Introduction
In the recent planning systems, governments are adopting strategies that deliver objectives of the local authority. In addition, they are implementing the strategies satisfying the needs of residents to ensure that they are viable economically and socially (Adams, 2006).
Through the ministry of labor, the government designed and implemented the spatial planning strategy. This strategy ensured that the local situations are being handled in the right manner. Moreover, the strategy was implemented in order to make a flexible system.
In this light, the planning strategy incorporated sustainable communities that facilitate sustainable development within the country. This arose due to the spatial planning strategy of the government.
This paper aims at identifying a local authority that has adopted a planning strategy in the recent time. In this light, I will give a report in my capacity of a planning consultant. The report will be evaluating the flexibility that the spatial planning applied to the authority.
This flexibility will be based on a core strategy adopted recently. In this case, I will base my report on the Isle of Wight council. The core strategy to be considered is the Island Plan Core Strategy.
The report will incorporate a description of the local authority, description of the strategy, and the entire evaluation of flexibility presented by the spatial planning strategy during the implementation of core strategy (Adams 2006).
Isle of Wight
This council is an ancient county that occupies the largest part of England. It is located on the coast of Hampshire for a distance of four kilometers on the Channel of England. The island covers an area of about three hundred and eighty square kilometers.
This area incorporates various components that include recreational, social, and economic structures among others. A part of the island is rocky due to its geological structures within the county.
However, the used plan allows the county of Isle to have about seven towns within its boundaries. These towns include Ryde, Newport, Cowes, East Cowes, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor (Holland 1988).
They have essential effects on the planning system of the county because the towns hold many facilities used by the residents. In addition, the highways and transport facilities are built in relation to the towns.
The planning system includes sports and recreational facilities because the field of sports has become popular (Moore 2005).
These sports include rowing, sailing, cycling, football, cricket, and Island Games among others. The games’ facilities occupy a part of the county to satisfy the residents’ recreational needs.
Island Plan Core Strategy
This strategy was conceived and proposed on the 21st of March in the year 2012. It was the first proposal presented to the inspectorate of planning systems within the county.
It was rejected on the basis of insufficient support to convince the inspectorates. Consequently, it was revised to add the missing components of the planning proposal. On the 22nd April 2013, the plan was adopted to form the core strategy of the planning system.
The planning strategy involved two crucial components including mineral and waste. These components aim at planning the county in relation to the mineral deposits found in its boundaries.
Secondly, it focuses on the waste materials that might affect the existence of some structures apart from the waste materials in the county. Also, the planning strategy considers the Development Management Strategies.
It is based on the ideology of place shaping that induces the essence of delivery for economic and social setup. The flexibility found on the Island Core Strategy is provided by the Spatial Planning. This flexibility is granted in various ways discussed under the following subtopic.
Flexibility
Futuristic Setup
The spatial planning system recommends that a plan should project into the future. In this light, the plan should consider all the structures that it intends to include in the area structure (Waterhout, 2008).
As a result, the plan asserts that the planners should not be forced to demolish some structures to build others in the future. This requirement offers a good chance of flexibility for the Isle’s planners. This flexibility enables them to incorporate the futuristic approach to their core planning strategy.
In this case, the Island Core Strategy focuses on shaping the destiny of the county in the year 2027. In the futuristic approach, the strategy has laid the spatial objectives and visions.
In principle, the futuristic component has focused on the current priorities that will enable the county to enter into the new level of development. In this light, planning for the future enables development to become more organized than planning about a current situation only.
In this light, it spots some strategic areas of development that forms the central point of their agenda. This implies that the development agenda is not haphazard. Instead, it is organized and located on the strategic points that can serve all people.
Sustainability
Spatial Planning asserts that the planning systems should encourage sustainable communities. These communities are designed strategically to consider the multidimensional development (Thiele 2013).
The multidimensionality asserts that the planning system should incorporate the economic, environmental, and social factors of human life (Goodall 2012).
