'Will, or Should, the RTPI be Running the ICE Coastal Management Conference in Four Years Time?' Increasing the Dialogue between Shoreline Management Plans and Spatial Planning

Introduction

The pattern of historic development along the coast of England1, and the legacy of coastal

management demands that society has inherited as a result, is a familiar story to coastal

engineers and spatial planners2. The new suite of Shoreline Management Plans (SMPs)

completed for England in 20113 form a milestone in sustainable shoreline management. They

have been developed using the forum provided by Coastal Groups - partnerships between

local government, the Environment Agency, and other coastal managers. Together they

represent an impressive effort to refine earlier SMPs developed between 1995 and 1999 that

were overseen and reviewed by the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Farming (MAFF) as