Marina Projects input recognised in National Planning Award
5 February 2010A ground breaking Planning Strategy document to which Marina Projects Ltd provided specialist input was recognised at the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) 2009 Awards ceremony. Please click HERE to view the article on the RTPI website.
The Solent Waterfront Strategy was prepared by a team led by Adams Hendry Consulting Ltd, and included specialist input from Marina Projects Ltd and WS Atkins. The study was commissioned by the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA) with the aim of assessing the economic impact of marine and related industries.
Commenting on the input of Marina Projects Ltd Martin Hendry Director at Adams Hendry commented "the specialist and in-depth knowledge that Marina Projects provided was invaluable in assessing the vital contribution that the marine leisure sector makes in this region."
The Solent Waterfront Strategy provides for the first time an evidence base, analysis and strategy for marine industries and marine-related industries across the Solent sub-region. It provides an exemplar of best practice by highlighting the depth of knowledge and insights needed to underpin a strategic plan for a major sub-region.
The Strategy recognises the value and importance of the international port of Southampton, the main base of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, and some of the best known waters in world yachting, within a city region of 1.2 million people, with substantial environmental resources in an outstanding coastal setting. In spite of their significance to the economy, the study showed that there was inadequate knowledge of marine and related industries, and as a result their significance was undervalued. Possibly because marine industries are not in a single standard industrial classification they were largely ignored in spatial policies at all levels. Despite the fact that they produce or use some of the most advanced technologies alongside traditional skills, employing a highly skilled workforce and are responsible for around 30% of GVA in the sub-region their survival was being put at risk,.
In making the award the RTPI judging panel made the following observations:
- The team responsible for preparing the Solent Waterfront Strategy has made a major contribution to spatial planning and provided an exemplar of best practice
- The study emphasised that growing existing businesses and establishing new ones is not easy. Past planning policies had not favoured industry on waterfront sites against proposals for example for residential development. Increased land values had made survival of shipbuilding and related uses in these locations precarious. By highlighting these points the strategy has helped to reverse conventional thinking and to inform future policy development.
- Shortly after publication it was considered as part of the South East Regional Spatial Strategy examination in public, and a similar approach was recommended for the rest of the region. SEEDA, the local authorities, Partnership for Urban South Hampshire and business leaders have actively disseminated the results, and SEEDA has taken coastal land into ownership as a consequence;
- The strategy promotes innovation in, and support for, core marine clusters to ensure that they continue to flourish, safeguarding marine sites, tackling sea level rise, and setting all of these in the context of long term strategic planning for the area;
- The study demonstrates the importance of policymakers commissioning robust evidence and analysis, and the role that professional planners should play in providing this;
- We were impressed by this exceptional piece of work that has already informed regional, sub-regional and local policy and decision making.