Monitoring and Review of the Regional Spatial Strategy

 Please note Regional Strategies / Regional Spatial Strategies were revoked with immediate effect on 6th July 2010.

Regular monitoring of policies is essential in establishing what is happening now, what may occur in the future and to use these trends to assess whether policies are being correctly implemented and having their desired effects.

Over the years 4NW (and its predecessor the North West Regional Assembly) established a successful RSS monitoring process based on extensive partnership working with a wide range of organisations in the region on data collection, and the co-ordination of monitoring activities to ensure consistency and avoid duplication in data collection.

Annual Monitoring Report

The main purposes of the Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) were to:

  • Consider whether the implementation of RSS was being achieved in line with the purposes of RSS.
  • Provide explanations where individual policies were not being implemented.
  • Outline the measures that will be taken where RSS policies were not being implemented.
  • Provide information regarding net additions to the dwelling stock.

The AMR was a government requirement and was submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government at the end of February each year.

The monitoring of RSS in the North West drew upon and complemented the work of a number of other organisations carrying out monitoring work in the region. In particular there were close associations between RSS monitoring and similar monitoring work being undertaken with regard to the Regional Economic Strategy. There was also considerable correspondence between many of the indicators outlined in this report and those monitored in the 'State of the North West Region: Vital Signs'.

Local Development Framework Monitoring

In parallel with the statutory duties formerly placed on 4NW regarding regional monitoring, similar statutory duties are placed on Local Planning Authorities in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 with each Local Planning Authority required to submit an Annual Monitoring Report of its Development Plan by 31st December each year.  PPS11 and PPS12 stress the linkages between local and regional monitoring reports and highlight the need for co-ordination of monitoring activities to ensure complimentarily and to avoid duplication.

4NW has always been committed to ensuring that local and regional monitoring complemented one another in the North West. A Regional Monitoring Seminar was held in June 2007 to update local planning authorities on the monitoring work being undertaken at the regional level. 4NW formed a Regional Monitoring Group to address both local and regional monitoring issues as they arose.

Future Monitoring

The monitoring of RSS in the North West has evolved over time. While the early Annual Monitoring Reports presented an initial baseline assessment, subsequent reports have placed a greater emphasis on analysis and interpretation.  This included making better use of the data collected to analyse which parts of RSS were and were not being implemented and subsequently to develop linkages between these findings and both intervention measures and policy development.

All previous copies of the Annual Monitoring Report, and all the data submitted by Local Authorities since 2002, can be downloaded here.

 

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