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A few years ago, the environmental world decided that everything would be better if there was a ‘Management Plan’. The assumption seemed to be that there wasn’t any management. This is patently untrue. Local government and harbour authorities have been managing the environment for years. Often the ‘management plan’ was not written down, and existed in the heads of experienced officials. In today’s climate, greater transparency is certainly expected, a fact now acknowledged by all involved. To that extent the pressure for management plans has had a useful effect.
However, we have been through a decade where various groups have produced vast pile of management plans which are, in reality, nothing more than wish lists as these groups rarely have the resources to implement the plan. Such plans are a distraction from essential coastal zone management.
There are a few worthwhile exceptions to this criticism. The Shoreline Management Plans developed between local government, the Environment Agency and English Nature (with some input from port authorities) have made considerable progress in sorting out the knotty problems of flood defence, and government has released funds to enable approved plans to be implemented.
Also, where plans relate to a single statutory body, they clearly have the resources and authority to implement the plans. Good examples are the Local Environment Agency Plans (LEAPs) and some local authority plans.
But even where plans are valid and appropriate, the problem is to see how they all fit together. Who is “the manager”?!
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