Plan puts us ahead of the game
From BELFAST TELEGRAPH July 25th, 2000
By Dr Frank Gaffikin, director of the Urban Institute, University of Ulster SPEAKING at a recent international conference on the future of the city-region in Europe, I was taken by the number of positive references to Shaping Our Future - our proposed new regional plan. For instance, a speaker from the European Commission commended the strategy as a model approach Europe would like to see other regions adopt. Specifically, she praised its attempts to look beyond land use issues to wider social concerns; its reference to balanced development and its roots in extensive community consultation. Such praise echoes comments at other recent international gatherings of planners and academics in England and Wales. In other words, just at a time when regional planning is becoming more important, we are seen as being ahead of the game - as having something of significance to spread further afield, an unusual position for a place often cast as reliant on outside support and advice. Yet, it is not clear that we either fully appreciate this opportunity, or are aware of the challenge it poses. For instance, as the strategy moves beyond general aspiration to specific actions and projects, we must ensure that each project is related coherently to the strategy, rather than being part of a disjointed series of initiatives. Fundamentally, we must envision the region becoming less dependent on external subsidy and more competitive in the global economy, while we redress social disadvantage and sustain our environment. It is a tall order, but, it comes down in the end to a series of hard choices, all of which are closely linked. For instance, knowledge is key to the new economic age. Thus, the learning society, where all can achieve to their best, suggests reform of our selective secondary system. So, how can spatial policy help reverse our acute segregation of rich and poor, thereby creating more socially mixed catchment areas to better balance pupil intake in all schools? Beyond this, how can spatial strategy regard institutes and universities as learning and research magnets for industrial corridors accommodating clusters of high growth industries? In similar vein, how can our transport and infrastructure work to our economic advantage? For one thing, we need to link economic efficiency and environmental protection. So, what about increasing levies on new buildings and providing incentives for the re-use of existing buildings to help protect the built environment? At the same time, what about greater encouragement for 'brownfield' development, backed by disincentives for 'greenfield' use reflective of its real social cost? This can support urban regeneration, while reducing commuter congestion and pollution, and preserving more of our countryside. That, in turn, allows us to see rural areas as living communities, whose economy demands diversification. Another example relates to health. We cannot spend our way into good health simply through more hospitals. Rather, health will improve when we get the fundamentals right: clean water, good air quality, and unpolluted land. Together with enhanced household income, greater social and spatial equity, improvement in, and greater links between, the built and natural environment, such steps can contribute to healthier lifestyles, which make the economics of health provision more viable. In all of this, sustainability should inform all development. For instance, the concept of sustainable communities refers to the need for socially mixed neighbourhoods of diverse social and economic use that allow residents to access work, shop, school and leisure within reasonable proximity. To rise to this challenge in a divided society demands the widest possible 'ownership, building on existing partnerships, and deploying inter-disciplinary, cross-department planning teams that produce 'joined-up' policies. The prize is great, because unquestionably this linked approach charted by Shaping Our Future can add value to what each government department can achieve by acting separately. |
