The Planner - July 2014

JULY 2014 RTPI AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED // p.12 • SALAMI SLICING THE SYSTEM // p.16 • POLITICIANS MUST SEIZE ON SPATIAL PLANNING // p.22 • BUILDING NEW COMMUNITIES COST EFFECTIVELY // p.30 • MAKING PLANNERS MEDIA SAVVY // p.40

T H E B U S I N ES S M O N T H LY FO R P L A N N I N G P R O F ES S IO N A LS

PLANNER P

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BIKE MINDED Are Britain’s planners geared up for the cycling revolution?

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CONTENTS

PLANNER P 06 26

THE

J U LY

20 14

NEWS

“WE DIDN’T INVEST IN THE 1960S AND 70S. CYCLING WAS COMPLETELY IGNORED”

6 Housing: where will we all live?

7 TAN22 discarded as Welsh shake up sustainable building policy

8 Osborne to free up brownfield land for housing

OPINION

9 Green light for key Belfast docklands development

16 Chris Shepley: And now for something completely indifferent

10 Policy papers will inform planning’s wider future role

20 Alexandra Jones: Empowered cities for a sustainable recovery

11 Wolfson prize finalists are announced

20 Andrew Matheson: Garden towns are thriving – and still learning 21 Miles Gibson: The keys to the garden

38 QUOTE UNQUOTE

“FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE AND DO IT ON PURPOSE” CITIES MINISTER GREG CLARK, QUOTING DOLLY PARTON

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21 Tessa Coombes: Councillor support is key to winning the planning case

C O V E R I M A G E | PA T R I C K G E O R G E

FEATURES

INSIGHT

12 Pride of planning: the RTPI Awardwinners

34 Decisions in focus: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

22 Politicians must get the message that spatial planning is crucial to society’s future, says David Callaghan

38 Legal landscape: Opinion, blogs, and news from the legal side of planning

26 Are planners geared up for the cycling revolution? asks Simon Wicks 30 Building new communities cost effectively needs smart thinking and strong links between housing and infrastructure, says Nicholas Falk

17

12

40 Career development: Dealing with the media 42 Plan Ahead – our pick of upcoming events for the planning profession and beyond 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: British backwaters: which Hollywood celebrities should put a positive spin on our towns and cities?

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C O N TA C T If you want to reach the valuable audience, please contact: jonathan.stone@redactive.co.uk or call 020 7324 2753

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PLAN UPFRONT

Leaderr Not just actors in the play, but actors taking a lead role – Three pieces of work, all published last month by the RTPI, show the institute moving onto the front foot.

The papers, part of the Planning Horizons series timed to coincide with the RTPI’s centenary year, are as much a call to arms for planners as they are cogent arguments in favour of planning’s role.

The first paper, on spatial planning, was introduced by Dr Michael Harris at the recent RTPI Wales conference.

You’ll read more about it elsewhere in this issue, but, in a nutshell, it’s a strong, powerfully argued document with a clear message – that planning isn’t merely a component in place making, it’s the lead actor in the play. Note the phrase ‘lead actor’ – not just participant. That sounds like fighting talk.

Harris made the case that a lack of spatial thinking

Martin Read in development decisions can ‘destabilise the environment and lead to unbalanced, unsustainable economic growth’. Now that’s fighting talk indeed.

With its second and third papers, The Value Of Planning and Fostering Growth: Understanding And Strengthening The Economic Benefits Of Planning, there’s further talk of planners’ roles as ‘economic actors’.

It’s great to see the RTPI fighting to establish a

higher public profile for the profession, seeking to generate some muchneeded public goodwill following several years of sly remarks and casually tossed barbs from politicians.

Presenting the planning professional as the fall guy in content-light but electorate-friendly quotes such as “we shall prevent the planning system from being a barrier to progress” is ill-considered, unprofessional and unbecoming of whichever office the speaker holds and inadequate.

Because, after all, what is the case? That planners get in the way? That they

"IT’S GREAT TO SEE THE RTPI FIGHTING TO ESTABLISH A HIGHER PUBLIC PROFILE FOR THE PROFESSION, SEEKING TO GENERATE SOME MUCH NEEDED PUBLIC GOODWILL"

obstruct, prevent and curtail? This is what makes a debate around spatial planning so valuable – it brings into focus the very point of the profession.

It puts the case that, in fact, planners make things happen: they co-ordinate, create and counsel.

Arguments to the contrary may be inconvenient to those who make them, but if the profession’s response is “you’re fundamentally wrong - and here’s an inarguable series of reasons why”, then so be it.

There’s a need to continually press home the message that the professional opinion of the planner isn’t some casual afterthought, but rather a considered and crafted response based on precedent, process and practicalities.

After years of seeing planning marginalised and belittled, it’s surely worth applauding the positive narrative behind the RTPI’s new papers. Will they make a difference? We’ll see.

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NEWS

Analysis { HO U SI NG

Housing: where will we all live?

By Simon Wicks

I

t’s a given that we need more houses to cope with increasing demand and to take the heat out of an overhyped property market. But simply saying that we need more houses is a far cry from working out how best to deliver them. Most experts estimate that we need about 200,000 new houses a year in the UK until 2030. So why are we in this state and how do we provide the housing we need?

More than 400,000 houses were built in the postwar boom year of 1948, BBC home affairs editor Mark Easton told the audience at the recording of Radio 4’s Where Will We All Live? debate at the London School of Economics. House building continued at a high level throughout the 1950s and 60s.

In 2013, there were just 135,000 homes built.

The panellists agreed that we have simply built far too few houses over the past 25-30 years. But they could not agree on how we should fix the problem.

Rachel Fisher, head of policy at the National Housing Federation, said: “In 2010, we saw a 60 per cent decrease in capital expenditure on housing as part of the comprehensive spending review – and there was no public outcry.”

John Stewart, director of economic affairs at the Home Builders Federation, attacked the planning system for preventing house builders from building freely and quickly. They are too prescriptive and too slow to release land for building. “If there were more sites, there would be more housing. If we build more houses that would help bring house prices down,” Stewart insisted, denying that developers were profiteering through land banking and monopolies.

Designer and chair of Building for Life, Wayne Hemingway’s accusations stirred Stewart’s indignation. For Hemingway, house building has become all about the 65 per cent who own homes locking the economic gates against the 35 per cent who don’t.

“It’s counter-productive to a balanced society that

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you buy something on credit and it makes you money while you sit back and do nowt.” The only solution was to “massively increase supply”, he said.

Emeritus professor of economic geography at the LSE, Paul Cheshire said we need to rethink our designations of greenfield, brownfield and green belt, because the designation frequently sits at odds with the actual character of the land.

“We have a completely mythical view of what the green belt is like,” he said. “We have oceans of green belt land that has almost no environmental value – far more than we need to solve our housing problems.”

Three Crossrail stations are going to be built in areas of green belt, he said, and none will be accompanied by new housing because it’s green belt. That, he implied, is just dumb.

Between these poles sat Rachel Fisher and London’s deputy mayor for housing, Richard Blakeway.

He recommended greater use of shared ownership schemes, as well as rehabilitating London’s brownfield for building. Fisher saw substantial reform of rental agreements to enable long-term leases as one answer to housing insecurity for many who could not afford to buy. We should be taking a more integrated view of house building, she said. “How do we link economic development with job creation with housing? It’s difficult to do that when we don’t have a national plan, a strategy for linking jobs, house building, infrastructure development…”

All agreed that the system needed reform. For Cheshire, it was simple – be clear about land use, simplify the application process and remove the confrontation inherent in the planning system.

Closing the discussion, Easton asked the audience to say “Yes” if they felt the government was doing enough to solve the crisis. He was met with silence.

FAST FACTS

139,700 houses completed in 1900

+

413,700 houses completed in 1968 (peak year)

+

141,100

houses completed in 2000

+

135,400 houses completed in 2012-13

+

112,630 houses completed (England only) in 2013-14

Sources: A Century of Change: Trends in UK Statistics since 1900 and Gov.uk live tables on house building

n Read more of what the pundits said on The Planner website: http://bit.ly/1yigqVC

I M AG E | S H U T T E RSTO C K

23/06/2014 10:56

PLAN UPFRONT

TAN22 discarded as Welsh shake up sustainable building policy The Welsh government has confirmed that it will withdraw Technical Advice Note 22 – its detailed policy on planning for sustainable buildings – at the end of July.

It will then issue an amended policy on design, which will include material on the energy hierarchy, allowable solutions and sustainable building policies on strategic sites in local development plans.

Housing minister Carl Sargeant has written to all local authority chief executives, chief planning officers and cabinet members with responsibility for planning to explain the withdrawal and issue of a new-look Technical Advice Note 12 (TAN 12).

The devolved administration will also remove from the Planning Policy for Wales the paragraph outlining the expectation that new homes and major new non-residential developments will achieve a minimum sustainable building standard. Sargeant said this was superfluous now the Welsh government has control over building regulations. Changes to part L of the regulations (covering energy efficiency) are due to come into force on 31 July.

“TAN22 has served its purpose now the Welsh government has control over building regulations, which provide a more appropriate vehicle for setting building standards.” he said.

“Removing TAN 22 will reduce duplication, time and costs in the development process.”

Sargeant’s letter also highlights that the next review of part L, in 2016, will consider further steps in energy performance designed to meet the EU directive target of nearly zero-energy new public sector buildings by 2019.

Scottish bill for community land-grab is unveiled The Scottish government has published legislation designed to reform the existing community right-to-buy regime, which ministers insist will make it simpler for communities to take over public sector land and buildings.

The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill is designed to strengthen community participation and encourage enterprising community development.

Measures in the bill will streamline the existing right-to-buy arrangements, which will be extended to cover all parts of Scotland – including both urban areas and larger rural towns. The government has a target to have 400,000 hectares (one million acres) under community ownership by 2020.

The bill includes provision for communities to take over public sector land and buildings where they can show they can deliver greater public benefit with those assets. Examples of this could include land for community groups to grow food, develop play facilities for young people or a place for older people to socialise.

As well as unveiling the legislation, local government minister Derek Mackay confirmed an increase in funding from the People and Communities Fund, with an extra £1.5 million promised in 2015-16 when the total will amount to £9.4 million annually.

Mackay said: “This bill is about enabling people and Land ownership communities throughout Scotland to make their own in Scotland decisions and to build their own future.

“This legislation will empower communities who wish to take million hectares over public land and buildings Land area of Scotland where they think they can make better use of them than their current public sector owners, Scotland’s land area classed and ensure that their ambitions as rural are supported by public bodies.”

The bill comes hot on the heels of a potential Land Reform Bill, announced by Number of private climate change minister Paul landowners owning 60 per Wheelhouse. This, based on the cent of Scotland’s rural land work of the Land Reform Review in 2012 – compared with Group, will see much more 1,180 in 1970 comprehensive land registration, with a view to ensuring land is Source: The Land of Scotland and the Common Good used in the public interest.

7.9

97%

963

Cars to be banned from London’s Tottenham Court Road Cars and lorries are to be banned from Tottenham Court Road in a £25 million revamp of the famous street in London’s West End. Camden council has unveiled extensive development plans for the street and its surrounding roads, to coincide with the opening of a Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road in 2018.

Closing the road to motor traffic at peak times is seen as potentially the most sensible thing to do at what is currently a traffic-heavy junction, given the anticipated weight

of pedestrians flowing into Tottenham Court Road from the new station.

It also gives Camden an opportunity to experiment with a Dutch-style shared space where cyclists and pedestrians take priority over motor vehicles (see Bike Ability, pages 26-29).

Under the plans, Tottenham Court Road will be accessible to pedestrians, buses and cyclists only from 8am-7pm, Monday to Saturday. Cars, taxis and loading will be allowed on short sections of the street, but only via side roads.

Wider pavements and new crossings will make the streets within the scheme safer for pedestrians and a new protected cycle lane on Gower street, plus new routes connecting the area to Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, will cater to cyclists.

Five new public spaces will be created under the scheme – one a pedestrianised area at the foot of Centre Point, where the new Crossrail station will open onto the street.

Councillor Phil Jones, Camden’s lead on transport said: “[The proposals] will

transform the Tottenham Court Road area, making it safer and more attractive for residents, boosting business and creating new public spaces.

“The numbers of Crossrail passengers expected are unprecedented – by 2020 it will be busier than Heathrow Airport. We’re aiming to make journeys quicker and safer, as well as creating a more attractive place for people to enjoy.” n Public consultation on the plans will run from until 18 July. Find out more at: www.

Camden.gov.uk/westendproject

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NEWS

Analysis { HOUSING

Osborne to free up brownfield for housing

Osborne says 200,000 homes could be built on 33 brownfield sites in England in the next decade

By Sam Waddicor

G

eorge Osborne has announced proposals to allow developers to build on almost all brownfield sites – with the threat to bypass councils if they oppose development.

Speaking at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said his reforms would force councils to pre-approve applications on brownfield land deemed suitable for housing. The wider aim is to encourage the building of up to 200,000 homes on sites designated as brownfield that are not in use.

Local authorities would use local development orders (LDOs) to establish permissions for the sites, with the intention to have 90 per cent of usable sites covered by LDOs by 2020. Osborne promised that government would provide a £5 million pot to local authorities to create the first 100 sites with LDOs. Osborne told his audience at his annual Mansion House speech that he expected local authorities to be flexible and to live up to the expectation that the government had laid out. The Treasury was consulting on plans to allow developers to go straight to Whitehall for planning permission in an attempt to cut out the potential for councils to block construction, he said.

“I will not stand by and allow this generation, many of whom own their own home, to say to the next generation: ‘We’re pull- “I WANT TO ing up the property PROTECT THOSE ladder behind us’,” said WHO OWN HOMES, Osborne. “I want to pro- PROTECT THOSE tect those who own WHO ASPIRE TO homes, protect those OWN A HOME AND who aspire to own a PROTECT MILLION home, and protect mil- WHO SUFFER lions who suffer when WHEN BOOM TURNS TO BUST” boom turns to bust.”

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Shadow chancellor Ed Balls retorted that Osborne was “still failing to tackle the root cause of the housing crisis, which is that we are not building enough homes to match rising demand”.

In an additional move, the chancellor and Mayor of London Boris Johnson have revealed plans to announce 20 dedicated housing zones around the capital, with five already earmarked at Enfield, Tower Hamlets, Ealing, Haringey and Wandsworth. Some £400 million has been set aside to accommodate 50,000 homes across the capital and Johnson himself will be given greater power to remove any extraneous planning restrictions.

The RTPI’s head of policy and practice, Richard Blyth, said: “We identified shortage of infrastructure as one of the key five obstacles to housing delivery, so it’s good to see the mayor and Treasury stepping up to the plate on that one. I don’t yet know any details about support outside London for housing development and one of the questions is ‘Well, great, we have a mayor in London who is in charge of transport and housing – but who is in charge of transport and housing outside of London?’.”

