Marine Planning • Yorkshire Marine Nature Partnership • YMNP

Marine Planning

Marine plans guide those who use and regulate the marine area to encourage sustainable development, whilst considering the environment, economy and society. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is responsible for preparing marine plans in England. The marine plans consider both the offshore and inshore environments, up to mean high water springs. This ensures some overlap with the terrestrial planning system, which extends to mean low water springs, and may mean that some activities require both planning permission and a marine license.

Much like the terrestrial planning system, marine plans hold a suite of policies which apply to a broad range of commercial and non-commercial activities. The marine plans work alongside the marine licensing system, to ensure that we use our natural resources responsibly and sustainably.

Yorkshire is covered by the North East and East inshore and offshore marine plans. These plans help to inform decision-making about where, when or how activities might take place across Yorkshire’s marine and coastal environment.

The Explore Marine Plans service can help to identify which policies relate to your area or proposed activity, and whether any other environmental, economic or societal considerations should be taken into account.

To find out more about the marine planning process, watch this MMO webinar:

Further guidance on how users, decision makers and applicants could apply marine plans can be found on the MMO Using Marine Plans webpages.

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