Guidance

Marine Planning Newsletter April 2019

Published 17 April 2019

This issue includes news on our recent stakeholder engagement on policy development for the North West, North East, South West and South East Marine Plans; the recent implementation training sessions that have been carried out; and the results of our monitoring survey of the use of the East and South Marine Plans.

1. Engagement in the North West, North East, South West and South East Iteration 3 engagement and outputs

The Marine Planning team has just completed a period of engagement with stakeholders on our emerging marine plan policies. These policies form part of our Iteration 3 outputs of the process to develop the North West, North East, South West and South East Marine Plans. The engagement included an online tool, supported by nine stakeholder workshops across the four marine plan areas.

These periods of engagement are essential to the marine planning process as they allow us to test the current iteration of our work with stakeholders. In addition to receiving feedback on the emerging polices (developed from options that responded to issues identified through Iteration 2 in early 2018), we used Iteration 3 as an opportunity to gather opinions on the implementation and monitoring of the policies. Our experience from the East and South Marine Plans has taught us that it is never too early to start thinking about how a plan will be used once adopted. Iteration 3 was the third round of major engagement and the last formal opportunity to provide input on the development of the draft plans before they go out to statutory consultation at the end of 2019. Our marine planners will be engaging with you throughout the year, listening to your views and securing support in the development of the draft plans.

We have been really pleased with the feedback we have had so far, and are very grateful to the 352 people that attended our workshops, as well as the 143 that either responded online or sent in an email response. The Marine Planning team has always taken pride in successfully delivering facilitated workshops, but we are always keen to gather views on our approach in order to improve future engagement work. Analysis of the feedback from participants showed they rated the workshops an average between 4.1-4.7 out of 5 across the four areas. Gratifyingly this shows you feel we are on the right track, but we will continue to strive to get better.

To view our complete Iteration 3 Engagement Summary, please follow this link.

We are currently working through every one of the policy comments received, both online and in the workshops. The intention is to complete draft plans for the four areas by the autumn of this year. We will keep you updated on progress.

2. Implementation and Monitoring of East and South Marine Plans

2.1 Implementation

Coastal planners in the east and south marine plan areas have been busy carrying out implementation training sessions. East Marine Plan implementation training was delivered to 17 local planning authorities, five ports and 13 coastal forums. South Marine Plan implementation training was delivered to 30 local planning authorities, 13 ports, nine coastal forums, the Environment Agency and Natural England. Stakeholder feedback from the training was positive. In both marine plan areas all responses rated the meeting overall (presentations and relevance) as good or very good. All responses agreed or agreed strongly that they now understand how to apply marine plans and their knowledge of marine planning has increased. For more information, please see the Marine Plan Area updates below.

2.2 Monitoring Surveys

Over Winter 2018/19 we sent voluntary monitoring surveys to subscribed marine planning contacts to gather information about the use of the East and South Marine Plans. These surveys are part of our work to monitor the effectiveness of marine plans and will inform our three-yearly progress reporting to Parliament.

We received 27 complete responses in the East and 29 in the South. Participants reflected a wide range of roles including policy advisors, licence managers, harbour masters and scientists.

Participants answered questions about how they consider marine plans. In the East, examples given included ‘when reviewing marine licence applications’ as well as in ‘planning decisions and preparation of Local Plans’. In the South, whilst some participants commented it was ‘early days’ with regards to detailing which South Marine Plan policies are used, many gave examples of where consideration of plan policies occurs. Examples, some of which were similar to those in the East, included ‘in decisions on planning applications affecting the intertidal zone’ as well as in ‘development of Local Plan strategy and policies’.

As part of the surveys, participants could volunteer to be contacted for a follow-up interview. Ten of these interviews were carried out in March and provided us with further information about the use of the East and South Marine Plans. Thank you to everyone who responded to these surveys and interviews. There will be a further opportunity to participate in our next round of monitoring surveys towards the end of 2019.