On plans to oblige local authorities to use LDOs to ring-fence suitable brownfield land for housing, Blyth said: “LDOs have not been very popular to date, and they have tended to cover small questions like doorframes and things. There needs to be a way in which permission granted through the LDO deals with the question of mixed use, which is very ambitious.

“There’s also no definition of what ‘suitable’ might mean or who will be able to define it. I worry that we’ll get this sort of regulatory idea where suitable is defined by ‘Oh, as long as it isn’t an SSSI or a national park’.” He added: “Overall, it is encouraging that the government recognises that just leaving everything to the market and not being prepared to put your money where your mouth is isn’t really going to work as far as housing is concerned.”

FAST FACTS

England’s brownfield in figures

l

61,920

Hectares of brownfield land in England

54%

Percentage of England’s brownfield land that is derelict or vacant

200,000 Estimated number of homes that can be built on brownfield land in England

90%

Ministers want to see permissions for homes in place on more than 90 per cent of suitable brownfield land by 2020 Sources: Homes and Communities Agency, DCLG

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

23/06/2014 10:56

PLAN UPFRONT

96% Green light for key Belfast docklands development A major boost for Belfast’s economy and the commercial clout of the province is in prospect now that environment minister Mark H Durkan has approved proposals for a £250 million redevelopment scheme in Belfast docks, known as City Quays.

Located on a waterfront, city-centre site near Belfast Harbour Office, City Quays was masterplanned by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw.

Outline planning permission for the full City Quays scheme, which includes a mix of commercial offices, shops, cafes, restaurants, hotel and residential space, was granted in mid-June.

Work on the first phase of the mixed-use scheme – City Quays 1, a state-of-the-art office block offering 83,000 square feet of Category A floor space – has now begun. A detailed planning application for City Quays 2, a £20 million, 124,000 sq ft office adjacent to City Quays 1, has been submitted.

The proposals proved controversial as the Historic Monuments section of the Department of the Environment voiced concerns over the impact the high-rise new building would have on older listed buildings at the site, principally the Harbour Commissioners Office and the Sinclair Seamen’s Church.

“I have concluded that on balance the regeneration potential of the development, coupled with the prospective economic benefits and associated job creation, outweighs these concerns,” said Durkan.

“The mix of residential and business uses plus a hotel, small-scale retail services and restaurants will make this a vibrant hub which is more accessible for everyone. It will also provide a better link from the city centre along the river on the east of the M3 to the maritime heritage at the heart of the site.”

Respondents in support of Crossrail 2, with 80 per cent saying they wanted regional extensions to Surrey and Cheshunt, Herts

Crossrail 2 plans change after public consultation The proposed route for Crossrail 2 has been altered following a public consultation. Among the changes is an extension of the line in North London, with trains terminating at New Southgate rather than Alexandra Palace. The new plans could also see the station in Chelsea moved from the King’s Road to an alternative location.

The first public consultation attracted almost 14,000 responses.

More than 96 per cent of respondents supported Crossrail 2, with 80 per cent saying they were behind the regional option that would see extensions to Surrey in the south and a new line from Angel through Hackney to Cheshunt in the north.

Feedback about the Chelsea station was largely positive – although some called for the area to be served by the station at Victoria. This would not improve connectivity, but could save the project up to £1 billion.

London mayor, Boris Johnson, said: “If London and its economy are to keep moving then it’s essential that we crack on and get Crossrail 2 delivered. It’s a vital project – not just for the capital, but also for the regions from which hordes of commuters struggle into work on packed carriages each day.”

A fresh consultation on the proposed changes will run for six weeks until 25 July 2014.

Work starts on £430m City Deal in Lancashire £430 million is to be spent on a council project in Lancashire that aims to build 17,000 new homes and ease congestion in the region.

The government-funded City Deal scheme will see Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire councils, which form part of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, jointly manage the project.

The Homes and Communities agency (HCA) predicts that the scheme will create more than 20,000 new jobs, as well as providing a £1 billion boost to the local economy and attracting £2.3 billion in leveraged commercial investment.

Work began at the end of May on an £8 million expansion of the A582 into dual carriageway to increase its carrying capacity. Other roads will follow.

Edwin Booth, chair of the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership, said: “By freeing Preston and the surrounding area from the shackles of the existing infrastructure, we will enable the local economy to really take off and create the jobs and housing that we need. This is a very exciting time for the Lancashire economy as a whole.”

The City Deal scheme was a government project launched in eight cities outside of London. It offered devolved powers in exchange for the responsibility of delivering local growth resting locally. In 2013, the government invited 20 more cities, including Preston, to negotiate for the second wave of City Deals.

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NEWS

Analysis { PLANNING POLICY

Policy papers will inform planning’s wider future role “The only recent and wide-ranging review of research on the economic value of planning” – that’s the verdict of RTPI president Cath Ranson on the first of two new policy papers published by the institute in June

T

he Value of Planning, compiled by researchers at the universities of Glasgow and Sheffield, argues that previous analyses of the impact of planning have been too narrow in their approach and failed to reliably assess its economic value.

Instead, we need to dispense with narrow regulatory concepts of planning and appreciate its wider role in influencing markets and stimulating economic activity. Only then can we begin to full assess the economic benefits of good planning, the paper insists. “[It] critiques some of the more high-profile pieces of work from people like Michael Ball and Paul Cheshire, and identifies some serious deficiencies with that work,” said Michael Harris, the RTPI’s deputy head of policy and research.

“We’re trying to respond to a small number of commentators who are very vocal and in a way have set the agenda for the debate about planning. They are agendas used to justify certain policy reforms but we don’t [think] that they’ve been sufficiently critiqued.”

RTPI president Cath Ranson added: “Remarkably, given the debates around planning reform in the UK, the Glasgow and Sheffield study represents the only recent and wide-ranging review of research on the economic value of planning.

“The study shows that we need to use many different branches of economics to capture the true value of planning.

Ultimately, a better understanding of the way planning can support growth will help to create more economically sustainable and successful places.”

The second paper, Fostering “THE STUDY Growth: Understanding and SHOWS THAT WE Strengthening the Economic NEED TO USE Benefits of Planning, looks at MANY DIFFERENT how to maximise planning value BRANCHES OF once the broad view approach to ECONOMICS TO measuring its value suggested in The CAPTURE THE Value of Planning is implemented.

TRUE VALUE OF “We asked ‘How and where is the PLANNING” planning system effectively achieving

10

Ten steps to fostering growth through planning:

1 3 5 7 9

Enable planning and growth at functional economic level

Encourage champions to lead vision for growth

Promote better co-operation between public and private sectors

Investigate possible benefits of devolution to local authorities

Enhance economic literacy among professionals

Source: Fostering Growth

2 4 6 8 10

Map policies on central map and develop growth strategies

Demonstrate commitment and benefits to community

Involve community and planners early

Achieve better outcomes with additional financial support

Align consenting process and reduce unnecessary paperwork

sustainable growth and can lessons be replicated elsewhere?’,” said Jim Hubbard, the RTPI’s policy and networks manager.

It finishes with 10 recommendations to help to create economically successful places in the future and for increasing the economic outcomes through planning. These fall into four overarching categories: c Re-emphasise a strategic approach to planning and the economy; c Strengthen relationships between developers, planners, politicians and communities; c Acknowledge the importance of place and support for those responsible; and c Implement ‘customer-friendly’ approaches.

The papers are among a swathe of research studies and policy papers being published by the RTPI throughout its centenary year. In a statement on its website the RTPI hinted that the collected papers are intend to inform government policies on planning in the build-up to the next general election.

Collectively, they suggest a new confidence to assert the role of planning and planners in shaping the future of the UK. “The research also counters the argument used by some critics of planning that less planning equals more economic growth,” the RTPI’s press release states. n Both papers can be downloaded from the RTPI website at http://bit.ly/1pDVber See page 22 for comments from Michael Harris about Spatial Planning, the first of the RTPI’s new Planning Horizons policy papers

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23/06/2014 10:57

PLAN UPFRONT

75% New-look planning authorities created as local government reform bites A far-reaching overhaul of local government has taken effect in the Republic of Ireland – with significant implications for planning.

Under the Local Government Act 2014, a new system of municipal district authorities has been established, replacing the 80 former town councils.

The republic is also creating new regional assemblies to deal with spatial and economic planning and to manage EUfunded programmes.

These replace the eight regional authorities

Britons support the creation of new garden cities, according to a survey conducted for the Wolfson Economics Prize

(1) B A R T O N W I L L M O R E (2) W E I YA N G & PA R T N E R S (3) U R B E D (4) S H E L T E R

and two assemblies previously in operation.

The new breed of municipal districts includes towns and their hinterlands, ending a situation in which for historical reasons some small places had a town council while larger ones did not.

A government statement said the changes would “improve operational efficiency and value for money, with a single countywide executive and operational structure.

The municipal districts will be decision-making entities rather than corporate structures.”

The practice in recent decades of locating local and community development functions outside of local government is being redressed. This will be achieved through the establishment of Local Community Development

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Committees in each local authority area, to enhance strategic planning and coordination of local and community development programming and activity.

“This new arrangement will build on the strengths and resources of both the community and local development sector and the local authorities to maximise the benefits for communities across the country,” said Phil Hogan, minister for the environment, community and local government.

The new municipal districts will have devolved powers over such matters as local area plans, by-laws, and programmes of works in areas such as roads and housing.

These are matters that were, before 1 June, largely decided by the executive of the local authority.

Queen’s Speech launches bid to free up the frackers Allowing fracking companies to drill without permission and exemptions from zero carbon standards for small home developments were among measures announced in the Queen’s Speech.

Current trespass laws state that land and homeowners must give permission before a company can drill for shale gas or oil under their land. The coalition wants to end this requirement to open up the route to fracking.

A key component of a proposed Infrastructure Bill is the exemption of ‘small’ developments of up to 50 homes from new zero-carbon legislation, which had been intended to ensure I M A G E | PA

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that all new housing was carbon neutral by 2016. This will allow developers to build homes with emissions 44 per cent below 2006 levels if they pay a levy to alternative green schemes.

Liberal Democrats saw the fact that there were any zero-carbon standards at all in the proposed bill as a victory, as the Conservatives had fought to kill the plans.

“The Lib-Dems are celebrating this as a green victory, but in reality it’s one of the worst row-backs on green policy,” said Nina Skorupska, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association. “Our energy bills, our climate and the domestic renewable energy supply chain will all lose out as a result.”

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, said: “Even putting to one side the evidence of environmental and health risks posed by fracking, the easing of trespass laws within this bill is a completely unacceptable violation of homeowners’ rights across the country.”

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Wolfson prize finalists announced Acclaimed consultancies, a housing charity and an individual entrant are among five finalists shortlisted for this year’s Wolfson Economics Prize.

This year’s competition asked entrants to come up with the best design for a garden city to win the £250,000 reward. The shortlist comprises: c Barton Willmore: Its entry sets out a 10-point plan to deliver a new garden city, arguing for the development of a cross-party consensus and the production of a National Spatial Plan to identify suitable locations. c Chris Blundell: Golding Homes’ director of regeneration and development entered in a private capacity and says garden cities should accommodate 30,000-40,000 people, with delivery led by Garden City Development Corporations. c David Rudlin of URBED: This entry campaigns for the near-doubling of an existing large town in line with garden city principles, to provide housing for 150,000 people (the size of Oxford or Canterbury). c Shelter: The housing charity’s entry proposes a new garden city on the Hoo Peninsula, starting with a settlement of up to 48,000 people at Stoke Harbour as part of a larger cluster of settlements eventually totalling 150,000 people. c Wei Yang & Partners: This entry argues that an ‘arc’ beyond London’s green belt (stretching from Portsmouth to Oxford to Cambridge to Felixstowe) is the best place to develop new garden cities.

Wolfson prize director Miles Gibson told The Planner: “We had 279 entries so the judges had to make some pretty fine judgments about which five to shortlist. Now the five finalists are asked to elaborate on their submissions. We gave them a 10,000 word limit in the first round and what they have to do now is expand that up to 25,000 words, which have to come back to us by 11 August and then the judges choose an overall winner to be announced in September. The overall winner gets £250,000 and the other four get £10,000.”

A survey conducted for the award found that 75 per cent of Britons supported building new garden cities. n Read Read Miles Gibson’s thoughts on garden cities in Opinion, page 21

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23/06/2014 10:57

AWARDS

RTPI Awards {

Pride of planning In its centenary year, the RTPI’s annual Awards for Planning Excellence highlighted the positive impact that good planners – and good planning – can have on space, place and community in the UK

”IT’S WONDERFUL TO SEE THAT THERE IS A PRIDE AND CONFIDENCE IN THE PROFESSION AND ITS ACHIEVEMENTS” PLANNERS AND PLANNING have their critics, but the RTPI’s annual Awards for Planning Excellence offer a reminder of the very good reasons we have to celebrate planning as a profession that has the capacity to genuinely enhance people’s lives.

For the institute’s centenary year, the 23 award judges highlighted dozens of examples of excellence – in projects, private practices, local authorities and the individuals at the heart of the planning process. Ultimately, however, there could only be one winner in each of the awards’ 12 categories.

“For this year’s awards, the judges were asked to identify entries that were original, addressed the broadest definition of sustainability, were transferable and, above all, promoted the value of planning to the wider world by creating clear benefits,” chairman of judges Sir Terry Farrell explained at the award ceremony on 23 June.

“In addition, the awards also celebrate n Innovative Planning the contribution of our best planners Practice in Plan across both the public and private sectors.

Making: Delivering a I am also heartened to see many of the new strategic planning entries providing a practical illustration and investment of the Farrell Review’s recommendations framework for Coastal – from pro-active planning, through West Sussex and Greater obviously passionate commitment to Brighton, submitted by place-making, to ‘broadening the base’ – Coastal West Sussex and Greater Brighton the greater involvement of communities in Strategic Planning Board planning in its biggest sense.”

RTPI president Cath Ranson said: “It’s n Leading the Way wonderful to see that there is a pride in Planning for and confidence in the profession and its Community: Central achievements which continue to bring Govan Action Plan forward these high-quality and diverse (including Govan Cross submissions.”

