Our Voice
What we’re doing to help you be heard
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In June 1998, the Aarhus Convention was signed by the UK and many other countries. After ten years of work by campaigners and academics, this UN convention set out a commitment to ‘environmental governance’, describing the relationship between the people making the decisions and those affected.
“Recognising also that every person has the right to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being, and the duty, both individually and in association with others, to protect and improve the environment for the benefit of present and future generations”
Aarhus Convention
We track legislation and policy across England and Wales to monitor whether or not it complies with the provisions of this important convention.
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Aarhus Convention’s full title is the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.
“Recognizing also that every person has the right to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being, and the duty, both individually and in association with others, to protect and improve the environment for the benefit of present and future generations,
Considering that, to be able to assert this right and observe this duty, citizens must have access to information, be entitled to participate in decision-making and have access to justice in environmental matters, and acknowledging in this regard that citizens may need assistance in order to exercise their rights.”
We track legislation and policy across England and Wales to monitor whether or not it complies with the provisions of this convention. Our Directors have been involved for many years in some of the most important legislative requirements that exist in the UK on the right to participate, which is enshrined in planning law. There are continued threats to our voice in decisions, with ‘delay’ or ‘cost’ being cited as reasons not to hear what people want to say. But our view is that we need to make decisions that affect the environment with people fully involved – including the voices of children and those disproportionately affected – and based on the evidence, including the knowledge that local communities hold.
Our joint statement here on public participation and planning in England
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The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill received royal assent on 26 October 2023.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act now limits your voice in joint spatial development strategies
It also gives Ministers a trump card through National Development Management Policies to override local plans.
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The amendment supported by Rights Community Action and the #WeAreHere community campaign on community resilience to climate change, mitigation and adaptation, passed the Lords but was defeated in the Commons twice although Labour championed it at the time. However, the Conservative Government finally came back with a concession that, although watered down, was a slight improvement to the Bill.
“The Secretary of State must have regard to the need to mitigate, and adapt to, climate change— (a)in preparing a policy which is to be designated as a national development management policy”
Despite our work to try and get people’s voice heard and respected in plan-making, this Act now limits your voice in joint spatial development strategies:
“15AC Public Examination - (6) No person is to have a right to be heard at an examination in public.”
You still have this right in your local plan.
It also gives Ministers a trump card through National Development Management Policies to override local plans.
And it radically changes Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Assessment of Plans and Programmes regulations. These came from European directives which provide the basis for most of the legal cases on planning and the environment in the UK. The new ‘Environmental Outcome Reports’ have not been brought into force yet, but they are much less specific (so there will be arguments about what is meant) and that means there will be much less evidence as a basis for decisions. It’s a real failure of environmental law.
Read
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We worked with The University of Manchester and Climate Just to develop a flood map on behalf of #WeAreHere.
We need to know what is happening, so we can do something about it
….or make sure that the Government is doing something about it.
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This new resource shows the flood risk levels in specific locations across England. It shows which areas are in flood zone 2 and 3, if and where there are flood defences in place, the flood risk from rivers and the sea, flood storage areas and if there are shoreline management plans.
The data shows whether there are significant gaps in the protection for YOUR community from future flooding risk. You can also leave comments and links on the map, which we’d love communities to do! Find out more…