogrammewaspredicatedon the explicit promotion of tolerance, inclusion, health, and well-being and was intended to involve new investments in infrastructure, and the improved delivery of modern public services. This agenda included the intended “fundamental” reform of planning and local governance within Northern Ireland. The process of change resulted in the publication of a Planning Bill in November 2010 and its agreement by the Northern Ireland Assembly inMarch 2011. Following North (1990), these institutional changes setting out the “rules of the game” for planning and development in Northern Ireland have been accompanied by organisational reconfiguration at both central and local levels of government. The planning reforms have been taking place in tandem with other substantive reviews of regional planning and local governance in Northern Ireland. This paper traces the background to the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 and examines the nature of the on-going reforms in the specific institutional and organisational arrangements.

National Planning Framework for Scotland 2010–2025

Land-use planning seeks to balance competing and conflicting demands on land use and development to ensure that the resource is used in the most appropriate way to serve the longer term public interest (Rydin, 2003). In practice, it serves as a regulatory framework to ensure that private interests in land and property development comply with the prevailing social construction of the public interest. It is a political process which mediates between the different interests and values held by diverse communities of interest, place and identity. Land-use planning is characterised by its principal component parts—development plans, development management, civil engagement, strategic policy guidance and enforcement. The primary focus of the statutory land-use planning system is the local or site specific—although there is provision through policy guidance and development plans to promulgate a longer term strategic dimension. In Scotland, the aims of the landuse planning system are to provide a strategic national framework for decision making, to encourage appropriate land and propertydevelopment, to protect the natural and built heritage, and to create sustainable communities and places. The statutory basis for the regulation of land and property development in Scotland isdefined in theTownandCountryPlanning Act (Scotland) 1997 and as amended by the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006. The more recent legislation is the result of an active programme of modernisation and reform initiated following the introduction of devolution and the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Executive in 1999. The objectives of the modernisation process were ambitious—and principally concerned with meeting the perceived strategic deficit in the (then) land-use planning system (Peel & Lloyd, 2006). As importantly, however, the process of modernisation was intended to secure real efficiencies in decision making through achieving up to date development plans; greater effectiveness in delivering the most appropriate forms of land and property development; facilitating more extensive and transparent civil involvement in the planning process; articulating a clearer statement of planning and development priorities; and contributing to a wider sustainable economic growth agenda in Scotland. The process of modernisation led to the introduction of a new planning hierarchy to ensure a greater sensitivity to scale of development proposals with appropriate associated processes for appeal and enforcement.Thisdifferentiatedbetween four scales of development, specifically national, major, local andminor. Importantly, each scalehas a specified instrument, decision-maker, decision route and mode of appeal. The national scale of development may be seen as the most innovative initiative by addressing the perceived strategic deficit in landuse planning. This new instrument, the National Planning Framework, was introduced specifically in order to provide a means of ensuring a strategic overview of Scotland’s spatial economy and infrastructure capacity at a time of considerable change in political and institutional arrangements (Purves & Lloyd, 2008). Significantly, then, the Framework served to inform not only the statutory planning system, but also Planning Theory & Practice, Vol. 11, No. 3, 461–468, September 2010

Pollution control, the environment and a Scottish environmental protection agency

Abstract The proposed Scottish Environmental Protection Agency is one mechanism by which Government is seeking to put into practice the principles of sustainable development. This is an acknowledgement in part that to effect sustainable development demands innovative policies and institutional arrangements. The paper sets out the nature of the existing and administrative and regulatory arrangements for environmental protection and pollution in Scotland. The established administrative hierarchy of individual bodies, responsibilities, functions and powers provides the context within which the proposed agency will operate. The article reviews the distinctive structure and remit of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and considers the advantages and disadvantages of creating a centralised, independent organisation.