Townscape Heritage

THE WINNERS n Overall Winner, Presented with the Silver Jubilee Cup: Central Govan Action Plan (including Govan Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative), submitted by Glasgow City Council n Planning Consultancy of the Year: Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners n Small Planning Consultancy of the Year: NTR Planning n Local Authority Planning Team of the Year: Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

n Excellence in Planning and Design for the Public Realm: Marine Walk and Seaburn Promenade, submitted by Sunderland City Council n Exemplary Planning to Deliver Housing: Regeneration of Hudson and Manser Streets, St Paul’s (Cheltenham), submitted by Nash Partnership n Innovative Planning Practice in Decision Taking: Stirling Ecosystems Approach Demonstration Project, submitted by LUC

n Young Planner of the Year: Zoe Green, Atkins n Best planning for Natural and Built Heritage: Stonehenge Environmental Improvement Project

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Initiative), submitted by Glasgow City Council n Outstanding Planning to Deliver Growth and Employment: London Gateway Logistics Park Local Development Order, submitted by Thurrock Council

n Keep an eye open for more detailed case studies of some of the award-winning entries in next month’s issue of The Planner

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23/06/2014 10:58

PLAN UPFRONT

How communityled planning is transforming Govan

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IMAGE | ANDREW LEE

Ambassadors of planning Crowned Planning Consultancy of the Year, Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP) is one of the UK’s largest and most consistently successful practices. In particular, the judges praised the firm for demonstrating “a client-focused approach to designing and delivering services, and demystifying planning processes”.

NLP is noted for developing the HEaDROOM tool that assesses housing need in line with the requirements of the NPPF and for regularly extending the practice’s range of expertise. In 2013, it was awarded the status of Environmental Impact Assessment Quality Mark Registrant and obtained planning permission for 10,000 new homes.

A 10-year, community-led planning partnership that guides the regeneration of central Govan walked away with both the community award and the top prize of the evening – the Silver Jubilee Cup for the Overall Winner.

The aim of the Central Govan Action Plan (CGAP) is to turn a town in decline for decades into an attractive, vibrant and prosperous place to live, work and visit. Although it has high-quality planning and planners at its core, the project’s real effectiveness lies in its focus on community contributions to the regeneration challenge.

Since 2006, some £88 million has been invested in the town through the CGAP framework. In the words of Terry Farrell, this investment is bringing “real and noticeable benefit” – new homes stand on once derelict land and new shops and cafes are springing up in the town centre. Historic buildings are being restored and given new uses, and Govan Cross has become a stylish civic space.

– “Community-led and hard-won – I applaud the passion and energy that has sustained the Central Govan Action Plan through the last 10 years,” said Farrell. “Overcoming tough urban issues typical of our post-industrial cities, the action plan has genuinely brought together a community to create, realise and sustain many physical, social and economic projects… This is true proactive and ‘bottom up’ planning.”

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– “The projects submitted in evidence show consistently high-quality outputs, as well as successful outcomes achieved for their clients,” said judges. “They are good ambassadors and their submission clearly shows that they continually strive to advance the planning profession.”

IMAGE | SQUINT OPERA & FORBES MASSIE

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AWARDS

PLAN UPFRONT

RTPI Awards { Highly recommended NTR has taken a conscious decision to remain a focused and dedicated single-discipline practice.

Rather than try to master every aspect of a project, it looks to work with high-quality partners in multidisciplinary teams. Its aim is not to be the biggest consultancy, but simply to be the best that it can be.

The practice never advertises, but relies instead on recommendations from happy partners and satisfied customers. It runs its internal CPD programme and offers free seminars to clients.

– It is an approach that has won NTR the Small Planning Consultancy of the Year Award. “NTR showed a diverse range of project work where high-quality planning solutions have been or will be delivered,” said the judges. “There was clear evidence of satisfied clients and they demonstrated work well within a multi-disciplinary environment.”

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I M A G E | M AT H I A S A RC H I T E C T S

The top town team Despite being in an ex-industrial area where large tracts of development land are contaminated, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council has stiff housing and employment land targets.

These are set out in the Black Country Core strategy, which the borough helped to develop. Its planning team is not put off by the need to provide 21,400 new homes and 1,000 ha of employment land by 2026, but has shown a determination to excel: 86 per cent of big applications determined within 13 weeks in 2013; 81 per cent of minor and 91 per cent of all other applications within eight weeks.

A Site Allocations Development Plan. Three Area Action Plans. A stated aim to turn West Bromwich into a “top town”, a strategic centre within the sub-region. Extensive town centre development completed in West Bromwich, creating 3,000 retail jobs. In-house training courses. And now the Local Authority Planning Team of the Year Award.

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– “The Sandwell approach has had a great impact in one of the 10 most deprived areas in England,” said the judges. “That the team have achieved this in during a long economic downturn makes their accomplishments all the more impressive. This is an excellent service that has clearly gone the extra mile. It includes many elements that are transferable to other planning authorities.”

I M AG E | V I N C I CON S T RU C T I ON

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18/06/2014 14:49

CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion And now for something completely indifferent The slithy toves were short of ideas, and the vorpal barbaritude of a general election whiffled ever onwards like a thing that whiffles threateningly.

Since we last met Lucinda and Ptolemy, the top slithies, there had been much galumphing in the borogroves. The Jabberwock himself had been distracted by a futile row in the mimsy outreaches of Reigate, which had allowed a bit of time for some concept-squirt to blossom. Meeting with other imaginators at a snazzy wine bar in Westminster, they had pondered the meaning of salami. How can there be so many shades of pink? How do they slice it so thin?

This, of course, was the brillig moment; the precious point when a manxsome idea germinated in the fulminous atmosphere of alcohol and electronic fags. Salami slicing! Saving the bother of eventuating new ideas, they could simply take the old ones and repeat them until the planning system ceased to be. A late planning system, gone to meet its maker.

Back in the thoughtejaculation space, they began to burgeon. In a sense they’d already tried it; minor tweak to the Use Classes Order had been followed by minor tweak after minor tweak; eventually it would become unrecognisable – and join the choir invisible.

Then there was the bewitching “permitted development” process. Of course there was a secret aim that all development (except wind farms) should

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“WE CAN REMOVE ANY NEED FOR SUCH WISHY­WASHY SOCIAL ENGINEERING, THEY ARGUED. EXTRAVAGANT FROTH” be permitted, though even the Jabberwock had burbled at that in case someone put a gruesome something next to his mansion.

Notwithstanding, the slithies resolved that “permitted development” could slowly, slice by delicious slice, bit by succulent bit, grow and extend until the idea of needing permission was bereft of life, pushing up the daisies. (Except wind farms).

Then Lucinda suggested they could do something similar with the “special measures”. Only one council had been caught by this

curious conceit. Why not up the limits bit by bit until they were all scooped into the net, and under the tender control of the Jabberwock?

They moved on to affordable housing, which everyone in the tank thought was outgrabed. Slowly we can remove any need for such wishy-washy social engineering, they argued.

Extravagant froth. Take it away from schemes fewer than 10 houses, then 50, then 1,000 – soon it’ll shuffle off this mortal coil, and not before time.

There was uffish excitement as the slithies basked in their own plumptiousness. We can very gradually reduce the length of inquiries, until decisions get taken before they even open. We can very slowly reduce the need for “evidence” (think-tank people saw this as a 20th

century idea) to 50 words or so. We can give very tiny bits of extra power to shadowy LEPs, so that nobody notices until they’ve taken over completely.

Perhaps at this point they were getting carried away.

As the ylang-ylang effusion faded and the Tumtum tree wilted in the heat of invention, they wondered whether all this was good news, Jabberwock-wise.

There were people out there who unaccountably loved planning. Ptolemy’s mum was overjoyed recently when a majestic housing scheme near her was shunned – merely, thought Ptolemy with scorn, because it would cause traffic jams. And wipe out a few listed buildings (pah!), mangle a badger or two, and maybe cause flooding. And a few other minor things like that. Might she and her localism-loving friends notice the diminishment of planning? Might they take awful revenge? Were they, in fact, rather fond of it?

The excitement faded as the slithies thought the dreadful thought that they were alone in their ambition to slay the system. ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Chris Shepley is the principal of Chris Shepley Planning and former Chief Planning Inspector

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

23/06/2014 11:18

Quote unquote FROM THE WEB AND THE RTPI

“At current densities you could build 1.6m houses on green belt within the GLA area. I’m not saying we should do that…”

“It was either day four of the ‘abs and squats challenge’ or the RTPI Wales conference – you won hands down” CARL SARGEANT, WELSH PLANNING MINISTER

PAUL CHESHIRE, LSE PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

“Planners could be heroes, they should be seen as heroes”

“THE MORE PEOPLE ARE ENGAGED AND TALKING ABOUT THE ISSUES, THE MORE LIKELY THEY ARE TO RECOGNISE THAT THEY NEED MORE HOMES IN THEIR AREA”

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose”

DESIGNER AND CHAIR OF BUILDING FOR LIFE WAYNE HEMINGWAY

CITIES MINISTER GREG CLARK, QUOTING DOLLY PARTON

“If you allow pure localism that’s a licence to say ‘No’”

RACHEL FISHER, HEAD OF POLICY, NATIONAL HOUSING FEDERATION

JOHN STEWART, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS AT THE HOME BUILDERS FEDERATION

“We want to challenge the notion of the death of distance” MICHAEL HARRIS, DEPUTY HEAD OF POLICY AND RESEARCH RTPI

“Blaenau is the Welsh Chamonix”

“I like to live in la la land.”

RACHEL FISHER

CHRIS JONES OF CHRIS JONES REGENERATION I M AG E S |

J E R RY L A M P S O N / S H U T T E R S T O C K

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23/06/2014 11:18

CORRESPONDENCE

I Inbox

YOUR NEWS, VIEWS AND QUESTIONS F E E D B ACK

Richard Evans There is a great deal of hot air at the moment concerning the “housing crisis” from all sectors, developers, academics and planners. The one point of agreement is that there is a problem. May I, as a planner of long experience, put in my two ha’porth?

The main reason we are not delivering enough new housing is simple; too many constraints on delivery, i.e. on the development process.

It is no wonder that house builders are not delivering enough, with CIL, affordable quotas, other contributions, fees, S106s etc. Margins are so squeezed that only the best, least constrained sites can come forward.

The solution? Look at a time when enough housing was delivered, both open market and affordables – the 1950s, when the Macmillan government delivered 300,000 houses a year. What were the differences between then and now? Fewer constraints on delivery, plus there being two streams of delivery – private and public, running parallel.

The solution is obvious: • Get rid of affordable quotas. Give all local housing authorities a duty to deliver affordable housing alongside their planning colleagues.

Leave developers free to deliver open market units, which is what they are best at.

• Get rid of CIL. Replace it by returning to a development land tax (with receipts ringfenced for infrastructure, including affordable housing, and the planning system), thereby transferring the burden of taxation from the development process to the

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landowner, who benefits from the betterment accruing when permissions are given.

If DLT is kept at a reasonable rate, perhaps 25-40 per cent of value added, there is still a big incentive for landowners to bring land forward. You’d eliminate the issue of viability from the planning process and allow developers to bring forward a wider range of sites, including more brownfield.

• Get rid of all other “contributions” except those that are site-specific and needed to enable satisfactory development. These can be dealt with perfectly adequately by S106s.

• Get rid of application fees, ridding the planning system of another layer of

complexity, bureaucracy, and dispute. But perhaps this is too much to expect. Simple.

Richard Evans BA DipTP MRTPI

Tava Walton I have been enjoying the new format of The Planner; it’s a bit more like the Architects’ Journal; glossy cover, more indepth. But I do have one major gripe. Every time the wrapped plastic hits the doormat I turn in the hope to see a woman’s face on the cover... but there it is again... another man.

Generally, a greying, reachingfor-retirement, suited, booted white male with a story of achievement and wisdom to tell. The Planner does not seem to recognise the

importance of women within the world of planning. Please could you find a successful woman from within the planning profession and put her on the cover? And then find another one and put her on the cover too? Let’s start celebrating the contribution women make to our fine and much-maligned profession.

Tava Walton, project delivery & master planning manager UK & EMEA, CBS WREF Services

(Tava – good news! Northern Ireland’s chief planner Fiona McCandless will be our cover star in September. And we certainly take your wider point – keep an eye out for further developments. Ed.)

O N THE WEB EEB B @ThePlanner_RTPII The Planner is now online at www.theplanner.co.uk, as is our sister jobs site, jobs.theplanner.co.uk) For a limited period, www.theplanner. co.uk is open access with no restrictions on viewing content. This will enable us to promote and build up awareness of the site beyond existing members and to allow everyone to easily explore the breadth of the content available and share articles without encountering any barriers. Check it out – and let us know what you think.

Read extra content on The Planner online At www.theplanner.co.uk you can read news, features and opinion articles not carried in the print edition, as well as finding out about the latest job vacancies.

This month, the additional material adding extra depth to our stories and features includes the following:

Housing: What do the experts think?

Housing experts from the Radio 4 recording of Housing: Where Will We All Live? offer their solutions to the UK’s house building crisis: http://bit.ly/1yigqVC Cycling infrastructure: Resources for planners Resources, tools and knowledge to help planners understand what makes great cycling infrastructure: http://bit.ly/SXxvDj How do we make the UK’s towns and cities safer for cycling?

Cycling campaigner Mark Ames of I Bike London offers his thoughts on safer, more comfortable cycling: http://bit.ly/1plTaQn.

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23/06/2014 11:01

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19/06/2014 18:20

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

O Opinion

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Alexandra Jones is chief executive of the Centre for Cities

As we llook to our small and medium medium-sized businesses to spearh spearhead economic recovery, it has never been clearer that place plays an important role in their capacity to perform. Cities are the engines of the UK economy – but the specific business environments that they provide, and the extent to which they encourage businesses in their area to pursue high-growth strategies, co-locate or invest in their workforce, have a significant impact on their economic performance.

The Centre for Cities annual SME Outlook identifies significant spatial variations in economic performance between Britain’s cities, which have only widened in the recession. Cities that provide the strongest environments in which to do business – where skill levels are high, and connectivity is effective – tend to encourage firms to pursue high-growth strategies, prioritise innovation and invest in workers.

Firms in Cambridge, Swindon and Brighton are more likely to be productive, profitable and sustainable, delivering higher wages and supporting local and national economic growth.

In other instances, the regional diversity in the UK’s economic performance reflects the extent to which certain cities hold unique strengths in particular industries. The report Championing Our Clusters, produced in conjunction with McKinsey & Co,

Andrew Matheson is the RTPI policy and network manager

Garden towns are thriving – and still learning

Empowered cities for a sustainable recovery found that the UK is home to 31 economically significant concentrations of industries, or ‘clusters’, across the nation. These clusters all share certain characteristics: concentrations of industry, employment and productivity, and entrenched geographical links to a place. And they play a critical role in the recovery as, while home to only a tenth of businesses in the UK, they produce 20 per cent of total Gross Value Added (GVA) output.

Both reports provide a powerful argument for action and a clear path forward, one that rests in the empowerment of our cities. In showing that the success of our small and medium-sized companies reflects not only management decisions, but also the business conditions in which they operate, they give a wake-up call to Westminster to focus attention on boosting cities’ capacity to foster environments for enterprise.

