Devel

THE JOINT COMMITTEE REVIEWS 2006 as a seminal year in its metropolitan development strategy and reviews progress in the delivery of key developments. For the first time, the Joint Committee publishes not just an Annual Report (a mandatory product within the terms of its constitution), but an Annual Review for wider public consumption. In its first Annual Review, the Convener highlights a wide range of key developments and key happenings which feature the Joint Committee's Strategic Plan, but also its influence in terms of legislation and various partnerships, a hallmark of its work.

THE NEW 2006 PLAN (Third Alteration and Written Statement 2006) was submitted to the Scottish Ministers in May 2006. It updates and alters the 2000 Plan, approved by Scottish Ministers in 2002. Whilst re-affirming the core metropolitan regeneration Strategy of the 2000 Plan, because of changing demographic and economic circumstances, the 2006 Plan adds in an economically tested and confirmed growth scenario as the basis of its strategic land allocations and seeks to reposition the metropolitan area in terms of its competitiveness in national, European and international markets. 

THE SCOTTISH MINISTERS in December 2006 announced an Examination in Public (EIP) into the New 2006 Plan (Third Alteration and Written Statement 2006). The EIP will address the strategic issues of contamination and transport at Bishopton in Renfrewshire in order to examine the strategic designation of the village as one of the Plan's long-term Community Growth Areas. This EIP will be the first in some twenty-five years in Scotland, but will trail their arrival as mandatory components of the development plan system under the new Planning Act, recently approved by the Scottish Parliament.

THE YEAR 2006 sees a change in the professional leadership of the Joint Committee. Between 1996, the Joint Committee's inception year, and 2006, Vincent Goodstadt, a former President of the UK's Royal Town Planning Institute and a high profile planning professional, led the Joint Committee's work. He has moved on now to other ventures and has been succeeded by his deputy over those influential ten years, Dr. Grahame Buchan, who will lead the migration from Structure Planning into Strategic Development Planning, under the new Planning (Scotland) Act.

THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE confirms the national significance of the Joint Committee's Metropolitan Development Strategy. The National Planning Framework (NPF) published in 2004, incorporated the Joint Committee's spatial development priorities and this confirmation has been restated in 2006 by the Scottish Executive in its 'Regeneration Policy Statement' (RPS), giving greater policy weight to these priorities and aligning Executive and Executive Agencies future spend to ensure their delivery. The RPS also identifies the creation of special delivery vehicles for the Clyde Gateway Flagship Initiative and for Riverside Inverclyde. Additionally, it reaffirms its support for the national significance of the Clyde Waterfront Flagship Initiative and its Partnership Board, and for the predominantly private sector-driven Ravenscraig regeneration project in Lanarkshire. 

THE RAVENSCRAIG Regeneration Flagship Initiative, subject to a legal challenge against the Scottish Ministers and the Joint Committee by private sector interests, and successfully defended in the Court of Session in Edinburgh in 2005, has now been successfully defended in the House of Lords, the UK's highest Court. It was heard in July 2006 and by a unanimous decision, the five Lordships dismissed the Appeal and awarded costs to the Scottish Ministers and the Joint Committee. Their Lordships cited the strategic long-term thinking of the Joint Committee as the key aspect of their decision. This major regeneration project for Central North Lanarkshire, one of the Joint Committee's three key Flagship Initiatives, will deliver a strategic re-structuring of that part of the metropolitan area, with a new Town Centre, major employment developments and new housing, a regional sports complex and the creation of a mixed multi-dimensional community, on the site of the former Ravenscraig steelworks. 

THE JOINT COMMITTEE'S International Profile continues to grow. From its inception in 1996, the Joint Committee has adopted an open and positive attitude towards working within the wider European and international spheres of Strategic Planning, adopting an attitude of mutual learning between fellow political leaders and planning professionals. In the intervening period, the Joint Committee has hosted professional visits from a wide range of countries - Japan, China, Canada, Norway, Denmark, the Baltic countries, to name but a few - each eager for knowledge of the Joint Committee's partnership approach to strategic development planning. Summer 2006 saw two political and professional deputations from Oslo Akershus, in Norway and from the Association of Local Authorities in western Norway. Earlier in 2006, the Joint Committee hosted a workshop visit of strategic planning professionals from many different parts of the European mainland. 


THE JOINT COMMITTEE leads European Planning Projects. The Joint Committee is a founder member of the METREX Network of metropolitan planning, an organisation which has grown in scale and in influence within Europe and which is at the forefront of the debate on the growing significance of metropolitan governance and planning across Europe.

As part of this network, the Joint Committee is the 'Lead Partner' on one of the biggest INTERREG IIIC projects awarded funding by Europe. The 'InterMetrex' project is a key benchmarking project developed and led by the Joint Committee and its METREX partners to establish best practice in strategic development planning across the European Union, including the Accession countries.

Consistent with a benchmarking study, the Joint Committee is seeking to improve its own capabilities and processes, within its statutory powers or competences, and early work in this area has already been incorporated into the Joint Committee's approach to reviewing its own service. Full details of this project, its workshops and results to date can be accessed on www.eurometrex.org

A second major EU-funded project of the METREX network, 'PolyMetrex', also has Joint Committee involvement. This project is central to the Joint Committee's recently submitted Alteration 2006 of the 2000 Plan in that it seeks to address economic competitiveness, and to identify, from a strategic planning perspective, the actions necessary to foster such competitiveness.

This issue is a central theme in EU spatial development perspective and regional policy for promoting the economic competitiveness of more peripheral economies like that of Scotland and of Glasgow & Clyde Valley.

The detailed membership and the results of analytical workshops in each project held to date are accessible on www.eurometrex.org 

New Developments in the Scottish Planning System

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