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With 14 local authorities, 12 harbour authorities and 6 other official agencies involved in the Solent, we have a recipe for muddle, confusion and indecision. Or do we?
When government was obliged to implement the European Birds and Habitats Directives, it was required to set up schemes of management. In the coastal zone, the created the Habitats Regulations that (effectively) require all the coastal statutory bodies to work together to produce a scheme of management. Moreover the regulations state that where a scheme of management exists “there shall be only one” . It has taken a ridiculous length of time to make progress, but the results can now be seen on the web site of the Solent European Marine Site (SEMS). The way in which these schemes should work is covered in the Habitats Regulations section of this website.
Of course, the Habitats Regulations only relate to the reasons why the sites were designated as SAC or SPA. Many authorities desperately want to restrict it to that. However, other sections of this website illustrate the opportunities for chaos and delay. What the Habitats Regulations did was create a PROCESS that requires regulatory bodies to act in a consistent and transparent way. It requires little imagination to see that the same process, involving the same people could be applied to all coastal zone processes resulting in truly integrated coastal zone management.
The big snag has been that the authorities involved in SEMS (or some of them) have all sought to protect their patch, and real progress has been slow. To date, no integrated management has started, and in particular, the capacity of the Solent has not been addressed. Interestingly, Solent Forum are beginning to look at the issue, but they have no power or authority. If they can persuade the regulators involved in SEMS to take up the issues, well and good. If not, we can look at the most recent investigation into bureaucratic chaos, the Victoria Climbie inquiry. In that case government concluded that it would have to appoint a kind of coordinator to enforce cooperation. The SEMS authorities should watch out!
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