If we are to make any progress towards bridging the significant regional disparities in economic performance across the UK, cities must be given the oversight and influence to address their specific strengths and challenges through targeted investment in infrastructure, skills and education. In the face of substantial budget pressures, this will undoubtedly require those in Whitehall to take bold decisions on how funding and control is allocated across the nation.

“BOTH REPORTS PROVIDE A POWERFUL ARGUMENT FOR ACTION AND A CLEAR PATH FORWARD”

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2 BLOG

BLOG

This year the RTPI is celebrating cent its centenary, and Redditch, Runco Runcorn and Washington are celebrating 50 years as designated ‘New Towns’.

Each new settlement has unique aspects, but common to new towns was the expectation that they would not only be pioneer communities of their time, but also ‘future-proof’ in the face of evident trends such as growing car ownership.

At our New Towns Summit in Letchworth there was consensus among attendees that the time has come for them to rightly embrace their credentials as established showcases for the new wave of planned ‘garden cities’.

‘Garden towns’, might be a more appropriate term (only Milton Keynes has an explicit ambition to become an actual city) because they are planned and maturing towns that are pleasing places to live, work and play. The inspiration, ambition and holistic thinking that imbued their planners has not gone away.

From Hemel Hempstead’s Water Park to the ribboned open spaces of Telford, each of the new towns has achieved a green infrastructure and biodiversity that Ebenezer Howard would surely applaud. Tellingly, for the success of future garden cities, communities have become hugely protective of their green space legacy.

The core frameworks have proved resilient. Details of car, pedestrian, cycling and recreation provision may have shifted with changing lifestyles, and neighbourhood layouts may have shifted at times of renewal, but the grid pattern at Milton Keynes, the distributor arrangements in Telford and the dual carriageway infrastructure of Redditch have proved accommodating without dislocation.

But as these places were built in short periods, renewal requirements tend to come in large chunks. Remodelling shopping areas has proved particularly difficult.

Municipal pride eschewed private sector involvement, storing up problems that required large injections of finance to resolve. Public/private partnerships are now the norm, though market conditions will dictate the pace of progress.

Irvine has had the challenge of defining for itself a clear role in the hierarchy of nearby towns in North Ayrshire. Hemel Hempstead has invested heavily in the public realm as its contribution to the partnership, which is increasing footfall in the shopping area. Bracknell recognised that the quality of its central area affected residents’ pride and a significant residential element is being included in its re-masterplanned centre. Here are towns that still know how to innovate.

“EACH OF THE NEW TOWNS HAS ACHIEVED A GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE AND BIODIVERSITY THAT EBENEZER HOWARD WOULD SURELY APPLAUD”

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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

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Miles Gibson is a town planner and prize director for the Wolfson Economics Prize 2014

Tessa Coombes is a town planner, a public policy student and an ex-councillor, blogging at http://tessacoombes. wordpress.com

Councillor support is key to winning the planning case

The keys to the garden

Her Maje Majesty is not someone you normally associate with garden cities, b but The Queen’s Speech on 4 June was historic for being the first such speech to mention them. It’s a sign the establishment is prepared to talk about new settlements once more.

Indeed, the speech comes in the wake of talk across the political spectrum about new settlements. The late 1970s taboo on discussion of large-scale development has been overturned.

Ebenezer Howard delivered two privately financed garden cities in the absence of either a mature planning system or a bureaucratic state. The post-war state, using the vast momentum created by the nationalisation of the British economy, funded new towns for a citizenry grateful to be relieved of bomb debris.

Now different circumstances prevail, and housing aspirations have risen again. The delivery vehicles for new garden cities look rather different – probably a hybrid of state regulatory support and private capital.

The planning system has a crucial role in deciding if this programme succeeds. Planning creates huge value by granting permission in some places and not others. That value is sufficient in principle to pay investors an attractive dividend, while funding infrastructure, services, and affordable housing – and com-

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pensating those who object.

‘Planning gain’ must be delivered into the right hands at the right time – to a landowner who is interested in the delivery and rewards of long-term quality.

Sadly, the planning system and the house builder business model interact in a way that makes this difficult, and land agents aren’t incentivised to encourage their clients to accept a long-term return instead of a big short-term windfall. Unless the gain can be deployed in providing more benefits to doubtful local residents, politicians will find it hard to support individual proposals. Thus, commentators’ thoughts turn to compulsory purchase, planning obligations, CIL, or other mechanisms to force landowners to surrender planning gain to organisations prepared to spend it on local quality.

Finding a way through this interaction between the system that creates the value (planning) and the system that controls and distributes it (land ownership) is the key to unlocking garden cities. It may involve conversations about economics and money that planners feel uncomfortable or ill equipped to have. That’s why Simon Wolfson has offered £250,000 to the person who can provide an answer. Last month we unveiled the five finalists bidding for that prize. Follow the competition at www.wolfsonprize.org.uk.

“THE LATE 1970S TABOO ON DISCUSSION OF LARGE­SCALE DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN OVERTURNED”

The local elections have left an increase in Labour-controlled council councils, particularly in our cities, and a decrease in those run by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. The potential is there for change, but will we see any shifts in the way local councils approach planning policy and development control?

I doubt it. Where plans exist, there is little opportunity to influence policy change and, as the role of planning committees is quasi-judicial, politics is not supposed to enter into those decisions. In other words, the planning process means there is little room for manoeuvre for local politicians.

Perhaps a bigger question is: ‘Just how much do our newly elected councillors actually know about planning?’

Their only connection with planning to date might well be as an applicant themselves or as a protester opposing a local development. Perhaps they have had no connection at all. Yet they will no doubt have picked up some planning casework during their election campaign and may well find themselves serving on a planning committee.

As a new councillor, I was given a basic introduction to development control and a little information on planning policy, but not much. I also underwent some Nolan training as a planning committee member, which was introduced to remind coun-

cillors that voting on party lines was not acceptable and that any lobbying by outside interests had to be declared.

What more should we do to ensure that all politicians have a better understanding and connection with the planning system?

There is a critical role here for more training and development for local councillors, particularly when it comes to the thorny issue of new development and housing.

Local politicians have a key role to play as community champions, representing the interests of all their constituents, not just the noisy ones. Imagine if local councillors were better equipped to counter some of the ‘Nimby’ arguments used to resist new homes if they could balance local opposition with an understanding of the need for strategic, long-term planning and if they could put forward better arguments supporting the need for new homes? How different would things look then?

Raising awareness among councillors, providing them with the ammunition they need to counter opposition and having local planning champions may just make a difference to the way planning and the need for new homes is perceived. If we could introduce this nationally, too, then we may just get more of the change that is needed.

“JUST HOW MUCH DO OUR NEWLY ELECTED COUNCILLORS ACTUALLY KNOW ABOUT PLANNING?”

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S P AT I A L P L A N N I N G

S P AT I A L CASES IF POLITICIANS TAKE ON BOARD THE MESSAGE THAT SPATIAL PLANNING IS CRUCIAL TO SOCIETY’S FUTURE IT MIGHT ALSO HELP TO IMPROVE THEIR OWN IMAGE – AND HOW THE PUBLIC VIEWS THEM, SAYS DAVID CALLAGHAN

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n oft-cited failing in politicians is that they only think about four years ahead to the next general election.

The most successful politicians understand the public mood and can infer which measures will be popular and those that will not.

So how easy is it going to be to convince politicians to transcend this mindset and put spatial planning at the forefront of the agenda?

Well, “spatial planning” probably isn’t going to be the term politicians use while door-stepping the electorate. But looking at the principles that lie behind spatial planning is fast becoming a sine qua non for our elected representatives.

A new policy paper1 published by the Royal Town Planning Institute argues that spatial or integrated planning is an idea that decisionmakers and policy formers need to take fully on board.

The paper warns that unless spatial planning becomes part of the mindset for all community leaders and is even taught in schools, society

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is going to run into serious problems.

Politicians have to be made to acknowledge that if new development doesn’t have good transport links, water supplies and controls on city growth then there will be significant issues with unsustainable development in many parts of the world.

“Fundamentally, we need political leadership at all levels, which is equal to the challenges of our times,” says the paper.

“As part of this, thinking and acting spatially is critical to creating a successful, sustainable and just future – to provide more jobs and generate shared growth, improve health and wellbeing for all, prepare our communities for climate change and protect the environment,” it adds.

Dr Michael Harris, the RTPI’s deputy head of policy and research, says: “We need to relate this to what policy-makers think is important, such as climate change and transport infrastructure, as well as vibrant towns and cities.

“We can say to politicians ‘You have a problem and we can help you think more clearly about it,

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and once you recognise the importance of this it isn’t difficult to improve policy in sensible ways’,” he says.

“It isn’t necessarily about only seeing the benefit in 50 years’ time. It could be about better policy now.”

Harris believes that policy-makers need to think like planners so they can generate a better understanding of places.

It is vital that politicians learn the importance of spatial planning and sustainable development, Harris says, or we face serious consequences.

“We look at the cities with the highest projections of flooding and they happen to be among the fastest growing in the world,” he says.

On the positive side, though, Dr Harris does see bright prospects.

“This is exciting because of the potential benefits, such as more jobs, better health, better quality of living and more liveable cities.”

The paper is in the first in a series of five documents called Planning Horizons to be published by the RTPI to mark its centenary, which will go on to urge planners to step up and take on a wider, more assertive role.

Joan Walley, who chairs the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, accepts the paper’s main arguments, and hopes that it will trigger some widespread debate, which includes “WE LOOK AT national and local government, leading up THE CITIES WITH to the general election next year.

THE HIGHEST “What cries out from this report is for PROJECTIONS OF government to look at this in the whole in FLOODING AND THEY terms of integrated policy.

HAPPEN TO BE AMONG “We seem to have contradictory THE FASTEST GROWING departmental policies which undermine IN THE WORLD” other policy areas,” she says. It is up to the

John Rowley:“Brownfield land is often more sustainable in terms of existing infrastructure than green belt land”

Treasury to ensure that investment is co-ordinated, for example, between infrastructure developments and climate change obligations.

Walley says that problems are being caused because economic growth is allowed to “trump everything”, and developers are given exemptions from green requirements to build.

“We need to match the need for new homes with infrastructure, and link it with a consistent approach on brownfield land,” she says.

The RTPI’s call for a rethink on spatial planning is fully supported by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

CPRE planning officer John Rowley says: “CPRE are big supporters of a plan-led approach and a strategic view because housing and jobs markets do not stop at local authority boundaries.

“Strategic planning can help develop policies for brownfield land, which is often far more sustainable in terms of existing infrastructure than green belt land,” he says.

Rowley says the CPRE had mixed feelings about the old regional spatial strategies because they helped to promote building in urban areas, although they were unpopular because of the lack of democratic accountability.

“It is a challenge to articulate the benefits of a strategic view to politicians and others outside planning circles.”

But there is a pressing need, he says, as local councils are being left vulnerable to large-scale housing development in inappropriate areas as adoption rates for local plans are slowing down.

Darren Johnson, Green Party member of the London Assembly, says there is a problem with planning applications being looked at without the wider picture being taken into account.

“As a councillor in Lewisham I saw so many of the planning applications being considered in isolation without thinking about the cumulative impact of several applications in close proximity to each other,” he says.

“There is the pressure to give planning permission to new housing because there is a housing need, and without a strategic approach we are just storing up problems for ourselves.”

One of the RTPI paper’s main points relates to the fact that the UK economy is focused on London, and that the gap between the capital and the regions grew during the recession.

The dominance of London means that the other cities do not develop as quickly as they could do, and this is shown by the fact that they lag behind their European counterparts in terms of economic growth, the paper says.

Core Cities Group director Chris Murray says: “I welcome the publication of this report at a

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Joan Walley: “London and the South-East have become a ‘honeypot’”

KEYTHEMES Thinking Spatially is a call to action in the light of swathes of research that indicate how the world is changing.

ECONOMY c 25 per cent: London’s contribution to the UK’s economic output, with just 12.5 per cent of the UK population c £4,333: Per capita investment on major infrastructure London. In the East Midlands, this is just £567 a person c £21.3 billion: The UK’s food and drink trade deficit. Just 53 per cent of food consumed in the UK is produced domestically

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E N V I RON M E N T c 200 million people will be displaced from their homes by 2050 owing to the effects of climate change – rising sea levels, floods and drought c The winter of 2013-14 was the wettest for at least 250 years c The Thames Barrier closed 28 times during the winter – the most since it was constructed c Four billion people will live in areas chronically short of water by 2050 c Two out of every three countries will be “water-stressed” by 2025 c 200 million: Number of people who will be displaced from their homes by 2050 owing to the effects of climate change – rising sea levels, floods and drought c 4 billion: Four billion people will live in areas that are chronically short of water by 2050 c 80 per cent: Proportion of global energy consumption that is based on fossil fuels

critical moment for England’s cities. The English Core Cities urban areas deliver 27 per cent of national wealth, but still underperform by international standards.

“This report raises concerns about the green belt, yet in Core Cities there are very substantial brownfield areas that could be unlocked for housing and economic projects, helping to rebalance the economy.

“But national strategy and investment has not yet lived up to the ambition of economic rebalancing,” he says.

London’s strengths need to be recognised and built upon, according to Centre for Cities chief SOCIETY executive Alexandra Jones, although it must not c 23 per cent: Proportion of people in the UK be at the expense of other cities. in 2035 who will be aged 65 and over “This report highlights the importance of putc The UK is expected to be the largest of the ting place at the heart of national economic European member states by 2060 with a policy. That means policy-makers both suppopulation of 79 million c 75 per cent: Proportion of boys born porting London to grow, recognising that its in Glasgow who will not reach their 65th strong performance is good for the country, and birthday – even though Glasgow has the thirdalso doing more to ensure that other UK cities highest GDP per capita of UK cities can realise their full potential,” she says.

Joan Walley says London and the South-East “In the 21st century, in the face of challenges such as these, thinking have become a “honeypot”, attracting the best and acting spatially is critical to creating a successful, sustainable and people who are being lured away from their just future. Moreover, the time left to respond effectively to many of these challenges is running out” home towns.

She reiterates a point in the paper about the importance of ensuring that northern towns and cities benefit from improved connectivity through railway links.

1 Thinking Spatially: Why Places For spatial planning to become the national priority called for in the Need To Be At The Heart Of PolicyRTPI’s paper, politicians will need to appreciate its importance, and to realMaking In The 21st Century (first in ise that it can help to address some of the most pressing items in their Planning Horizons series), Royal in-tray. “Spatial planning might help to Town Planning Institute 2014 counter a commonly expressed concern about contemporary politics and policy “INSTEAD OF found in many countries – the sense that BEING REACTIVE, that too many of our political leaders and RESPONSIVE AND decision-makers lack long-term visions DEFENSIVE, IT’S for change to produce a better society for TIME TO GO ON THE all,” the paper says.

