Close-up shot of tangled seaweed washed up on the shore taken by the sea in Northumberland.
North East
In recent months, Kathleen had been focusing on developing the employment and heritage assets policies for the East Marine Plan. This has been a collaborative process, as we refine policies based on stakeholder feedback and insights from an independent Sustainability Assessment. The aim is to ensure the plan supports economic opportunities, protects cultural identity, and promotes long-term environmental sustainability. Work on these policies will continue, and they will be shared with you to ensure the final plan is the best it can be.
Alongside this, Kathleen has been responding to consultations from Northumberland, Gateshead, North Tyneside, and Whitby. In addition, several neighbourhood plans needed her input to support those in their endeavours to produce plans that are both wanted and needed, and reflect the priorities of their communities. This work helps to align local priorities with marine planning and the sustainable use of our marine area.
East
Mark has been continuing to develop policy, checking policy compatibility alongside responding to consultations and contributing to the development of the EastME conference, whilst attending regular BAU meetings.
South East
As part of East Marine Plan development, Marie has been specifically working on the Defence and Fisheries policies, including Sustainability Appraisal mitigation and integrating previous stakeholder comments into our new draft policies.
As part of her focus on fisheries policy, Marie joined the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fisheries, Rebuilding Trust: Fisheries, Science, Management. Trust between industry, scientists, managers, and policymakers is key to effective fisheries management. This session brought together experts on this topic and best practice case studies to explore the issues and to set out recommendations in support of fostering, and rebuilding the bridges of trust needed for sustainable, resilient and prosperous UK fisheries.
South
Eva has been busy continuing work on the East Marine Plan. She has attended meetings related to Shoreline Management Plans and is also looking into how these plans interact and align with marine plans in the South and South-West.
Eva attended a workshop with Sussex Bay where they are gathering information for their ‘blueprint for seascape recovery’. It was a very interesting workshop with voices from regulators, industry and NGOs. Having many voices from different perspectives is always an interesting and useful exercise which will hopefully support Sussex Bay in realising their vision.
North West
Over winter, the North West Coastal Forum and the Solway Firth Partnership hosted several online meetings with a range of stakeholders to understand how people's experiences of marine planning and the Local Nature Recovery Strategy processes could inform direction on the appropriate scale and governance for localised marine planning following the local approach to decision-making research project. This work was supported by Chloe in the North West.
The next step is a cross-sector workshop to share and explore the findings from the online sessions
https://marinedevelopments.blog.gov.uk/2026/03/03/coastal-planners-corner-3/
seen at 09:52, 3 March in Marine Development Blog.