The Planner March 2020 by Redactive Media Group

MARCH 2020 HOW THE PUBLIC VIEWS HOUSEBUILDING // p.4 • ‘LIVING WITH BEAUTY’ // p.6 • MUSIC VENUES // p.24 • SWINDON: SUBURBIA REIMAGINED // p.28 • CASE STUDY: IBADAN CITY, NIGERIA // p.32 • NATIONS & REGIONS: WALES // p.34

Gender studies WHAT PLANNERS IN THE UK CAN LEARN FROM AUSTRIA’S CAPITAL CITY

1 Cover_March 2020_The Planner 1

12/02/2020 09:56

p02_PLN.MAR20.indd 2

04/02/2020 17:57

CONTENTS

MARCH

10 NEWS 4 How the public views housebuilding 6 The quest for beauty – views on the Building Better, Building Beautiful (BBBB) Commission report 9 £90m boost for transformation of Welsh town centres 10 Place must be ‘at the heart’ of Scotland’s infrastructure planning 11 Green light for Smithfield regeneration scheme in Belfast 12 Hull publishes design guide

“WHO’S WALKING? IT’S WOMEN. WHO’S PUSHING A BUGGY WITH A CHILD? IT’S WOMEN. ADOPTING THIS PERSPECTIVE MEANS YOU HAVE EQUITY OF PUBLIC SPACE AND THE USER EXPERIENCE IS A BETTER ONE”

OPINION

16 Louise BrookeSmith: Turn that frown upside down 18 Joanna Ward: Whose transport system is it anyway? 18 Anna Sabine: The secret to greater equality for women? It’s men 19 Gary Duncan: Local plans are not the best route to large-scale development

20 20

19 Rachel Murrell: How can we get the most from local planning authorities?

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“THE FUTURE TURE OF PLANNING LIES IN OUR YOUNG PLANNERS. AND WHEN YOU MEET THEM, THEIR ENTHUSIASM IS INFECTIOUS.” NEW RTPI PRESIDENT SUE MANNS ON ONE FORM OF CONTAGION NO ONE WANTS TO CONTAIN

C OV E R I L L U S T R AT I O N | O L I V I A W H I T WO RT H

FEATURES

INSIGHT 32 Case study– RTPI Awards: Ibadan City’s masterplan could shape it for the next 20 years and make it more resilient to flooding and population growth. But will it be implemented?

20 2018/19’s RTPI George Pepler Award-winner used her grant to investigate ‘gender mainstreaming’ in Vienna. Natalya Palit finds out what UK planners can learn 24 Matt Moody considers the role of music venues in the nighttime economy and how planners can help to secure their future 28 It might not have a glamorous image, but Swindon has been leading a revolution in house design, as Neil Holly explains

34 Nations & Regions: Wales 36 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 40 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 51 What to read, what to watch and where to go

28 MAR C H 2 020 / THE PLA NNER

3 Contents_March 2020_The Planner 3

12/02/2020 13:02

NEWS

Report { HOUSEBUILDING

How the public views housebuilding Planners and developers have long suspected there is a silent majority in favour of housing development. Huw Morris looks at findings from a national survey of social attitudes Some may find it a shock. Many will have suspected it for some time. But whisper it gently. Most people support more homes being built in their local area. That support, which started rising in 2010, increased up to 2014 and has remained stable since. The findings come courtesy of the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey, which the National Centre for Social Research has run every year since 1983 on behalf of the government to measure how the public’s attitudes, values and beliefs change across a panorama of issues over time. In certain years – 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018 – the government has funded specific modules of the survey focusing on housebuilding. Latest revelations based on the 2018 BSA will be an eye-opener for many

across the planning and development sectors, particularly after The Planner reported in the January 2020 issue on a culture of complaint across the UK, with every planning application receiving 2.2 objections on average, amounting to 1.9 million since the start of 2017. The headline ﬁgures from the latest survey are that 57 per cent of people said they support more homes being built in the local area, against 23 per cent who oppose it. These levels of support and opposition have remained the same as in 2017 and 2014. Indeed, support for more homes being built increased from 2010, from 28 per cent to 47 per cent in 2013. Opposition has fallen from 46 per cent in PERCENTAGES OF PEOPLE SUPPORTING 2010 and 31 per cent HOUSING DEVELOPMENT BY REGION in 2013. Although overall support and 3 opposition remains 1 London 65% the same as the 2017 2 Yorkshire & survey, attitudes Humberside 60% have become more 3 North East 58% 2 polarised. The 4 4 North West 58% proportion of people 5 South East 55% who strongly support 6 West Midlands 55% 7 homes being built 7 East Midlands 54% 6 in the local area 8 South West 54% increased from 14 per 9 9 East 49% cent in 2017 to 18 per cent in 2018. But the 1 proportion of people 5 8 strongly opposing housing development increased from 5 per

cent in 2017 to 6 per cent in 2018. So who is most likely to oppose housing development? Not surprisingly, some groups – owners, older people and rural residents – are apt to be more hostile than others. Opposition was higher for owneroccupiers at 28 per cent than for private renters at 15 per cent and social housing tenants at 13 per cent. This opposition was highest among people aged 46 to 55 (27 per cent), 56 to 65 (22 per cent) and 66 and over (26 per cent). For those aged 18 to 25 the ﬁgure was 14 per cent. People in country villages and small cities or towns were more likely to oppose housing development (28 per cent and 24 per cent respectively) – than those “SO WHO IS living in big cities MOST LIKELY (18 per cent). TO OPPOSE

‘What’s in it for me?’ What, if anything, would change their opinion? The big factor here is the provision of more or improved medical facilities. In 2018, the percentage of

HOUSING DEVELOPMENT? NOT SURPRISINGLY, SOME GROUPS – OWNERS, OLDER PEOPLE AND RURAL RESIDENTS – ARE APT TO BE MORE HOSTILE THAN OTHERS”

TH E PL AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

4-5 News report_March 2020_The Planner 4

12/02/2020 09:56

PLAN UPFRONT

people reporting that “more medical facilities built or existing ones improved” would increase their support for more homes was 37 per cent, up from 30 per cent in 2017. Other popular factors that people say could increase their support were improved transport links at 29 per cent and more job opportunities at 27 per cent. “Financial incentives to existing residents”, “library built or existing ones improved” and “homes of a higher-quality design” remain the

least commonly reported advantages, at 3 per cent, 4 per cent and 7 per cent respectively. As for the thorny issue of developer contributions, 57 per cent of people were aware of the role of developer contributions in making new homes available for rent or sale at reduced cost. But fewer people – only 38 per cent – were aware of developer contributions supporting local services, such as schools or hospitals. Most English regions show a majority of people supporting housing development (see map, bottom left). Most opposition to house building was found in the East (30 per cent), higher than the East Midlands (27 per cent) and Yorkshire and Humberside, West Midlands and the North West – all with 21 per cent and London at 18 per cent. The likelihood of people actively opposing new housing developments has fallen. In 2018, among those who did not support new homes, a third said they would actively oppose such a development. In 2014, the ﬁgure was 42 per cent. Retired people are more likely to actively oppose housing schemes development (43 per cent) than those in work or waiting to take up work (30 per cent), those in full-time education or training (21 per cent) and the unemployed (20 per cent).

ATTITUDES TO HOUSING DEVELOPMENT – KEY STATISTICS

57%

Percentage of people supporting new homes in their areas

23%

Percentage of people who oppose new homes in their areas

37%

Percentage of people who would support more homes if it meant more medical facilities in their areas

29%

Percentage of people who would support more homes if it meant improved transport links

27%

Percentage of people who would support more homes if it meant more job opportunities

PUBLIC ATTITUDES TO SOCIAL HOUSING

Ministers are reportedly squabbling over what to do about housing investment, a rift that has boiled over into the tabloid press. As the Daily Mail reported on 10 January, “multimillionaire” housing and communities secretary Robert Jenrick, wants to “prioritise traditional Tory policies of helping voters on to the housing ladder”, while his deputy Esther McVey, “a former Barnardo’s child from Liverpool”, has argued for money to go into “more council housing to help the working-class voters who switched from Labour at the last election”. Amid the turf wars, what does the public think of social housing? The BSA survey shows that 41 per cent I M AG E | G E T T Y

4-5 News report_March 2020_The Planner 5

of people said they would feel comfortable living next to social housing, while 24 per cent reported that they would feel uncomfortable. Thirtyone per cent would feel neither comfortable nor uncomfortable. A total of 30 per cent of owner occupiers reported that they would feel comfortable living next to social housing, compared with 73 per cent of social renters and 46 per cent of private renters. While 4 per cent of social renters and 21 per cent of private renters would feel uncomfortable living next to social housing, this was higher for owner-occupiers at 31 per cent. Londoners are less likely to feel uncomfortable living next to social

housing than the rest of England – 17 per cent in the capital compared with 26 per cent for the rest of England. Younger people aged 18 to 25 are more likely to report that they would feel comfortable living next to social housing (53 per cent). This is higher than those aged 36 to 45 (40 per cent), those aged 46 to 55 (37 per cent), those aged 56 to 65 (35 per cent), and 66 and over (38 per cent). People with jobs or waiting to take up work are more likely to say they would feel uncomfortable living next to social housing than those who are unemployed – 27 per cent and 26 per cent respectively, compared with 7 per cent of the unemployed.

MAR C H 2 020 / THE PLA NNER

12/02/2020 09:56

NEWS

Analysis { PLANNING AND DESIGN

The quest for beauty By Laura Edgar

The long-awaited report from the Building Better, Building Beautiful (BBBB) Commission was published last month. It contains 44 policy propositions that aim to establish “long-term investment in which the values that matter to people – beauty, community, history, landscape – are safeguarded”. It considers design, placemaking, high streets, communities, education, and everything in between. The commission – co-chaired by the late Sir Roger Scruton and Nicholas Boys Smith, founding director of Create Streets – has structured its report, Living with Beauty, around three aims for the planning system as a whole: • ask for beauty; • refuse ugliness; and • promote stewardship. The report recommends that these aims “be embedded in the planning system and in the culture of development, in such a way as to incentivise beauty and deter ugliness at every point where the choice arises”. “Beauty is not just a matter of how buildings look,” the report notes, “but involves the wider ‘spirit of the place’”, together with visual character, the patterns of how people live and how places interact with nature. New development then, should be “regenerative not parasitic”. The commission explains that its research highlights the “enormous” social cost of ugliness. “Beautiful urban textures” contribute to the wellbeing of

people as well to economic value. “We should aim to spread that value from those who can afford to put beauty at the top of their personal agenda to those – including the disadvantaged and the homeless – who depend upon the wise use of planning in order to provide them with their legitimate share.” Eight policy proposals are identified for this to be achieved (see box).

of planning permission.” Sitting under the policy area ‘Planning: create a predictable level playing field’, the first recommendation in Living with Beauty calls for references to good design in the NPPF to be replaced with “good design and beautiful places”, with beauty and placemaking “embedded more widely across relevant government strategies”. They should also feature in relevant forthcoming legislation like the Beauty and the NPPF forthcoming Environment Bill. Living with Beauty says that beauty Also in this section is a should not be negotiated away once recommendation to expect net gain, not planning permission has been granted, just no net harm, as well as to “say no to but instead become “the benchmark that all new development should meet”. ugliness”. The commission suggests that local “[Beauty is] everything that promotes authorities, neighbourhood forums and a healthy and happy life, everything that makes a collection of buildings into parishes should be “strongly encouraged” to embed the a place, everything that national requirement for turns anywhere into “BEAUTY SHOULD beauty and placemaking somewhere, and BE AN ESSENTIAL from the outset. This means nowhere into home. So CONDITION before decisions are made understood beauty FOR THE GRANT about allocating land or should be an essential OF PLANNING development control condition for the grant

PERMISSION”

TH E P L AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

6-9 News_March 2020_The Planner 6

12/02/2020 13:02

PLAN UPFRONT

THE EIGHT POLICY AREAS FOR WHICH RECOMMENDATIONS ARE MADE:

decisions are made. Living with Beauty implores the industry to masterplan, and not to plan by appeal. The commission wants local planning authorities to “take a more strategic and less reactive approach” to local plans, which, it outlines, can be achieved through several steps, including more clarity on what and where, and thinking long term as well as medium term.

Standards for permitted development Amid a housing crisis, the commission notes that the government has “endeavoured” to streamline the planning system so it can respond to housing demand more quickly. This includes introducing local development orders (LDOs), permission in principle (PiP) and permitted development rights (PDR). While extending PDR to larger backgarden extensions was “largely uncontentious” and others were not much used (LDOs), some measures, such as extending PDR to office-toresidential conversions, have led to around an additional 42,000 new homes over three years, the commission explains. This policy has, though, drawn criticism “for reducing quality, delivering lower levels of affordable housing and the lack of developer contributions”, including from the RTPI. “There is a role for permitted development rights,” Living with Beauty states. But there is an issue with how the policy works in practice. “Do we want to be encouraging people to live within former offices on business parks miles from public transport? Do we think it is going to be politically tenable in two-storey metroland England for individual homeowners to extend their homes upwards by two storeys with no practical way for the impact on their neighbours to be considered? It seems hard to answer ‘yes’ to these questions.” Policy proposition 8 requires PDR to have standards. The commission thinks

there is scope for “targeted and carefully drafted use of permitted development rights to free up the delivery of new development, whilst ensuring it achieves better placemaking”. It recommends moving minimum home or room sizes into building regulations to prevent “some of the worst excesses” that have come to light in office-to-residential conversion. Where appropriate, the report states, building houses through PDR or PiP “should require strict adherence to a very clear (but limited) set of rules on betterment payment and design clearly set in the local plan, supplementary planning document or community code”. Following these rules should see approval granted as “a matter of course”. The commission also recommends that “adherence to established design guidance, coupled with a certification process, not unlike the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) but directed to the sense of place, is embedded into an overhauled ‘prior approval’ process”.

National and local government responsibility for place The section on regeneration explains that according to the commission’s research, even in more affluent areas people are losing their sense of home and community, with many “losing confidence in their ability to influence what happens locally”. The commission thinks there should always be someone in the government's cabinet who is a “champion for place” and responsible for the quality of place in England. This would at the minute lie with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, but in a future cabinet the responsibility could sit with the deputy prime minister or the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. This policy proposition sits in the

1. Planning: create a predictable level playing ﬁeld 2. Communities: bring the democracy forward 3. Stewardship: incentivise responsibility to the future 4. Regeneration: end the scandal of leftbehind places 5. Neighbourhoods: create places not just houses 6. Nature: re-green our towns and cities 7. Education: promote a wider understanding of placemaking 8. Management: value planning, county happiness, procure property

section ‘Regeneration: end the scandal of left-behind places’. It states that placemaking and supporting the spatial quality of life of everyone should “become a primary concern” of the government. “Caring about people means caring about place, as up to 40 per cent of our personal health outcomes are a function of where we live, not who we are.” In addition, the commission wishes to see a minister for place at the minister of state level, which should be done alongside installing a chief placemaker in all local authorities. “Championing good design and placemaking should come from the top in each council and should include an understanding of the whole place and what necessarily distinct silos (housing, highways and infrastructure) are trying to achieve.” The quality of a place should be a “primary corporate responsibility” of the leader and chief executive of all local authorities, while there should be a cabinet member responsible for place and a senior officer with this responsibility within the senior management team. This role, says the report, will often (though not always) be the chief planning officer. They will need experience in infrastructure or the environment, as well as planning.

MAR C H 2 020 / THE PLA NNER 6-9 News_March 2020_The Planner 7

12/02/2020 13:03

NEWS

Analysis { What did built environment professionals think? Victoria Hills, chief executive at the RTPI, said: “I warmly welcome the BBBBC’s proposal that every local council should have a chief placemaker at the top table. “The RTPI has been campaigning for the past two years for the role of chief planning officer to be rightfully restored at a senior level on local, regional and national government. This would help to overcome silo-working and provide better coordination. “Local authority planning

Tom Perry, head of architecture and the built environment at the Design Council noted that Living with Beauty sets beauty within a much wider context than aesthetics alone, which is welcome news. He told The Planner: “The report explains beauty as promoting a healthy and happy life, 8

teams have seen a reduction of 42 per cent in funding over the past decade, with design quality suffering as a result. These recommendations require long-term and strategic investment to adequately equip planners to put design quality and placemaking at the heart of planning.” Hills added that the institute supports the commission’s call for beautiful placemaking to be embedded as part of sustainable development in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

turning a collection of buildings into a place, and giving a place a strong sense of identity. It also talks about how beauty relates to locality, taking a more nuanced approach to understanding the distinctive needs and characteristics of an individual community or area. These principles align with many of

Patrick Clarke, director, UK & Ireland masterplanning lead at AECOM, said that in addition to quality design in a project, “it is also imperative how we address climate change, promote better health and wellbeing, foster greater biodiversity and deliver the necessary supporting infrastructure”. “If proposals for new homes are to win public support and gain planning permission more quickly, then they must not just look beautiful but also demonstrate how they will deliver on this increasingly complex range of public policy objectives.”

Charles Dugdale, partner at development consultancy Knight Frank said: “They have quite rightly ranked quality, beauty and place above speed. The recurring theme in their recommendations is creating a fair and level playing field that neutralises disincentives that have evolved out of a system designed to deliver volume. Their proposed measures will refocus the profit motive towards longer-term objectives that will have considerable social benefits.”