OFFENSIVE NOW”

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C Y C LI N G I N F R A S T R U C T U R E

BIKE

ABILITY I L L U S T R A T I O N | PA T R I C K G E O R G E

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B SIMON WICKS is a freelance writer and journalist

AS THE TOUR DE FRANCE RACES THROUGH ENGLISH TOWNS AND CITIES FROM 5­7 JULY, THE UK’S CYCLING CULTURE IS IN THE SPOTLIGHT. ARE PLANNERS DOING THEIR BIT TO MAKE CYCLING A SAFE AND ATTRACTIVE MODE OF TRANSPORT? ASKS SIMON WICKS

ritain opened its first dedicated cycle path in 1934, a two-mile track alongside Western Avenue from Hangar Lane to Greenford Road in Ealing.

Today the UK’s national cycle network extends to 14,500 miles.

But ask cyclists what they think of Britain’s cycling infrastructure and they will tell you it is overwhelmingly discontinuous, poorly designed and badly maintained. The infrastructure in place to protect cyclists makes them feel at best an afterthought and at worst endangered.

London’s much-trumpeted Cycle Superhighways have come in for much criticism, particularly at junctions. At the Bow roundabout on the CS2, poor design has been implicated in the deaths of three cyclists.

“We didn’t invest in the 1960s and 70s. Cycling was completely ignored,” says keen cyclist Adrian Lord of transport planner Steer Davies Gleave, which advises the Department for Transport (DfT) on cycling. “In the 80s some ‘road safety’ policies were introduced that specifically wanted to discourage cycling in certain areas – on trunk roads, for example.”

In the 1990s, parental choice in education and out-of-town retail parks created new journeys that favoured cars, and cycling waned. But it is undergoing a revival; three-quarters of a million people now travel to work by bike each day – an increase of 17 per cent over a decade – mostly in cities that have spent money on cycling.

In many of these places, cyclists clearly outnumber cars in rush hour. Yet, despite a number of high-profile schemes, the commissioning, design and creation of cycling infrastructure lags behind the demand.

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“When the present government came in, they cut red tape in the planning regulations,” says Lord. “It was probably well-intentioned, but some of that red tape wasn’t actually red tape – it was technical guidance that was being dismantled.”

This included guidance for cycling infrastructure. “Over the years there’s been an erosion of the politicians’ own technical capability,” adds Lord. “They’re largely professional administrators now, so they are not in a position to recognise some the problems they are trying to solve.”

So as cycling numbers rise, the DfT has no cycling infrastructure guidance for planners, designers, engineers and builders. Unlike the Netherlands.

The Dutch example The Netherlands, where 26 per cent of all journeys are made by bike – compared with the UK’s 2 per cent, is considered the gold standard for cycle-friendly city design.

As in the UK, transport policy in the Netherlands in the 1950s and 60s promoted car use.

Road deaths soared. In 1973, when 450 children were killed on Dutch roads, the ‘Stop de Kindermoords’ (‘Stop the child Murder’) campaign agitated for a reversal of transport policy. The nation took the bold decision to create towns and cities that prioritised cycling and walking.

Transformation of Dutch urban spaces has been underpinned by long-term investment and clear planning principles. “The Dutch look at street types and say ‘This street should be that kind of function’,” says Mark Treasure, chair of infrastructure campaign group the Cycling Embassy of Great Britain. “They have distributor roads, access roads and through roads.”

Clear designation of road types – with standardised infrastructure – enables Dutch planners to create clear pathways for different modes of transport. Cars and bikes are kept apart – physically or by signage and prioritisation at junctions.

The mechanisms employed are logically defined, systematically applied and laid out for all in The CROW Design Manual for Bicycle Traffic.

“The overarching principle is structural separation of cycling and road traffic,” says Treasure.

Access roads have no road markings because there are few cars. Distributor roads, linking access roads to through roads, have generous bike lanes. Through roads, which connect towns, have physically separated cycle tracks.

“You can cycle across a city and you might have five encounters with road traffic,” Treasure remarks.

“In the Netherlands, towns and cities are so much more liveable and so much more pleasant.

Cycling is a way of creating a better city, a better town. Because you don’t need to signalise everything, you don’t need to have big junc28

From Leiden to Kingston: South-west London’s ‘Mini Holland’ Kingston, along with Enfield and Waltham Forest, has been awarded £30 million from the Mayor of London’s £100 million ‘Mini Holland’ fund, to transform the borough into a Dutch-style cycling-friendly town.

The scheme is driven by the ‘8-80’ vision of providing infrastructure for all cyclists, not just an elite few, says Peter Piet of planning consultancy Steer Davies Gleave. At its heart is a high-profile floating ‘boardway’ in the Thames for cyclists.

But the essence of the scheme is the more mundane structural improvements to make cycling into and around the borough a more cohesive experience.

There’s a particular focus on radial routes to and from other destinations, cycling hubs in expanded public realm around Kingston and Surbiton stations, and improvement of existing infrastructure to open up more routes around the town and its riverside. This all has to be joined up with the exiting town centre movement strategy.

“Kingston station is not a nice gateway to the centre. We want to create more space for public realm and more space to arrive, with segregated cycle lanes,” says Piet. “We also want continuous legible routes. In the past it seems to me that we shied away from the hard bits. The real measure of success will be if we can do the hard bits.

“I think it’s about looking at comprehensive design and thinking holistically about the problem and not just one bit of it. There’s a real need for designers to think out of the box.

It’s the redesign of streets and spaces. Many are horrendous.

So we need to look at it properly and spend the money on doing it properly.”

“IN THE NETHERLANDS,, THEIIR TOWNS AND D CITTIES ARE SO MUCH MOREE LIVEAABLLE AND SO MUCH MO ORE PLEASAN NT. CYCLIING G IS A WAY OF CREATIN NG A BEETTER CITY,, A BETTER R TOWN N”

tions... And if people are cycling and walking you can fit a thousand people through a junction in much less time.”

The Dutch model is not the only example. The US ‘complete streets’ approach – streets designed from wall to wall with all users in mind – was first implemented in Oregon in 1971.

Obstacles in the road

Lord is involved in the ‘Mini-Holland’ scheme in Kingston (see box above) and also advising on the redevelopment of Birmingham city centre.

Investment and skill are the tip of the iceberg, he says. In the UK, even the designation of bicycles as vehicles is a problem because it means junctions with lights can’t allow bikes to cross with pedestrians. There must be an extra light phase and that creates an additional delay for motorists.

The design costs for cycling infrastructure are at least as much as for major road projects. Public consultation is still required and drawings must be produced for every item on the route. No wonder, says Lord, that local authorities will often balk at introducing proper cycle infrastructure.

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substantial programme of improvement under way, including a new tram system. These works have been planned and paid for separately from cycling infrastructure, which is an add-on.

The bike challenge The Dutch, Danes and Germans have all been where the UK is now and their towns and cities are consistently praised for achieving something that few British counterparts manage: “It’s not just about cycling, but the creation of a place that’s acceptable for pedestrians as well as cyclists, a place for the whole community,” stresses Lord’s colleague Peter Piet.

Beyond this, there is the very simple obligation that planners have to plan infrastructure to reflect the way people behave, as well as to influence it. “Planners need to design not just for existing road share but on the expectation that more people are going to be cycling in future,” says Treasure. “Yet the infrastructure we have doesn’t even suit the numbers we have now.

“Cycling is seen as a bit of a problem to be accommodated. And outside London there’s no strategic thinking at all.” Scant resources are “spread too thinly” and should be concentrated in one town that provides an example for the rest of Britain, he says.

Cycle training The visit of the Tour de France to England is concentrating attention on cycling in the towns it passes through.

There are more Dutch-style schemes in the offing. New London cycle design standards were published in mid-June and are likely to be adopted by the DfT. The Cycling Embassy is building a Wiki of best practice in cycling infrastructure.

Lord is talking with logistics and engineering institutes about the provision of cycling infrastructure education to members – to foster greater “professionalisation” among planners, designers and contractors.

“But are we trying to run before we can walk?” asks Piet. “It’s taken decades for Northern Europe to develop.”

Lord is quick to counter, “But there’s also New York, where they stuck it in on a temporary basis and it’s still going.

We don’t have the professional confidence or the public mandate to do that in the same way.”

In New York, the mayor boldly prioritised cycling quickly and cost effectively. In Holland, politicians took

“WE DID DN’T INVVESTT N THE 1960 0S IN AND 70SS. CYCLIN NG WAS COM MPLLETELY GNOR RED D” IG

a bold decision to reverse the domination of the car.

In 2011, an all-party Parliamentary cycling group commissioned the Get Britain Cycling report, which set out the bold aim to increase the proportion of cycle journeys in Britain from 2 per cent in 2011 to 10 per cent by 2025, and 25 per cent in 2050. It is estimated that this will require a cycling budget of £10-£20 per person a year, or 4-8 per cent of the current transport budget. England presently spends less than £2 a head on cycling and Scotland about £4.

There is a long way to go before the UK is even close to being cyclingfriendly. In November 2013, six cyclists were killed on London roads within two weeks, one of them at the Bow roundabout. In January, Transport for London finally installed low-level traffic lights to help separate cyclists from motorised traffic Bad infrastructure kills. Good infrastructure contributes to towns and cities that are habitable and pleasant places to be. “There’s a solution for every street,” says Treasure. “There’s no such thing as no room. We need bold politicians to drive things through.”

Cycling on the rise

2%

Proportion of trips in the UK made by bike2

760,000

Regular cycling commuters in the UK1

£2

Per head spending on cycling in the UK2

17% Increase in cycling commuters between 2001 and 20111

26% Proportion of trips by bike in the Netherlands2

€30

Per head spending on cycling in the Netherlands (various sources) 1National Travel Survey 2012 (based on 2011 census data) 2Get Britain Cycling report

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URBAN EXTENSIONS

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he call to double the rate of house building in England means not only finding the space for another 100,000 homes a year, but also increasing investment, which has been only about half the level in Germany or France as a per cent of GDP. At the same time we also need to upgrade our worn-out energy and transport systems.

So how is it all going to be resourced?

Preliminary action research to explore housing futures in Oxford, Stroud and Bristol, three growth areas in the region where much of the UK’s knowledge economy is based, suggests that we need some smarter solutions to growth.

Nice new neighbourhoods

BRISTOL

The scale of the housing required both by household projections and our ageing and often obsolete stock cannot be filled by infill and brownfield development alone, or by only building in large cities.

At present, housing sites typically average around 27 units on perhaps a hectare of land, according to the Home Builders Federation (HBF). Building the

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SMART IF WE’RE TO BUILD NEW COMMUNITIES COST­EFFECTIVELY, WE NEED TO THINK SMART AND STRENGTHEN LINKS BETWEEN NEW HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE, SAYS URBED FOUNDER NICHOLAS FALK

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kinds of balanced communities that people say they prefer typically requires building more than 750 units on sites of more than 25 or even 50 hectares. Such communities would have schools, community facilities and even some shops and services – plus we need to allow for a reasonable amount of open space.

Observation and anecdote suggest that when families relocate they will not just be thinking about where they are working, but whether they are within reach of a choice of jobs.

The starting point for any plan is connectivity, which is why the best locations for these ‘balanced communities’ lie near motorway and railway junctions. They also need to be close to existing towns and cities to be economically viable, as the example of the Bicester eco-town – one of the few proposed eco-towns to be actually going ahead – demonstrates.

The economics of housing development require very large investments up front, which is why there are often complaints that the infrastructure is only provided at the end, if at all. The postwar new towns, which applied garden city principles, were only feasible because of the state-funded land assembly and infrastructure – some £700 million in the case of Milton Keynes.

The uncertainties of the housing market make developers reluctant to provide any more so-called affordable homes or environmental features than they are compelled to. With relatively few builders able to take on the big projects, house building in the UK is effectively controlled by an oligopoly.

The real profits are made out of buying

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lished in March found that the average house price is 11 BUYING LAND AND SECURING FAVOURABLE times the average PERMISSIONS, NOT BY BUILDING EFFICIENTLY income. Here, the case for major housing development OR FINDING MARKET NICHES” seems overwhelming – particularly if the knowledge economy is to be fully land and securing favourable permissions, not by building efficiently or tapped and the service economy of lowfinding market niches. paid jobs is to be sustained.

The situation is very different in the Yet tight boundaries around Oxford Netherlands, which provides a series of city, the opposition of the surrounding case studies in a new book I helped Sir rural authorities to any incursions into Peter Hall produce called Good Cities, the green belt, and extensive flood Better Lives. There, the VINEX 10-year plains make it hard to build homes anyhousing programme expanded the where near the jobs.

Netherlands’ housing stock by 7.6 per Newcomers have to live far away, and cent in just 10 years. they add to the congestion on overloaded This was achieved by building extenroads and roundabouts. The government sions to towns with populations of more is offering some £55 million in a City than 100,000 that were well connected Deal agreement to fund “transport, innoby public transport. Thirty per cent of vation and skills”, but this is a fraction of the units had to be affordable, and half what is needed to improve local connecthe 90 new suburbs were more than tivity and open up strategic housing sites.

1,500 units in size. Accomplishing this Yet with an electrified railway line conrequired local authorities to get involved necting Oxford with Marylebone and Paddington, there will be the potential in assembling and preparing sites for development, and the national municto run frequent suburban services along ipal investment bank BNG to play a German or Dutch lines, thus reducing supportive role. unnecessary car use.

In Stroud, where there is also pressure Barriers to development from people moving from London, the local councillors have gone for a policy In Oxford, Lloyds Bank research pub-

“THE REAL PROFITS ARE MADE OUT OF

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Springhill Cohousing, social community housing in Stroud, Gloucestershire

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Woodchester Valley Village in the Cotswolds, Inchbrook, Gloucestershire

of concentration on growth points.

In doing so they have missed the chance of developing a sustainable urban extension to the north of Stonehouse, a town that is close to junction 13 of the M5 and has two railway lines running through it. This is the most obviously sustainable location in the Stroud Valleys area.

URBED’s proposal to investigate building a ‘garden city’ style development around a new junction station where the two lines run side by side on land largely owned by the county council has so far not been taken up.

Instead, a private developer is proposing building 1,500 homes to the west of Stonehouse, separated from the town by an industrial estate and the railway.

These put the new housing out of walking distance from the town centre or existing station.

Paradoxically, much of the new housing that should have gone into Stroud is ending up on the edge of Gloucester, which has recorded one of the largest rates of house building in the country, according to the Centre For Cities’ Cities Outlook 2014.

