ABSTRACT
We saw in the last chapter that the land-use planning model and containment strategies have tended to promote a narrow ‘vision’ for the rural-urban fringe, and rarely reflect the needs of the ‘multiple fringes’ (or the need to integrate land uses) discussed in Part Two of this book. In this current chapter, we move beyond the status quo to look at the particular opportunities arising from planning reform in England, and the wider ‘spatial planning’ agenda emerging across Europe. It is not our intention to provide a model or blueprint for planning at the rural-urban fringe. Rather we use the discussion of multiple fringes as a context for understanding the principles that might underpin future policy interventions. We believe that the examination of the historical, aesthetic, economic, sociocultural and ecological functions of fringe landscapes has revealed a need to develop a model of intervention, or management (this is not a comment on the extent of intervention required) that is grounded in clear leadership (of the type displayed at Barn Elms); effective partnership working (the hallmark of the Community Forests Programme); integrated management (shared between different agencies with different ‘sectoral’ interests); and inclusivity (something that has characterized most, if not all, of the project examples cited thus far). And through an approach to planning and management that avoids being reactive – and knows what it wants to achieve in particular fringe areas – intervention might at least explore the possibility of achieving greater integration between land uses and interaction between fringe functions. It will certainly seek to combine recreation with economic development or ecological projects of the type illustrated in Chapter 7. It might also explore more unusual connections, perhaps between energy generation and industrial uses: though it might be possible to do more than simply position solar panels on warehouse roofs. It became clear in Chapter 2 that people have been squeezed out of some fringe areas, often because new economic uses and transport infrastructure seem to have an insatiable appetite for land. But in Chapter 6, it became apparent that landscapes often
become valued because they are accessible, and provide opportunities for people to pursue different activities, some that might be labelled ‘green’, and others that might be viewed as more conventional (Chapter 6 explores this distinction at some length).
