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RINGKØBING CASE STUDY - LANDUSE
PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
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Discussion
The municipality has created an image of
environmental awareness through its statements in the
Municipal Structure Plan and other public information. These
statements have been accompanied by action. The municipality
of Ringkøbing, for example, has been a pioneer in
reducing household waste through a system of home
composting, which has resulted in local recycling of organic
matter by about 65% of the people living in single family
houses. Other examples are the focus on cleaning waste water
by making the treatment plant (The treatment plant is
actually called "the cleaning park" and is considered part
of new recreational possibilities in the harbour area
-according to new plans for the harbour) work effectively
and the reduction of C02 emissions by converting to
electricity and energy from wind or natural gas instead of
coal.
Even though the municipality formulates
environmental aims and tries to implement them, its
achievements, of course, fall short. This is because so many
issues cannot be changed in so short a time, and because
changes are sometimes too expensive to execute. The handling
of waste water is such an example, in that in the short term
the municipality gives a reasonable priority to renewing old
and leaky sewers instead of improving the handling of
stormwater with more and better basins prior to discharge
into the inlet.
But problems may also have other causes.
Again the removal of household waste can serve as an
example. Home composting by 65 % of people is working well.
But why do the municipal institutions not always carry out
sorting/home composting themselves or why does recycling of
organic matter other than wood chips not work in the city
park? And how will the municipality deal with the minority
that does not carry out home composting, or get their sorted
organic waste collected? A comprehensive plan for handling
the waste and organic matter seems to be needed, especially
if the municipality wants to serve as a good example to
companies and citizens, as mentioned in the municipal
structure plan.
The lack of comprehensive planning is
also a problem relating to green space in the city. At
present the selected "green areas" of the Municipal
Structure Plan are few and they do not show the total green
space of the town which forms a green structure with its
associated recreational possibilities and ecological
potential. But there is a political wish to devise such a
"green plan".
In preparing a forthcoming green plan and
management plan for specific areas, the municipality should
be aware of a central problem caused by delegating the
responsibility of management to, for example, home owner
associations, institutions and a co-operative housing
society. The municipality and the parks department have only
indirect control of the management and content of these
areas. Today the policy of not using pesticides is not
followed in the management of green space in general. The
parks department has also discerned a lack of pruning and
planting, because many institutions or homeowner
associations give this a low priority.
Two considerations, therefore, should be
taken into account when new aims for the management and
content of green areas are incorporated in a green
plan:
• How can the municipality make sure
that the quality of specific green areas owned and/or
managed by others is in accordance with the aim of the the
green plan?
• Should the policy of
decentralisation of responsibility change to enable the
above to be achieved?
• Is it possible to change such a
policy within the present organisational
framework?
Delegation of responsibility could be
done differently. Some might see decentralisation as a means
of reducing the public administration and costs. Others
might focus on decentralisation because it involves people
in the decisions about use of their local green areas, by
making them take more responsibility.
Examples in this paper show that it might
be problematic to decentralise. People are not always so
enthusiastic after a time (as in the case of the RCHS). The
examples also show that centrally stated aims about
environmental tasks are not always carried out locally
(pesticides); especially when the policy is associated with
no or little organised dialogue and communication between
the municipal administration and those such as the home
owner associations or the RCHS. Advice and dialogue will
probably be needed to realise a new green plan, especially
if a new green plan includes the integration of more
ecological issues. It should be noted that the municipality
has been shown capable of engaging people in such issues in
the past, for example, over the the home composting system.
Otherwise the municipality must consider taking over
responsibility by ownership and/or management of a larger
part of the green space, as is the case in other
municipalities investigated in this project.
But it is not the case that ecological
issues are necessarily raised by the municipality. The
Agenda 21 project was started after pressure from
associations demanding more focus on environmental problems.
It is impossible to say how this public interest and the
Agenda 21 project will influence the green plan and green
space. Until now integrating ecology and green space in the
city seems to have been of no public interest.
Conclusions
In many ways the municipality of
Ringkoebing was very progressive through the late 1980s
until middle of the 1990s. But now by the end of the decade
comprehensive planning seems to be missing, even though it
is actually given high priority in the Municipal Structure
Plan, as a green plan and a plan for environmental
issues.
This lack of overview is one of the
reasons why integration of ecology and green space
management proceeds slowly and sometimes inconsistently.
Another reason is the policy of delegating responsibility
for management to municipal institutions, home owner
associations and the RCHS.
References
This paper is based on many interviews
with staff from the administration of the municipal of
Ringkoebing, the Rinkoebing Co-operative Housing Society,
home owners associations, institutions and available
municipal planning documents, etc. The Municipal Structure
Plan, 1993-2005 and The Municipal Structure Plan, 1997-2009
(provisional) have also been used as important sources of
information.
Other references:
Miljoeministeriet (1993): Ringkoebing
Kommuneatlas. Skov- og Naturstyrrelsen & Ringkoebing
Kommune.
Trapp, J.P. (1965): Danmark, Ringkoebing
Amt. G.E.C. Gads Forlag
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