It is small wonder that one of the main complaints of growth companies like Renishaw, the world leader in making robotic sensors, is the difficulty of attracting skilled staff because of housing shortages.

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Lakeview Estate in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

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House building: Foundations for the future If we assume that public money for housing development is not going to increase in the future, then what are our options for building the housing we need?

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SMARTER GROWTH The first sites to develop are around railway stations, particularly on lines that are being upgraded. By providing much better services, commuting patterns could become more like those in Germany, where car ownership may be higher but use is lower. An English planner in the US, Peter Callcott, coined the idea of Transit Oriented Development, and there are now a host of short tram routes serving progressive American cities like Portland and Pittsburgh. Currently, we are investing a great deal in infrastructure, but we are failing to join that up with housing growth. Building houses close to existing infrastructure, such as junctions, reduces the overall cost of community development.

(2)

LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS US cities have long used bonds to fund economic development, and there have been proposals for transferring an approach that some of the leading housing associations are already using to good effect. By using public land as equity, local authorities could boost their incomes, and also achieve other policy goals that have proved beyond the reach of conventional planning. The joint venture company between Grosvenor Estates and Oxford City Council to develop 850 homes at Barton Park is an example of how a different approach can be made to work. What we have with local infrastructure bonds is a renewed link between local funding and local development, too. A Municipal Investment Corporation would mobilise the private investment, as state investment banks do so well in north-west Europe.

(3)

LAND VALUE CAPTURE The final, and possibly most radical, element in overcoming the barriers is to ensure that the difference between agricultural or existing use value and housing land values is reinvested in the ‘commonwealth’, and not siphoned away in land speculation and professional fees. A simple way of doing this, used in Germany, is to freeze the value of land designated for development, and to ensure a proportion goes to the local authority to help pay for associated infrastructure. Such an approach is being actively investigated by Lord Andrew Adonis’s Growth Commission, and could form an important feature in Labour’s ambitious house building plans, as well as in the coalition’s expressed interest in new garden cities.

In Bristol, new jobs with blue chip companies such as Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace are being created in a high-tech zone near the junction of the M4 and M5. Yet the city continues to have one of the weakest public transport systems in the UK. Proposals for a tram that might have run alongside or even used the railway line from Parkway to Temple Meads were abandoned because the local authorities could not agree on where it should terminate.

Nearby Bradley Stoke, with a population of 25,000, and which was once christened “sadly broke” because of the levels of indebtedness, is a sad indictment of the way we build new communities in the UK. Bradley Stoke stands in ironic contrast to Bristol’s

newly won title of Green European Capital for 2015, its progressive Mayor George Ferguson, and its lively community and self-build sector.

Like most British conurbations, the city and the surrounding district councils have fought against each other, as rural districts seek to preserve a carbased way of life, and keep out the ‘urban hordes’.

Smarter growth If we are to match the Dutch record, we need some 400 major housing sites, not just a few new towns.

Although this sounds impossible at first, given our dismal record in recent years it could be achieved if we concentrated development in places that could

The correct solutions The UK is made up of many different economies and geographies, and thus requires more than one solution to the challenges of building more homes and upgrading our local infrastructure.

However, where there is a strong housing market, and real potential for private sector employment growth, it is vital that we stop bickering, and adopt some of the approaches to strategic planning that have enabled continental towns and cities to outpace us (see box, left).

To do this will require pooling knowledge and experience on how much it costs to upgrade transport systems, and the potential impact on car and rail use. For more information contact nicholas@urbed.coop.

Dr Nicholas Falk is a founder of consultancy URBED. Falk and co-author David Rudlin explore the ideas above in more depth in URBED’s successfully shortlisted Uxcester Garden City entry for the Wolfson Economics Prize 2014: http://bit.ly/1lhR4kJ

‘piggyback’ off existing infrastructure and contribute to upgrading existing towns and cities.

It is clear from workshops in both Stroud and Oxford that there is an appetite for building something different and better.

Possible models can be seen around Stroud in the pioneering Community Land Trust scheme at Cashes Green Hospital, the Cohousing development at Springhill, or the Woodchester Valley Village – the first to be run on mutual or co-operative lines.

Although there is little belief outside London that people could be persuaded to leave their cars behind, in fact the remarkable success of Oxford’s Park and Ride scheme shows how strategic planning and municipal investment can change behaviour.

In Cambridge, where distinctive new housing is going up along the route of the Guided Busway, and where the university has raised a bond of £400 million to invest in developing new housing on land it owns, we have the start of something similar to the Dutch or German model.

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DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

Decisions in Focus is where we put the spotlight on some of the more interesting, offbeat and significant planning appeals of the last month – alongside your comments. If you’d like to contribute your insights and analyses to future issues of The Planner, email DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk Plans for a nine-turbine wind farm have been ruled “significantly and demonstrably” harmful to a heritage site at Burton Agnes

ENERGY

Inspector’s consent for Burton Agnes wind farm is overturned (1 S U M M A R Y Communities secretary Eric Pickles has overruled an inspector’s decision to grant planning permission for a wind farm at Burton Agnes.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council refused an application by Wind Prospect Developments for a scheme comprising nine turbines.

English Heritage and the council had raised concerns over the proposal’s impact on designated heritage assets, which include scheduled ancient monuments, listed buildings, conservation areas, archaeological remains and hedgerows of historic importance. The proposal was reduced to six turbines.

(2 C A S E D E T A I L S Inspector Paul Griffiths had found that the scheme would cause a limited degree of harm to the landscape and “less than substantial harm to the significance of designated heritage assets”. He cited a ministerial statement by Pickles in June 2013, which

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made it clear that the need for renewable energy does not “automatically override” environmental objections and communities’ planning concerns. But he said the harm that would be caused by the proposal “would not come close to that” and the benefits of the proposal far outweighed it.

(3 C O N C L U S I O N R E A C H E D Pickles paid special attention to the desirability of preserving and enhancing the character and appearance of the Burton Agnes conservation area,

which includes an Elizabethan stately home. He ruled that the inspector had “placed too much weight on the benefits” and not enough weight on the harm the scheme would cause.

The communities secretary put “considerable importance and weight” on the harm caused to heritage assets.

He cited visual impact, the impact on residential amenity and harm to tourism combined with the proposal’s failure to preserve the setting of Burton Agnes Hall and other heritage assets clearly outweighed the need for

the proposal and its wider economic benefits.

Pickles found that the scheme “significantly and demonstrably” outweighed the benefits when assessed against policies in the National Planning Policy Framework.

He dismissed the appeal.

Appeal reference: www.gov.uk/government/ uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/313263/1405-21_3-in-1_Thornholme_Fields_ Yorks_2190363.pdf

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A renewable energy scheme near Fort Augustus in the Highlands has won consent

(4 A N A LY S I S [1] VICKI REDMAN Since October 2013 a total of 34 onshore wind appeals have been recovered and two applications called in by the secretary of state.

This follows the secretary of state’s announcement on 9 April 2014 to extend the temporary recovery period for renewable appeals by a further 12 months. So far, the secretary of state has determined 13 of those appeals and has refused all except two. Of those refusals, five were made against his inspector’s recommendation to approve.

The starkly opposing views between the secretary of state and his inspector in assessing the planning balance in this case will only serve to increase uncertainty in the planning process for the renewables industry, further disrupting energy investment and growth in this sector.

Following this decision, the secretary of state also went on to refuse RWE Npower’s application for 10 turbines at East Heslerton Wold.

Ecotricity’s challenge of the Black Ditch refusal is due to be heard later this month.

The approach taken by the court in considering the secretary of state’s ability to disagree with his inspector’s recommendation on grounds of landscape impact will be of significant interest to the renewables industry, particularly given that the secretary of state, unlike his inspector, will not have had the benefit of visiting the site himself.

VICKI REDMAN Partner, Bond Dickinson LLP

ENERGY

Highlands wind farm secures consent (1 S U M M A R Y Scotland’s energy minister Fergus Ewing has granted planning consent for a 67-turbine wind farm near Fort Augustus. The proposed Stronelairg wind farm, which will be developed by SSE Renewables on the Garrogie Estate in the Highlands, will have a maximum generating capacity of around 242 MW. Highland Council and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency did not object to the application.

Scottish Natural Heritage, Cairngorms National Park Authority and the John Muir Trust objected on the grounds of effects on the landscape, visual amenity and wild land characteristics of the area.

(2 C A S E D E T A I L S The original application was for 83 turbines with 16 turbines being refused consent to mitigate landscape and visual impacts.

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SSE Renewables said the scheme would be on a plateau about 14 km from Loch Ness and no turbines would be visible throughout the main tourist routes of the Cairngorm National Park, the Great Glen and Loch Ness.

(3 C O N C L U S I O N R E A C H E D Ewing said the development would power the equivalent of up to 114,000 homes and generate up to £30 million of benefits to the Highlands.

The proposal would play a key role in helping Scotland to meet its target of the equivalent of 100 per cent of electricity generated from renewables. About 100 jobs would be created during the development’s construction phase. The development offered “very significant” renewable energy benefits and contributed to sustainable economic growth.

Ewing acknowledged that there are impacts from this development on some sensitive and remote areas, but argued that the turbines’ location had been carefully considered and that the landscape and visual impacts of the reduced development had been mitigated. The

application site is “not an area of pristine land where a strong sense of ‘winless’ can be experienced”.

The wind farm’s designer had gone to considerable lengths to safeguard the area’s wild land character and that any impact had been balanced against the benefits of the development.

The proposal would also comply with the development plan and interim supplementary guidance.

Appeal reference: www.scotland. gov.uk/Resource/0045/00451965. pdf

MIXED­USE DEVELOPMENT

Pickles backs redevelopment of Shell Centre (1 S U M M A R Y Communities secretary Eric Pickles has approved major plans to redevelop the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank, backing an inspector’s decision that the move would not harm the Westminster World Heritage site.

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DECISIONS IN FOCUS MIXED­USE DEVELOPMENT

Portland Hotel appeals allowed (1 S U M M A R Y Two appeals were submitted against Portsmouth City Council’s refusal to grant permission for major developments at the Portland Hotel in Southsea.

(2 C A S E D E T A I L S Braeburn Estates and Shell’s proposes to partly demolish the Shell Centre to make way for a mixed-use development of eight buildings ranging from five to 37 storeys in height. The scheme comprises 218,147 square metres of floorspace – 76,000 sq m for offices, 110,000 sq m for residential and 5,900 sq m for retail. Leisure and community facilities would also be provided with up to 877 apartments, 98 of which would be affordable for rent.

The 27-storey Shell Centre Tower would be retained. The London Borough of Lambeth approved the scheme in May 2013 and it is supported by the Greater London Authority. The application was called in by Pickles last September.

English Heritage objected to the proposal because of its impact on views of nearby historic buildings, including the Palace of Westminster.

Westminster City Council also said the proposal would not preserve or enhance the settings of Elizabeth Tower more popularly known as Big Ben – or the Westminster World Heritage site.

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(3 C O N C L U S I O N R E A C H E D Pickles said the proposal is consistent with the development plan for the area, describing it as of the “highest quality” design and consistent with government policies for conserving and enhancing the historic environment, particularly the character of the South Bank area. He agreed with inspector John Braithwaite that the development “would not be harmful to the setting or outstanding universal value” of the world heritage site. Pickles also praised the development for “successfully optimising” the potential for jobs and homes near public transport.

The proposed development would accommodate 2,000 more office workers than when the Shell Buildings were fully occupied.

(2 C A S E D E T A I L S The first appeal concerned a mixed-use development of three one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments, a coffee house with a cycle and refuse store. The second concerned a mixeduse development of six apartments and a health care clinic. The appeal schemes are identical in proposing a four-storey building with six flats on the upper floors. The difference between them is the ground floor use of either a coffee house or clinic.

The main issues in both appeals are whether the proposals would preserve or enhance the character and appearance of the Owen’s Southsea Conservation Area, their effect on adjoining listed buildings and on the

Left: the Shell Centre.

Below: The conservation area at the Southsea site is “crying out” for redevelopment, said inspector David Smith

living conditions of nearby residents.

(3 C O N C L U S I O N R E A C H E D Inspector David Smith said the conservation area is characterised as a “planned and picturesque villa suburb”, and a significant heritage asset.

A building on the appeal site was demolished in the 1950s following war damage. He said the appeal site is undeveloped, makes a negative contribution to the conservation area and is “crying out” for redevelopment.

The proposed development would be lower than their immediate neighbours, but would not be “lost” visually and would be compatible with the family of buildings in this part of the conservation area.

Adjoining listed buildings would not be adversely affected but would be preserved. Neither would the proposals infringe local plan policy, which seeks to protect amenity and a good living environment for neighbours.

Appeal references: APP/ Z1775/A/13/2207845; APP/ Z1775/A/14/2212705

Appeal reference: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/ file/317718/Called-in_decision_-_ Shell_Centre__2-4_York_Road__ Lambeth__ref_2205181__5_ June_2014_.pdf

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+ We’d like to incorporate your comment, insight and analysis into Decisions in Focus each month. Whether you can offer a brief obversation on a matter of interest within an inspector’s judgement or an informed interpretation of a decision, please let us know by emailing DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk

ROUND­UP Here are 10 more decisions that we think are worth a look this month.

All the details and inspector’s letters can be found on the Planning Portal website: www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk SECRETARY OF STATE DECISIONS

HOUSING CONVERSION

(1) Application: Change of use of a flat to house in multiple occupation (HMO) in Hastings.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issues: Effect on the living conditions of other occupiers and local residents.

Within a 100-metre radius of the property, the number of HMOs makes up 5.7 per cent of homes in the road. The inspector said this was below the 10 per cent threshold set under council policy.

Appeal reference: APP/ B141/A/13/2207098 HOUSING NEW BUILD

flood zone location and proposal’s failure of the sequential test. Inspector also cited the economic wellbeing of the area.

Appeal references: APP/ J1915/A/13/2202546 and 2202548

HOUSING NEW BUILD

(4) Application: To build 37 homes, associated infrastructure and 74 parking spaces at Ardingly, Mid Sussex.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issues: The impact on the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and whether any adverse effects outweigh the benefits.

Appeal reference: APP/ D3830/A/12/2173625

(2) Application: Proposal to build 24 homes and an access road plus open space at Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issues: Whether a 5-year supply of housing land has been demonstrated in line with the National Planning Policy Framework.

Also, the effect on separation between Market Harborough and Great Bowden, and the impact on the countryside.

Appeal reference: APP/ F2415/A/14/2211933

HOUSING NEW BUILD

HOUSING CONVERSION

(5) Application: Conversion of an outbuilding to form a new home at Staverton, Cheltenham.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issues: Whether the conversion is inappropriate in the green belt, whether it would conflict with policies to control residential development in rural area, and the effect on the character and appearance of the building and surrounding area.

