Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
at sub-national level. It also gives the Assembly additional powers for directly funding
transport infrastructure and services within Wales, including the passenger rail
franchise (currently operated as Arriva Trains Wales).
National spatial planning in Wales
The Welsh Assembly Government began consultation on a national spatial framework
in 2001 and the final document - the Wales Spatial Plan - was published in 2004
(WAG 2004). As a policy document it set out to:
• Provide a clear framework for future collaborative action involving the Welsh
Assembly Government and its agencies, local authorities, the private and
voluntary sectors to achieve the priorities it sets out nationally and regionally
• Influence the location of expenditure by the Assembly Government and its
agencies
• Influence the mix and balance of public sector delivery agencies' programmes
in different areas
• Set the context for local and community planning
• Provide a clear evidence base for the public, private and voluntary sectors to
develop policy and action. (ibid. p. 4)
As well as steering programmes in 'top-down' fashion the Plan outlined strategies for
six areas of Wales which interpreted the national vision and provided a framework for
more local action. The six areas are North West, North East, Central and South East
Wales plus Swansea Bay and Pembrokeshire. These areas are deliberately not defined
in precise geographical terms so that individual issues, and the organisations involved,
can be addressed on a cross-boundary basis as appropriate. Unlike in Scotland the
reorganisation of local government on unitary lines in Wales was not accompanied by
the retention of joint structure plans and hence there was a particular need to establish
a wider context for the work of individual local planning authorities.
As part of the reform of the development planning system in England and Wales
the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act required the preparation of a spatial
plan for Wales, to be approved by the Assembly. The Wales Spatial Plan referred to
above was given statutory status for the purpose of steering the new breed of local
development plans to be prepared under the Act (19.6).
Within this new statutory context preliminary outputs from an update of the Spatial
Plan were published in 2007 including an Interim Statement for each of the six areas.
Consultation on the Spatial Plan update was planned to continue into 2008.
Generic national planning policy guidance in Wales is published in the form of a
single overarching statement (WAG 2002) complemented by a series of Technical
Advice Notes (TANs). TAN18 (WAG 2007b)
contains very similar material to
PPG13 in England in providing the policy context for the transport aspects of local
development planning. It also includes guidance for the integration of land use and
transport planning at the regional level and on the transport assessment of development
proposals which in England are published as separate documents.
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