Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

Contents

1.       Introduction

2.       Context/Approach

3.       Response to Key Themes

3.1 Boundaries/Subsidiarity and Democracy

3.2 Environmental Sustainability

3.3 Integration or Coordination

4.1 Access to the Planning Process

4.2 Difficulty with the Planning Process

4.3

4. 4 Boundaries

The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) has been asked to submit evidence to the Royal Commission Study on Environmental Planning.

The Royal Commission has identified a number of key themes upon which comment is requested and has commissioned five reports on various aspects of Environmental Planning. More recently a paper "Themes emerging from the first phase responses has been made available.

The HTA has used these references to construct this response to the Royal Commission.

2.      Approach/Context

The approach adopted is to:

a)       Identify from the list of key themes those areas of particular significance to the HTA.

b)       Introduce a specific example of an issue within these areas that is currently, or has recently been under consideration through one or more HTA initiatives. The specific examples are then used to link issue to theme. For example, the use of seed from local provenance (issue) to environmental sustainability (theme) The HTA initiatives themselves are not developed beyond a brief description. Should any further development be required, the HTA will be more than happy to do so.

c)       To address the key themes through a discussion of the effectiveness of the environmental planning systems to integrate or even consider, environmental initiatives such as those identified.

3.       Links to key themes

3.1       Boundaries/Subsidiarity and Democracy
The influences of EU legislation are increasingly important. For example a recent EU Directive on Forestry Reproductive Materials (FRM) has to be interpreted and subsequently adopted by the UK. (Note: This particular example will also be used be used to raise issues vis a vis Environmental Sustainability.

These changes have will have to be applied across the UK, raising the issues of boundaries and subsidiarity when considering the extent to which local, regional or national responses to the revised FRM directive may have to be modified.

3.2       Environmental Sustainability
Not surprisingly, the HTA is directly involved in this area on number of levels. For example:

• Through the previously mentioned FRM regulations and the potential impact on the use of seed from local provenance for UK planting.

• Initiatives to improve the overall quality of landscape in the UK through the adoption of practices consistent with Best Value guidelines such as life cycle costing for landscape and the development of best practice for plant specification and handling.

3.3       Integration or Coordination
This theme is of fundamental importance to the HTA as the body seeking to represent environmental issues as they relate to/influence the horticulture industry.

The comments from the first phase responses "there is a consensus that the Town and Country Planning System is in need of improvement" would certainly have been reinforced by the HTA." Much of the following section considers the potential for improvement in a number of areas.

4.      Issues for the HTA

4.1       Access to the Planning Process
The theme of integration or coordination, in effect considers the effectiveness of the current planning system in the context of environmental issues.

For an industry body seeking to influence change, early access to the planning process is of fundamental importance. Retrospective consideration of environmental issues is difficult to achieve. Without this access, the probability of success is limited as the alternative is frequently a piece meal approach to change that is usually less effective and more expensive to implement.

It is not intended that access to the system should/ would guarantee that the issues being raised would automatically be adopted. Indeed as the raison d'etre of an industry body is to present the interests of that industry the issues being raised would have to be considered on that basis.

In recent years the HTA has initiated several projects that whilst responding to the needs of the industry have been prompted by:

• environmental stimuli ( sustainability -seed from local provenance) or,

• legislative requirements to address environmental issues (EU FRM directive).

• political initiatives ( Best Value in the public sector /Latham/Egan - Construction Industry Task Force)

• across the planning system - in other words it is not only relevant to environmentally sensitive sites.

• at a stage early enough in the development process to facilitate optimal implementation - in other words the issues are incorporated by developers at the project planning stage.

Of course this 'problem' has been around for some time and alternatives of a sort are available. When a topic is either:

• too specific a for a dedicated PPG

• facing a timing 'window' that is unlikely to be open for some time

If, upon reaching the local authority:

• The information is disseminated to the appropriate individual - not easy when responsibility for environmental issues is frequently widely dispersed.

• The individual(s) has time/resources available ( neither of which are usually abundant in the public sector)

• not uniform in interpretation

• patchy in terms of application

• frequently not enforced.

The challenge is to develop a PPG which can be more responsive to emerging environmental issues, but which retains the robust framework required for long term planning.

4.2       Dificulty with the Planning Process
Comments from the first phase responses, identify the adversarial nature between participants as one the difficulties with the existing planning system and argue for various positions to make planning less developer dominated.

The adversarial issue extends into:

• the implementation phase and the nature of the construction contract

• the role/participation of the traditional construction professions.

The growth of the design and build approach as the dominant form of contract has been relentless in recent years. Design and build is highly effective in driving down costs and it is now the mainstream approach. Government departments such as the Highways Agency are increasingly moving in this direction.

Under design and build the influence of the traditional construction professions is frequently reduced/changed. The emergence of the multidisciplinary project manager is challenging the influence of the architect/ civil engineer etc.

One consequence of these changes is that costs are the dominant feature in many projects and at every link in the construction supply chain the priority is to reduce costs wherever possible. Items or issues that are not tightly defined in the contract become vulnerable and are increasingly unlikely to be protected by the integrity of the supervising professional.

If/when an environmental planning requirement is not specific or is loosely constructed, it is often the case that the subsequent reference in the contract will also not be specific and /or loosely constructed - with the inevitable consequences.

For the HTA, of the initiatives cited earlier in this paper many, local provenance, life cycle costing in soft landscape (Best Value) are responses to legislative or political promptings. They are however difficult to implement because of problems:

• With access to the planning system - see 4.1

• The weakness of the link between planning requirement and contract

• The reduced influence on site of the various 'enforcing' professions

In terms of the 'change or evolve' debate highlighted in the first phase responses - the points in this section support the change position.

4.3      Weakness in development control
Sections 4.1 and 4.2 developed the argument for introducing appropriate environmental issues into the planning system at an early stage. This improves the probability of such issues being included in planning permissions and included in contract documentation. The final component in this chain is implementation on site.

The changes described in section 4.2 namely:

• The trend towards design and build contracts in the construction industry

• The changing and often reduced role of the traditional construction professionals on the ground

The reality is somewhat different, in one major urban authority the one ( half time) development control officer with specific responsibility for environmental issues, has a case load of 600 projects at any one time. To make any sense of this workload he only actually considers:

• the highly environmentally sensitive projects

• the politically important projects

4. 4      Boundaries
To reinforce as an individual point an issue identified earlier. The HTA represents the horticultural industry with members in each country in the UK. Many environmental initiatives are country or UK wide and can be UK responses to EU requirements.

In this context, effective access to existing or revised planning instrument with the capacity to influence across administrative boundaries would be a significant improvement. Without this cross boundary platform it is:

• More difficult to achieve uniformity of approach

• More expensive and difficult to implement change

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