Appeal reference: APP/ G1630/A/14/2213913

(3) Application: To demolish a hotel and build 14 homes at Ware, Hertfordshire, plus a second appeal against a refusal to grant conservation area consent.

Decision: Appeals dismissed Main issues: The Environment Agency advised refusal because of the site’s

DEMOLITION

(6) Application: Appeals against an enforcement notice ordering the demolition of a single-storey extension to an outbuilding in the rear garden or a property in the London

Borough of Brent and against a refusal to grant planning permission.

Decision: Both appeals dismissed.

Main issues: The scheme conflicts with development plan policies, curtilage issues, unauthorised extension that harms the character and appearance of the area.

Appeal references: APP/ T5150/C/12/2173850 and APP/T5150/A/12/2171559

HOUSING CONVERSION

(7) Application: A two-storey side extension, a one and two-storey rear extension and change of use from residential to a nursery school in Romford, Essex.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issues: Effect on character and appearance of the property and surrounding area, highway safety and noise and disturbance to residents. With no specific evidence that a nursery in the area would meet local need, the inspector ruled that exceptional circumstances to justify the loss of a home had not been met.

Appeal reference: APP/ B5480/A/14/2212794

COMMERCIAL

(8) Application: Redevelopment of a former pub and construction of a single-storey building to provide a Lidl food store with parking spaces for 70 cars at Warlingham, Croydon.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issues: Effect on highway safety caused by rising traffic and siting of proposed new access.

Appeal reference: APP/ L5240/A/14/2212949

HOUSING CONVERSION

(9) Application: Change of use of land for the siting of a temporary dwelling for three years at an alpaca farm in Maidstone, Kent.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issues: The essential need to live on the site, assuming future expansion of the business. Support for economic growth in rural areas under the National Planning Policy Framework.

Appeal reference: APP/ U2235//13/2210350

HOUSING NEW BUILD

(10) Application: To build four apartments and 10 houses, partial demolition of a building plus access, parking and amenity space and an appeal against a refusal to grant listed building consent at a pub in Amersham, Bucks.

Decision: Both appeals dismissed.

Main issues: The inspector ruled the proposal would fail to meet the economic social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development as identified under the National Planning Policy Framework. The inspector was not persuaded that Chiltern District Council was unable to show a five-year supply of housing land. The plan would be detrimental to the area’s character, and fail to preserve the setting of a listed building. The scheme fails to meet local policy objectives for providing private gardens.

The loss of the pub as a community facility would contravene local policy.

Appeal reference: APP/ X0415/A/13/2206014

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LLegal landscape THE ACCIDENTAL ADVOCATE

“THESE DECISIONS FEEL TOO IMPORTANT TO DEPEND IN SUCH LARGE PART ON THE SELF­CONFIDENCE, TENACITY AND RESILIENCE OF VOLUNTEERS AND COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES”

In the autumn of 2013, plans to build a marina and housing on the historic Thameside filter beds at Seething Wells in Surbiton went to inquiry. Simon Tyrrell, of The Friends of Seething Wells, acted as voluntary advocate for the community. How helpful did he find the planning process to community campaigners?

I’m delighted I took on the role of advocate for the Friends of Seething Wells at a public inquiry – opposing a developer challenging the council’s rejection of its plans for a marina, homes and parking on the ecologically and historically vivid Metropolitan Open Land it owned in Surbiton.

Previous campaigning had been bruising. We were vilified by the developer as hysterical, destructive Nimbys living in cloud cuckoo land, forced to lie and mislead, self-interestedly denying the local community a wonderful opportunity to satisfy our own private agendas.

I’m proud that over the week of the hearing our genuine concern, wellresearched thinking and business-like soberness of language gave the lie to the picture of us that others had painted.

But it was hard work.

Available guidance, while

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Simon Tyrrell clear on process, was thin on practical detail for volunteers. We rehearsed our arguments and evidence, fielding technical and professional specialists across all subjects. But our respected ecology specialist, for example, was competing for acknowledgement and respect with the developer’s costly veteran of 60 appeals who glossed over inconvenient facts and disparaged our experience.

“AVAILABLE GUIDANCE, WHILE CLEAR ON PROCESS, WAS THIN ON PRACTICAL DETAIL FOR VOLUNTEERS”

Nor were we reassured that statutory consultees like the Environment Agency and Natural England appeared to contribute beyond their remit and capability. It was to their advice that the inspector consistently deferred, rather dismissively overlooking our informed challenges in her report.

In contributing their opinion, these authorities appear to focus not on enforcing statutory protection, but rather on how these protections might be overcome to enable development. And why can’t advice be co-ordinated?

Archaeology and heritage protection seem pointlessly but wholly separated at English Heritage, for example.

Even without these reservations about other parties to the process, these decisions feel too important to depend in such large part on the self-confidence, tenacity and resilience of

volunteers and community representatives. Such knowledge and a willingness to contribute to agreeing community benefits could be harvested so much earlier – before the process gets adversarial and weighted in favour of moneyed developers.

And although there was no doubt how important it was that the community voice was heard at this stage of the democratic process, it was heartening to hear the planning authority’s counsel making perfectly clear the significant role that local feeling should play when he castigated the developers: “It is both patronising and contrary to the whole spirit of the importance now attached to local views, for the appellant to try and argue that the claimed benefits for the local community override the clear harm, in circumstances where the local community have reached a clear view to the contrary by a significant majority.”

– SIMON TYRRELL Simon Tyrrell is a founder director of community interest company The Friends of Seething Wells. Find out more about the history of the filter beds and community plans for their enhancement at www. friendsofseethingwells.org

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23/06/2014 11:16

LATEST POSTS FROM THEPLANNER.CO.UK/BLOGS

B LO G S This month… Barristers reflect on the impact of the new Planning Court and Pickles wades in on short-term letting legislation

L E G I S L AT I O N S H O R T S Court signals its intent James Findlay QC and Anitha Ranatunga The new Planning Court proved true to its word in seeking to provide an efficient appeal court to deal with challenges to the grant of planning permission. In the latest round of a ‘store wars’ battle between rival sites in Whittlesey, Cambs, the court refused permission to Harrier Developments (a developer partner of Tesco Stores) to challenge Fenland District Council’s decision to grant consent to Sainsbury’s for a major food store.

The claim had been issued in March and was transferred to the court in April. In refusing permission, Mr Justice Mitting certified Harrier’s claim as “totally without merit” under the new CPR 54.12(7), thereby preventing Harrier from seeking a reconsideration of the decision at an oral permission hearing.

Harrier failed to get permission for a big food store on a site next to that promoted by Sainsbury’s. Its claim for judicial review of Sainsbury’s consent was issued on 3 March and challenged the council’s consideration of retail impact, highways, and thirdparty ownership issues.

Having been transferred to the Planning Court in early April, the claim was categorised as

“significant” by the end of April, committing the court to determine the application for permission within three weeks of Acknowledgments of Service (Practice Direction 54E, para. 3.4).

In refusing permission, Mr Justice Mitting noted that despite the length and erudition of the grounds, they had no merit. This was a classic case for the exercise of judgment by the committee and head of planning and there

were good reasons for the decisions reached.

Hence the application was totally without merit. The robustness with which the permission was dealt will be welcome to those used to the delays of the Administrative Court.

Saying it twice

ought to be catered for.

Pickles’ announcement made me think that the details of this proposal had now been published. But not so. We shall have to await the introduction of amendments to the Deregulation Bill, now wending its way through Parliament. I have no doubt that the amending legislation, when it emerges, will turn out to be hedged with all sorts of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ to stop the sort of free-for-all I warned against in my February column. So Pickles is making more work for lawyers. That’s what I like about ‘reforms’ of the planning system.

They just make planning law even more complicated. In the words of Flanders and Swann: “Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.”

Martin Goodall Eric Pickles sounded off in mid-June about his proposed repeal of section 25 of the Greater London Council Act 1973, which provides that for the purposes of what is now section 55(1) of the 1990 Act, the use as temporary sleeping accommodation of any residential premises in Greater London involves a material change of use of the premises.

I wrote about this when it was first announced after picking it up from the Evening Standard on 24 February, which reported that Kris Hopkins said ministers intended to scrap this provision, so as to allow short-term lets in London. The demand for short-term accommodation during the 2012 Olympics was cited as the sort of thing that ministers think

James Findlay QC and Anitha Ranatunga represented Fenland District Council on behalf of Cornerstone Barristers.

Read more Cornerstone Barristers cases at http:// cornerstonebarristers.com/ news

Martin Goodall is a consultant solicitor with Keystone Law and blogs on planning law at http:// planninglawblog.blogspot. co.uk/

IMAGE | SHUTTERSTOCK

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Police chief bid to block urban extension fails Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Clive Loader’s bid to block the Lubbesthorpe 4,000home sustainable urban extension south of Leicester has failed. The police chief took the unusual step of going to court over Blaby District Council’s consent for the major development over concern that the scheme would put his force under acute pressure because the funding for policing offered as part of the project was inadequate. The development, which will cover 1,000 acres, was given the green light after £40 million was pledged by developers to offset its impact. Nearly £2 million of that funding will go to Leicestershire Police. Loader said the situation was “untenable” and brought the review. However, Mr Justice Foskett QC in the High Court disagreed and lanning found in favour of the local planning authority.

Equestrian claimant wins w in ne battle over wind turbine A Powys businessman who runs u a uns horse-riding centre has been given permission for a judicial review of Powys County Council’s decision to allow the construction of a wind turbine near where he operates at Upper Penarth, Radnor. Graham Williams persuaded the High Court that the council’s decision failed to take into account other applications for wind by y. turbines to be installed nearby.

He said the disputed turbine would have damaging impactt on the local landscape and he economy. “People who come to the h hey Radnor Hills do so because they n nery is are undeveloped and the scenery urbines as world class. They see these turbines m off coming,” said intrusions which will put them Williams.

Barton-Le-Clay house planning row appeal Central Bedfordshire Councill has decided to mount l lanning inspector’s a High Court challenge to a planning decision to uphold an appeal over an enforcement n of an “inappropriate order ordering the demolition extension” to a house in Barton-Le-Clay. The inspector said the notice was defective on the grounds that the enforcement notice did not specify with sufficient clarity the alleged breach of planning control. House owner Syed Raza Shah has been given permission in 2011 to increase the floor space of the house by 45 per cent. The council said the work done equated to a 200 per cent increase and refuses retrospective planning permission last August before issuing the demolition order because the work amounted to inappropriate development in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

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Career { D E V E L O P M E N T C DEALING WITH THE MEDIA

As their media presence increases, planners need to understand how to portray themselves – and the profession – in the best light. Helen Bird finds out what you need to know when talking to the press

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et’s face it, planning is news. Large-scale regenerations, new developments, transport link improvements, the housing crisis – all are matters that thrust planners into the public eye, and yet most planners receive no formal training in communicating with the public.

Talking to the press, whether it be for print or broadcast media, is an important skill that, more likely than not, planners will need to draw upon at some point in their careers. But they must first understand how to approach it to communicate their message effectively.

BBC documentary series Permission Impossible, shown in April, followed the work of Britain's planners

F ION A E DW A RD S —

The bigger picture FIONA EDWARDS, DEVELOPMENT PLANNING MANAGER FOR CHESHIRE WEST AND CHESTER COUNCIL, WAS PART OF THE PLANNING TEAM FEATURED IN THE BBC TWO SERIES PERMISSION IMPOSSIBLE. n “We were approached by the BBC and I met the producer to discuss whether we would be willing to take part. I was pretty sceptical to begin with, because I didn’t really want to take part in what I thought could be another planner-bashing series. But we volunteered to do it because we saw it as an opportunity to promote the profession, as well as the borough.

After the first episode aired I was 40

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asked to go on BBC Breakfast. That is a bit nerve-racking because you’re going on live TV, and you’re not given the questions beforehand, which makes you think: “I hope I don’t clam up.” But luckily I didn’t.

Be honest, because if you’re a planner you’re in it because you’re proud of your profession. Working as a local authority planning officer, you’re not in it to make loads of money and cover yourself in glory; you’re there because you want to make a difference.

So be yourself, and be proud of what you do.

At my council, all of our planning committee meetings are now live webcasts, so although there aren’t intrusive cameras in your face, you are aware that what you’re saying is going out to a live audience, no matter how small it is. One of the most difficult

things is trying to keep a passive face when somebody is saying something that you really don’t agree with. No matter how gifted you are in front of a camera, your emotions, hand gestures, the movement of your features, can give away what you’re really thinking.

It’s important to promote the work that planners do. People think that we’ve got ulterior motives, that we’ve got some sort of personal hidden agenda, but we truly haven’t – we’re just really passionate about what we do. We wouldn’t come to work if we weren’t.”

The interview* n Usually, journalists will already know what they want to say – they just need you to help them say it. Very rarely are they out to trick you.

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It isn’t always easy, but the best media training will help you to prepare your messages quickly

If they do become pushy when questioning you it’s important to keep your cool and stick to the point.

Don’t assume knowledge – communicate in jargon-free language and try to be as helpful as possible.

Rather than treat the interview as a Q&A session, try to offer responses that answer the question while introducing a new idea that will interest the audience. This way you have more control. Finding different ways to repeat your key points, such as by using examples, lets the journalist know what you think is important.

Anticipate any sensitive issues to prepare your most effective lines of

response, with evidence to back up your case.

Know your boundaries – if you’re asked something that is not your responsibility, pass it on to the appropriate person for response.

Avoid saying “no comment” when asked about a difficult issue, as it makes you look guilty. If you can, give reasons why you may not be able to fully answer the question.

Ultimately, it is the audience – not the journalist – that you should keep in mind throughout the interview. *With thanks to Tom Maddocks, course director at Media Training Associates

+

J A MES WHIT E —

Top tips (1) Always involve your communications or media team;

Prepare for the spotlight JAMES WHITE IS MANAGING DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION TRAINING SPECIALIST MEDIA FIRST.

(2) Don’t be afraid of the

media – it’s a powerful tool that will help you communicate to your audience really effectively; and

(3) Know your limits and get some media training.

n “Planning is such a hot topic and has the potential to be very emotive to nearly all of the population.

A planner could affect many people’s lives with their decisions so they’re bound to attract the attention of the media.

It’s vital that anyone speaking to journalists – whether this is a planned or unplanned interaction – has the skills and confidence to deal with the interview professionally, politely, confidently and coherently. They have to be able to manage a political

minefield and deliver their thoughts in a manner that their audience will understand.

The best media training will help you to prepare your messages quickly and give the confidence and ability to handle even the most contentious of questions.

