The following is a proposal for a Member Bill tabled during the Sixth Senedd:
Proposing Member:
Title of the proposed Bill:
Marine Planning (Wales) Bill
Policy Objectives of the proposed Bill:
The purpose of this Bill would be to:
- Make provisions for policies that would help guide the siting of developments away from the most ecologically sensitive areas, minimise the cumulative impacts on vulnerable habitats and species, and provide greater certainty to developers, and enhance the role of the marine environment in achieving net zero by 2050;
- Create a duty for the Welsh Government to facilitate the creation of:
- a national marine development plan, and review it at least once in every Senedd;
- strategic resource areas for marine energy;
- a strategy for reversing seabirds decline, and review it at least once in every Senedd
- a National Blue Carbon Recovery Plan, and to review it at least once in every Senedd.
- Create a duty for offshore wind farms to include:
- habitat restoration of the seabed;
- a strategy for sustainable seafood harvesting from within the area of the windfarm and, environmental enhancement measures.