A new three-letter acronym (TLA?) has recently become the focus of attention and no little concern here at the RSPB. NPSs – or National Policy Statements looked like they were to be the best bits of the 2008 Planning Act. We like effective strategic planning at the RSPB. But it’s not looking good.
Today the RSPB will be giving evidence to the Transport Select Committee’s inquiry into the Ports NPS. Getting the long-term strategic relationship right between the ports industry and the coastal environment is critically important. It’s fairly obvious that ports and fabulous areas for wildlife (some of the most important in the world) exist cheek by jowl in our major estuaries – the Ports NPS is a real opportunity to ensure that planning the UK’s ports requirement is met in a way that reduces and minimises conflict with our best wildlife sites.
Given the work that the RSPB has put in to building a better rapport with the ports industry – it is doubly disappointing that the Ports NPS fails to provide either guidance on how much port capacity the country truly needs or where it should be.
The RSPB and the ports industry both carry the scars of having to resolve disputes the hard way at public inquiry in a policy vacuum. We’ve certainly learned the lesson that there is a better way and we are concerned that the Ports NPS risks setting back progress by a decade.