The seas surrounding the UK, as a resource, are more important than people realise as they provide environmental, economic, aesthetic and cultural benefits.
On 12 November 2009, the Marine and Coastal Access Bill for the UK received Royal Assent. No other country in the world has successfully introduced a single piece of legislation to protect the marine environment. The new legislation will be known as the Marine and Coastal Access Act.
At the heart of the act is the creation of a new marine planning system designed to bring together the conservation, social and economic needs of the seas surrounding the UK. In particular, the new planning system is good news for the development of offshore facilities and will influence offshore wind, wave and other renewables projects.
The planning system will simplify the consenting of wind, wave and tidal projects (of 100MW or less in output) by ensuring only one administrative process is used to consider all the marine elements of an application. It should also result in increased certainty as to the acceptability of marine projects through the application of a new marine policy framework.
Overall, this new system will help the government in its efforts to increase significantly the amount of offshore renewable capacity to meet the challenging EU target of securing 15% of UK energy production from renewable sources by 2020.
Here at Sauce we have a specialist in our team with expertise and knowledge relating to marine, coastal and water environments, and can we can help with all aspects of communications, consultation and community engagement requirements relating to the development of marine and offshore facilities. For more information please contact us at info@sauceconsultancy.co.uk
By Caroline Robinson
Tags: Marine and Coastal Access Act, Marine and Coastal Access Bill, marine planning system, Motion in the Ocean
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