The opportunities of spatial planning for integrated coastal management

This paper explains the nature of spatial planning and its incorporation into amended town and country planning legislation for England. It comments on current coastal management in England, including discussion on marine spatial planning, and examines how the new planning legislation provides opportunities for implementing aspects of coastal policy through planning, using shoreline management and coastal regeneration as examples. It considers how these opportunities may be developed for the Solent. The paper concludes that these opportunities must be seized if the longer-term sustainable future of the English coast is to be secured.