<a href="http://iclrd.org/web2/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/All-Change-But-Any-Alignment-cover2.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1717" title="All-Change-But-Any-Alignment-cover2" src="http://iclrd.org/web2/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/All-Change-But-Any-Alignment-cover2-183x300.jpg" alt="" width="183" height="300" /></a>The  International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD)  is  delighted to announce the publication of their latest study, <em><strong>All   Change But Any Alignment? The Impact of the Proposed Governance and   Planning Reforms Across the Island of Ireland on Inter-Jurisdictional   Planning</strong></em>.  Published at the end of June 2010, this report   considers the implications of the proposed governance and spatial   planning reforms in both jurisdictions on future collaboration.  The   report can be downloaded from <a href="../../web/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/ICLRD-Report-Final-All-Change-But-Any-Alignment-Sept10.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.
This  report comes out of a 12-month research programme on the  proposed  reform of local government in Northern Ireland as part of the  wider  process of the Review of Public Administration (RPA), and the  planning  and governance reforms proposed for the Republic of Ireland  under the <em>Planning and Development Bill 2009</em> and the Green  Paper on Local Government Reform.  The research has been  carried out by  a multi-disciplinary team within ICLRD and has been  funded under our  CroSPlaN Initiative, an INTERREG IVA funded-project  which is being  administered by the SEUPB.
This report captures  many of the features, opportunities and  challenges associated with the  reform of governance and planning  systems.  It notes that scope exists  for greater engagement on spatial  planning issues either side of the  border; and that the extent to which  this can happen is dependent on the  nature and form of governance  structures and systems in place.  It  traces the history of the proposed  reforms in both jurisdictions from  their point of origin to their  current state of play.  The report  concludes that planning policy in  Northern Ireland and the Republic of  Ireland must recognise, and indeed  embrace, the movement of people,  goods and services across the Irish  border so as to ensure the vitality  of the island’s economy and, in the  current climate, drive forward an  efficiency agency; and that change  in both jurisdictions is necessary to  make this happen more fluidly.   Sounding a note of caution, however, it  warns that the achievement of  economies of scale should not be the only  reason used to ‘sell’ any  reform process.