Partnerships

The benefits partnership working

Partnership working is increasingly becoming the way forward for the delivery of public services. Working in partnership is an effective way of meeting local people's service needs, minimising the financial burden on council taxpayers and, overall, providing strong community leadership. It is recognised that coordinated and collaborative action is more effective than separate action by individual agencies.

Working in partnership can produce many benefits:

Ensures that strategies and programmes take account of the needs and interests of all relevant groups and stakeholders.
Improve the efficiency of service delivery by making making better use of resources whether in the public, private or voluntary sectors and avoids wasteful duplication.
Addresses issues that lie outside the remit of individual partners to deliver more "joined up" services that better meets the needs of the users
Developing policies or delivering services in a way that would not be possible working separately
Gain access to previously unavailable resources
Can address complex/cross cutting issues

However, it is not easy - partnership working is complex, it challenges many of the traditional organisational, professional and cultural boundaries, and could demand significant changes.

Chichester District Council is involved in may different partnerships that cover issues such crime, health and voluntary sector and the Local Strategic Partnership.

Manhood Peninsula Partnership

Introduction

The Manhood Peninsula Partnership (opens new window) (MPP) is a Standing Conference for the Manhood Peninsula. The partnership was formed in 2001, and its main aim is to promote, develop and support initiatives that deliver economic, social and environmental benefits.

The partnership has forged a new way of working together for the benefit of the peninsula and its people; it has helped create a wider understanding of local issues; it has promoted forward thinking. As a community led initiative, it provides a representative local forum and brings together key organisations: local groups, local and national government agencies, and other bodies.

The partnership has a proven track record of project delivery. Its success relies on its ability to promote a multi-agency approach that fosters trust and cooperation and brings together different funding schemes, including giving access to funding denied to local councils or small organisations. The achievements of the MPP are recognised locally, nationally and internationally.

Objectives

The MPP wishes to reflect what community consultation says the Manhood Peninsula should continue to be: low key, tranquil, relatively unspoilt and undeveloped, isolated, semi-rural, sustainable and - while maintaining its unique qualities - providing economic security and an important link between the South Downs and the sea.

The partnership seeks meaningful and practical results for these key objectives:

Economic regeneration
Social wellbeing
Environmental management

Achievements and future direction

The partnership has a proven track record of project delivery. It has itself implemented projects worth over £600k. Major achievements include:

The ESPACE programme in 2004-07 and adoption of the "Climate for Change on the Manhood Peninsula - Adaptation Action Plan" in 2006.
'Going Dutch II' workshops in 2008. During the workshop Dutch and British Coastal management specialists reviewed the draft Coastal Defence Strategy and examined other options put forward by local residents.
The MPP had a role in gaining understanding and acceptance of the Coastal Defence Strategy and the Medmerry proposals.
The Coastal Change Pathfinder project 2009-11; adoption of the integrated coastal zone management plan "Towards ICZM on the Manhood Peninsula".
Prompting inclusion of an ICZM policy in the district council's Local Plan.
Creation of a Destination Management Plan (DMP) aimed at furthering the prospects for green tourism and economic regeneration.
Physical projects that engage local communities.

Membership

The Peninsula area includes the following parishes: Appledram, Birdham, Donnington, Earnley, East Wittering and Bracklesham, Hunston, North Mundham, Selsey, Sidlesham, West Itchenor and West Wittering. The partnership consists of representatives from parish councils and local groups and from organisations with statutory responsibilities in the Manhood Peninsula. The following organisations are currently members of the partnership:

Chichester District Council (Secretariat)
Chichester Harbour Conservancy
Environment Agency
National Trust
Natural England
Peninsula Community Forum
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Selsey Town Council
Sussex Association of Local Councils
West Sussex County Council
Wittering Estates

Going Dutch II (PDF, 1 MB)

Towards ICZM part 1 (PDF, 1 MB)

Towards ICZM part 2 (PDF, 1 MB)

Coastal Change Pathfinder Project

Recently the Manhood Peninsula Partnership (MPP) was the delivery partner in Defra's Coastal Change Pathfinder project, for which Chichester District Council was awarded £450,000. In 2009 the Government awarded £11 million in grants to local authorities who demonstrated the best and most innovative ideas for dealing with and adapting to coastal change. 15 local authorities were successful, each of whom developed their own schemes for working with communities that face the threat of coastal erosion.