In addition, it asserts that incorporation of the three components encourages equitability, viability, and a bearable life for all people in the community. In this light, this provision of sustainability is flexible and allows the Island Core Strategy to consider sustainability (Campbell & Mollica 2009).
As a result, the Island Core Strategy has projected about a sustainable community in its plan. Particularly, the sustainable community is referred to as the Eco Island. The main aim of the Eco Island is based on sustaining the jobs to increase the GDP of the entire island.
The act of sustaining jobs is executed by designing sustainable patterns of employment opportunities. The patterns are maintained by diversifying the economy and increasing the population of skilled jobs locally.
Mineral and Waste
Minerals are at the center of Isle’s economy because they account for a part of their economy by providing income to the county. However, the extraction of minerals is accompanied by the production of waste products that should be disposed (Siddique 2008).
In this light, the spatial planning strategy asserts that the benefits of the minerals should not compromise the environment in any way (Doherty 1971). This implies that the core strategy adopted by the county should be consistent to this requirement of spatial planning.
As a result, the spatial planning strategy allows the island core strategy to enjoy the flexibility of incorporating this factor in its setup. In this light, the minerals and wastes are included in their core strategy.
It asserts that the mining companies should design a rehabilitation process alongside their mining activities. This ensures that the company does not leave holes collecting water and degrading the environment (Gallant 2001).
In addition, it eliminates the holes that can lead to environmental risks affecting the population (Guastoni & Appiani 2005). In addition, the waste products should be disposed to desirable sites to ensure that the waste products do not affect the planning of the county.
As a result, it can be contended that the waste disposal policy, included in the spatial policy, offers flexibility. Therefore, the Island Core Strategy uses this flexibility to include the factor of minerals and waste.
Environmental Statement
The core strategy was accompanied by an environmental statement that focused on supplementing the core strategy to make it holistic. This environmental statement was made alongside the Isle Core Strategy.
As a result, the core strategy became all-inclusive due to the inclusion of the environmental component. The environment statement included various crucial factors of the environment.
First, it included a sustainability appraisal that formed the basis of environmental consultancy.
Secondly, it considered the assessment of habitat regulations. The most crucial part of the environmental statement was the criticism that it directed to the core strategies. In this case, it evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the core strategies.
In this light, it evaluated the economic and environmental impacts of the core strategy. This criticism included a part suggesting the possible alternatives that can be considered instead of the core and strategic considerations.
This environmental strategy was incorporated with the core strategy totally. The integration was achieved by using the statement for designing the core strategy. This environmental statement was taken into account by the inspectorates in order to validate the core strategy.
This requirement that needs the inspectorate to consider the environmental statement is the flexibility offered by the spatial planning system. In this case, it is clear that the spatial planning has provided a lot of environmental flexibility for the execution of the core strategy.
Village Plan
Spatial planning considers the planning of villages for the welfare of the rural settlement. It offers significant flexibility that allows the core strategies to address the issues of village planning. As a result, the Island Core Strategies adopted in Isle of Wight include the village planning.
In this case, it has considered three designs of villages. These designs include the design statement of Chale village, the plan of Nettlestone village and Seaview’s plan (Vasary 1987). These plans formed the basis of the village plans in the Isles of Wight.
These plans are used in conjunction with the island Core strategy to supplement its planning structure. In this case, this village plan aims at showing the future of the villages alongside the core strategy. The incorporation of the village plan is recommended by the spatial planning strategy.
Conclusion
This paper shows that the spatial planning has provided sufficient flexibility to the Island Core Strategy.
Since the core strategy is the main driver of the local agenda, it can be implied that the spatial planning has provided sufficient flexibility allowing the implementation of the local planning. In this light, it has provided enough flexibility for the current and future planning agenda.
Therefore, the spatial planning is holistic and all-inclusive. It could apply through many dimensions and application of different strategies.
References
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