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132/SA 22nd June 2011
National Ecosystems Assessment fails to join up planning says
Professor
A Birmingham City University Professor has questioned the current UK National
Ecosystems Assessment, claiming it has fundamental flaws.
Whilst welcoming the idea for a current assessment of the state of ecosystems and to
identify the services and value arising them that benefit society, Alister Scott, a
Professor in Spatial Planning at the School of Property, Construction and Planning, is
finding major planning problems associated with the initiative.
He said: “To be successful, the National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) needs to be
operationalised across the plans and programmes of all government departments,
particularly The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Department of
Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), and the Department for Communities and Local
Government CLG. The planning system is key here given its central role in shaping
places and the environment. Yet it appears to be sailing its own course of reforms which
makes it ill-prepared to engage with the NEA agenda.”
The planning reforms are substantial and stem from the Localism Bill currently going
through Parliament. Yet the impending National Planning Frameworks and
Neighbourhood Plans currently make no reference as to how the ecosystems approach
might be incorporated and might guide decision making. Professor Alister Scott is
concerned at this lack of joined up planning.
“Nature and ecosystems do not recognise boundaries; they require joined up planning.
Yet we have a mishmash of government policy and initiatives; localism, will ensure that
local authorities and their elected councillors look inwards to their populations rather
than outwards to their wider environment. Local Enterprise Partnerships the principal
tool for economic development scarcely have any environmental remit or representation
which again presents a piecemeal approach to development. Neighbourhood plans will
2. not be considering wider environmental linkages. The NEA highlights an urgent need to
plan at a landscape or ecosystem scale through collaboration with all interested groups.
Yet where in the planning system is there any mechanism to do this,” he concluded.
Professor Scott is currently funded by the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme
(Relu) to look at how we can improve management of the rural urban-fringe. This
represents a neglected space where there is an urgent need for more collaborative and
joined up approaches to planning to help maximise opportunities.
In 2008 the School of Property, Construction and Planning at Birmingham City University
celebrated 50 years of planning education. It boasts professional accreditation for all of
its courses by at least one of these professional bodies: the Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Chartered Institute of
Building.
Birmingham City University is running a major awareness campaign in the
Midlands to demonstrate how it is upgrading the future of individuals and
companies. Find out more at www.bcu.ac.uk
Ends
Notes to editors:
• The Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu) aims to advance
understanding of the countryside and rural economies and the challenges they
face. Interdisciplinary research is being funded from 2004-2011 in order to inform
future policy and practice with choices on how to manage the countryside and
rural economies. http://www.relu.ac.uk/
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