Case studies
North-West Regional Authority: online consultation around the Regional Spatial
Strategy
Context
In Summer 2004 the North West Assembly were asked to prepare a Regional Spatial
Strategy (RSS) for the North West. This spatial strategy is due to be submitted
to Government in September 2005 and its development is guided by Planning
Policy Statement 11 (PPS 11) produced by the Government in Autumn 2004.
The Assembly is committed to making the preparation of the RSS as open a process
as possible. The draft RSS Project Plan emphasises the need for the continual
involvement of key partners (local authorities and others) throughout the process.
Task
To run online consultation at every stage of the RSS process.
Process
The first consultation document was the issues scoping paper which identified
for comment the key issues the RSS should address. This took place in October
2004 and the results were disseminated online between November 2004 and March
2005.
Some of the gaps identified in the issues paper consultation were developed
in more detail in a conference on 17th November 2004. This included areas
such as: reducing demand for transport; providing homes; cross-border issues;
health;
education; sub-regional issues; links between transport and housing; and
managing demand for natural resources. The conference also explored future
drivers of
change likely to impact on the spatial plan.
Following the issues paper and conference, themes for options papers were
selected according to the following criteria: a core theme of the spatial
plan i.e.
housing, transport, environment; a new theme for the spatial plan i.e.
health, education and skills; or areas where key questions needed to be posed
i.e.
presentation. The options paper is a key stage in the development of
the RSS and is a requirement of PPS 11.
The second consultation document was around these options papers and ran
from March 7th to April 8th 2005.
The current session presents the results of the options paper consultation
and will run until August 1st. The results will then be developed to form
a draft of the RSS, which will be ready in September 2005. This draft will
be
subject to a formal consultation in Autumn 2005. This will be followed
by an Examination in Public (EiP) in June 2006, with the final version
of the RSS
expected to be issued by the Government in May 2007.
Participation
In the first consultation stage invitations were sent to over 3,500 organisations
and individuals. Over 1,000 individual comments were received.
Results
The results of the first stage of the consultation highlighted
the areas that the spatial plan needed to address. A summary report
of the results is available here.
For continuous up to date information on the development of the
Regional Spatial Strategy, including further consultations, please
visit http://nwra.gov.uk/rpg
