CRPR talk on UK NAS and Dawlish case study

On Tuesday 2 December 2014, Duncan Russel and I gave a presentation in our CRPR discussion series, introducing the BASE project to our colleagues. And presenting our findings so far on the role of the UK National Adaptation Strategy (NAS), and the challenges in climate change adaptation at the South Devon Coast around Dawlish. Because of time constraints, we decided to focus on the Dawlish case. Hopefully we can go more in depth into the Dartmoor case study next time.

One of the diagrams that shows the complexity of the setting at the South Devon Coast around Dawlish, is the figure below. We interviewed the actors as depicted below, and asked them: “Who do you think is the key decision making actor about climate change adaptation at the South Devon Coast around Dawlish?” The diagram below visualises all the different answers we received to that question:

We intend to make similar diagrams or visualisations of the answers we received to questions around perception of sufficient availability of knowledge, perception of whether sufficient actions are currently in place, and if not, what would be needed, and what the main barriers and enablers are, and why, according to the interviewees.

After the presentation, we received various feedbacks from the audience. Dawlish happened to be in the news the same week. DEFRA’s flood minister Dan Rogerson indicated that alternatives to the current line should be considered (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-30292756). In the Western Morning News, a businessman prominent in the Southwest region expressed his frustration that national government did not want to consider a fast and resilient line to connect to Plymouth (http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Government-s-handling-Westcountry-mainline/story-25445267-detail/story.html). And indeed, Prime Minister Mr. Cameron has indicated earlier (on 7 November 2014) that alternatives should be reconsidered, after Network rail had dismissed alternative routes:  “Mr Cameron told the WMN an extra line had not been ruled out despite Network Rail’s report questioning its value for money.” (http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Prime-Minister-fears-South-West-8220-reliant-8221/story-24330645-detail/story.html#ixzz3MFStMvrX). A news item yesterday (17 Dec 2014) further confirmed the national government will investigate options for alternative lines (http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/PM-says-7bn-South-West-rail-plan-taken-forward/story-25728881-detail/story.html). Although it remains unclear how enhancing the current line along Dawlish will be investigated and eventually decided upon, and how a possible alternative will be assessed.

A colleague from the business school who attended our CRPR session, mentioned that at an event about “Better Connected! A business led review of the Strategic Connectivity requirements for the South West” (on 3 Dec 2014), there was some discussion about how local enterprises could consolidate the fragmented perspectives on the future of the railway line, and connectivity of the Southwest. Another prominent regional businessman (Jim French) had presented at that event, stressing that a long term strategic vision is needed for the Southwest region, and that resilience, speed and capacity should be enhanced for road, rail and broadband. Although it did not immediately propose something about how such a long term strategic vision should be developed. Considering the fragmented and scattered setting around decision making regarding climate change adaptation at Dawlish, it is not entirely clear which government or governmental bodies could or should develop such a long term strategic vision for the Southwest.

Another colleague, from the politics department, indicated that our work on the Dawlish case study may link up to other research in the politics department around responsibility and lack of responsibility of arms-length agencies. In that research, accountability (i.e. capacity to explain and justify decisions) of executive (arms length) agencies in the UK to government and to citizens is being analysed. And it may also associate to recent research form the politics department around confusion over who/which agency is responsible, and whether eventually central government is held responsible by the public, even when certain services are outsourced and contracted out to a private company.