3. Projects

3.1 Decision Maker and Implementation Mapping

We commissioned a research project to improve our understanding of how decision makers use marine plans. The project “External Decision Making and Implementation Mapping of Marine Plans” (MMO 1155) was carried out by MarineSpace Ltd and Howell Marine Consulting.

A report on the project has now been published along with a summary version. You might also find our blog useful.

We hope to use this information to develop better, collaborative ways of working in the future, for example with Government departments and advisers, and other decision-making bodies. Better ways of working include supporting clear communication of consenting and permitting processes informed by marine plans.

The location, condition and features of significant sites for habitat conversion or restoration Stakeholders expressed a desire for a national dataset to be developed for identifying sites suitable for coastal and marine habitat creation or restoration. In response, the MMO commissioned ABPmer to help develop such a dataset and identify which habitats are the ‘best’ to be created.

The main purpose of this study was to develop Geographical Information System (GIS) data layers which could be used / uploaded onto the MMO’s Marine Information System (MIS). Six data layers were consequently produced.

In order to facilitate the informed use of the data layers from this project, a brief literature review on the ecology of these habitats has also been presented, focusing on the environmental conditions required for their restoration or creation. Furthermore, the status of the habitats, and techniques which have been employed to create or restore them, have also been summarised.

The six data layers developed for this project have been grouped in relation to the three habitats or habitat groups which formed the focus of the data layer tasks:

• Mudflats and saltmarshes:
  • Potential habitat creation sites within the current floodplain (applying the techniques known as ‘managed realignment’ or ‘regulated tidal exchange’);
  • Potential beneficial use (mud) – stretches which may benefit; *Potential beneficial use (mud) – potential material sources (maintenance dredge disposal sites);
• Biogenic reefs:
  • Potential honeycomb worm (Sabellaria alveolata) restoration – historic and current sites;
  • Potential European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) restoration – historic and current sites;
• Seagrass beds:
  • Potential seagrass creation / restoration – historic sites.

A report on the project (MMO 1135) has now been published along with a summary version.

3.2 Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement

Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement is an EMFF funded project that started in 2017. It consists of two main phases, the first of which was the commission of a consultancy firm, Nomensa, to investigate stakeholders’ awareness, understanding, experience and views of past communications and engagement in marine planning. They also investigated stakeholders’ drivers, motivations and general ability to engage in marine planning in both current and future contexts. A full report has been produced and will be published online very soon. The second phase is now underway and involves working closely with eight coastal partnerships to engage so called “hard-to-reach” stakeholders and also to improve efforts to engage on cross-border planning issues (three of the eight partnerships share a border with either Scotland or Wales). Each partnership will deliver three rounds of work to engage hard-to-reach stakeholders and those sharing a border will each deliver two additional pieces of work.

The project has had a busy quarter with the completion of a range of work in the run up to Christmas. From October to December a lot of hard work by partnerships went in to the first round of work to identifying and engage stakeholders on marine planning from holding targeted workshops to poster campaigns to mini-roadshows. Sectors engaged included commercial and recreational fishermen, parish councils and coastal communities. The cross-border work saw three excellent workshops take place that explored different mechanisms for better cross-border collaboration including proposals to resurrect a Dee Estuary partnership. Insightful reports and lessons learnt will be published where possible and they are already informing the next stage of work. For example, several partnerships are planning animations to test new mediums for getting the marine planning message out to stakeholders, so look out for those soon on social media.

The MMO also attended the Coastal Partnership Network’s annual forum in Cardiff to present on the project and to discuss the benefits of working with coastal partnerships.

4. Marine Plan Area updates

4.1 East

Amy Balding and Eleanor Johnston have facilitated meetings on implementation of the East Marine Plan. Both attended coastal forums, groups and strategies that included North East Lincolnshire Council, East of England Aggregate Working Party and Anglian Eastern Regional Flood and Coastal Committee aiding stakeholders to implement the marine plan through their decision making processes. Amy and Eleanor also carried out one-to-one meetings with local authorities, ports and the Environment Agency to support implementation.

