Sustainable development for Welsh seas: Our approach to marine planning in Wales

This consultation seeks views on how we intend developing marine planning in Wales in line with our powers and responsibilities under the Marine & Coastal Act 2009.    

The consultation sets out our intention to develop a national plan for the Welsh inshore area and a national plan for the Welsh offshore area and adopt them by 2012/13. The consultation also sets out options for and asks questions on how we should plan on a sub-national level to embed more detail into the national plans.

This consultation document:

• maps key existing and planned economic environmental and social features resources and activities in Welsh seas and establish the need to consider them all in developing marine plans;
• sets out our overall vision for achieving sustainable development in Welsh seas;
• emphasises our commitment to make marine and land based planning joined up and seeks views on the challenges;
• provides the background to marine planning in Wales;
• explains the relationship between the UK Marine Policy Statement and Welsh marine plans;
• sets out the constitutional and administrative arrangements that will apply;
• proposes national plans and approaches to sub-national planning;
• outlines the cross-border planning relationships;
• commits to full public engagement and consultation and sets out the principles we will follow to achieve this; and
• outlines next steps.

Maritime activity Wales

A Maritime activity map of Wales is available below either with or without layers. In the “with layers” document you can turn on or off layers of information. It is a large file and may take some time to download. The “without layers” document is a considerably smaller file.