The North West Metropolitan Spatial Strategy – A Scoping Paper, developed by the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD), in partnership with Donegal County Council and Derry City and Strabane District Council, constitutes an overview of emerging strategic issues which provide a context for the concept of a cross-border spatial strategy in terms of a vibrant, innovative, green and creative North West City Region.
The North West City Region (NWCR) occupies a strategic location, and it exhibits the characteristics of a discrete functional area. The region benefits from a polycentric approach to planning and governance, and there are opportunities for further progress in these regards. Finalised in March 2022, the Scoping Paper provides an evidence-based assessment of regional assets, potential, opportunities and challenges in respect of metropolitan spatial planning.
The paper comes at an important time for the NWCR. Despite the challenges associated with Brexit, the region stands to gain from a consolidation of its functional integration and the alignment of policy objectives in both jurisdictions. The COVID-19 pandemic also threw up several new challenges, but it has engendered a means of capturing the value of natural resources, and citizens and agencies are clearer and more strident in working to protect biodiversity and ameliorate the excesses of climate change. Collaborative spatial planning has the potential to harness and systematise the region’s assets and to guide and support stakeholders in enabling the region to be resilient. A copy of the Scoping Paper can be downloaded below.