4.2 South

Mathilda Evans and Abby Haines have been travelling across the south coast carrying out implementation training sessions with key decision makers. These included Eastleigh Borough Council, Eastbourne Sovereign Harbour and others to support the successful implementation of the South Marine Plan that was adopted in July 2018.

4.3 North East

Kathleen Telford attended a meeting that sought to enhance the data and evidence pool for a Tyne Estuary Partnership Feasibility Study. The study will present some medium and long term projects primarily to improve the estuary edges and bring habitat gains to new developments. The study will be published later in April and it is hoped it will attract funding to implement the proposed projects.

Kathleen also met other stakeholders in the north east that included the Heritage Coast Steering Group, Northumberland Rivers Catchment Partnership and Durham County Council who shared their passion for their work. She also met newcomers to marine planning at the workshops in Redcar and Newcastle.

4.4 North West

Joe Smithyman has continued to engage with a wide variety of stakeholders including Local Authorities, the Royal Town Planning Institute, and the local fishing community in the North West.

Alongside meeting coastal partnerships and coastal groups, to discuss cross-border issues and coastal defences, Joe attended a Mersey Sediment Meeting, which sought to understand sediment movement within the Mersey and development within the area. Joe will be giving a lecture on marine planning at the University of Liverpool later in April.

4.5 South East

Tom Pavitt has been busy visiting different partnerships, groups and authorities that included the Stour and Orwell Partnership, the Essex Coastal Forum and the Medway and Swale Estuary Partnership among others. The interest was raised among the diverse individuals attending the partnerships on our emerging policies:

• seascape and their interaction with Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty;
• tourism and recreation and local Suffolk, Essex and Kent associated projects; and
• climate change and non-native-invasive species policies where the South East is one of the most vulnerable plan areas in England.

He has also held discussions with key sectors including ports, fisheries, local government and environmental conservation following-on from the South East Iteration 3 workshops.

4.6 South West

Amy Willcocks has exchanged spatial planning updates with representatives from local authorities including the Forest of Dean, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. She has been part of engagement with the Welsh marine planning team and worked closely with the Severn Estuary Partnership including presenting at their cross-border workshop in Bristol. Amy has also reached out to the coastal community teams in the area and has subsequently being invited to present in Ilfracombe, Combe Martin and Clevedon.

Alex Curd has attended informative meetings with the Marine Pioneer on marine natural capital and the development of pioneer projects. There have been several meetings with Natural England and the Environment Agency discussing the options for adopting a new Coastal Change Management Area in North Devon.

5. Team changes and recruitment

We welcome new colleagues to the team and say goodbye to others.

Clare McCarty joined the team in March as a Marine Planner for the North East based in North Shields.

Emma Harrison also joined the team in March as a Marine Planner and will be based in Newcastle.

Tom Woolley left us in March to take up a post as Planning Advisor (Marine) with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government in Ireland where he’ll be supporting efforts to put in place their first marine plan.

Laura Gale left the team in April to join the Overseas Territories Blue Belt team as a Programme Manager.

Eleanor Johnston left the team to join the Marine Conservation Team as a Marine Conservation Manager focusing on marine protected areas.

Nick Boase will be leaving at the end of April to work with Defra as a Senior Research Officer, working as a social researcher.

6. Contact Marine Planners

Marine Planners are here to keep you up to date with the development of marine plans in your area. Please contact us at planning mailbox Planning@marinemanagement.org.uk if you would like to meet your local planner or contact them directly.

North East: Clare McCarty – 0208 2258 320

North West: Joe Smithyman – 0208 0266 112

East: Amy Balding – 0208 0268 621

South East: Tom Pavitt – 0208 2258 857

South West: Amy Willcocks – 0207 8955 620 and Alex Curd – 0208 5654 835

South: Abby Haines – 0208 0265 506 and Mathilda Evans – 0127 3424 849

7. Useful links

Marine Information System

Marine plans:

• South Marine Plan
• East Marine Plan
• North East Marine Plan development
• North West Marine Plan development
• South East Marine Plan development
• South West Marine Plan development

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