The grant could not be used for the direct funding of sea defences. Instead the scheme was about working with local communities to adapt to coastal erosion. It was about recognising that the shape of our coastline is not fixed; but is subject to constant change which will only increase as our climate changes.

The MPP, the independent national charity CoastNet and the Manhood Peninsula Steering Group worked with Chichester District Council to deliver different elements of the project.

The MPP delivered several community based projects the most prominent of which were:

An Integrated Coastal Zone Management plan for the Peninsula, Towards ICZM (opens new window) on the Manhood Peninsula, which has been adopted as a material planning consideration by the Local Planning Authority. This working group was chaired by WSCC.
A forward thinking Destination Management Plan (opens new window) agreed by business and wildlife /ecological organisations aiming at protecting the environment by using it as an economic asset.
A well subscribed small grants fund that supported community projects which raised awareness of the changing coastline.

Coastal Literacy

There is a growing understanding that stakeholder engagement is necessary for good decision making in all areas of governance. This is particularly true of coastal management and climate change adaptation. Government and its agencies are responding with new guidance for engagement, but there still appears to be a fundamental gap of understanding that will not be solved by ad hoc consultation exercises.

Part of the Coastal Change Pathfinder project was delivered by the charity CoastNet in the form of an educational programme under the title Coastal Literacy. The programme aimed to provide a framework to fill that gap.

The anticipated results were:

Less conflict and more timely adoption of policies
More efficient and cost effective policy delivery regarding both coastal and marine activity

Coastal Literacy is about equipping the public, politicians and technicians with the knowledge and understanding required to take an active and meaningful place in coastal decision-making. This participation should be be good for democracy, good for decision-making, and good for empowering for communities.

The most significance outputs under Coastal Literacy were an information leaflet, a number of films looking at the Manhood Peninsula coastline and two reports concerned with Coastal Literacy.

Coastal change Leaflet (PDF, 499 KB)

The films are about the special nature of the peninsula coast, and coastal governance locally. They can be viewed on our Coastal Change YouTube channel (opens new window).

The purpose of the Coastal Change Leaflet was to distil aspects of the Coastal Literacy concepts formed through a number of expert panel workshops, and turn them into public information. CoastNet tested this approach in local schools - Seal, Medmerry and East Wittering. The leaflet can be found under Related documents.

Reports and surveys undertaken by CoastNet include the Coastal Literacy Survey and the Conceptual Framework.

Coastal literacy conceptual framework (PDF, 1 MB)

Coastal literacy final report (PDF, 1 MB)

Towards integrated coastal zone management on the Manhood Peninsula

Towards Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) is the spatial plan suggesting management options of the coastal zone from a number of perspectives. It is similar in principle to a Village Design Statement for the peninsula, and comments on how the coastal zone affects/is affected by life there. Subject themes within the document are based on the Sustainable Community Strategy entitled 'Chichester, A Very Special Place'. It provides a summary of local opinion and expectation as depicted in Parish Plans, Village Design Statements, Conservation Area Character Appraisals (CACAs), and a number of other documents on which consultation has already taken place including the Pagham - East Head Coastal Defence Strategy and the North Solent Shoreline Management Plan. A workshop discussed many of these issues further.

Towards ICZM part 1 (PDF, 1 MB)

Towards ICZM part 2 (PDF, 1 MB)

Included within Towards ICZM is an integrated coastal zone spatial policy Spatial Plan 14. It has been suggested that the policy is included within the emerging Local Plan for Chichester District outside the National Park. The council is currently working on the Local Plan and the policy will be reviewed in light of the National Planning Policy Statement which was produced after ICZM.

Arun & Chichester Food Partnership

The aim of the Arun & Chichester Food Partnership (opens new window) is for good food to be accessible to everyone.

We aim to:

tackle food poverty;
increase the amount of food locally available;
improve local food environments, and;
promote organic and agroecological farming methods and careers in the food industries

Focusing on these areas mean we can work towards a more resilient, healthier and reliable food environment.

Working with local groups

We work with local groups and organisations to:

improve the food landscape in specific areas
develop local answers to local needs.

In addition to our ambitions, we respond to the needs and opportunities when they appear. We do this to improve the food system within the districts of Arun & Chichester.

Arun & Chichester Food Partnership newsletter

Please sign up to our monthly Arun & Chichester Food Partnership newsletter (opens new window). You can also follow us on X or Facebook to keep up to date on the latest news.

Contact us

For further information and advice contact community@chichester.gov.uk.

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