The Agency was originally invited by the Thames Gateway Strategic Executive in the then Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions to be the lead body in developing a strategic framework plan for environmental improvement throughout t...
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Sustainable Development in the Thames Gateway (AP02/24)

Principal Manager Responsible: JEREMY WORTH Lead Board Member: PAM WARHURST

FOR DECISION

  • To approve investment in the preparation of a Sustainable Development Framework for the major new Thames Gateway development on behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister under a Service Level Agreement.   

Relevance to Strategy and Corporate Plan:

The framwork would represent a major demonstration of how development can be planned to deliver green space, health walks and high quality access to the countryside in the urban fringe, it would be a feather in the cap for our work in planning for sustainable development.

Staff and Financial implications:

ODPM has offered £100k core funding spread over 2002/3 and 2003/4 plus printing. We will need to provide a lead officer from November 2002 to steer consultants, plus administrative support for the officer and for an ODPM secondee. There is no specific provision for this work in the current corporate plan although the Agency's contribution is unlikely to exceed £50k over 2 years.

Main issues to concern the Board

  • Will engagement with this project give the Agency sufficient practical experience which will be transferable to other major growth points to justify the resources we will put into it?;
  • will the complex partnerships involved, and inevitable tensions between developers and environmentalists, allow the Agency to deliver a worthwhile product?
  • some people will see this project at the margins of our strategy. But if it costs us little and offers the potential for shaping other major developments in the countryside, can we turn our back on it?   

Background 

1. The Thames Gateway is the largest regeneration/development project in the UK, with its own sub-regional planning guidance. Major transport infrastructure improvements and 110,000 new houses are planned. The area includes international and national ecological designations, as well as many areas of regional and local importance for their amenity and education value. English Nature, English Heritage, the Environment Agency and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have strong interests in the area.

2. The Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership, which drives the regeneration and development, is chaired by Lord Rooker and includes Ministers from five departments, plus three Regional Development Agencies (LDA, SEEDA, EEDA), three regional assemblies (GLA, SEERA and EELGC) and the three sub-regional partnerships (Thames Gateway London, Thames Gateway South Essex Economic Partnership, Thames Gateway North Kent Partnership).

3. The two main Countryside Agency initiatives in Thames Gateway are the Green Grid project in Kent Thameside and Thames Chase Community Forest. The Agency has not previously been actively involved in the Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership, until we were recently invited to join the Environment Sub-Group. Annex 1 provides more detailed background information. 

Progress to date

4. The Agency was originally invited by the Thames Gateway Strategic Executive in the then Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions to be the lead body in developing a strategic framework plan for environmental improvement throughout the Thames Gateway area. The brief for this work has now been widened with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) to embrace the full remit of the Agencyin the preparation of a Sustainable Development Framework.

Proposals

5. The Agency, using its long experience of developing and implementing initiatives in the urban fringe, would lead on and supervise the preparation of a Thames Gateway  Sustainable Development Framework. It would consist of a Sustainable Development Charter and Implementation Guidelines. The Agency would lead on the initial brokering of the Framework with the major partners in Thames Gateway. ODPM and the sub-regional partnerships' environmental advisers would ensure that all partners signed up to the Framework and implemented it. We see this leadership providing an early opportunity to develop and implement our ideas on improving quality of life through the countryside, via our national work to set out a vision for the urban fringe.

6. The Sustainable Development Charter for Thames Gateway would:

  • highlight what is required to achieve sustainable development;
  • set out the principles for achieving the highest quality of life and sustainable development in Thames Gateway, covering the spectrum of social, environmental and economic principles for sustainable development, which could be endorsed in revised sub-regional planning guidance;
    • provide a sustainability proofing checklist or decision matrix;
    • be developed with as much involvement as possible by local partners representing the local community;
    • have a twenty year timescale but be reviewed after five years by the Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership;
    • be an international exemplar for change and development in urban extensions and the countryside around towns.   

7. The  Implementation Guidelines would:

  • flow from the Charter and set out the approach and processes for addressing the principles, showing how a liveability agenda could be translated into local action;
    • identify the process for co-ordinating the existing and new initiatives in Thames Gateway including the green grid approaches;
    • indicate the Supplementary Planning Guidance needed to guide local action;
    • have a five year timescale but be subject to annual review by the Thames Gateway Environment Sub-Group.   

8. We will want to test the Framework and Guidelines during and after their preparation on a development currently in its planning stage to provide a model on the ground as soon as possible.

9. Engagement with Thames Gateway provides us an excellent opportunity to implement our Corporate Plan objectives to improve the wider countryside in and around towns, and to show how new development in the form of urban extensions can be done to a high quality meeting economic, social and environmental needs.

Next steps

10. A service level agreement will need to be concluded with ODPM, a lead officer appointed to the initiative and consultants engaged.

