Erasmus Year and Planning in Spain

I spent my Erasmus year studying in Alicante, Spain which was a very different experience from studying at UWE. The Urban Planning modules did not cover much about policy or the planning history of Spain, and instead, we learnt more urban design theories. This may have been due to the fact that the class taught in English and therefore, the lecturers did not expect Erasmus students to learn about Spanish planning policy. However, it was also made clear in other subjects that both Erasmus and Spanish students were taught the same content in both the Spanish and English classes.

In the first semester, we learnt about design principals that we would later apply to the regeneration of an urban plaza. We had to carry out an analysis of an allocated city in Spain (Murcia) on different scales, compare a successful plaza to an unsuccessful one, and then re-design the latter. The second semester consisted of a similar process. We were allocated a city within Europe (my group was given Bratislava) which we had to analyse, decide on a site, carry out precedent studies, and design a masterplan. Again, there was no research into planning policy and therefore, there were no limitations to the design.

FIRST SEMESTER: MURCIA

Video presentation of the project:

SECOND SEMESTER: BRATISLAVA

Video presentation of the project:

Being able to study in a different country has now opened my eyes to potentially working abroad at some point in the future. If I am to work in a different country, then I will have to familiarise myself with the planning system and the process of development. Therefore, I have decided to do some research on how the Spanish planning system works.

Spanish Town Planning

The article above compares the town planning laws in England and Spain. Below you will find key points that I picked out from the article.

- National government has no control over regional or local development. This control has been given to regional governments.

- Local town halls create local development plans which conform to regional law. There is a problem with small town halls having unrealistic schemes that lack the technical competence to design and implement such plans. Therefore they rely on developers to provide expertise, which is a conflict of interest.

- Local development plans can be challenged in court based on non-compliance with the regional law. However, there is said to be no willingness to challenge local development plans for not complying with EU law.

- There are limited opportunities for individuals and preservation societies to object to local development plans.

- Any individual promoter can present a development proposal to the town hall. However, the town hall appears to have very limited power to reject development proposals, regardless of whether they comply with the local development plan. This is because regional law allows promoters to insist on approval based on "public interest/general benefit" and there is no specific definition of these terms. Challenges to development are usually ignored due to the lack of resources. It is difficult for small property owners to have their say as the system is motivated by being able to make fast and easy profits.

After reading about how the Spanish planning system works, I am quite shocked at how lenient it is regarding EU laws, and how appeals are most often ignored. It seems as though most proposed developments in Spain are approved, and are allowed to be built because most challenges are ignored. In the UK the process requires development proposals to conform with the relevant planning policy and if it is not granted planning permission, the applicant can appeal. Furthermore, anyone can object to a proposal that has been granted planning permission on the grounds that it does not comply with national, regional, and local policy, as well as claims that the development is not within the public interest.