by Janet Martin, Chairman Hart and Rushmoor District Group

Across the County this new concept of partnerships is gathering momentum. Whilst the majority of us have been comfortable with the familiar system of County Structure Plan and District Plan, the rise in profile of the Regional Assembly as the statutory Planning Authority has led to an increasing number of strategies to inform not only development issues, but also all related ones. From this has arisen the era of acronyms and partnerships. Hampshire has a well-established Strategic Partnership whose motto is "Shaping Our Future Together". That is the easy bit because once you reach District level you meet the VDS, LSP, LDF, LDS, LDD, SA, SEA, DPD...Confused?

All of these come under the umbrella of the RSS which is overseen by the ODPM Starting at the end of this list you will all be aware of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and, probably, of the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). Some of you may be involved in a Village Design Statement (VDS) and have responded to draft documents about Community Strategies from your Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) which is one component of producing a Local Development Framework (LDF). Are you still with me?????

The LDF contains Local Development Documents [LDD], will have undergone a Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and will incorporate a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). All of these processes will evolve into a series of Development Plan Documents (DPD) and the process of achieving it all is by a Local Development Scheme (LDS). If your eyes haven't already glazed over, consider how this translates into practice for us as volunteers.

The old processes meant that draft documents setting out policies were published, public consultation took place, revised drafts received further consultation and then the plan was published. Our response was reactive, but we now have the opportunity to be proactive and engage in processes at an early stage as all partnerships have a requirement to demonstrate volunteer membership alongside that of elected members, officers and statutory bodies.

At the first level are the VDS/Parish Plan schemes which can incorporate many of our targets. At District level why not get involved in the LSP itself? Most of these have an Environment element where our input is valuable, and valid, and a place on the main group is equally worth asking for by your district group. That way, CPRE can be involved in shaping the processes and their progress.

May 2005