Är LIS svaret på en levande landsbygd? : En kvalitativ studie av Örnsköldsviks landsbygdsutveckling

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the municipality Örnsköldsvik is working with rural development as a whole and in the four geographical BYGDSAM-areas. The study will also investigate how the outcome of the municipality’s designated areas for exemption of the shoreline protection, also called rural development in shoreline locations, has developed within the last ten years. To do this a qualitative study has been done in form of six interviews. Four of the respondents are representants for each BYGDSAM-area and two respondents represents the municipality where one works with rural development and the other one works with rural development in shoreline locations. The municipality Örnsköldsvik is working with rural development from several different approaches. They have a rural development strategy as an addition to their overview plan, they also have a thematic supplement for rural development in shoreline locations. BYGDSAM – the country in collaboration was formed in 2017 as a long-term solution for the rural development on the countryside. Örnsköldsviks municipality has a diversified land use with large nature resources and therefore also scattered rural problems. The rural countryside differs if the location is near the coastline and the city Örnsköldsvik or inland in the country. The inner parts of the municipality are facing problems like disused service in form of schools shutting down and a lack of nursing homes. The areas that are located near the coast and the city Örnsköldsvik are facing other problems like a lack of houses and plots to build on. These areas also have an increase in housing prices because they are more attractive to move to. One of the tools to work with rural development is – rural development in shoreline locations. This tool gives municipalities opportunity to point out areas in shoreline locations that are suitable for settlement. None of the respondents that was interviewed for the study could comment on that settlement had taken place within such an area during the last ten years in Örnsköldsviks municipality. But this tool in rural planning is complicated. The legislation that prevails now, makes it hard for municipalities in Sweden to point out areas where exemptions from the shoreline protection can be applied. The municipalities “must almost guess” where attractive areas for settlement is right now or are going to be in the future. The legalisation on shoreline protection applies to all water, without taking the locations diversity into consideration. In 2019 the government put down a suggestion saying that the shoreline protection should be rebuilt from the ground up. The survey was done in 2020 and the suggestion is going to be displayed in 2021. The changes were supposed to make development on the countryside easier, but what so far has been exhibited is that this may not be the case and therefore no major changes are expected to occur in the shoreline protection