Design Council’s when it comes to placemaking. We have long argued that well-designed places bring people together, foster a sense of community, improve health and wellbeing, stimulate the economy, and create more sustainable places to live.” The organisation backs the suggestion that local

authorities should have a chief placemaker, but there needs be training and guidance in place to support it. “Only by better equipping people with the right level of skills and design knowledge will we see a real shift from housebuilding to placemaking, and from consultation to collaboration.”

T H E P L AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

6-9 News_March 2020_The Planner 8

12/02/2020 13:03

PLAN UPFRONT

News { £90m boost for transformation of Welsh town centres Welsh towns are set to receive a further £90 million of additional investment as part of a revised government approach to transforming town centres. This initiative, Transforming Towns, includes measures to increase footfall by making sure the public sector locates services in town centres, bring empty buildings back into use,; and ‘green’ the centres. The administration has unveiled a new ‘Town Centre First’ approach, which means locating services and buildings in town centres wherever possible. As part of this strategy, all government departments and local authorities will make the health and vibrancy of town centres the starting point for their location decisionmaking processes. The public sector is being encouraged to support towns by locating oﬃces, facilities and services within them in order to drive footfall and create or sustain vibrancy. The investment includes: n £36 million for town centre regeneration projects, extending the current capital programme for another year and bringing in an expected total investment of about £58 million. n £13.6 million to tackle empty and dilapidated buildings and land. This aims to enable local authorities to take enforcement action to bring them back into use. n £2 million for coastal towns to support projects to an anticipated value of £3 million, which will contribute to town centre/high street regeneration. n £10 million of additional funding for the Town Centre Loans scheme, taking the total to £41.6 million, to bring vacant and underused buildings back into use. n £5 million funding for green infrastructure and biodiversity within town centres.

Deputy minister for housing and local government, Hannah Blythyn noted that the retail sector has "shrunk dramatically", a trend that looks set to continue. “Taken together these measures will make a signiﬁcant contribution to the health of our town centres. It signals that this government is serious about transforming towns right across Wales.”

11% rise in new-build starts over summer 2019

11 per cent

There was an increase in the number of unit starts in England between July and September 2019 compared with the corresponding period in 2018. The report, giving seasonally adjusted ﬁgures,

39,510

homes were started says between July and September 2019 – 2 per cent more than between April to June 2019.

46,000

Completions have been estimated at during the summer, which is 2 per cent more than the previous quarter and 11 per cent more than the same period in 2018.

157,550

In the year to September 2019, homes were started – 7 per cent fewer than the number started in the year to September 2018. During that year 177,980 homes were completed – up 9 per cent on a year earlier. Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

2019 saw increase in Build to Rent homes At the end of Q4 2019, the number of completed Build

20,120

to Rent homes was , compared with the 13,312 homes that had been completed in the year to the end of Q4 2018, across UK regions, excluding London. This is a 51 per cent increase. In London in 2019, the Build to Rent sector completed

20,061

homes, an increase of 3,061 homes on the 17,000 homes completed in 2018.

152,071

- The number of Build to Rent homes in the UK – in the regions and the capital. This breaks down to 40,181 completed homes, 35,415 under construction and 75,475 going through the planning system. Source: British Property Federation and Savills

MAR C H 2 020 / THE PLA NNER 6-9 News_March 2020_The Planner 9

12/02/2020 13:03

of of

NEWS

News { Place must be ‘at the heart’ of Scotland’s infrastructure planning If it is to achieve an inclusive net-zero carbon economy, the Scottish Government needs to put place at “the heart” of coherent infrastructure prioritisation and planning, the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland (ICS) has recommended. For this advice to work, the ICS said, “a coordinated and appropriately resourced infrastructure-ﬁrst approach to the planning system should be introduced by the Scottish Government by 2021”. This would support the implementation of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), as well as the new system of development plans. The suggestion is one of several set out in the 30-year infrastructure strategy that has been presented to the Scottish Government. Phase 1 of A Blueprint for Scotland is

the first such strategy to be published for the country. It comprises eight themes and 23 specific recommendations for the Scottish Government to consider. These themes include: n Future infrastructure decisions to be based on delivery of an inclusive netzero carbon economy. n Increased emphasis on “place-based” infrastructure. n Maximise, broaden the use of and better maintain existing assets. n Accelerate the decarbonisation of heat and transport. The ICS said the global focus on climate change, together with the Scottish Government’s target of reaching net-zero carbon by 2045, has influenced the work it has done to develop the 30-year strategy. Ian Russell, chair of the ICS, said: “While infrastructure investment

remains a vital factor in supporting the economy and acting as an enabler to deliver effective public services, future infrastructure decisions should be based on their ability to clearly demonstrate their contribution to an inclusive, netzero carbon economy.” He explained that difficult decisions would need to be made, and this would require bold and determined leadership from the Scottish Government. RTPI Scotland convenor Irene Beautyman said: “We very much welcome the commission’s call on Scottish Government to introduce a coordinated and appropriately resourced ‘infrastructure first’ approach to the planning system. An important first step on this will be to ensure that the National Planning Framework is accompanied by a costed capital investment programme to ensure we have a deliverable road map to a zerocarbon economy.” n The Planner’s full report on A Blueprint for Scotland can be found on the website: bit.ly/planner0320-blueprint

Galway redevelopment could yield 1,000 new homes

A major redevelopment initiative has been announced that could see 1,000 homes built north of Galway city centre as part of a new sustainable neighbourhood. The government’s Land Development Agency (LDA) and Galway City Council have assembled an eight-hectare brownﬁeld site in the Terrylands district with help from six landowners, including the county council and Galway Bay FM. An expert architectural panel led by planner John Martin is carrying out a review of the site, which is due to be completed by the end of March. He is a

former senior planner who has worked with An Bord Pleanála, Dublin local authorities and the former Department of the Environment. The LDA said the location on Sandy Road – about a kilometre north of Eyre Square – could be transformed into “up to 1,000 new homes, together with employment and leisure spaces as part of a new sustainable neighbourhood”. The agency is ﬁnalising a memorandum of understanding with the city council over a review of the site in terms of its potential to deliver aﬀordable housing.

T H E P L AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

I M AG E S | G E T T Y / I STO C K

10 news_March 2020_The Planner 10

12/02/2020 09:57

PLAN UPFRONT

Green light for Smithfield regeneration scheme in Belfast Belfast City Council has approved the major regeneration of the Smithfield Market area, one of the more neglected parts of the centre of Belfast. Developed by Bywater and Ashmour, the outline proposals involve the regeneration of a vacant surface-level car park, as well as the refurbishment of existing listed Butchers buildings, on land bounded by Winetavern Street, Gresham Street and North Street. Also included in the office and retail mixed-use scheme

are two new interlocked L-shaped buildings, varying in height between three and ninestoreys. The buildings will provide basement-level car parking, ground-floor retail/ restaurant/coffee shop/ workspace uses with grade A and SME office space above. New pedestrian accesses would be created from Gresham and Winetaver Street. The £60 million development would also provide associated public realm and landscaping as part of a 19,200 square-metre scheme.

HS2 gets go-ahead despite cost concerns As The Planner was going to press, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had just finished giving the HS2 rail project the go-ahead despite concerns over out-of-control costs and the loss of ancient woodland. The decision follows publication of the independently-led Oakervee Review of the project, which recommended that “on balance, ministers should proceed with the HS2 project”, subject to a number of “conclusions and a number of qualifications”. In January, the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded that the Department for Transport (DfT), HS2 Ltd and the wider government had underestimated the complexity and risk of the HS2 project, I M AG E | A L A M Y

11 News_March 2020_The Planner 11

leading to it being over budget and behind schedule. The prime minister outlined several measures that aim to “restore discipline to the programme”, including: • Appointing a dedicated minister with speciﬁc oversight and accountability for HS2. • Redeﬁning HS2 Ltd’s role so that it can give maximum focus to successfully delivering phase 1 and 2a, and making new delivery arrangements for Euston Station and the design and construction of phase 2b, to ensure better value for money and on-time delivery. • Improved transparency through regular reports to Parliament from the responsible minister.

Johnson further hinted that more improvements to roads and the North’s rail network would feature in March’s Budget statement. While accepting the problem of wellreported cost overruns, Johnson said that “poor management to date has not detracted in my view from the fundamental value of the project”. With the decision to continue with the HS2 project now made, the government will consider how best to accelerate the delivery of Northern Powerhouse Rail, which it says includes looking for a new delivery body. Work will be carried out to see how both Northern Powerhouse Rail and phase 2b can be delivered eﬀectively. The government now proposes to draw up an integrated plan for rail in the North, one which will be informed by an assessment from the National Infrastructure Commission. The work on rail across the Midlands and the North will be treated as “one integrated masterplan”, branded collectively as High Speed North.

MAR C H 20 20 / THE PLA NNER

12/02/2020 14:16

of of

NEWS

News { Hull publishes design guide Hull City Council has adopted a residential design guide, the city’s ﬁrst planning policy that speciﬁcally addresses the design quality of new housing. The council’s planning department developed the guide and Harper Perry Architects provided examples of best practice and exemplary design. The supplementary planning document covers strategic site planning considerations, construction detail and future smart home ambitions, among other topics. The guide is structured around three key themes – urban design; streets and public spaces; and building design. There are best practice examples from the UK and Europe, and the document intends to

provide guidance to create positive public spaces that are well used and valued, with spaces between buildings safe for everyone to use – including older residents, people with cognitive impairments and people with pushchairs. It also addresses various design details, including daylight and sunlight, battery storage and integrating design strategies. Hull City Council’s senior urban design Rob Beardsworth led the work on the design guide, which is aimed at architects, urban designers, planning consultants and housing developers, as well as members of the planning committee and the public. The council's planning department and Harper Perry sought to ensure that the guidance was a “highly visual, engaging and accessible document”.

Changes to EastEnders’ set to be approved without permission Hertsmere Borough Council has agreed to adopt a local development order that would see changes made on the EastEnders set without planning permission. The order extends permitted development rights for certain developments at the site in the centre of Borehamwood. The new EastEnders set involves permanent structures built with real materials, whereas the original set used façades. It is being constructed on the former staﬀ car park and is due to come into use next year. The order should help the production team undertaking changes to the new set. The council believes that the order is

T H E PL AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

12 News_March 2020_The Planner 12

the first issued for a film and TV production site in the country. It outlines the parameters on the heights of buildings, the total landscaped area, and elevational changes. It is also linked to the original planning permission granted for the construction of a permanent film and television stage set in July 2015.

Horizon sticks to its Anglesey nuclear plans

The company behind the suspended proposals to develop a nuclear power project on Anglesey involving two Hitachi-GE reactors has poured cold water on media speculation that its Wylfa Newydd site is in the running to host a Rolls-Royce mini nuclear plant – a so-called small modular reactor. A spokesman for Horizon Nuclear Power, which owns the Anglesey site, told The Planner: “There are no plans to deploy a Rolls-Royce small modular reactor at the Wylfa Newydd site and recent media stories reporting this are not correct. “Activity on the Horizon project is currently suspended, but we’re working hard to establish the conditions for a restart using our tried-and-tested reactor design, which has already cleared the UK regulators’ assessment process. “Our planning application [development consent order] to deliver two of these reactors – providing enough clean power for over ﬁve million homes and a multibillion-pound investment to the region – is at a very advanced stage and we expect the process to be completed by the end of March.” According to a Mail on Sunday story, a consortium led by RoilsRoyce has government support for a line-up of mini-nuclear projects and had earmarked both the Anglesey site and one in Snowdonia.

I M AG E S | G E T T Y / A L A M Y

12/02/2020 09:57

LEADER COMMENT

Opinion onn ‘Levelling up’ the most fundamental imbalance – By the time you receive this magazine, our annual Women of Influence campaign will have been in full cry online. You’ll probably know the form by now: We ask that you nominate the women whose work you think has had the most impact within the profession, whatever that may be - and we then publish a list of those that our judges agree are the most influential. It’s a non-competitive, entirely celebratory affair – and one that allows us to help in our small way to address the gender imbalance we know exists within the profession. It shouldn’t take RTPI president Sue Manns, the RTPI board’s champion on diversity and inclusivity, to explain that “a planning profession which is more representative of society is crucial to bring about more inclusive and accessible design, housing and public

Martin Read environments.” And it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that there will be more on this topic from the RTPI as 2020 progresses. Indeed, of all of the professions it is hard to think of any that could better beneﬁt from being populated with a representative gender balance. How can it be right that the profession whose activities shape the very space in which people work, play and live is not, as a matter of base necessity, fully representative of all

those who ultimately live with the results of its work? It’s one thing to address the problem of gender representation within the profession and another to see it addressed through the introduction of a department of women’s aﬀairs at local authority level. We report this month on Natalya Palit MRTPI’s trip to Vienna to investigate that city’s introduction of ‘gender mainstreaming’ in planning, a process kickstarted following the setting up of just such a department, headed up by an urban planner. It has had some great successes in creating a more walkable city, and pedestrian-friendly places. The example is given of a decision made to plant some

"IT’S INTRIGUING TO CONSIDER WHAT EFFECT A MORE GENDER EQUITABLE PLANNING DELIVERY COULD HAVE"

city-centre trees; good for the environment, naturally, and indeed good for an overall sense of wellbeing; but not good if it obscures street lighting, causing women to feel unsafe. It’s the kind of seemingly small yet certainly significant decision making that ‘gender mainstreaming’ can bring to light. As we go to press, just prior to a major cabinet reshuffle and in the immediate wake of the green-lighting of HS2, it’s intriguing to consider what effect the more gender equitable delivery of planning could have on the major decisions that lie in the nation’s future. Finally this month, I must convey our thanks to those of you who have proposed a five-minute speed presentation for the Planner Live event in June. We’re excited by both your interest and ideas, and we’ll be announcing the names of those who’ve made it onto the conference programme in our next edition.

CONTACTS Redactive Publishing Ltd Level 5, 78 Chamber Street, London, E1 8BL, 020 7880 6200

Sub-editor Deborah Shrewsbury

SUBSCRIPTIONS Picture editor Claire Echavarry Designer Craig Bowyer

EDITORIAL

A D V E RT I S I N G & M A R K E T I N G

Tel: 020 7324 2736 editorial@theplanner.co.uk

020 7880 6206 sales@theplanner.co.uk

Editor Martin Read martin.read@theplanner.co.uk

R E C RU I T M E N T

Consultant editor Huw Morris Deputy editor Simon Wicks simon.wicks@theplanner.co.uk News editor Laura Edgar laura.edgar@theplanner.co.uk Section editor Matt Moody

ISSN 2053-7581

020 78806232 jobs@theplanner.co.uk PRODUCT ION Production director Jane Easterman Production manager Aysha Miah-Edwards PUBLISHING Publishing director Joanna Marsh

Average net circulation 18,373 (January-December 2016) (A further 5,700 members receive the magazine in digital form)

£120 – UK £175 – Overseas To subscribe, call 01580 883844 or email subs@redactive.co.uk – alternatively, you can subscribe online at subs.theplanner. co.uk/subscribe © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about planning issues and articles do not necessarily reﬂect the views of the RTPI nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact. All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in part in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither RTPI nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed by PCP Ltd.

RT P I C O N TA C T S Membership membership@rtpi.org.uk 020 7929 9462 Education education@rtpi.org.uk 020 7929 9451 Planning Aid England advice@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk 41 Botolph Lane London EC3R 8DL Media enquiries Rebecca Hildreth rebecca.hildreth@rtpi.org.uk 020 7929 9477 The Planner is produced using paper that is elemental chlorine free and is sourced from sustainable managed forest.

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 13 Leader_March 2020_The Planner 13

12/02/2020 13:04

- 8 1 ( / 2 1 ' 2 1

THIS MONTHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S THEME:

Focusing on fresh ideas in planning Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re designing The Planner Live to cover every aspect of contemporary planning. Emerging fresh thinking in planning is a key theme; hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a ďŹ&#x201A;avour of the sessions weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be running -with links to recent related Planner content to help get you up to speed.

+($'/,1( 6321625

63216256 $1' (;+,%,7256

14-15 planner Live_March 2020_The Planner 14

Araceli Camargo, Neuroscientist and Co-founder, Centric Lab

Planning Radicals 9$5,286 '$<6 $1'

Neuroscience and planning $)7(51221 '$<

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been asking if thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a burning issue that you as our readers would like to present to the Planner Live audience. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had a tremendous response to our call for sharp, ďŹ ve-minute sessions - and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be announcing whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made it on to the stage next month.

Cognitive neuroscientist Araceli Camargo will speak about how poorly planned environments can pose serious risk to physical and mental health. b Read our recent interview with Araceli Camargo bit.ly/PlannerLive-Camargo

12/02/2020 09:58

DEBATE | NETWORK | DISCOVER

ÂŤ #PlannerLive2020 rtpi.org.uk/plannerlive

%RRN QRZ{ 7,&.(7 5$7(6 )520 Â&#x192; London's County Hall, Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 June 2020

29 JUNE '$< 21 ( -81( Political keynotes Planning radicals Focus sessions: n Zero-carbon building n The future of heritage n Planning for children's everyday freedom n Zero-carbon transport n Architects v Planners n Stress test: how neuroscience can help planners Live interview: Modular and oďŹ&#x20AC;site construction Ask the Chief Planners

The future of heritage Â&#x153; 0251,1* '$<

Planning for children 0251,1* '$<

Here weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be considering the relationship between heritage and design. b Read our case study on

This session will see us discussing how children at the forefront of our design thinking can create better places for everybody. b Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s our feature on the

the Liverpool Waters project bit.ly/PlannerLive-LiverpoolWaters

b Turn to p.8 for details of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commissionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new report

topic from last December bit.ly/PlannerLive-PlayFeature

b Also, read about the RTPI report on this topic here bit.ly/PlannerLive-Play-Report

Focus sessions: n Planning â&#x20AC;&#x201C;a profession open to all?

n Watch your thoughts n Coping with ethical dilemmas n Rewilding our greenbelts n The future of high streets n Technology and the Plenary sessions: n SDGs n Infrastructure

Modular and oďŹ&#x20AC;site construction $)7(51221 '$<

The future of high streets Â&#x153; 0251,1* '$<

Is oďŹ&#x20AC;site and modular construction the future of building? Mark Farmer will oďŹ&#x20AC;er his perspective in a live interview on the topic. b Check out our 2019 feature on this

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s time to put the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ailing high sheets and town centres back at the heart of local communities. This session will consider how. b Read about the RTPI report on this

14-15 planner Live_March 2020_The Planner 15

'$< 7: 2 -81( Planning radicals

future role of a planner

Mark Farmer, CEO, Cast Real Estate & Construction Consultancy

topic bit.ly/PlannerLive-Modular

30 JUNE

topic here bit.ly/PlannerLive-HighStreets

Political keynote: The value of planning across the UK Live interview: Planning at the top table

3/ 86 Exhibition, refreshments & networking and Presidential dinner.

12/02/2020 09:58

LO U I S E B R O O K E S M I T H O B E

O Opinion

Turn that frown upside down Brexit seems so ‘last year’ now but regardless of your side of the fence, anger was never far from the surface, says Louise Brooke-Smith As we anticipate the months of negotiations with Brussels to reach the divorce settlement, will the anger of those who wanted to remain morph into a resigned shrug? Or will the strength of feeling move into more domestic areas and perhaps turn towards making sure that our communities at home have a roof over their heads, access to better services and an improved quality of life? I remember seeing I, Daniel Blake a couple of years ago and getting angrier the more futile his position became – up against a system that seemed inherently unjust and regularly a case of ‘computer says no’. And yet it was a social system that I’d like to think had been designed by intelligent people without malice or a wish to undermine fellow members of society. If you are on the far left of the political divide and #ToryScum is a regular refrain, that might sound incredulous. Those further right of Genghis Khan might think that shelter isn’t a God-given right and see the UN’s sustainability goals as wishy-washy aspirations. For many of us in the middle it’s sometimes hard to rationalise some government initiatives with obvious inequalities across the UK. When applying the ‘bedroom tax’ en masse, without the ability for it to properly reﬂect individual circumstances, or the ﬂexibility to allow for regional socio-economic

T H E P L AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

16 Louise_March 2020_The Planner 16

variations, it has simply failed. Call me naive, but it makes me angry to think that policy and systems can’t be designed and applied fairly. It’s like a ﬁnal solution that, once instigated, has to be seen through, without exception and to devastating eﬀect. It endorses a culture that is clearly widening the divide between the ‘have a lot’ and the ‘have absolutely bugger-all’. What seemed a wellthought-through policy can, a few years later, seem bonkers. Circumstances and attitudes change. The clever thing is to learn from the past and embrace that change. It’s great that government is reversing the Beeching cuts and is supporting reinvigorated rural railways to serve our carreliant communities. Perhaps we could also see the return of cottage hospitals, corner shops, community facilities and municipal parks. It may

“THE CLEVER THING IS TO LEARN FROM THE PAST AND EMBRACE THAT CHANGE” conjure up images from Enid Blyton, but if we can avoid the one-size-ﬁts-all approach to social policy, be it supporting housing, infrastructure or transport, and start to listen to what our communities want and need – and I mean a community made up of names and not numbers – perhaps some of the recent anger felt across the nation can be corralled and turned into a force for good. Wouldn’t it be great to see social value and the Fight Inequality Alliance go mainstream? Common sense and a real implementation of the UN Sustainable

Development Goals could result in healthy, sustainable, well-designed residential, commercial and workspace, underpinned by enforceable planning policy. Rather than being a ‘nice to have’ with references in well-meaning design guidance and reliance on the ‘ﬁgures stacking up’, we could have clever design and space to breathe in green urban parks instead of more concrete corridors for cars. Let’s turn the anger into positivity and embrace a post-Brexit world with a set of new design, housing and infrastructure parameters that even the Scandinavians might aspire to. Imagine it as a British ‘hygge’, with an environment and economy that properly reﬂects social values and environment, social and governance-based investment. It could make us more friends beyond Europe than rhetoric embossed on a coin. Having a well-housed, healthy society where groups didn’t feel disenfranchised and wellbeing was embedded would be a strong message to sell – is anyone going to get angry over that?

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director I L L U S T R AT I O N | Z A R A P I C K E N

12/02/2020 09:58

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB “We need a substantial increase in resources at local planning authority level to manage and apply the beneﬁts from environmental net gain” ROBERT SPENCER OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL INDUSTRIES COMMISSION’S NATURAL CAPITAL TASK FORCE ON THE NEED FOR A MORE AMBITIOUS APPROACH TO MEASURING NATURAL CAPITAL

“Culture is not just about iconic buildings and showpieces. It’s the art, history, literature, education and spirit that ﬂows from an area.” NEWLY IMMEDIATE PAST RTPI PRESIDENT IAN TANT NEATLY CAPTURES THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE IN HIS VALEDICTORY SPEECH

“The future of planning lies in our young planners. And when you m, their meet them, m is enthusiasm s.” infectious.”

ISTOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK

NEW RTPI PRESIDENT SUE MANNS ON ONE FORM OF CONTAGION NO ONE WANTS TO CONTAIN

“We are not an anti-development council”

I M AG E S |

SEVENOAKS COUNCIL LEADER PETER FLEMING, IN HIS LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE ROBERT JENRICK, COUNTERS CLAIMS OF INSUFFICIENT COLLABORATION WITH NEIGHBOURING AUTHORITIES

“New development should aim to be an improvement of that place, regenerative not parasitic” THE BBBB COMMISSION’S LONG AWAITED REPORT GOES STRAIGHT FOR THE JUGULAR

“Improving the quality of design is central to addressing the housing shortage” TOM FYANS, POLICY DIRECTOR AT CPRE, ON THE FINDINGS OF A NATIONAL AUDIT CONDUCTED BY UCL FOR CPRE AND THE PLACE ALLIANCE

“Openness is not necessarily a statement about the visual qualities of the land, nor does it imply freedom from all forms of development” LORD CARNWATH, ON BEHALF OF THE SUPREME COURT, ON ITS RECENT LANDMARK DECISION ON GREEN BELT OPENNESS

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 17 quote_March 2020_The Planner 17

12/02/2020 09:59

B E S T O F T H E B LO G S

O Opinion

Joanna Ward is associate and transport lead at Elliott Wood

Whose transport system is it anyway?

In her 2019 book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, Caroline Criado-Perez presents many examples of how we have built a transport system with an often-unnoted gender bias. One such example CriadoPerez presents is from the Swedish town Karlskoga. In 2011, a gender-equality initiative across Sweden required municipalities to reevaluate all their policies and activities through a gender lens. A government official joked that at least snow clearing would likely be spared the scrutiny of the ‘gender people’. It was not: studies showed that the practice of clearing snow from roads before footpaths disproportionately affected women. Women were more likely to walk, while men were more likely to drive. As a result, women’s mobility was not only more limited when the snow came, they were at greater risk of injury on the snow and ice. Driving through three inches of snow is a lot easier than pushing a buggy, bike or wheelchair through it – so why were they ploughing for cars first? Once aware, the town switched to clear snow from pedestrian areas first. Changing the order of ploughing came at no extra cost and helped address a gender imbalance created every time snow fell.

Anna Sabine is chief executive of MPC

The secret to greater equality for women? It’s men

This small Swedish town is an example of the gendered nature of transport planning and how it’s not always looked at from a rounded point of view. In most of the developed world we have prioritised the car for decades and, in many societies, women are also less likely to have access to a car than a man. Even if households have a car, men tend to dominate access to it. Women are more likely to use public transport; but public transport has often not been designed for anyone undertaking unpaid care work. Such work requires ‘chained trips’ – school run to work, work to school run to shops to home. That, in turn, makes it hard for anyone to complete their unpaid care work and so makes it much harder for them to engage in their paid work, and so on. To realise the vision of an inclusive transport system we must refocus on how we plan and build for everyone. This spans from ensuring that a range of people with diﬀerent experiences are engaged by public consultations, to calling out when meetings don’t have a positive gender balance and constantly asking: “Who is not in the room?” Only by continuing to raise this issue will we start to see a transport system ﬁt for the 21st century.

“IN MOST OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD WE HAVE PRIORITISED THE CAR FOR DECADES”

2 BLOG

BLOG

Most people would accept that diverse workforces make stronger workforces, and therefore that gender inequality is a commercial issue. Sadly, the property industry’s response to this seems to consist of large firms supporting groups aimed at women which, although laudable, doesn’t address barriers to gender equality within their own organisations. A bit like rainbow-coloured sandwich boxes for Pride Week, it feels like firms are taking the easy (and social media-friendly) approach to gender diversity, while boardrooms remain male, pale and stale. There are many w o m e n ’ s organisations in our industry. They’re great at raising the profile of women and provide women with networking and other social capital-raising opportunities. But too often the big developers, consultancies and law firms seem to think that sending staff along to events, sponsoring them or covering them on social media ‘ticks the box’ on gender diversity. In 2018 I launched the Gender Champions campaign because I believe the onus of addressing this inequality should be on men, who are largely the ones in positions of power. Many either don’t realise they have a role to play in improving gender

equality or can’t work out what steps to take. Our campaign invites them to make three pledges: commit to improving gender diversity in their own organisation, speak about gender balance at events they organise or attend, and encourage female colleagues to give their views on how to improve gender balance. This third pledge is vital. I have been amazed by the number of men who tell me that their organisation is doing well on gender inequality, only for their female colleagues to tell me that it’s not. This is why last year we started signing up organisations to our campaign, by asking them to have a policy or procedure to show they are serious about improving gender diversity by recruitment, agreeing not to host events with all-male panels and showing that there is a way that female colleagues can give their views on gender balance. We have 100 Gender Champions so far, and a target to sign up 100 more in 2020, as well as 10 ﬁrms. By engaging men in the discussion about gender quality – we can truly make steps towards a more diverse and stronger industry. Find out more about the campaign: bit.ly/planner0320genderchampions

“THE ONUS OF ADDRESSING THIS INEQUALITY SHOULD BE ON MEN, WHO ARE LARGELY THE ONES IN THE POSITIONS OF POWER”

T H E P L AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

18-19 Blogs_March 2020_The Planner 18

12/02/2020 09:59

Have your say Would you like to see yourself in these pages? Get in touch by email – editorial@theplanner.co.uk Topical, inspirational, angry or amusing – we consider all relevant comment

3 BLOG

Gary Duncan MRTPI is founder/director of The Land and Planning Company

Local plans are not the best route to large-scale development

‘Planning’ is concerned with everything from climate change to bricks and windows. It wants better and beautiful. Planning is adaptive and conservative, process-led and complex. Processes, matters and questions reveal a debate about development control. Unprecedented scale is challenging the plan-making and examination processes. The time may be to recognise the limits of what planning can do; to conceive of delivery in development, not process, terms. And the need for eﬀective instruments and mechanisms. We talk of the development plan. What happened to ‘development’ planning? A top practitioner in 1985 lamented the critical failure to comprehend the nature of ‘development’ in development planning. Planning is a small component of the development process, not the other way around. But I see a tension centring on how the control of delivery squares with policy planning. Delivery means investment and risk. Large-scale and longer-term decisions need an appropriate professional space where commitments are made and followed through. Yet is the current forum – the examination in public – appropriate in its channelling of complex evidence through the

4 BLOG

Rachel Murrell MRTPI is a planning associate with Barton Willmore

How can we get the most from local planning authorities?

mind of one or two individuals? If local planning/delivery is configured on a 15-year horizon, is it reasonable for one person to determine the commitments for 40 years based on sound bites and cross-references? Consider the inspector considering soundness and delivery commitments to 2080. Can you stretch ‘local’ planning over that time frame and make it cope with a scale of aspiration appropriate to an upper tier and with guaranteed funding? It seems we want scale without a structure plan, without a regional plan. These may be outmoded terms, but 50,000 homes in a local plan? I’m proud to have been associated with some of the largest projects in Essex and Hertfordshire; ‘will’ and ‘stability’ have been vital factors in creating fantastic places: Great Notley was a garden village long before the genre’s rebirth. But managing infrastructure procurement financially and across several agencies with different legislation and through funding bids is difficult. A development corporation has its place in planning, but proven methods of delivery remain. Comprehending the nature of development in development planning is essential to delivery. But delivering largescale development over many decades seems to be testing the local plan process as we know it.

“IT SEEMS WE WANT SCALE WITHOUT A STRUCTURE PLAN, WITHOUT A REGIONAL PLAN”

After 15 years in local planning authorities, I’m experiencing the planning system from the other side of the fence. Difficulties in getting hold of case officers, holding meaningful pre-application discussions and being kept informed during the application process are common gripes. Planning Practice Guidance advocates pre-application engagement as it “offers significant potential to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of the p l a n n i n g application system and improve the quality of planning applications and their likelihood of success”. This rationale cannot be faulted, but many councils are not fully realising this potential. Most planners work for local planning authorities because they want to see development happen, but in the right way. But with budget cuts, high caseloads and problems recruiting experienced people, it’s understandable that many are struggling. The benefits of preapplication engagement are understood, but prioritising this above work with more immediate deadlines often does not happen. A case officer will usually have a range of live applications, prior approvals and conditions discharges as well as pre-application proposals. It’s

important that we find ways to work within these constraints. But there are approaches that private sector planners can take to make the application process less of a bumpy ride: • Meet ward members and the leader early on to get an understanding of the planning committee’s key priorities. • Establish a good relationship with the case officer. Being polite doesn’t mean that you can’t be assertive. Only elevate problems to a more senior level where there is a clear reason. • At pre-application stage there is a nervousness about saying ‘yes’ that derives from balancing internal, external and political pressures. Be clear on areas where there is c o m m o n agreement and focus on resolving tricky issues. • Make life easier for the case officer, e.g., write the planning statement to mirror the style of planning reports so that data can be easily transposed. • Speed the planning validation process by titling supporting documents to accord with the national and local validation list. Provide a table setting out the documents required and what has been submitted. • For large proposals it may be worth offering to fund a planner post to ensure there are resources to deal with the applications.

“MOST PLANNERS WORK FOR LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITIES BECAUSE THEY WANT TO SEE DEVELOPMENT HAPPEN, BUT IN THE RIGHT WAY”

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 18-19 Blogs_March 2020_The Planner 19

12/02/2020 09:59

Page 20-23 Gender New_March 2020_The Planner 20

12/02/2020 10:00

GENDERSENSITIVE PLANNING

THE

GENDER AGENDA

2018/19’S RTPI GEORGE PEPLER AWARDWINNER USED HER GRANT TO INVESTIGATE THE IMPACT OF ‘GENDER MAINSTREAMING’ IN AUSTRIA’S CAPITAL CITY. NATALYA PALIT MRTPI FINDS OUT WHAT UK PLANNING CAN LEARN FROM VIENNA

I L L U S T R AT I O N | O L I V I A W H I T W O R T H

of those with caring responsibilities inefficiently – alf the population is women. Yet, whether men or women – reduces productivity and historically, cities have been planned restricts growth. Providing unequal opportunities to by men. Without deliberate intent, access public spaces for physical activity increases our towns and cities have been the bill for the NHS. Both are bad for society. designed with limited consideration One way of addressing these inequities is of how half of the people living in them go about ‘gender mainstreaming’, which seeks to make their daily lives. commonplace a consideration of how policy Women are well aware of how small inequities decisions affect different genders at every stage built into our environments affect us throughout of the built environment’s development – policy, our lifetimes, and it starts with childhood: multi-use design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. games areas are generally dominated by boys, thus “It’s not about feminism. It’s restricting girls’ physical activity. Is about doing things better,” says this inevitable? “GENDER Maria Vassilakou, the former deputy As adults, women tend to SENSITIVE mayor of Vienna responsible for take the larger share of caring PLANNING WAS urban planning, traffic and transport, responsibilities, resulting in more KIND OF AN climate protection, energy and citizen complex ‘trip chains’. Rather than a EYE OPENER, A participation. “Who’s walking? It’s simple journey from home to work MIND OPENER” women. Who’s pushing a buggy with and back again, a trip might involve a child? It’s women. Adopting this taking children of different ages to perspective means you have equity of nursery and school before heading public space and the user experience to work, perhaps leaving early to get is a better one. In Vienna, gendergroceries, then stopping by to help sensitive planning is what came an elderly relative before returning first. Producing public spaces that are equitable for home. Our transport systems aren’t designed for everybody, that are people-centred, not car-centred, these kinds of journeys. came after gender-sensitive planning. GenderThere may be long-term physical consequences. sensitive planning was kind of an eye-opener, a In later life, for example, a lack of opportunity mind-opener.” for physical activity in earlier life can lead to osteoporosis, which affects more women than men. Such issues don’t just affect the individual, either. Gender mainstreaming in Vienna Structuring our cities in a way that uses the time Vienna, Austria’s capital city, has led the way on

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER Page 20-23 Gender New_March 2020_The Planner 21

12/02/2020 10:00

integrating gender mainstreaming into its urban planning. It started in 1991, when the municipality held an exhibition entitled ‘Who does public space belong to? Women’s everyday life in the city’. The exhibition attracted significant media attention and played a part in bringing about a new Department for Women’s Affairs. Driven by this department, the city has since adopted gender mainstreaming in a number of administrative areas, including education and healthcare policy – but it has had most impact on urban planning. Indeed, so important was planning considered to be that in 1998 the city set up a specialist women’s urban planning unit. Since the early 1990s, Vienna’s planners have undertaken more than 60 pilot projects tackling different aspects of urban planning and design. These have ranged from improving streetscapes and public parks to housing projects designed by women with women in mind. They are typically small-scale interventions that have quite localised impacts, but they make a real difference to residents’ daily lives. “The policy of small steps achieved remarkable results, since the sum of these small-scale measures went beyond localised impact, taking on a network quality,” explained Eva Kail, head of Vienna’s coordination office, and Elisabeth Irshcik of the city’s urban design and architecture department in a 2007 article for the German Urban Studies Journal. “Politicians and journalists like them,” Kail tells me, “because you can go there and see them, take photos, have opening ceremonies. You can evaluate them, take the positive experiences and try to transfer it to the mainstream.” Data gathered by Vienna’s planners revealed a stark contrast between pedestrians and car users, with women making up a far higher proportion of the former, and men the latter. Many gendermainstreaming projects thus focused on improving the pedestrian environment by widening pavements, introducing pedestrian crossings, installing public lifts and redesigning public squares. A shift towards a more walkable city may not seem revolutionary now, but Vienna was ahead of the curve. The recent move towards more walkable places has been driven primarily by the climate change agenda, not necessarily addressing issues that disproportionately affect women in city streets. For example, an absence of gender sensitivity can mean that tree planting, while attractive, blocks out street lighting and makes streets feel less safe. Gender mainstreaming and planning for climate change are not incompatible, but consideration of all issues is required to ensure the best outcome.

My conversations with Viennese planners rs about the success of the city’s gender-mainstreaming aming approach all led back to one thing: pilot projects. These were beneﬁcial because they: n provided tangible outcomes; n delivered quick results; n created highly visible projects; n allowed for tactically picking projects with greatest chance of success; and n enabled implementing small yet impactful measures. “I think to work on speciﬁc measures is very important. Not to work on an abstract level. But just to do it,” says Elisabeth Irschik of Vienna’s urban design and architecture department.

In Vienna, the goal of delivering a gender-equal city was aided not only by the city having a

dedicated Department for Women’s Affairs, but the department having as its head an urban planner, Eva Kail. She went on to head the new women’s urban planning unit, bringing with her an established rapport with influential politicians. Even so, gender equality was always going to take time to become a mainstream matter within civic institutions, its progress contingent on it remaining a political priority long enough to become the norm. Unfortunately, as I discovered during my research trip to the city in October 2019, a refocusing of political priorities has reduced funding for the women’s planning office. The result is a limiting of

T H E PL AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

I M AG E S | G E T T Y / A L A M Y

Viennese waltz

THE POWER OF PILOTS

Page 20-23 Gender New_March 2020_The Planner 22

“Who’s walking? It’s women. Who’s pushing a buggy with a child? It’s women. Adopting this perspective means you have equity of public space.”

12/02/2020 10:00

GENDERSENSITIVE PLANNING

Draschepark

THE GEORGE PEPLER INTERNATIONAL AWARD

The George Geo Pepler Award is a bursary granted biennially since 1973 to a planner in their ﬁrst 10 biennia years of post-qualiﬁcation experience wishing to undertake a short period of study (3-4 weeks) on a particular aspect of spatial planning. The 2018/19 award was granted to Natalya Palit, a planner with HTA Design, to answer the question ‘What can the UK learn from Vienna with regards to adopting a gendermainstreaming approach to shape built outcomes?’ The 2020/21 award will be open for entries shortly. See the RTPI website for details: bit.ly/planner0320-PeplerAward

permanent measures. Learning from projects was also turned into guidance, which Vienna’s planners kept as simple as possible. Visibility was key, from setting up a specialist unit within the highest level of city government to creating gender-sensitive review panels. This ensured that other planners working in the municipality and design teams were aware of how important the issue was.

the city’s capacity to support gender“IT’S NOT sensitive planning and, as planners ABOUT move on or retire, increased risk of A fresh approach FEMINISM. losing institutional knowledge. The ideas and tools introduced IT’S ABOUT “When we started the Women’s by Vienna’s planners are not DOING THINGS Coordination Office, it was very much revolutionary. But they show BETTER” in the spirit of the times and people that we can adopt a more wanted to do something new,” says sensitive way of planning our Kail. “I think the wind has changed. cities that takes its cue from a There are now new topics – it’s people-centred view of space. children, it’s the elderly, it’s diversity, This philosophy needs to be it’s LGBT. So thinking about issues on embedded within the institutions different levels, that makes it a bit difficult because responsible for spatial planning and promoted to I’m convinced that you need a gender lens in all the organisations that influence the way we develop these topics too.” space – a task requiring long-term political support. Some of the principles Kail and her colleagues In Vienna’s case the focus was on gender, but introduced hav have become mainstream, such as the same principles can be applied to planning introducing more for the needs of all under-represented groups. The mo green space per inhabitant and focusing on better challenge facing planners is not a lack of ideas or bet pedestrian experiences. Yet, even while the women’s office was at its most active technical capability but a resistance to change – wom there was resist resistance to its goals. Planners learned to even if those who resist are as likely to benefit from navigate this in a variety of ways, picking projects the change as anyone else. tactically in districts where they knew they would Vienna shows us that a strategy of combining dis get most politic political support or covertly introducing ‘softer’ knowledge from more qualitative evidence gender-sensitive with quantifiable data (often gathered by small gender-sensitiv characteristics to the urban environment without labelling them as such. pilots) can provide an evidence base to overcome w Adopting cov covert techniques may feel like a arguments against innovation. The evidence shows subversion of p principle, but Vienna illustrates that gender-sensitive planning creates places that how a focus on the outcome might justify the are better for everyone. approach. The e experience of Viennese planners also demonstra demonstrates that quick, low-cost pilots can n Natalya Palit MRTPI is a senior planner with effectively estab establish the impacts of new ideas HTA Design and recipient of the 2018/19 George and provide a platform for advocacy for more p Pepler International Award

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER Page 20-23 Gender New_March 2020_The Planner 23

12/02/2020 10:00

AS THE GOVERNMENT CUTS BUSINESS RATES FOR MUSIC VENUES AFTER A LONG CAMPAIGN, MATT MOODY CONSIDERS THEIR ROLE IN THE NIGHTÂTIME ECONOMY AND HOW PLANNERS CAN HELP TO SECURE THEIR FUTURE

T H E P L AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

24-27 Music_March 2020_The Planner 24

12/02/2020 10:01

MUSIC VENUES

“THE AGENT OF CHANGE PRINCIPLE HAS CERTAINLY PROMOTED THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING MUSIC VENUES, BUT IT DOESN’T STOP PEOPLE COMPLAINING”

I M AG E | G E T T Y

welcomed the changes, but warned that there’s still more to do. “It’s still unclear whether the changes to business rates announced for England will apply to the rest of the UK. For the country’s touring circuit to remain as closely interlinked as it is, it’s extremely important that venues in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales also have access to this relief.” In London, however, “the sheer value of land” poses a problem: 39 of 99 venues in the capital have a rateable value of more than £51,000, so won’t be eligible for the rates relief. In these cases, the localism relief mechanism is crucial, but councils have been reluctant to use it without a precedent. “We needed one council to step up and say ‘this matters enough to us to use this mechanism’”, says Davyd, “and it’s great that Westminster, which is maybe seen as one of the more hardline councils on these issues, has done it. We’ve seen a lot of positive language from councils – particularly those that identify as ‘music cities’, but now that national government has responded, what we’ll be doing now is hammering home that message to local authorities that they need to take action.”

Business rates

Policy

On London’s Oxford Street, sandwiched between a Boots and an Ann Summers shop, is an unassuming doorway that leads to arguably the capital’s most iconic music venue. Known for kickstarting the city’s punk rock scene in 1976 by showcasing then-unsigned bands The Clash, The Sex Pistols and Siouxie and the Banshees, the 100 Club holds a special place in music history. In recent years, however, soaring overheads have threatened the venue’s existence, and only an intervention from Sir Paul McCartney saved it from closure in 2010. That all changed last month when Westminster Council announced that the venue would become the ﬁrst in the country to beneﬁt from ‘localism relief’, a government policy that gives local councils the power to discount business rates for independent venues by up to 100 per cent. In the same week, the government announced that all music venues with a rateable value of under £51,000 would receive an automatic 50 per cent business rates discount. Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust,

Finances aside, running a music venue in 2020 remains fraught with challenges, many of which can lead to conflict with planners. Top of the list is the issue of noise: as cities grow, demand for housing is seeing more homes built close to venues. In response to falling venue numbers through the 2010s, attempts have been made to protect them through policy. In 2018, the ‘agent of change’ principle finally became national planning policy in the UK following its inclusion in the revised NPPF. In short, the principle means that new developments will be responsible for managing the effects of existing noise-making uses. Its intention is to stop residents of new-build flats complaining about noise from nearby music venues that were there first. In practice, however, the application of the policy has come in for a level of criticism. “The adoption of the agent of change principle has certainly promoted the importance of protecting music venues, but it doesn’t stop people from complaining,” says Tim Taylor, head of the planning team at law firm Foot Anstey.

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 24-27 Music_March 2020_The Planner 25

12/02/2020 10:01

MUSIC VENUES

Deeds of easement One alternative solution championed by Taylor is the deed of easement, a legal agreement that allows residents to agree to a certain level of noise, protecting venues from complaints about noise below that level. It was first used as a mechanism for protecting a music venue in 2014, when Taylor brokered an agreement between the Ministry of Sound nightclub in South London and a developer planning to build 331 new homes nearby. Since then, Taylor has employed the mechanism to secure the future of two more venues – The Stables in Milton Keynes and the George Tavern in East London. Another venue calling for a deed of easement to secure its future is Motion, a popular warehouse club in Bristol. The club is in a formerly industrial area close to the city’s main train station, which left it untroubled by noise complaints in the past. However, regeneration plans will bring the club into close proximity with housing, leaving its licence at risk. “The agent of change principle is a good thing, but what concerns me slightly is that, after all the mitigation measures like improving insulation have been done, and people are still unhappy about noise levels, they can still complain,” says Dan Deeks, Motion’s manager. When the club came under threat in 2019, Deeks started a petition calling for a deed of easement to apply to the proposed development after finding no policy mechanism to secure one. The petition gathered almost 10,000 signatures. The concern for developers, however, is that a deed will devalue their scheme. This, in turn, becomes a problem for councils because brownfield

Florence Welch performs at the 100 Club schemes are often only marginally viable, so any hit to profits could mean much-needed houses are not built at all. So although deeds of easement are powerful once in place, getting everyone involved to agree terms can be challenging. In Deeks’ view, the mechanism would offer the developer protection by ensuring that prospective residents would be well aware in advance of the trade-off that comes with living close to a cultural hub. In any case, adds Taylor, if developers choose to build in urban areas close to existing venues, “they should accept that that comes with responsibilities”.

Licensing THIS MUST BE THE PLACE

A recent report produced by the music consultancy Sound Diplomacy, titled ‘This Must Be The Place’ after the Talking Heads classic, considers the role music venues play as part of the wider ‘cultural infrastructure’ in cities. “We believe the value capture capabilities of music venues are quite substantial,” says Shain Shapiro, who founded Sound Diplomacy in 2013. In addition to the boost they bring to other businesses nearby such as restaurants by attracting people to the area, venues are a crucial incubator for what Shapiro calls ‘workforce development tools’. “There’s so many diﬀerent jobs that are happening in a music venue at any one time. As well as the artist on stage, there’s the accountant, the security, the bar staﬀ, the sound technicians, the manager… music has a long supply chain,” This economic contribution is

something that planners need to recognise and enshrine in policy, Shapiro says. “The night-time economy is being mentioned more in local plans, but we still have a long way to go. Most councils don’t have a proper night-time economy plan, it’s just a couple of sentences – usually referencing something negative. They need to recognise the entire holistic ecosystem.” For developers in particular, patience is key, he says. While music venues might not be as proﬁtable as other land uses over a period of one or two years, their value is deeper than that. “Music venues are not immediate moneymakers – they’re long-term capital, in investment terms. But that’s part of a wider theme – everything we’re doing, we should be looking 10 to 20 years down the line. We need to build things that last longer.”

Another issue often raised by those working in the music industry is the relationship between planning and licensing. “The licensing system deﬁnitely needs reform,” says Shain Shapiro, who runs the music-focused consultancy Sound Diplomacy (see ‘This Must Be the Place’). “Bringing it in line with the planning system is a good idea because licensing decisions aﬀect the same people in the same way as planning decisions. “We need to make the argument that the licensing system in the UK should be thought of more as a planning tool than a regulatory, ‘health and safety’ tool. That’s not to discount the importance of those functions, but we need to realise the power that licensing can have in promoting culture.” Nicola Beech, cabinet member for planning at Bristol City Council, sees licensing in a similar light. “At the moment there are two regulatory environments with a gap between them, and things fall into that gap,” she says. “We need to ensure that when committee members are making decisions about music venues, licensing is interwoven into that process and there’s consistency between the two worlds.”

T H E PL AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

24-27 Music_March 2020_The Planner 26

12/02/2020 11:06

Artist’s view: Frank Turner Frank Turner is an ambassador of the Music Venues Trust.

“DEEDS OF EASEMENT ARE POWERFUL ONCE IN PLACE, BUT GETTING EVERYONE INVOLVED TO AGREE TERMS CAN BE CHALLENGING”

“Independent venues provide a locus for a certain kind of culture to exist. Live music, replete with all the creative and community aspects that involves, needs a place to happen, a place that’s reliable and affordable. “Recent years have been really tough for smaller, independent venues. That doesn’t mean the death of live music in toto, but it does mean that increasingly we’re left with larger, more corporate shows, a blander cultural diet, and nowhere for communities to gather in a musical context. That seems a real shame to me. “The cuts to business rates are extremely welcome – rates are one of the toughest budget items for venues, and one that doesn’t get covered much in the press or in popular consciousness (they have a lot to do, in my opinion, with the much-vaunted “death of the high street”, but that’s another topic).”

Motion, Bristol

I M AG E S | G E T T Y

Outlook Despite these challenges, there is evidence that things are improving. “There’s sometimes this narrative that venues are all disappearing and need to be treated like museums, but we’re taking a different approach in Bristol,” says Beech. “It’s not just about preserving a diminishing resource – new venues are opening all the time. It’s easy to be pessimistic, and of course there are venues that have been struggling, but we’re finding more than ever there’s a real demand for a really high-quality night out – it’s not a race to the bottom.” Figures published by the Mayor of London paint a similar picture. Although the number of venues in the capital fell from 144 to 94 between 2007 and 2016, the figure increased by 6 per cent between 2018 and 2019. Time will tell whether the deliverance of the 100 Club will mark a watershed moment for live music in the UK.

24-27 Music_March 2020_The Planner 27

Frank Turner

12/02/2020 11:07

L A N D O W N E R L E D D E V E LO P M E N T

he Office for National Statistics once rated Swindon as the most average town in Britain. GQ magazine derided it as the ugliest. One of the 100 towns to benefit from the government’s Towns Fund for left-behind towns, Swindon is perhaps not the first place you would look for housing design exemplars. Yet in the past five years the town has undergone a mini housing design revolution. It’s a turnaround that highlights what can happen when a council determined to raise design standards allies itself with a landowner with vision – and it may just point the way to achieving design improvements in some of Britain’s less fashionable places. What is it that exemplifies the Swindon housing revolution? Three schemes in particular stand out, each illustrating a different approach to achieving the goal of well-designed housing.

Raising expectations David Dewart, Swindon Borough Council’s head of planning, says: “The

late 1990s and early noughties was a low point for design ambition in the town. The council’s decision to participate in a government design coding pilot scheme and to hire an urban design oﬃcer in the early 2000s was a turning point in bringing about a culture change within the planning department. “This has resulted in a marked improvement in the quality of schemes submitted by developers,” he continues. “Fifteen years ago developers were saying to us ‘But it’s only Swindon’ when we pushed for better design quality. Now, they expect their designs to be heavily scrutinised.” Nowadays, the council has a dedicated masterplanning design and conservation team, has produced a residential design guide that was shortlisted for the Urban Design Group’s national award, and frequently refers schemes to the South West Design Review Panel. Dewart thinks developers have got the message and no longer view Swindon as a soft touch on quality, leading to an improvement in the quality of proposals coming forward.

Highways officers, too, have bought into the change, understanding the need to emphasise place quality as well as movement function, and showing greater flexibility over road layouts. Designconscious development management officers have also been central to improving standards on the town’s expansion sites. The relationships they have built with housebuilders have gone a long way to ensuring that quality is maintained throughout the build period. The highlighted developments illustrate the beneficial effects of a local planning authority emphasis on design combined with landowner/developer vision. Both parties sought to ‘push the market’ and deliver better quality

SU BU R BIA R EIM AG INE D IT MIGHT NOT HAVE A GLAMOROUS IMAGE, BUT SWINDON – HOME TO THE SPITFIRE, THE NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY, AND BIRTHPLACE OF SCREEN SIRENS DIANA DORS AND BILLIE PIPER – HAS LED A REVOLUTION IN HOUSE DESIGN OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS, AS NEIL HOLLY EXPLAINS

T H E PL AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

28-31 Swindon_March 2020_The Planner 28

12/02/2020 10:02

Oakﬁeld: The socially minded landowner

than the local norm. Arguably, this convergence of aims is needed to create high-quality places. Each of the developments makes a genuine attempt to create a distinctive place rather than to minimise risk and deliver a standard product. For the government’s ambitions for design to be achieved, similar ambition will needed to raise expectations in towns across the country. n Neil Holly is a principal planning oﬃcer with Staﬀord Borough Council and formerly deputy service manager (planning policy) with Swindon Borough Council

Site: Oakfield Developer: Nationwide Building Society, development manager Igloo Regeneration. Number of homes: 239 Other infrastructure: Community hub. Transport: The site lies within the Swindon urban area on a bus route with 15-minute frequencies. Links in with existing off-road cycle network. In part prompted by discussions about the council’s vision for Wichelstowe, Nationwide Building Society, a major employer in Swindon with a long history of civic involvement in the town, is taking its first step into building its own housing. It has acquired from the council the former Oxford Brookes University Oakfield Campus site within Swindon’s urban area. Nationwide’s proposed development at Oakfield is the most ambitious housing development in Swindon in architectural and urban design terms. It seeks to realise architect

Metropolitan Workshop’s vision for a new kind of suburbia, an attempt to reimagine suburban housing for the 21st century, drawing on the work of the late Sir Richard MacCormac. Houses will be of contemporary design, comprising mainly terraces on a permeable grid. There will be considerable variety in the housing designs and sizes. Shared court gardens and shared surface streets allow the scheme to maximise green space while achieving a relatively high density and a high level of car parking. The site proposals have been inﬂuenced by the work of a community organiser, employed by Nationwide, who has listened to the views of existing residents. The design creates shared community spaces, including shared gardens. Nationwide is not taking proﬁt from the project and aims to deliver a replicable scheme as a new model for suburban housing delivery to encourage other non-traditional housebuilders to follow suit.

Oakﬁeld highlights connectivity, with frequent buses and links to the existing oﬀ-road cycle network

I M AG E | PICT U R E PL A N E

28-31 Swindon_March 2020_The Planner 29

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER

12/02/2020 10:02

Wichelstowe: The council as placemaker Site: Wichelstowe Developer: Barratt, David Wilson Homes, Swindon Borough Council, Freeman Retirement Living, Taylor Wimpey (ﬁrst phase). Number of homes: 4,500 Other infrastructure: Secondary school, district centre, primary school, supermarket, pub restaurant, canal, upgraded bus link to Swindon town centre. Transport: Bus service enhancements with frequencies of 15 minutes to Swindon Old Town and town centre. Access to the Southern Flyer dedicated bicycle path linking to Swindon town centre. New link under the M4 to motorway junction.

Wichelstowe is a large urban expansion south of Swindon on council-owned land. When the first housing phase was completed, the council faced a dilemma. How could it ensure that the next phase – the district centre – was a success? The council searched widely for best practice, but could find few good recent British examples. So it took a bold decision; rather than selling the land to a developer or entering into a joint venture it would retain and curate the development of the district centre itself. The council’s goal was to do something different from the norm and create a centre with its own identity, thereby shifting perceptions of new housing areas in Swindon. If successful, this would pay off by raising the value of the remaining parts of the council’s land. The initial focus was the restoration of the Wilts and Berks Canal to create a waterfront setting and focus for the centre. Alongside this, the council spent time persuading Waitrose to take a leap of faith and open as the centre’s anchor occupier before the surrounding housing was built. The council’s next recruit was pub chain Hall and Woodhouse, which has created a destination canal-side pub/restaurant. The latest phases of the centre have included the opening of the secondary school, designed to front the main street and act as a landmark civic building, rather than hiding behind car parking as is the norm. A new artist-designed

concept bridge across the canal and canal-side public square further contribute to making Wichelstowe distinctive. Now the district centre is established, the council has turned its attention to progressing the adjacent housing. In 2018, Swindon Borough Council and Barratt David Wilson Homes (BDW) entered into a joint venture. The basic structure is that the council provides the land and BDW the housebuilding expertise. The parties are 50:50 partners in the venture. Barratt has designed new house types to reﬂect the canal architecture theme. A separate phase, not part of the joint venture, by Freeman Retirement Living promises more high-quality housing.

T H E PL AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

I M A G E | B E N P I P E P H O T O G R A P H Y, M A C K E N Z I E W H E E L E R /A R C H I T E C T S

28-31 Swindon_March 2020_The Planner 30

REIMAGINING SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT?

The district council curated the development of the Wichelstowe urban expansion

The Wichelstowe and Tadpole Garden Village developments arguably represent traditional suburban development patterns, but done well. Both are carefully planned environments that seek to distinguish themselves from the bulk of recent developments through their investment in placemaking. Oakﬁeld, albeit on a smaller scale, with its emphasis on diversity of dwelling types and shared amenity space, is perhaps more ambitious in its reimagining of the traditional suburban neighbourhood. The dual challenge for British planners and developers is simultaneously to strive for higher standards of design and placemaking, while also seeking to change how suburban neighbourhoods function. To strive to cut energy use both within homes and to reduce car dependency as has been achieved in, for example, the Dutch Vinex projects or some of the German or Scandinavian examples. As elsewhere in the UK, and despite its comparatively good bus network and expanding bicycle infrastructure, Swindon struggles to break patterns of suburban car use.

12/02/2020 10:02

L A N D O W N E R L E D D E V E LO P M E N T

Tadpole Garden Village: The master developer with a vision Site: Tadpole Garden Village Developer: Crest Nicholson, David Wilson Homes, Wainhomes, Bellway, and Bovis. Number of homes: 1,695 Other infrastructure: Secondary school, local centre, allotments, nature reserve, primary school. Transport: New bus service with 30-minute frequency linking to north Swindon and Swindon town centre. Links in with existing oﬀ-road cycle network, which is extended through the site. Tadpole Garden Village (TGV) is perhaps the most conventional of the developments presented here. It has been delivered by volume housebuilders Crest Nicholson, David Wilson Homes, Wainhomes, Bellway and Bovis Homes. What distinguishes TGV is the consistency of its placemaking vision, the quality of its execution and the focus on community building. The basic concept of the site is an

informally laid out, relatively lowdensity development set in generous landscaping, including extensive allotment provision and a nature park. The planning and architecture of the development reflect a revival of 1920s Arts and Crafts movement-inspired designs, although latter phases have employed more modern designs. Master developer Crest Nicholson has overseen the project. Working with council planning officers, Crest has taken responsibility for delivery of the green and social infrastructure. It also created the first and most prominent character-setting phases. Crest has established a TGV community website, which shows an impressive array of community groups. The aim is that long-term stewardship will be achieved by all residents, and occupiers of retail units will become members of a Community Infrastructure Company, which will take over maintenance of the area’s green spaces and the community website.

Tadpole Garden Village, masterminded by developer Crest Nicholson, takes inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 28-31 Swindon_March 2020_The Planner 31

12/02/2020 10:03

CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

Flood risk protection was a key objective of the Ibadan masterplan

IBADAN CITY MASTERPLAN A NEW MASTERPLAN FOR IBADAN COULD SHAPE ITS FUTURE FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS AND MAKE IT MORE RESILIENT TO FLOODING AND POPULATION GROWTH. BUT, ASKS RACHEL MASKER, WILL IT BE IMPLEMENTED? Categories: International Award for Excellence in Planning 2019 Project name: Ibadan City Plan Submitted by: Dar Group Key players: Oyo State Government, World Bank

BACKGROUND Africa has the fastest-growing cities on the planet. Yet, to date, this rapid expansion and urbanisation has largely been unplanned. Ibadan, in south-west Nigeria, is the nation’s third most populous city and capital of Oyo State – nicknamed the ‘Pacesetter State’. A centre for trade and exchange, the city is home to Nigeria’s first university and first skyscraper. With a population of more than 6 million, projected to skyrocket to 11 million by 2036, Ibadan has an annual growth rate of 3.5 per cent, mainly driven by rural migration. Today, Ibadan is a sprawling, fragmented city. Challenges include frequent floods, which have increased in severity. In 2011, 120 people were killed after intense rainfall caused the Eleyele Dam to overflow. Bridges collapsed, roads were washed away and 600 homes destroyed. This led the Oyo State Government, with support from the World Bank, to commission Dar Group to draft the first citywide strategic plan to lead its growth and development. There is also a flood-risk management and drainage plan and a solid waste plan. Each plan has a role to play in making the city more flood-proof and sustainable.

IDABAN CITY MASTERPLAN Ibadan city dates back to the 1800s and means “between the forest and plains” in Yoruba. The masterplan, which scooped the RTPI International Award for Excellence in Planning, covers an area of 300,000 hectares and provides a 20-year vision to guide the development of Ibadan and its hinterland. “Over the long term, the

masterplan provides a strategy that raises the quality of life of all its citizens and creates opportunities for a thriving business environment,” says Dar Group. The flagship study includes three detailed urban plans covering the historic inner city, flood-prone areas and Ibadan Circular Road. As well as restoring historic buildings, the heritage-led inner-city plan creates a new waterfront, market and high street. Light rail, a new bus system and pedestrian-friendly pavements are proposed to improve transport links. The masterplan ensures that sufficient land is available to accommodate 11.6 million people by 2036. A better quality of life is envisaged through access to basic services and provision of infrastructure currently lacking. Four new ‘clusters’ of industry are proposed in a bid to improve economic opportunities. The masterplan, says Dar Group, adopts ‘compact city’ principles to control outward urban sprawl, including high-density development. “The renewal strategy for the city’s historic core – which displays aspects of slum conditions – gives a framework for reusing existing buildings and refurbishing historic buildings, led by the establishment of the new school of heritage to learn skills in crafts and in the upkeep of buildings.”

T H E P L AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

32-33 Case Study_March 2020_The Planner 32

12/02/2020 10:03

development consultant, says stakeholder engagement in spatial planning was “another ﬁrst for Ibadan”. He adds: “It was most interesting to contrast the comments of those with the most pressing local concerns, such as the need for more public toilets, and the more theoretical approaches to masterplan development, prompting questions about its concentric or multipolar nature for example, as raised by local academics.”

THE BIGGEST HURDLE

J U D G E S’ C O M M E N T : “The grand scale of the exercise to transform Ibadan City was ambitious and impressive. As the ﬁrst strategic plan for the city it involved the creation of digital maps and plans, updating decades-old maps, identifying new clusters of industry and planning integrated transport links from the slums to employment areas. All revolutionary for the city. The judges were also impressed with how they undertook capacity-building with stakeholders associated with a new school of heritage to help communities maintain their historic buildings.”

A key objective of the masterplan was to protect the existing and proposed residential areas from flood risk. Deforestation, the increase in hard surfacing from urbanisation and dumping of waste in rivers have all contributed to frequent flooding. Some resettlement is proposed – a controversial issue. “The difficult decision of removing properties within flood-prone corridors had to be made to protect against flooding impacts,” says Dar Group. Alternative proposed uses include urban agriculture and parks to hold overflow water. “We undertook an extensive analysis of every river and stream across the city and its potential for flooding and we were able to map out in detail every affected property. In the denser area of the city, we promoted river channelisation to preserve properties as far as reasonably practical.” Protecting forest cover, especially in the higher ground to the north of the city, is I M AG E | DA R G RO U P

32-33 Case Study_March 2020_The Planner 33

also seen as key to reducing ﬂood risk and boosting biodiversity. This was the ﬁrst time Oyo State Government had worked on a spatial plan. Dar Group says it was important to be transparent about the lack of data to build an evidence-based plan. “In Nigeria, what mapping can be sourced is often decades old and out of date. A map base, the start for any plan-making, had to be created from satellite images.” Extensive stakeholder engagement from the outset was key to shaping the masterplan and agreeing a way forward. By involving the governor, state ministries, local businesses, academia, NGOs, community leaders and slum dwellers, it was possible to represent the widest possible views and concerns, says Dar Group. This process involved interviews, workshops, presentations and exhibitions. Ivan Dharma Bruce, World Bank urban

So will the plan be implemented or shelved to gather dust? Ibadan City Masterplan provides a vision for a thriving and sustainable future. For the first time, government has a tool to manage flood risk and the looming population explosion. The long-term plan provides clarity on areas that are to be redeveloped, regenerated and where expansion will take place. But the next step is possibly the biggest hurdle. “The tremendous efforts can all be undone if the masterplan is not adopted into law and implemented. Sadly, from past experience this is often where the masterplanning process fails,” says Bruce. Recognising the need to strengthen the institutional set-up, a new Bureau of Physical Planning and Development Control, reporting to the state governor, was created during the plan-making process. In addition, Oyo State planners received training in how to implement the masterplan. Dar Group is optimistic. A spokesman says Oyo State Government, which is responsible for implementation, adopted the masterplan in May 2018. But 11 local governments, which determine development in each of their respective areas, also need to follow the strategic framework. Bruce says: “There is great political buy-in from the government, which is encouraging. Although this is the first time the city has ever benefited from a masterplan, which should be celebrated, it also means the process of planning must go under reform and the thinking of integrated planning required be part of everyday life, which may take some time to build the capacity.” What about financing for the execution of the masterplan? “The government now has the data, tools and clear strategy to raise capital from international multilateral banks, donors and the private sector,” says the World Bank consultant. n Rachel Masker is a freelance journalist specialising in the built environment

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER

12/02/2020 10:04

N AT I O N S &REGIONS

W H AT ’ S H A P P E N I N G I N W A LE S ? HERE’S A ROUNDUP OF KEY PROJECTS AND EVENTS IN THE REGION IN 2020

Wales IN THE PIPELINE

South East Wales Transport Commission The Welsh economy minister Ken Skates announced the commission last year, following the government’s decision to axe the M4 relief road scheme despite £114 million having already been spent on it. The body will examine proposals to reduce congestion in and around Newport. bit.ly/planner0320Newport

Zip World at Tower Colliery Adventure company Zip World plans to open the ﬁrst adventure park in South Wales at the site of an historic former colliery on the Rhigos Mountain. The new site is predicted to draw 146,000 visitors a year. The company’s original attraction features the fastest zip wire in the world, where riders reach speeds of 100mph. bit.ly/planner0320-Zip

Swansea Bay

RECENT SUCCESSES

Surf Snowdonia hotel Kingsway Digital Village In Swansea, 100,000 square feet of hightech oﬃce space will be built as part of a ‘digital village’ for tech-focused businesses. Work on the £12 million project is part-funded by the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay city deal. bit.ly/planner0320-Kingsway

Upgrade works at Surf Snowdonia, the world’s first commercial artificial surfing lake, include a 106-bedroom hotel that will welcome its first guests this year. An indoor activities centre offering caving, climbing and other activities opened last summer. bit.ly/planner0320-Surf

BBC Wales

The BBC began moving staﬀ to its new Cardiﬀ headquarters last October, after the building was

completed in 2018. The 155,000 square-foot development is designed to be the BBC’s most open and accessible building. bit.ly/planner0320-BBCWales

Caerphilly Magistrates Court Plans to convert Caerphilly Magistrates Court into the largest Passivhaus scheme in Wales were approved in July 2018. The £5 million scheme, which is due to be completed in September this year, will provide 38 highly energyeﬃcient new homes. bit.ly/planner0320-Passivhaus

I M AG E S | I STO C K / A L A M Y

T H E PL AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

34-35 nations and regions_March 2020_The Planner 34

12/02/2020 10:04

Regional contact details: wales@rtpi.org.uk

See more on Wales at the Nations and Regions gateway: bit.ly/PlannerGateway

INSIGHT: EVALUATING WELLBEING

Wales Young Planner of the Year Alexandra Egge explains her Wellbeing Impact Evaluation (WELLIE) tool and how it ensures projects promote wellbeing. “What Wales does today, the world will do tomorrow” proclaimed the UN upon the passing of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (WBFGA) in 2015. The WBFGA embeds the principles of sustainable development into decision-making in Wales through a framework of seven wellbeing goals and five ways of working. The WBFGA forms the backbone of Planning Policy Wales 10 (2018), the draft National Development Framework (2019) and WelTAG (Welsh Transport Appraisal Guidance, 2017) which together place the emphasis on sustainable community wellbeing within the Welsh planning system and create a legal requirement to uphold the wellbeing goals. In practice, planners still face significant challenges in realising the aims of the WBFGA within the built environment. What does placemaking for wellbeing look like? What impact do planning decisions have upon individual and community wellbeing in both the short and long term? First, we must investigate how ‘wellbeing’ is influenced by the built environment. There are two points which are worth keeping in mind: The first of these is that wellbeing is the result of both subjective factors (ie. happiness, life satisfaction, etc.) and objective factors (ie. access to education, health, social support, etc.).

Subjective wellbeing varies between individuals, while objective wellbeing tends to be more systemic. The second is that wellbeing is the holistic result of a mix of factors including physical and mental health, social inclusion and the quality of one’s environment. As planners we can create the context to support the diverse range of environmental and social factors which influence wellbeing. The WBFGA is particularly wellplaced as a tool for planners because the seven wellbeing goals cover a holistic range of factors including health, resilience, cultural S t heritage, prosperity and community cohesion. Just over a year ago I created the Wellbeing Impact Evaluation (WELLIE) tool to embed the WBFGA within the transport appraisal (WelTAG) process and ensure that transport schemes are designed with wellbeing outcomes at the heart from day one. WELLIE guides planners to take a wider view on how placemaking can have tangible benefits for community wellbeing. By tying wellbeing into the business cases for schemes, WELLIE transforms the traditional cost-benefit ratio to justify investment. WELLIE has since grown beyond transport planning and applies to scheme design across a range of disciplines. It can also swap the Welsh Wellbeing Goals for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to apply its analytical framework around the world and has alright ignited interest from New York to Dubai.

A n g l e s ey B a n go r

Wre x h a m

Ab e r ys tw y t h

D av i d s

Swa n s e a

Ne w p o r t C a rd i f f

COMING UP

Spring Conference This year’s Welsh spring conference, to be held on 18th March at the Quay Hotel, Deganwy, will focus on marine and coastal planning in Wales.

Annual Planning Conference The main RTPI conference in Wales this year will have a theme of delivering net-zero carbon through placemaking. It will be held at the Holland House Hotel in Cardiﬀ on 4th June.

Summer Party This event, new for 2020, will provide plenty of opportunity for fun and networking. It’s at the Morgan Arcade in Cardiﬀ on 3rd June. bit.ly/RTPIWalesEvents

NEXT MONTH:

Yorkshire MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER

34-35 nations and regions_March 2020_The Planner 35

12/02/2020 10:04

LANDSCAPE

C&D { C

CASES &DECISIONS

A N A LY S E D B Y M A T T M O O D Y / A P P E A L S @ T H E P L A N N E R . C O . U K

Jenrick approves 1,524-home scheme against inspector’s advice EXPERT COMMENT

A former press baron’s plans to build five towers of up to 44 storeys on the Isle of Dogs can go ahead with reduced affordable housing, after the housing secretary approved the plans against his inspector’s recommendation. The appeal concerned the former Westferry Printworks in East London, where the Daily Telegraph and Daily Express newspapers were once printed. The land is owned by Richard Desmond, former proprietor of Express Newspapers. In 2016, Desmond’s plans to build 722 homes on the site in the form of four towers of up to 30 storeys was granted permission by then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson. Two years later, however, the businessman submitted new plans which would double the volume of housing at the site, delivering 1,540 homes across five towers of between 19 and 44 storeys, as well as more than 2,800 square metres of commercial floor space. Following a two-week public inquiry, inspector David Prentis recommended the scheme be dismissed. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan also opposed the scheme, saying that revisions were needed to make it London Plan compliant. Housing secretary Robert Jenrick agreed with the inspector’s finding that the scheme was not consistent

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said:

( “The mayor believes this development is entirely inappropriate. ( “Indeed, the secretary of state and the planning inspector agreed with the mayor and Tower Hamlets Council that the scheme would be too large for the site, affect views of Greenwich World Heritage Site and Tower Bridge, impact the recreational use of Millwall Outer Dock, and provide a shockingly low amount of affordable housing. ( “As such, the secretary of state’s decision to approve the application – despite these compelling reasons for rejection – is both surprising and extremely disappointing.”

LOCATION: Isle of Dogs AUTHORITY: Tower Hamlets Borough Council

INSPECTOR: David Prentis PROCEDURE: Recovered appeal DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ E5900/W/19/3225474

with the “step down” approach advocated in the council’s development plan. However, he noted, the site

did lie within a designated tall buildings zone, where “significant changes in building heights are to be expected”. The towers were well designed, he added, and formed an “attractive composition” when seen from a distance. The scheme was also criticised for offering only 21 per cent affordable housing, considerably below the council’s target of 35 per cent, despite assurances at application stage that the full amount would be provided. Jenrick agreed that on the balance of available evidence, the scheme could provide more affordable housing than the 21 per cent

proposed. However, having referred to the original 2016 scheme that had become a realistic fallback scheme for the appellant, he noted that the new plans would provide an increase in delivered affordable housing from 140 to 282 units. There was “no evidence” that a scheme that might deliver a higher proportion of affordable housing would come forward, he added. Although he agreed with Prentis that the scheme would cause “less than substantial harm” to views of the Old Royal Naval College and Tower Bridge – both grade I listed buildings – and use of the dock adjacent to the site for sailing, he ruled that the scheme’s public benefits carried decisive weight. The appeal was therefore allowed.

T H E PL AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

36-39 CandD_March 2020_The Planner 36

12/02/2020 13:01

These are just a few of the 40 or so appeal reports that we post each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions

‘Viking longboat’ paragraph 79 home rejected An inspector has dismissed plans for a bespoke family home in East Yorkshire designed to echo the hull of a Viking longboat, expressing doubts that the concept would be ‘widely understood’.

‘No evidence’ behind mayor’s aﬀordable housing demand

I M AG E S |

ISTOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK

The housing secretary has approved a plan for 365 high-rise flats in Lewisham that was blocked by the Mayor of London for its ‘unacceptable’ affordable housing offer, after an inspector found ‘no evidence whatsoever’ that more could be viably provided. In 2017, developer Meyer Homes lodged plans to build three residential towers on the site of a former Tesco car park near Lewisham station. The towers, which would stand at eight, 14 and 34 storeys in height, would provide 365 new homes. The council narrowly voted to approve the scheme, but was told to refuse permission by London’s deputy mayor for planning, Jules Pipe, who described the appellant’s affordable housing offer of 20.2 per cent as “wholly unacceptable”. The application was recovered by the housing secretary last May. The two main parties at the inquiry were the appellant and the Greater London Authority, with Lewisham Borough Council offering only a brief statement advising that it would not contest the affordable housing offer further. The parties differed in their viability calculations by £11 million. After considering both parties’ estimates for construction costs and property values, inspector Paul Jackson found that “the amount of affordable housing proposed at 20.2 per cent is the maximum reasonable amount”. Noting that the scheme would be LOCATION: Lewisham “constructed of highquality materials” and AUTHORITY: Lewisham Borough would use brownfield land Council that had been identified for tall buildings as part INSPECTOR: Paul Jackson of a wider masterplan, he recommended the PROCEDURE: Recovered appeal application for approval. Housing secretary DECISION: Allowed Robert Jenrick agreed with Jackson that the affordable REFERENCE: housing proposed was APPC5690/W/18/3205926 “the maximum, if not somewhat more, than what can be reasonably provided”.

36-39 CandD_March 2020_The Planner 37

The appellant sought permission under a policy in the East Riding’s local plan that allows new homes in the countryside if they are of outstanding or innovative design. The house’s design was intended to reference the upturned hull of a Viking longboat. The crescent-shaped building would feature chalk gabion walls, a green roof and a curved glass frontage. The design was twice assessed by the Yorkshire design review panel, and the ﬁnal proposal “resolved the panel’s original misgivings”, achieving a “more organic form” and a more “convincing and robust narrative around the longboat concept”. But, Wheeler noted, the panel had still not “unequivocally endorsed” the ﬁnal iteration of the design. While the building would be “aesthetically pleasing”, Wheeler commented, its architectural quality was “inextricably linked to the longboat metaphor and [the site’s] historical context”. Although it was a short

LOCATION: Sewerby AUTHORITY: East Riding of Yorkshire Council

INSPECTOR: Tim Wheeler PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ E2001/W/19/3231984

distance from the coast and the Danes Dyke Viking scheduled monument, the site had no known signiﬁcance in terms of Viking heritage, he noted. In his conclusion, Wheeler ruled that although the longboat metaphor, aesthetic quality of design and Passivhaus-compliant construction methods were “of merit”, there was “no overriding case” to conclude that the scheme would be an example of truly outstanding or innovative design.

12/02/2020 10:05

LANDSCAPE

C&D { C School parent council rebuﬀed in Edinburgh ‘boatel’ appeal A reporter has dismissed a canal-side school’s concerns that plans for ﬁve boat hotels would stop its canoe club accessing the water, ruling that it would be ‘extremely foolish’ to disregard the canal authority’s safety advice.

AUTHORITY: City of Edinburgh Council INSPECTOR: Karen Heywood PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: PPA 230 2282

The appellant sought permission to moor five floating ‘boatels’ on the Union Canal in south-west Edinburgh, to each provide holiday accommodation for four people. They would be moored outside a recently completed building belonging to Boroughmuir High School. The school sought “clear open access to the canal” to launch canoes and kayaks onto the water as part of a recently formed canoe club, and to allow parents to drop pupils off by boat. The ‘boatels’

Less affordable housing ‘better than no development’ An inspector has approved plans for 227 flats on a brownfield site near Luton train station with no on-site affordable housing and an off-site contribution of just £300,000, ruling that the reduced offering was preferable to no development. The appellant planned to redevelop an industrial site next to Luton railway station to provide 227 flats across five blocks ranging between three and seven storeys in height. The council was not opposed to the principle of housing on the site, but disputed the level of affordable housing proposed. The Luton Local Plan says 20 per cent of all large residential development should be affordable. The appellant offered zero on-site provision, instead proposing

a financial contribution to off-site affordable housing of £300,000, arguing that a higher contribution would make the scheme unviable. Having had the viability assessment independently checked, the council did not dispute its robustness, agreeing that a policycompliant level of affordable housing would not be viable. The appeal turned on whether the scheme should

would obstruct its access, it argued. But the Scottish canal management authority advised that, as a busy stretch of canal, the area outside the school should be “kept substantially free of unpowered leisure craft” such as canoes. It stated that it “could not stress enough the risk and dangers of a collision between a large canal boat and a canoe” at various “pinch points” in the area. Reporter Karen Heywood acknowledged that the

school’s parent council did not agree that it was diﬃcult or unsafe to launch canoes in front of the school. However, she commented, “with respect, the school and its various supporters are not the canal navigation authority”, adding that it would be “extremely foolish to disregard the advice of the oﬃcial body charged with access and safety on the canal”. Concluding that the scheme was supported by the development plan, she allowed the appeal.

be built with a reduced, noncompliant level of affordable housing, or not built at all. Inspector Rennie noted that the relevant local plan policy did allow for reduced contributions justified on viability grounds, and that it did not set a minimum acceptable level in those cases. Acknowledging the “substantial affordable housing need” in Luton, Rennie noted that “£300,000 is not a substantial amount to provide affordable housing”. But, he ruled, that contribution “remained better than the alternative, which is for there to be no development of this site, with no new housing

or contribution towards aﬀordable housing”. Dismissing the scheme would go against the government’s objective to “signiﬁcantly boost the supply of homes”, he said, while allowing it would “provide 227 apartments in a sustainable part of Luton”.

I M AG E S | A L A M Y / I STO C K / S H U T T E RSTO C K

LOCATION: Edinburgh

LOCATION: Luton AUTHORITY: Luton Borough Council INSPECTOR: S Rennie PROCEDURE: Hearing DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ B0230/W/19/3235438

T H E PL AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

36-39 CandD_March 2020_The Planner 38

12/02/2020 10:05

DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE SUB to our appeals digest:

https://subs.theplanner. https:/ //subs.theplanner. co.uk/ /register co.uk/register

quate Dolphin spotting measures deemed inadequate ot be An historic ruined bothy on the Moray coast cannot converted into a hub for eight eco-friendly holiday huts, uts, a reporter has ruled, because plans to desalinate water er for use by guests would disrupt the area’s bottlenose dolphin lphin population. bit.ly/planner0320-Dolphin lphin

es to Jenrick allows 850 homes eficit address ‘serious’ defi

Jenrick allows 1,350 homes on lan land not allocated for tall buildings

Approving 850 homes in Gloucestershire would not undermine the council’s plan-led approach to delivering homes, the housing secretary has ruled, citing the fact that issues that prevented the site from being allocated had since been resolved. bit.ly/planner0320Gloucestershire

The housing secretary has approved a developer’s plans to build residential blocks of up to 11 storeys on a Barnet business park not allocated for tall buildings, citing the council’s housing supply shortfall. bit.ly/planner0320-Barnet

Private hospital ‘not an employment use’ despite 150 new jobs

Unauthorised pub demolition retrospectively approved

Plans to convert former council oﬃces in Rhyl into a 61-bed private mental hospital have been rejected after an inspector ruled that the scheme’s “primary aim” would be to provide medical care, not “generate jobs and wealth”. bit.ly/planner0320-Rhyl

An inspector has granted retrospective consent to replace a pub with ﬂats after the appellant demolished it without permission, despite acknowledging the harm its loss had caused to the community. bit.ly/planner0320-Pub

CCTV mast ‘intrusive’ to neighbour’s swimming pool

Housing to fund preservatio ervation of listed mansion ervatio preservation rrey County Council to convert a Plans submitted by Surrey listed mansion into ﬂatss and build houses in its grounds can go ahead, an inspector has ruled, after she was persuaded d that the scheme would fund d the restoration of the historic building. bit.ly// planner0320-Mansion p

An inspector has upheld enforcement action against a homeowner who installed a 20ft CCTV mast in his rear garden that overlooked his neighbour’s outdoor swimming pool and bedroom balcony, calling it “intrusive and harmful”. bit.ly/planner0320-CCTV

Biosecurity concerns do not justify AONB livestock quarantine

Demolished and rebuilt pub can be converted

RC AP EM PE EN AL T S

UR IS LE

NE SI BU

UN MM

Y IT

L LE

GA CO

RO VI EN

GR MO DE

E NC NA FI

DE PE VE RM LO IT PM TE EN D T

E SC ND LA

WE HEA LL LT BE H & IN G

FA S

G IN

GE HE

GN SI DE

LT BE N EE GR

A historic pub in Battersea that was illegally demolished in 2015 and rebuilt three years later can be converted to use class D2, an inspector has ruled, after he was satisﬁed that it would still contribute social value to the community. bit.ly/planner0320-Battersea

An inspector has rejected plans for an isolation building for sick animals at a farm in rural Yorkshire despite the appellant's argument that it was “essential for improving biosecurity”, citing harm to the Nidderdale AONB. bit.ly/planner0320-Nidderdale

MARCH 2020 / THE PLANNER 36-39 CandD_March 2020_The Planner 39

12/02/2020 10:06

LANDSCAPE

LLegal landscape OPINION

Court of Appeal rules on wide injunctions The Court of Appeal has made it clear that local authorities must make more effort to engage with the traveller community rather than obtain wide injunctions to pass on to other areas what they might perceive as a problem, says Howard Leithead In Bromley LBC v Persons Unknown [2020] EWCA Civ 12, Bromley London Borough Council had secured a without notice interim injunction in the High Court which prohibited encampment and entry/ occupation in relation to all accessible public spaces in the borough except cemeteries and highways. However, at the final hearing, the judge decided that it would have been disproportionate to grant an injunction in the terms sought, though did grant a wide injunction in relation to fly-tipping and waste. Bromley council appealed to the Court of Appeal, but its appeal was dismissed. In practical terms, the key part of the judgment is the wider guidance that the Court of Appeal gave as to how local authorities should deal with the pressing issue of unauthorised encampments. The court noted the tension between the rights of the gypsy and traveller community under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the common law of trespass and said that the obvious solution was the provision

and an assessment of the likely impact of the injunction order sought that takes into account their specific needs, vulnerabilities and different lifestyle. It would be good practice to carry out a substantive Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) (so far as of more designated transit the needs of the community sites. can be identified) and The court further welfare assessments of indicated that, while the individual members of the granting of wide injunctions community (particularly should not be ruled out, the children) before carrying out following matters should enforcement action. be considered by local n Special consideration authorities. should be given n When to the timing injunctions “THE GYPSY and manner of orders are sought AND TRAVELLER approaches to against the gypsy COMMUNITY HAVE dealing with and traveller AN ENSHRINED any unlawful community, FREEDOM NOT TO settlement and the evidence HAVE TO STAY IN in relation to the should indicate ONE PLACE” arrangements what alternative for alternative housing or pitches or transit sites housing. are reasonably Finally, the available. Court of Appeal said that n If no alternative housing it must be recognised that or transit site is available, the gypsy and traveller or a proposal for such a community have an site, and no support for the enshrined freedom not to provision of such a site, then have to stay in one place, but that may weigh significantly to move from one place to against the proportionality another. It warned that an of any injunction order. injunction that prevents the n It is not sufficient to say community from stopping that the gypsy and traveller at all in a defined part of community can stop the UK would be a potential elsewhere, or occupy private breach of the ECHR and the land, particularly where Equality Act 2010. nearby authorities are taking Such an injunction, the similar action. court advised, should only n There should be proper be sought after a local engagement with the gypsy authority has considered the and traveller community

points above and reached the considered view that there was no solution to the particular problems that have arisen, or that the problems were imminent. The guidance of the Court of Appeal is helpful. It is plain that it will now be much harder to obtain wide injunctions against the gypsy and traveller community. Local authorities will need to engage more fully with the community to seek to ﬁnd a solution that protects their rights. The court has indicated that this solution is the provision of more transit sites. There may still be situations where wide injunctions will be granted. However, these should only be applied for as a last resort or where an urgent response to particular problems that have arisen or which are imminent is required. Howard Leithead is a specialist in planning and environmental Law at No5 Chambers

In brief When seeking an injunctions order, indicate what alternative housing or transit sites are available If no suitable site is available this may weigh significantly against the proportionality of any injunction order The community’s specific needs must be taken into account using an EIA

T H E P L AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

40 legal_March 2020_The Planner 40

12/02/2020 10:11

EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS Visual impact not an obligatory factor when assessing green belt openness The Supreme Court has ruled that openness does not “imply freedom from all forms of potential development”. The judgment relates to a case involving Darrington Quarries Limited, which was seeking to expand its magnesium limestone extraction operations at its Jackdaw Crag Quarry site, on green belt land near Tadcaster in Yorkshire. Planning permission for the extension, originally granted by North Yorkshire County Council, was then the subject of a judicial review mounted by local landowner Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster). The Court of Appeal quashed the permission in March 2018. It disagreed with an earlier High Court ruling that found the planning officer “was not required to take into account visual impact from the development”. The officer was at fault, the Court of Appeal found, for not clarifying that the then-paragraph 90 of the NPPF – now paragraph 146 in the NPPF’s 2019 revision – showed visual impact as potentially relevant. The Supreme Court, though, found that “on a proper reading of the NPPF in its proper historic context, visual quality of landscape is not in itself an essential part of openness for which the green belt is protected”. Speaking on behalf of all five justices, Lord Carnwarth said that the relatively limited visual impact “fell far short of being so obviously material that failure to address it expressly was an error of law, as did the fact that the proposed development was an extension to the quarry. Openness is not necessarily a statement about the visual qualities of the land, nor does it imply freedom from all forms of development”. Fergus Charlton, legal director at law firm TLT, commented: “The Supreme Court has given applicants and decision-makers guidance on how to approach the assessment of harm to green belt openness. By ruling that openness is not necessarily a statement about the visual qualities of the land and ruling that protecting openness does not imply freedom from all forms of development, the court has confirmed that ‘not inappropriate’ development can proceed, reversing what was a worrying direction of travel."

Challenge to SoS’s approval of gas power station Environmental law charity ClientEarth is taking the UK Government to the High Court following the energy secretary’s approval of plans to modify coal-fired generating units to gas-powered ones at Drax Power Station, Selby. An inspector recommended that Andrea Leadsom should refuse consent for the scheme owing to its “failure to deliver carbon-reduction objectives”, but last October she went against this advice. Drax Power Limited said the project, considered under the NSIP regime, would enable Drax to deliver “more reliable and flexible, high-efficiency” electricity generation and help the UK to transition to net zero-carbon emissions by 2050. ClientEarth said Leadsom’s decision “undermines the UK’s path to reducing carbon emissions and building a more sustainable energy sector”. The environmental law charity highlights that the Climate Change Committee, the government’s climate adviser, has warned there should be no more gas on the UK grid by the mid-2030s without carbon capture and storage. According to the government’s latest forecasts, the UK will need just 6 gigawatts (GW) of new gas generation to 2035 and, ClientEarth explained, it has already approved 15GW worth of large-scale gas plants. The approval of Drax Power’s application takes total planned gas capacity to 18GW, which is three times the government’s estimates, said the charity. ClientEarth’s climate lawyer Sam Hunter Jones said: “The secretary of state has ignored the recommendations of her own planning authority, and her decision is at odds with the government’s own climate change plans to decarbonise in a cost-effective manner.” Scientists have been “ringing the alarm bells for decades”, she said. “We shouldn’t need to take the government to court over its decision to allow what would be Europe’s biggest gas plant.”

LEGAL BRIEFS Development Management: Law and Practice This conference, on Thursday 14th May in York, will include presentations by leading planners and planning lawyers on development management. bit.ly/planner0320-DevManConf

Implementing the Planning (Scotland) Act This new masterclass, to be held on Wednesday 29th April at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, will walk attendees through the practical implications of the new legislation as it evolves. bit.ly/planner0320-PlanActScotland

Hillingdon loses HS2 challenge The London Borough of Hillingdon has lost a judicial review challenge relating to a decision by government ministers to allow HS2’s appeal over the creation of an ecological mitigation area in the Colne Valley regional park, Local Government Lawyer reports. bit.ly/planner0320-HillingdonHS2

£160K ﬁne for scheduled monument damage Three people found responsible for causing serious damage to a scheduled monument in the deserted medieval village of Withybrook, Warwickshire, have been ordered to pay a total of £160,000, Local Government Lawyer reports. bit.ly/planner0320-MonumentFine

£45m Armagh college campus ‘threat to otters’ Otter activity at a Co Armagh lake could be harmed by building a new £45 million college campus on its shoreline, the High Court was told. says the Belfast Telegraph. bit.ly/planner0320-OtterThreat

Short-term lets (not?) Gordon Clark considers the Scottish government’s attempts to balance the interests of visitors and local communities in dealing with the rise of Airbnb. bit.ly/planner0320-ShortTermLets

What price ‘localism’ now? Martin Goodall considers the latest developments around the controversial South Oxfordshire Local Plan. bit.ly/planner0320-LocalismNow

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 41 LEGAL_March 2020_The Planner 41

12/02/2020 10:11

LANDSCAPE

LLegal landscape OPINION

Could inspectors act on duty to cooperate? Sevenoaks, Wealden, and St Albans are just three planning authorities whose local plans have foundered because they failed in their duty to cooperate. Perhaps inspectors could exercise some control over how authorities comply with the DTC, says Wayne Beglan We live in a plan-led system. The development plan should be the starting point for every planning application. But recently an increasing number of local planning authorities have been experiencing diﬃculty in getting their local plans adopted because of duty to cooperate (DTC) failures. Recent examples include Sevenoaks, Wealden, and potentially St Albans for a second time. Because local plans can no longer consider ‘omission sites’ directly, those promoting them will often be tactically incentivised to derail a plan by seeking to demonstrate DTC failures with a view either to seeking inclusion of their site in a future variant of the local plan or submitting a planning application or appeal free of policies in the emerging plan which run contrary to their proposed development. The issue arises because, unlike other kinds of defects or deﬁciencies in local plans, the DTC issue is binary: it is ‘pass or fail’. Failure by an inch is as good (or as bad) as failure by a mile. Failure means withdrawing the plan and starting again; and, accordingly, much more often than not, a vacuum in

plans, no one could doubt the importance of requiring authorities to cooperate on issues of cross-boundary strategic significance such as meeting housing need, providing sufficient infrastructure, and promoting the most appropriate spatial strategies. The increasing local plan provision which number of joint plans under runs entirely contrary to consideration is testament the central theme of our to that. domestic planning process. But is a binary test the It therefore represents a best way of achieving good target for omission site necessary cooperation? objectors. It is often those Examining inspectors have areas where emerging plans proved themselves flexible are most contentious, and and inventive in therefore where providing main the need for an “GOVERNMENT modifications to adopted up-toHAS TRIED resolve a host of date local plan TO MAKE issues in planis at its highest, COMPLIANCE making. Where where DTC EASIER BY they consider arguments come RELAXING THE spatial strategies to the fore. DTC GUIDANCE” are not sound, Compliance or adequate with the DTC provision is not is tested as being made, at the date of then further submission of the sustainability appraisals and plan, so there is currently no evidence studies to make up prospect of later steps taken those gaps (or to explain why during the examination that cannot soundly be done) process curing a failure. can be produced within the Also, whether an authority examination process. There has complied is a matter is no reason in principle or of planning judgment for logic why inspectors should the inspector, whose views not now be given a measure may vary. Such decisions of control over how the are, therefore, difficult to DTC should be complied challenge in the High Court with in cases where they as the cases on DTC show. have identified failures. In The government has tried substance, when plans fail to make compliance easier for DTC reasons, the relevant by relaxing the DTC guidance authority will normally be in the PPG. Yet still multiple required to conduct further authorities fail. In the DTC work to overcome the absence of abolished regional

identiﬁed failures in any event. The question, therefore, is whether that can better take place within the examination process or not (either by suspension or by specially arranged hearing sessions with DTC partners around the examination table). Such a judgement could be made by an inspector taking into account the wishes of the authority. If the DTC has been missed by an inch, an inspector may wish to adopt that approach, as may the authority. If it has been missed by a mile, then either the inspector or the authority may decide it is better for the authority to regroup and start again. In either event, such a power is likely to lead to far more plans being adopted within the reasonable time frames the government wishes to see. The primary legislation should be amended accordingly. Wayne Beglan of Cornerstone Barristers specialises in judicial review, planning, regeneration and housing

In brief Unlike other deficiencies in local plans, the DTC issue is binary: it is ‘pass or fail’ Examining inspectors have proved flexible and inventive in providing main modifications to resolve plan-making issues Were inspectors given this power, more plans could be adopted within reasonable time frames

T H E P L AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

42 LEGAL 2_March 2020_The Planner 42

12/02/2020 10:11

APPROVED

Access all the planning data you need instantly in one place To find out more Search for “LandEnhance”

WANT BETTER OUTCOMES FROM PUBLIC CONSULTATION? WE CAN HELP. Participatr’s interactive tools help you reach a younger, more diverse audience with public consultation, bringing balance to the planning debate, building transparency and trust in the process and saving precious time and money. To find out more about how we are transforming the quality, value and outcomes of community engagement on built environment projects, visit:

PARTICIPATR.CO.UK Alternatively, give us a call on 0117 3182114 or send an email to hello@participatr.co.uk.

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER p43_PLN.MAR20.indd 43

06/02/2020 15:41

NEWS RTPI news pages are edited by Will Finch at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

Climate action takes centre stage at corporate strategy launch Sue Bridge launches the RTPI’s Corporate Strategy 2020-30 at the Royal Society of Arts in London

Number of ‘pillars’ in the RTPI’s new Corporate Strategy: The value of membership; Supporting planning services; Raising the profile of planning; Equality, diversity and inclusivity

The RTPI’s corporate strategy for 2020-30 has been formally launched by the chair of the Board of Trustees. Speaking at a meeting of the Institute’s General Assembly, Sue Bridge FRTPI said that the new strategy would help support a sustainable and growing profession that is well resourced and respected. Driven by a desire to promote healthy, socially inclusive, economically and environmentally sustainable places, the strategy features four ‘pillars’, all of which are underpinned by the urgent need to address the climate crisis. With urgency around the climate crisis at the forefront of everyone’s minds, the new strategy outlines how planners can take the lead on delivering climate action by building upon their existing approach to sustainable development. RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills said: “The RTPI believes that, on the global stage, planning shares many of the same objectives as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As a professional body, we have an incredible opportunity to have a positive inﬂuence on outcomes and build a sustainable world. “There should be no doubt that the role of planning is pivotal in achieving global sustainable development and planners sit at the vanguard of the solution to the climate crisis. The response in our new strategy is holistic - actions sit across all pillars of this bold and ambitious plan.” n View the strategy in full at bit.ly/planner0320-2020-2030

T H E P L AN N E R \ MA R C H 2 0 2 0

44-47 RTPI_March 2020_The Planner 44

RAISING THE PROFILE OF THE INSTITUTE

Chief Executive Victoria Hills recently appeared on BBC1’s Breakfast, BBC News and Radio 5 Live responding to a new report by the National Audit Oﬃce on the escalating costs of HS2. Victoria said: “I’m delighted that our work

to raise the proﬁle of the Institute is paying dividends – as one of the key pillars of the RTPI’s new corporate strategy we will continue to work to raise the proﬁle of the Institute through the media.”

I M AG E S | RT P I

12/02/2020 10:12

Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no. 262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

M Y V I E W O N … P L A N N I N G A N D C L I M AT E A D A P TAT I O N During a visit to Melbourne, Young Planner of the Year 2018 Heather Claridge learned how planning tactics can deliver a greener city In central Melbourne, public spaces, streets, lanes and buildings have been transformed through retrofitting living walls, green roofs, street trees, open spaces and rain gardens. With temperatures reaching up to 7 degrees Celsius higher than the rest of the city, the central area has had to plant up its hard surfaces to directly address the ‘urban heat island effect’ and in turn help city livability. Many long-term targets have also been set to further integrate grey and green infrastructure. For example, the goal is to double the tree canopy by 2040 and a ‘street by street’ approach to planting is being taken. The Urban Forester at the City of Melbourne highlighted that, sadly, many of Melbourne’s indigenous species are not well suited to the city’s changing climate and as such the authority has been working with local universities to identify appropriate trees for future conditions. The redevelopment of Melbourne’s network of laneways for street art, cultural and café uses is well known, but I was intrigued to discover more about the role of the laneways in climate adaptation. Four lanes in the city were recently selected for climate-conscious interventions – I visited Meyers Place and Guildford Lane and saw firsthand their impressive transformation through the introduction of features such as a living wall, street trees, community-managed planters and an eco-mural. n Heather Claridge MRTPI is Principal Design Officer at Architecture and Design Scotland. She was visiting Melbourne thanks to a £1,000 grant from the Julie Cowans Trust. Twitter: @hmc474

POSITION POINTS

INFRASTRUCTURE IN SCOTLAND IRENE BEAUTYMAN, RTPI SCOTLAND CONVENOR We very much welcome the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland’s call on Scottish Government to introduce a coordinated and appropriately resourced ‘infrastructure-ﬁrst’ approach to the planning system. An important ﬁrst step on this will be to ensure that the National Planning Framework is accompanied by a costed capital investment programme to ensure we have a deliverable road map to a zero-carbon economy. We also welcome the commission’s proposal to establish a body to provide independent, long-term, evidence-based advice to Scottish ministers on investment decisions. We have been highlighting for some time that decisions on infrastructure investment need to think beyond the ‘here and now’ given the long-lasting impact that they can have. We therefore support the establishment of this new body, along with the proposal to reprioritise the assessment criteria for funding infrastructure to ensure that zero carbon is at its heart. Read RTPI Scotland’s response to the commission at bit.ly/planner0320-ScotlandCall

THE FUTURE OF NORTHERN IRELAND ROISIN WILLMOTT, DIRECTOR OF RTPI NORTHERN IRELAND We welcome the recent formation of a new power-sharing government at Stormont – planning will have a central role to play in achieving the assembly’s goals of transforming health services, investing for the future, ﬁghting climate change and delivering a fair and compassionate society. In Planning for the Future of Northern Ireland, RTPI NI has asked the assembly to increase conﬁdence in the planning system; to ensure the provision of a quality home for everyone in Northern Ireland that needs one; to coordinate policy by focusing on people and places; to integrate infrastructure, development and environment; and to promote a growing, sustainable economy Planning deserves more political support – only then will planners in both the public and private sectors, as well as politicians, local communities and investors, be able to deliver a sustainable, competitive and healthy Northern Ireland. Download Planning for the Future of Northern Ireland at bit.ly/planner0320-NIFuture

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 44-47 RTPI_March 2020_The Planner 45

12/02/2020 10:12

NEWS

RTPI N E W S

Planning profession ‘must become more diverse’ New RTPI President Sue Manns FRTPI promotion of equality, diversity has used her inaugural speech to and inclusivity. Work on an Action stress that work must continue on Plan, which will set out how we can ensuring that planning becomes truly move forward on this, is now nearing reﬂective of society. completion.” Speaking at the Royal Society of Sue takes over as President from the Arts in London, Sue said that the Ian Tant MRTPI and will serve in the planning profession still had “a role for one year. long way to go” in terms of Born and raised in the diversity, particularly in West Midlands, Sue’s senior positions. career in planning has She said: “Talent spanned 40 years is everywhere, including roles in opportunity is not. the public and With complex private sectors, issues, such as academia and as those tackled National Planner by planners, it is for Planning Aid simply not possible England. She now for one person or a runs her own practice group of people from and is a visiting lecturer at similar backgrounds to have Birmingham University. Sue Manns all the relevant insights. is the RTPI’s seventh female “The RTPI’s new Corporate n To watch Sue’s speech president in Strategy for 2020-30 contains, in full, visit its 106-year as one of its four pillars, the bit.ly/planner0320-Manns history

IMAGE OF THE MONTH New RTPI President Sue Manns and Chief Executive Victoria Hills joined members of the Trailblazer Employer Group, including chairs Hannah Blunstone (ﬁfth from left) and Philip Ridley (fourth from left), to celebrate the success of the new Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship. 190 young planners have now taken up apprenticeships at RTPIaccredited planning schools around the country.

T H E PL AN N E R \ M A R C H 2 0 2 0

44-47 RTPI_March 2020_The Planner 46

CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINE PANEL DECISIONS

The RTPI Conduct and Discipline Panel has found five members of the Institute to be in breach of the RTPI Code of Professional Conduct at its November panel meeting. The panel found Mr John Mumby of Iceni Projects to have seriously breached the code and has suspended his membership for six months. Mr Mumby failed to submit planning applications as he had been appointed to, and lied to his clients, providing fabricated reasons for a lack of progress. Mr Mumby also failed to assist the Institute in its investigation. The panel found that he had not acted with honesty and integrity or discharged his duty to his clients with due care and diligence. He therefore had breached clauses 4, 14, 23 and 27 of the code. The panel also found Mr Matthew Hilton of HHL Scotland Ltd to have breached the code by not taking sufficient care to properly pursue work that had been commissioned by his client and for citing reasons for the delay that were not fully true. He was reprimanded for his actions. Within the remaining complaints where a breach was found the panel agreed that the members should not be named in the published report of the decisions. • A managing director of a planning consultancy failed to properly oversee work carried out by staff or address issues within a complaint to the company. He also failed to assist the Institute in its investigation. The member was reprimanded. • A consultant member was found to have plagiarised someone else’s work within a planning statement submitted with a planning application. The member failed to take due care to ensure that he had the consent of the author. The member was warned as to his future conduct. • A licentiate member was found to have plagiarised within his APC submission. He had copied large sections from a colleague’s submission. The member was reprimanded for his actions and the panel recommended to the membership team that a new APC submission should not be considered for a full year from the date of the decision. Members with queries concerning the code should email ruth.richards@rtpi.org.uk

I M AG E S | RT P I

12/02/2020 13:07

G PLANNIN AHEAD MEMBER NEWS

Key dates for 2020

NEW MEMBERS Congratulations to the following planners who were recently elected to Chartered Membership of the RTPI.

Finalists at this year’s RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence have now been announced. Join us at the Barbican in central London on 30 APR April to ﬁnd out the winners across a range of categories, plus the winner of the coveted Silver Jubilee Cup, awarded to the project judged best overall.

East of England Hannah Albans Rory Baker Max Cartwright Ganesh Gnanamoorthy Paul Haggis Ryan Nicholls Mathew Wilde Claire Williams Andrew Winter

n For a complete list of ﬁnalists and to get your ticket, visit www.rtpi.org.uk/excellence

South East Edward Allsop Lucy Anderson Lucie Beckett Stella New Katriona Ormiston-Rees Colette Portway Susie Ralston Jane Thatcher

The Minerals Planning Conference, held in partnership with the Mineral Products Association, will be in London this year. Bringing together all the key MAY stakeholders to explore how eﬀective minerals planning underpins local and regional aspirations for housing, jobs and infrastructure, this is a must-attend event for anyone with minerals planning in their remit.

n To book, visit: www.rtpi.org.uk/mpc Tickets are available now for The Planner Live, the RTPI’s relaunched annual planning convention. Conﬁrmed speakers include Joel Albizo JUN (American Planning Association), Deryck Irving (Central Scotland Green Network Trust), Daisy Narayanan (Sustrans) and Mark Farmer (Cast Consultancy).

29 30

n For a list of conﬁrmed speakers and to get your ticket, visit www.rtpi.org.uk/plannerlive Now in their sixth year, the RTPI Awards for Research Excellence continue to recognise and promote highquality, impactful spatial planning research. SEP The year’s winners will be announced on 7 September at a ceremony during the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference hosted by the Bartlett School of Planning at UCL, London.

n Submissions open on 16 March. For more details visit www.rtpi.org.uk/researchawards

London Rebecca Anderson Samuel Aviss Rachel Caplin Martha Clark Katia Clarke Hannah Cox Sarah Dilley Emily Disken Jessica Ferguson Kurt Gagen Catherine Holton Paige Ireland Nadine James Iyabo Johnson Isabelle Joyce Joseph Lowes Raveen Matharu Laurel Nyberg Benjamin Posford Charles Reynolds Isabel Scruby Eleanor Selby Rebecca Sladen Thomas Wilson Charles Winch North West Anna Blackwell Jennifer Chatﬁeld David Cliﬀord Andrew Corrin Thomas Ellis Alice Henderson

Sophie Long Laura Miller Eleanor Moroney Sarah Myers Ian Pennington East Midlands Sophie Hughes Tara Kemmitt Amelia Mistry Alexander Prowse West Midlands Bethany Carr Joseph Cramphorn Tamsin McSmith Rachel Mengham Joanne Moran Elisabeth Pywell Samuel Rogers William Whitelock South West Alena Dollimore Jasanova Owen Hoare Lara Peter Janine Warne North East Elizabeth McCarroll Laura McDermott Yorkshire Katie Purdam Emma Ridley Sean Smith Wales/Cymru George Edwards Christopher Hartley Abigail Molyneux West of Scotland John Cooney South East Scotland Craig Gunderson Steven McLaren Grampian John Todd Northern Ireland Katherine Hegarty

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 44-47 RTPI_March 2020_The Planner 47

12/02/2020 10:14

If a job role’s worth filling… Don’t just take our word for it - here’s what our customers are saying about Planner Jobs, the oﬃcial planning recruitment service of the RTPI “We got a good number of applications for the planning of·cer posts and, having a brief look through the submissions, the candidates are from various necks of the woods. Placing the advert with you has certainlyy helped us to reach a wider audience.” MAY 2018 – MATTHEW PARRY DAVIES, DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT MANAGER, WIRRAL COUNCIL

“I have to say that the calibre of planners we have had apply through The Planner has really improved over the last three months.”

“I’m pleased to say we were able to appoint to this role (senior planner) and had a good calibre of applications. an Many of them, including the successful Ma candidate, were from yourselves, so ca thank you.” th AU AUGUST 2018 – ALEXANDRA KELLY, RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT, KINGSTON BOROUGH COUNCIL CO

JULY 2018 – CJ OBI, UK HEAD, TOWN PLANNING AND REAL ESTATE, OSBORNE RICHARDSON

“I am pleased to say that following our advertisement with The Plannerr we have successfully recruited high calibre candidates to each of the three vacant posts. There was also signi·cant response to the advertisement from which we were able to shortlist suitable candidates. This is due in no small way to the quality of the advertisement itself and its circulation. I would like to place on record my thanks for your support and assistance, and the professional manner in which dealt with our requests.” OCTOBER 2018 ALAN N COLEMAN, HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING & ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL

“As a start up practice, we had a very limited budget to recruit new graduate level planners. We also wanted to make sure that our job advert was exposed to the greatest amount of RTPI members. After shopping we decided that The Planner offered us the best possible value and reach among the planning community. As a result we were inundated with applications, and have been able to select some very high calibre candidates.” OCTOBER 2018 – TOM VENABLES, PLANNING DIRECTOR, PRIOR + PARTNERS

“We have had really positive results with the adverts we have placed in The Planner. Our two new principals started with us this week, and we have had a series of interviews off the back of the advert.” JULY 2018 KEVIN JAMES, SUPPORT TEAM MANAGER, AYLESBURY VALE DISTRICT COUNCIL

“The Planner worked fantastically well for our client’s senior planner role and massively exceeded expected applications! We would heartily recommend them to any client or business for their planning roles.” NOVEMBER 2018 – DEAN TRANTER, ACCOUNT MANAGER, JUPITER ADVERTISING

Make sure your job role is seen by the largest possible audience of planners:ś ¥ ¥ś£ £¦ ¥ ¥¤ ¤·¥ ¡ £Ŝ Ŝ¦ £ś śȃȆȃśȋȌȌȃśȊȆȇȆ Find the right candidates for your planning roles by visiting:

lll#i]ZeaVccZg#Xd#j`$_dW p48-49_PLNFEB20.indd 48

12/02/2020 09:52

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENTS

Recruitment {

To advertise please email: theplannerjobs@redactive.co.uk or call 020 7880 6232

Team leader & Of·cer roles available

Salary: Competetive Salary Location: East Sussex

Planning Policy Of·cer

Salary: Grade G (£31,371 £34,788 per annum) Location: Tewkesbury

Principal Infrastructure Programme Of·cer Salary: £44,373 £49,203 Location: Tower Hamlets

Senior Planner (Policy) and Lead Planning Policy Of·cer Salary: Competitive Salary Location: Merseyside

p48-49_PLNFEB20.indd 49

Senior Planning Of·cers

£32,029 to £35,934 per annum (dependant on experience) Location: Norfolk

Town Planner

Salary: Competitive Salary Location: Stratford, London

theplanner.co.uk/jobs 12/02/2020 09:52

ADVERTISER CONTENT

Making moves

The award-winning Stromness Primary School, part of a £58 million schools investment programme

Why Orkney is a great place to be a planner in 2020 Perched 10 miles beyond the northern edge of the British mainland, Orkney is the best place to live in the UK according to the 2019 Halifax Quality of Life Survey. The islands are famed for their spectacular landscapes and archaeological treasures. But what sealed the top spot is the quality of life enjoyed by Orcadians: our 20 inhabited islands have a thriving, diverse community with high employment levels, low crime rates, excellent educational and recreational facilities, and good health and happiness scores. Orkney also has a strong cultural life built on thousands of years of history. Some 5,000 years ago, the prehistoric people of the Orkney Islands began building extraordinary monuments out of stone. There was a flourishing culture on the islands recognised in Orkney’s worldfamous Neolithic structures – Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar achieving UNESCO World Heritage status. Such enterprise and resourcefulness continues today as the archipelago leads the UK’s drive toward a low-carbon renewable future. We’re home to the world-leading European Marine Energy Centre, as well as a growing centre of excellence based at the Orkney Research and Innovation Campus. Having pioneered the generation of hydrogen from tidal power, plans are under way to use hydrogen for a new generation of ferries serving the islands. Though the smallest local authority in Scotland, serving a population of just 22,000, Orkney Islands Council endeavours to ensure its citizens have access to high-quality services – including planning. Orkney’s is a leading planning service, recognised through multiple awards in recent years. In 2017, we were the overall winner of the Scottish Award for Quality in Planning ; in 2018, we won the RTPI’s Silver Jubilee Cup for the regeneration of the historic coastal town of Stromness.

Scapa, one of Orkney's most popular beaches, is spectacular at sunset

Tourists at the entrance to St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall

Work with us Why work here – aside from being part of an award-winning team in a wonderful environment? This is an exciting time for the planning profession in Scotland, with implementation of the 2019 Planning Act expected to transform practice in planning over the next two years, not to mention the forthcoming fourth National Planning Framework. In addition, as a small planning team all staﬀ members get exposure to a broad range of planning issues which are critical to the development of the county. This provides staﬀ with a wider breadth of work experience than most local authorities can provide. Not only is the Planning Service involved in terrestrial planning, it has now taken on

“Orkney’s is a leading planning service, recognised through multiple awards in recent years” duties associated with marine planning, providing an additional opportunity for the service to develop its expertise. With good transport links to the Scottish mainland – daily ferry sailings to the mainland and daily flights to the main Scottish cities with subsidised fares for island residents – Orkney is a lot closer and more accessible than you think. Make the move!

Find out more bit.ly/planner0320-Orkney bit.ly/planner0320-MapsOrkney The Orkney planning service bit.ly/planner0320-PlanningService

T H E PL AN N E R \ N O V E MB E R 2 0 1 6

50 orkney_March 2020_The Planner 50

12/02/2020 10:14

LANDSCAPE

ABOUT

YOU

“It’s time for citizens to take back urban planning” In this TED talk, New Zealand planner Nick Williamson documents his “transformative experiment” in working with the public and using rapid iteration to experiment with the design of their city. The result, he says, was “more than he could have imagined”. An interesting project and perspective. bit.ly/planner0320-Wiliamson

3.11 %

2.56 %

0.73 %

0.91 %

£90,000 £100,000-

2019/20

£100,000 plus

3.47 %

1.46 %

4.57 %

s Survey

Prefer not to say

r Career

£80,000 £90,000-

15.9 0%

14.0 8%

The Planne

£55,000 £60,000-

WELLBEING. OPPORTUNITIES. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, TECH

£60,000 £70,000-

2019/20

£70,000 £80,000-

WHAT WE'RE OFFERING...

s Survey

up to £20,925

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING 1...

r Career

7.13 %

Third (eg, profess a

Academ ia 1.5%

Other 2%

The Planne

6.76 %

Public (eg, local or govern central ment) 63% Private (eg, a privately-own plannin g consul ed or a houseb tancy uilder) 30% body, charityional or enterpr ise) 2.5%social

3.29 %

65 5+ 0.73% 3%

11.45%

£50,000 £55,000-

55-64

5.85 %

21.09%

12.2 5%

45-54

>> WH AT SEC YOU WO TO RK IN? R DO

£35,000 £40,000-

£40,000 £45,000-

3 35 5--44 4 44 34.18 4

28.36%

£45,000 £50,000-

25-34

17.9 2%

4.18%

Money

When we found that asked about salar ies, we the earni roughly correlated ngs curve very - ie, it had to the age a bulge curve fact, 60 per cent in the middle. In earned of our respo a ‘midd >> HO ndents le’ incom £25-45,000 e of YOUR W HAPPY AR per annu great m, with er porti SALAR E YOU on of the 40,000 Y PROGR WI bracket. these in the £30ESSIONTH It’s fair to say, then, ? is a midd that plann le incom ing for most e profe ssion of However, its practition ers. a fairly cent of sizeable responden 28 per £45,000, ts earne d above putting in a highe them r tax brack squarely nearly et. Very one in 20 respo earning ndents £80,0 were When we 00 a year or more. and wom compared men’ en’s salar s that 30 ies, we per found responded cent of wom en who earned or less, compared £30,000 a year cent of men. Men to just 15 per I believe than wom earned I should I’m paid what more be 54% en other salar across almo I think I’m st all underp for my being the y bands - the position/ aid responsibility exceptions £35-40,00 46% 80,000 0 and £70brackets. responden Very few range, howets were in this of our latter ver, so draw a conclusio it is not safe to n from Almost >> WH the half of planners finding. expressed (46%) YOUR AT IS salary progrdissatisfaction CU with RRENT more essio their SALAR again (48% n; and slightly the state ) disagreed ANNU Y PER ment that with M? how my salary is ‘I’m happy with relation deve to my work loping in ’.

£30,000 £35,000-

Under 25

WELLBE A T W O R IN G K

£20,925 £25,000-

The best and most interesting reads, websites, ﬁlms and events that we’ve encountered this month

AT WORK

Our 550 survey responden came from ts every regio the UK n in and a few from Ireland, as well as further We had an almo overseas. st split of men and exact 50:50 women replying to with one our questions, non-binary responden more balant – somewhat membersh ced than the RTPI ip overa men to women), ll (59:41 though reflecting the make entrants to the profeup of new Around ssion. two-thirds responden of developmets worked in eithe nt mana r control gement (34% or policy (21% ), local plann ing (12%). This ) or housing reflected overall the weigh responden ting of surve y membersh ts – and the RTPI public sectoip – towards the one-third r. The remaining of respo worked ndents across a range planning disciplines, of transport from to infrastructu urban design and re. While profe ssion diverse, our respo ally were not ndents ethnically cent descr so: ibed them 93 per as white selves ; and just cent as 1.64 per Mixed/Mu per cent ltiple, 1.28 as Caribbean Black/African/ /Black British 0.90 per and cent as Asian British. These propo /Asian are signifi rtion cantly lower s you woul than d find in Ireland the UK population and as a whol e.

£25,000 £30,000-

THE MONTH IN PLANNING

WELLBEING

>> HO ARE YOW OLD U?

ABOUT YOU

The Planner Careers Survey 2019/20 /20 Last month we reported on the headline results from our annual survey of RTPI members. We wanted to ﬁnd out about how you felt about your career in terms of wellbeing at work, training and development and the likely impact of technology on the work you do as we enter the 2020s. This document comprises the full survey detail. bit.ly/planner0320-CareersSurvey

WHERE WE'RE GOING... Each month the RTPI runs a range of free or low-cost events up and down the UK. Here’s our pick for the next few weeks. See the full calendar here: bit.ly/planner0320-calendar

WHAT WE'RE READING... Design with Nature Now This book includes essays on 25 projects about biodiversity loss, rising sea-levels, water pollution. air pollution and urbanisation. Its release coincides with the 50th anniversary of landscape architect Ian McHarg’s manifesto Design with Nature. Published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, the book oﬀers analysis from leaders in the ﬁelds. To order a copy, visit: bit.ly/planner0320DesignNatureNow

Highlands and Islands’ chance to inﬂuence NPF4 10 March, 5-7pm, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Grantown-On-Spey

appropriate homes? This conference aims to review the ‘good, the bad and the ugly’. Sponsored by Ashfords. bit.ly/planner0320-DevManLaw

This free event includes a handson workshop to discuss ideas and solutions for the new national tier of the development plan.

Marine & Coastal Planning 18 March 2020, 10:30am3:30pm, Quay Hotel, Deganwy, Conwy

bit.ly/planner0320-NPF4

2019 saw the ﬁrst Marine Plan adopted for Wales, and 2020 will see a new edition of TAN 15, merging technical advice for ﬂooding and coastal planning. This event will cover all these aspects.

Intervention overload? Development Management and Planning Law update 4 March, 10am-4pm, The Mercure Rougemont, Exeter Do interventions such as permitted development rights result in

WHAT WHA WE’RE PLANNING In A April we talk to Griﬀ Rhys Jones about his role as p president of Civic Voice and the value of civic societies in planning. In the light of the BBBB soci report repo ‘Living with Beauty’ we also examine design desi from the perspective of housing for the elderly. elde As ever, email editorial@theplanner.co.uk to su suggest future feature themes.

bit.ly/planner0320-CoastalWales

The Great Debate: one future, one planet 19 March, 5:30-8pm, Henley Business School, Reading By 2050, the built environment sector needs to reduce its carbon emissions by 84 billion tonnes. Such targets require a radical rethink, not just of how we build and refurbish, but also of how properties are funded, valued, procured and managed. bit.ly/planner0320-OnePlanet

MAR C H 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER 51 MONTH IN_March 2020_The Planner 51

12/02/2020 13:01

If undelivered please return to: The Royal Town Planning Institute 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

Book today rtpi.org.uk/training training@rtpi.org.uk + 44 (0)20 7929 8400 @RTPIPlanners #RTPICPD

60+ courses 11 locations across the UK

Boost your career in 2020 High-quality expert training for planning professionals

p52_PLN.MAR20.indd 52

04/02/2020 17:56