Ostfold in USEAct: what a Norvegian City is Learning from an URBACT Network

Ostfold has for many years been among the most active Norwegian counties on the INTERREG-arena, but has never before participated in a URBACT network. In fact, only two other cities in Norway have: Oslo, currently involved in two networks, and Notodden partner city in URBACT I. So, URBACT is rather new for Norwegian cities and the participation in USEAct has been a bit of a steep learning curve for Østfold.

The reason the city wanted to participate in URBACT II, was that on previous European projects, the Municipality has focused mainly on rural areas, and wanted to work with cities, where most of the population actually live. The USEAct network was a logical choice since land-use, transformation and densification is one of the areas where Østfold County Council has been on the forefront among Norwegian counties. It is also a very important and somewhat controversial issue, where there is often disagreement between the municipalities and other authorities.

Ostfold county has 280 000 inhabitants, about 80% of these live in 6 towns, Fredrikstad, Sarpsborg, Moss, halden, Askimog Mysen, and they grow in population every year. In 2009 the last County Master Plan was finished, and was approved by the national authorities in 2011. Through this plan, Norway went further than most counties by providing a clear strategy for land-use, and quite strict limits and guidelines for the municipalities. Many were not very pleased with this, and some places there were strong protests from local politicians. Over time most have realized that there are benefits to a common approach to the issues of area consumption and protecting our agricultural land and natural areas, but many municipalities are still finding it hard to find practical solutions to ensure local development under these circumstances.

Participating in the USEAct network with planners from the 6 towns working together with Ostfold County Council, Ostfold County Governorand the Norwegian housing bank in the Local Support Group, is part of the City’s strategy to implement the area strategy from Østfold County Master Plan. The aim is to create a network between the towns, discovering, developing and sharing new tools to steer development in a wanted direction and avoid urban sprawl and other negative consequences of a growing urban population.

This has so far, been a very positive, although strenuous experience. The Municipality has learned so much about the thematic content from the experts, from partners and from each other in the Local Support Group, but has also gained valuable experience in working in this type of international project. The high point, so far has been holding the thematic seminar in Ostfold, and having the chance to show the other partners the county with its qualities and challenges and getting point of view from people seeing it from a new perspective. Other high points have been the URBACT II Summer University in Dublin, and getting to know so many talented people from all over Europe.

The Local Support Group is currently struggling with putting together a dynamic, holistic and realistic Local Action Plan. With six towns, about eight quite complex cases and hundreds of stakeholders this is a challenge! We are however confident that with the help and support of our European network, we will manage to make something that can be a real contribution to an environmentally- socially- and economically- sustainable future for Ostfold.

By Linda Duffy, Ostfold County Project Coordinator

USEAct - URBACT network minisite 

Ostfold County Fourth Meeting Report – network publication