Risk and mitigation measures

11. This initiative is high profile and has a number of associated risks including:

i) Several contentious applications for development, with major environmental impacts (e.g. new Thames crossings, new airport proposal) are being pursued by the Government within the Thames Gateway. The Agency would suffer adverse PR and criticism from major environmental partners (particularly English Nature and the RSPB) if a 'green endorsement' for such applications occurred as a result of this initiative. This risk can be mitigated by a carefully drafted Service Level Agreement, formal partnership from the outset with other key agencies and future inclusion of the principles of the Framework into revised Regional Planning Guidance;

ii) DEFRA has expressed concern in the past over the potential role of the Agency in urban areas. However, the Rural White paper sets out a substantial urban fringe agenda for the Countryside Agency and others, covering greenspace, social inclusion and landscape improvements measures. All these recognise that the urban fringe offers the opportunity to provide major benefits to urban and rural populations. Taking the lead on this initiative will be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how these objectives can be delivered in a sustainable way; 

iii) The Thames Gateway is large and complex and is being developed by a multitude of separate local partnerships. Political sensitivities exist, particularly between the South Essex and London Partnerships and development and environmental interests. The initiative will be very challenging so there is a risk that the framework the Agency helps to deliver will not be followed through into detailed planning permissions. The main mitigation measure is to bind partners at all levels into the Framework through the involvement of Agency staff at senior and at operational levels, and to make progress implementing it in an early development.

Financial and staff consequences

12. ODPM is currently offering to provide £50k in FY 2002/03 (November to March) and a further £50k for FY 2003/04 for preparation of the Framework. In addition, ODPM will second a part-time environmental adviser (0.5 FTE) to work with the Agency team. ODPM is also likely to cover printing and publicity costs.

13. ODPM has requested that the Agency makes a modest contribution to the project - we propose to do this by assigning a lead officer to supervise preparing the Framework in the first year and then to lead on translating the Framework into one or more model schemes on the ground, which may take a further two years.The Agency would provide Director level leadership of the team, plus administrative support and accommodation. We will use existing funds in our Corporate Plan to supply further consultancy advice where needed to complete the Framework and turn it into a model scheme or schemes. 

Considerations

14. The UK lags behind Europe in having examples of sustainable development. As the largest regeneration project in the UK, Thames Gateway has a high political profile and provides a unique opportunity for the Agency to demonstrate how the area could be a national exemplar of sustainable development and deliver the government's vision in the Rural White Paper  to improve the environmental setting of cities to encourage inward investment and create easy access to attractive and good quality green spaces as well ass the governments vision for towns, cities and suburbs in the Urban White Paper.

15. This initiative covers the full breadth of the Agency's agenda as well as building on the legacy of past achievements. It will provide a superb opportunity to take a lead role in implementing an exemplar of the Agency's urban fringe and sustainable development agendas. Considerable positive political influence on the nation-wide achievement of these objectives would result from the successful delivery of this initiative.

Annex 1

THAMES GATEWAY - BACKGROUND

Background 

1. The Thames Gateway is the largest regeneration/development project in the UK. The area has its own sub-regional planning guidance RPG9a. Major rail and road infrastructure improvements and the building of 110,000 houses are planned. From a London perspective the Thames Gateway has been described as the key vehicle for shifting prosperity from west to east and is identified as the focus for future large scale expansion projects for both South Essex and North Kent. The majority of the Thames Gateway area ranks within the 10% most deprived communities using the Index of Deprivation IMD 2000. The Thames Gateway is supported by a raft of regeneration programmes and initiatives including the Single Regeneration Budget (round 1 has brought projects worth over £220 million). London Docklands have already invested over £500 million in land reclamation, large European sums have also been received from Objective 2, KONVER, SPRINT and LIFE. 

2. From an environmental perspective, the Thames and Medway Marshes form an almost unbroken chain of estuarine habitat with extensive areas under international and national designations. There are strong English Nature, Environment Agency and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds interests. Many other areas are of significant regional and local importance in terms of their amenity and education value. The landscape character for much of the Gateway is defined by a combination of marsh, mudflat, water and a distant skyline. Scattered woodlands, small areas of tree cover and tracts of greenspace are especially important in the built up urban areas.

3. At present the Thames Gateway is divided into three sub-regions: Thames Gateway London, Thames Gateway Essex Economic Partnership and the Thames Gateway North Kent Partnership. It straddles three regional authorities/assemblies. The Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership is a Partnership Committee of 15 chaired by Lord Rooker and includes Ministers from five departments (DfT, ODPM, DTI, DfEE and DoH). SEEDA, EEDA and the LDA are represented at CEO level along with the GLA, SEERA and EELGC and the three sub-regional partnerships. Nine sub-groups have been formed including an Environment Sub-Group which the Agency has been invited to join. The terms of reference for the Strategic Partnership are that: 'The role of the Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership is to provide a Thames Gateway-wide focus on key development and delivery issues. It will represent a new approach to regeneration and look to ensure best practice on sustainable development and social inclusion'. 

Current Countryside Agency involvement in the area

4. The two main Agency initiatives managed by SERO and LRO, which are located within the Thames Gateway area, are the Green Grid project in Kent Thameside and Thames Chase Community Forest. As a result of the Green Grid project the Local Plan covering Kent Thameside has strong policies relating to the protection of existing greenspace and the development of a green framework for the area which includes new greenspace, greenways, strategic access routes etc. Thames Chase is recognised as one of the most successful Community Forests and is about to plant its millionth tree. Until recently, when we were invited to join the Environment Sub-Group, we have not been actively involved in the Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership.