Strategies, plans and planning procedures - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 271

Part IV
Strategies, plans and
planning procedures
In Part 3 we examined the repertoire of choices available to public decision-makers
seeking to influence transport and travel. In this part of the topic we explore the
formalised mechanisms which have been established to guide and control the making
of these choices which we refer to collectively as planning procedures. By 'procedures'
we mean the administrative processes followed, either as a statutory requirement or
as set out in guidance issued by national government. For the most part we are not
concerned here with technical procedures (aimed at generating information in support
of the planning process) except where these are required as part of it.
All planning is geared to the making or informing of decisions but not all decisions
can be linked directly to a particular planning process. As we shall see, a number of
different processes are followed at different levels of government and in relation to
different sectors of public policy. Many overlap in place and time. Different agencies
engage with different elements adopting different stances according to their individual
responsibilities and constituencies of interest. All in all it is a very complex picture.
For people concerned with outcomes in a particular locality it is extremely difficult to
identify where, within the variety of planning activities conducted over time, key steps
are taken which will ultimately have a defining influence.
And yet simply describing the formalised elements of planning, as presented in this
part of the topic, runs the danger of giving too neat and tidy an impression of what is
actually going on. It needs to be emphasised that the brokering of power and decision-
making continues both within the interstices of the planning framework (where
flexibility is deliberately allowed for) as well as above and beyond it - in effect the
field of policy studies. Exactly when, where, how and why decisions are made which
account for the outcomes we all eventually experience 'on the ground' is a separate
research area, of which, in relation to transport, there are sadly few examples. Readers
are encouraged to explore general texts (Parsons 1995; Hill 2007) as well as Banister et
al. (2000), Dudley and Richardson (2000) and Vigar (2002) which attempt to develop
theory on the basis of case studies of transport planning.
In Part 4 we
• provide an overview of planning arrangements within Great Britain and explain
the nature of 'national planning' as currently operated in England, Scotland and
Wales (Chapter 17)
• explain the form and content of regional strategies and of local development
and transport plans and the administrative requirements surrounding their
preparation (Chapters 18-20)