Speak Up Hertfordshire!

What happens now - the future arrangements for Regional Planning

Under legislative arrangements in force at the time of the consultation, the Government would then have organised an Examination in Public (scheduled for autumn 2010) chaired by an independent Panel.

That Panel would have made recommendations to the Government on any changes that should be made to the Plan which the Government would take into account in preparing and publishing for public consultation proposed changes to the Plan before then subsequently approving it.

However, on the 1st April 2010, The Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act came into force, significantly changing responsibilities and arrangements for regional planning.

EERA Abolished

The East of England Regional Assembly has now been abolished, with regional planning matters now the joint responsibility of what are known as “Regional Leaders’ Boards” (in the East of England the Leaders Board is comprised of directly elected Mayors and Council Leaders from all 52 local authorities) and the Regional Development Agencies (the East of England Development Agency in the East of England).

These bodies are now responsible for the preparation of what is known as a Regional Strategy for their regions (bringing together the previously separate Regional Spatial Strategies and Regional Economic Strategies). The arrangements for the preparation of the Regional Strategy for the East of England and any role EERA’s draft East of England Plan may have in that are currently not known.