Each case is different but it pays to keep the audience at the forefront of your mind and show compassion and humility. This not only applies to what you say but how you say it.

If something has gone wrong you must demonstrate that you are taking it seriously by giving examples of how you are trying to fix it.

Using appropriate examples and human case studies will really help you to reinforce your points and regain control of a tricky interview. The news is full of people putting their side of the story forward, so you need to work with your communications team to ensure that you have positive examples in place to help you manage any difficult times.

Each type of interview is different and the techniques required to deliver an effective interview are also different.

For example, it’s easy to get lulled into a false sense of security when you’re doing a phone interview as we are so used to talking on the phone. There’s also a big difference in how you manage live and recorded interviews.

It’s all about understanding what the journalist needs, what the audience wants and what your organisation has to say.

Preparation and practice are key.

Ask colleagues to ask you questions and help you figure out how you should respond to them. You are unlikely to have all the answers to hand and that’s where the value of media training comes in.

Never cram too many messages into your interviews. In our training we ask delegates to focus on three key points but to just have one key point that they want people to remember.

Once you’ve decided on your message, make sure you get it out early in the interview – and then keep reiterating it in different guises.”

J U LY 2 0 14 / THE PLA NNER

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INSIGHT

Plan ahead P

Send feedback to editorial@theplanner.co.uk Tweet us @The Planner_RTPI

Through a developer’s eyes How important is it for planners to understand the economics of property development?

Essential, says Tristram Reynolds, and that’s why he’s been telling planners all about it for the past 25 years “In the course of their dayto-day business, development control planners – and every now and then development plan planners – will need to understand market economics and the property industry,” says NHS property manager and RTPI trainer Tristram Reynolds.

“But the operation of the property market is something that is mysteriously absent from most planning courses.”

Yet, with the sheer scale of finance involved in property development and its impact on communities, it can be essential for planners to understand the whys and wherefores of the decisions that developers make. In other words, they need to be able to think like a developer.

Without being able to understand the economics that drive development, planners are at a disadvantage when trying to negotiate successful outcomes and gains for the communities they represent.

In the era of section 106 agreements and community infrastructure levy in particular, this ability is essential.

“Planners are there in effect as the regulator of an industry – the property development industry,” Reynolds says.

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Tristram Reynolds, NHS property manager and RTPI trainer

“Most planners don’t see themselves as such, but that’s what they do.”

After 10 years as a town planner, 20 years in the development industry, and a further 10 years in property management, Reynolds says he has “seen most aspects” of the property market.

Since 1990 he’s been passing on his knowledge and experience through training sessions for planners. On 18 September his ‘Understanding developers and development finance’ masterclass will use lectures, workshops and group activities to help planners get to grips with: c The principles of a development appraisal; c Mistakes that developers make; c Land contracts and options; c The schemes different developers want; c The risks developers face and the profits they seek; and c How to achieve planning gain.

“PLANNERS ARE THERE IN EFFECT AS THE REGULATOR OF AN INDUSTRY – THE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY”

Participants in the masterclass will also get practical experience of working up a development appraisal.

“The desired outcome is twofold,” explains Reynolds.

“Firstly, to ensure that planning gain can be delivered,

and secondly, to ensure that development plan applications can also be delivered.

“I try to make participants feel that the process has been demystified and they now understand the principles that will allow them to do their jobs better.”

U N D E R S TA N D I N G D E V E LO P E R S A N D D E V E LO P M E N T FI N A N C E Where? The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8HN When? 18 September 2014, 9am-4.30pm Theme: Thinking like a developer Find out more and book for this event at: www.bit.ly/1ocMqs0

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DIARY

LISTINGS Talks, conferences, training, master classes – everything you need to keep on top of the latest thinking and developments in the planning world.

NORTH EAST 10 Sept – Design and conservation in the historic environment in a period of diminishing resources Changes being introduced to heritage legislation and the protection and management of the historic environment present opportunities to those in the public, private and third sectors. Can the new measures provide appropriate protection to heritage assets whilst stimulating and supporting growth?

Venue: TBC Details: www.bit.ly/ U6NmRe

NORTH WEST 22 Aug – Manchester – City Centre Development Presentation and two-hour walking tour of parts of Manchester city centre with the city’s Urban Design and Regeneration Team.

Venue: Town Hall, Manchester Details: www.bit. ly/1i89RjM 24 Sept – Housing, Regeneration and Growth A consideration of the context in planning for housing, including meeting the requirements of revised planning guidance and the outcome of government programmes such as Help to Buy. Venue: Eversheds, 70 Great Bridgewater Street, Manchester M1 5ES Details: www.bit. ly/1lEFPQd

YORKSHIRE 09 July – Planning and Transport: Are we nearly there yet?

Drawing on a wide range of case studies, this conference will appeal to planning practitioners, transportation planners, strategists and those

involved in implementation and regeneration.

Venue: National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, York, YO26 4XJ Details: www.bit.ly/1atzdie 10 July – Iconic architecture and the new brutalism The new brutalism movement produced many iconic buildings recognised today for their architectural merit, including Park Hill, Sheffield, and The Roger Stevens building at the University of Leeds. This event will explore the architecture, planning and community concepts of such development, focusing on development designed to rehouse communities destroyed by large-scale slum clearance.

Venue: Sheffield Town Hall, Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 2HH Details: www.bit. ly/1bDE007 10 Sept – Local enterprise partnerships and planning: Rising to the challenge What do strategic economic plans mean for city region and sub-regional planning, economic development and the duty to co-operate?

The conference will review the role of planners in this new context.

Venue: Leeds TBC Details: www.bit.ly/ KmTmAT

EAST 25 Sept – Changing Face of the Countryside Part 1 of a 2-part conference about economic growth, social and environmental change over the last century: green belts and landscape protection.

Venue: Hughes Hall College, Cambridge, CB1 2EW Details: www.bit. ly/19RSQUl 16 October – Changing Economy of Eastern

DON’T MISS Environment and Climate Change Organisers of this day of looking at emerging trends in environmental assessment and wider issues relating to sustainability promise a “thoughtprovoking” review of whether the concept of sustainability really does resolve tensions between economic growth and environmental protection.

Other items on the agenda include how climate change adaptation can influence local planning, ongoing debates about green belt land, green infrastructure policy, biodiversity assessment and sustainable homes. It’s a useful guide to green thinking for planners.

Date: 18 September Venue: Eversheds, 70 Great Bridegwater Street, Manchester M1 5ES Details: www.bit.ly/1i1qHwn

England Part 2 of a 2-part conference about economic growth, social and environmental change over the last century: LEPs, Thames Gateway, diversity Venue: Hughes Hall College, Cambridge, CB1 2EW Details: www.bit. ly/1cNd2rx

WEST MIDLANDS 15 September – Preparing for Public Inquiries and Examinations in Public Full-day seminar led by barristers from No5 Chambers exploring all the procedures and practices to prepare you for a public inquiry or examination.

Venue: De Vere Venues, Colmore Gate, Birmingham B3 2QD Details: www.bit. ly/1cNbJJb 07 October – Planning Law Update Seminar led by planning lawyers on topical legal issues, new and emerging legislation and guidance, recent case law and appeal decisions.

Venue: DLA Piper, Victoria Square House, Birmingham B2 4DL Details: www.bit. ly/19RT1Pt

SOUTH WEST 19 Sept – Planning at the edge: Managing change in coastal communities Coastal communities pose distinctive planning challenges for managing physical, economic and social change. This session will consider alternative approaches to coastal urban regeneration and explore links to the

planning of the marine environment.

Venue: Headland Hotel, Newquay TR7 1EW Details: www.bit. ly/1g5Act0

Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8HN Details: www.bit. ly/1qrzMoO

SOUTH EAST 11 July – Local Planning in a National Park: Opportunity or Opposition?

Taking place in the South Downs National Park, this event will cover the production of a new Local Plan in a National Park; joint working issues and CPD on National Park statutory purposes and duty.

Venue: Lewes Council Offices, Lewes, E Sussex BN7 1AB Details: www.bit. ly/1gw08Pk 18 Sept – Housing event A look at the hot housing topics for 2014-15, including housing satisfaction, housing standards, housing targets and the challenge of meeting rural housing needs Venue: Test Valley Borough Council, Andover, Hants SP10 3AJ Details: www.bit. ly/191TLTS

LONDON 24 Sept – Development quality and the NPPG

30 Sept – Negotiation skills for planning professionals Whether it’s a section 106 agreement, a pay rise or where to go on holiday, negotiation skills are things we use frequently, yet often people find negotiating to be a stressful and unpleasant experience.

This one-day programme will equip you with a range of practical tools and techniques that will improve your chances of a positive outcome.

Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8HN Details: www.bit. ly/1yhNZaf

SCOTLAND 07 Oct – RTPI Scotland Annual Conference: Planning for Legacy Details: TBC Venue: Glasgow

NORTHERN IRELAND 11 Nov – Principles of Planning Details: TBC. Venue: The Guildhall, Derry/Londonderry

IRELAND

Event examining how to deliver high-quality development in the era of localism, including a stepby-step approach through the development and design process – feasibility, technical assessments, public engagement and masterplanning.

Venue: The Hatton (etc

01 Oct – Centenary Law Lecture Details: TBC. Venue: Dublin 13 Nov – RTPI Ireland Centenary Conference: Planning for Economic Growth, Details: To be confirmed.

J U LY 2 0 1144 / TTHE PLA NNER HE P LANNER

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23/06/2014 11:19

NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

by Tino Hernandez at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

QUOTES

Can you make a difference?

THE RTPI IS HOLDING ITS ANNUAL ELECTIONS. OUR STRENGTH COMES FROM MEMBERS’ INVOLVEMENT AND WE HOPE YOU WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE GOVERNANCE OF THE INSTITUTE BY CONSIDERING STANDING AND USING YOUR VOTE, SAYS RTPI GOVERNANCE OFFICER COLIN BENDALL Do you believe in planning and think you could make a difference? What do you think the RTPI should be doing to change people’s perception of planning, to improve the system, to focus on what is really important? Could you help to lead this profession – maybe one day as our President?

This is your opportunity to get involved.

Standing for election will give you the chance to work with a wide range of colleagues and contribute to discussions and decisions affecting the profession.

A depth of experience combined with the zest for new ideas needs to permeate the bodies that influence policy and ultimately decide the future course of the institute. Involvement is likely to be a two-way street. It may help your career development; employers will see the mutual benefits that can arise. You may already have experience helping the regions and nations locally, been active with one of the networks or be a volunteer for Planning Aid. Initially, you may wish to consider standing for General Assembly, the body that debates the current and future issues facing the profession, and which elects the Board of Trustees.

A recent review of the election process concluded that the timetable for elections should be amended so that these take place earlier in the year. This would allow more time to brief and prepare incoming trustees and General Assembly members. It could be of particular benefit to any newly elected vice-president who has not had the experience of previously serving on the Board of Trustees and who will need to devote some time

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RTPI involvement

1

“For me the advantages of being actively involved arise from being able to shape the future of the professional body.

I am keen on policy and research programmes and how they can drive new ideas within the profession.”

2

to familiarisation with RTPI programmes and operations. It is hoped that this change may also make serving in these roles more attractive to a wider member demographic.

The following places will be subject to election this year. The elections are for a two-year term (2015 and 2016): c Vice-president for 2015 (will become President

in 2016) c Chair of the Board of Trustees c Board of Trustees – Trustee to represent

Scotland c Board of Trustees – three places for Chartered

“It gets me involved in planning issues that wouldn’t normally cross my desk, and enables me to meet and keep in touch with planners outside my own field. Most of my role has a national remit, at a macro level, so it is an opportunity to gain an understanding of issues at a regional and local level. It is useful as CPD.”

3

“The benefits to my employer are my increased knowledge and awareness of the wider debates and planning issues and the challenges and opportunities these present. It is a way of engaging in CPD to benefit my own knowledge, which I can disseminate to my colleagues. It is also a way of building networks within the profession.”

Trustees c General Assembly – 14 places for Fellows and

Ordinary Members c General Assembly – three places for Student/

Licentiate Members c General Assembly – two places for Technical

Members c General Assembly – one place for Legal

Member or Legal Associate The election timetable is below: c Friday 20 June – nominations open c Monday 28 July – nominations close c Monday 1 September – voting opens c Monday 29 September – voting closes c Wednesday 1 October – candidates notified of

results c Thursday 2 October – results published c October – candidates asked to express interest

in serving on a RTPI Committee for 2015 c October/November – induction for elected

candidates (date to be advised).

4

“It is a way to meet other planners working in a variety of roles and gain a greater understanding of the way planners engage with and influence the built environment. It is a way to gain CPD experience, broadening my knowledge for my professional benefit and that of my colleagues.

It is also an opportunity to encourage the institute to continually improve services to members.”

n If you would like further information about the elections, please contact the RTPI’s Governance Officer, Colin Bendall, by e-mail: colin. bendall@rtpi.org.uk, or telephone 020 7929 8172.

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494 F: 020 7929 9490

Registered charity no.

262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

RTPI SHORTS

Michael Martin Doctoral Researcher UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER PLANNER AND DESIGNER , BPUD LTD

(1) What do you currently do?

I am a Doctoral Researcher and Teaching Assistant at the University of Manchester. My research concerns temporary land uses and in particular the role of such uses as tools for the regeneration of brownfield sites. I also teach on a number of modules concerned with urban design and property development. Alongside my research, I dabble in practice as a planner and designer at BPUD Ltd, working on various masterplanning projects as well as an array of neighbourhood plans.

(2) If I wasn’t in planning, I’d probably be….

A pilot. It was all I ever wanted to be. I looked into various options from the RAF to a rather expensive flight school in Florida. In the end I tried to go the aerospace engineering route, but that relied on my comprehension of AS-level physics. These things happen for a reason – I would never have discovered planning otherwise.

(3) What has been your biggest career challenge to date?

Choosing between research or practice. I was worried that by undertaking a PhD I would limit myself, but I was very silly to think so. I never could have imagined the opportunities that have since become available to me and through my work with BPUD Ltd I have been able to find a happy medium.

(4) What attracted you to the profession?

I wanted to do something that allowed me to use my A-level subjects but also led to a particular job. I arrived at planning after scouring a ‘big book’ of degrees and from the moment I read the description I knew it was perfect. I was fascinated with regeneration, the likes of Laganside and Titanic Quarter, Belfast, and wanted to one day work and design schemes like these. Little did I know I would end up doing so via a doctorate.

(5) If you could change one thing about the planning profession, what would it be?

What I would like to change is how the profession is governed, namely the national policy focus on growth. ‘Planning for growth’ marginalises vast areas of our cities and breeds inequality across the country. We have had many experiences of recession and weak economic conditions (1974, 1990 and again in 2008), yet the attitude has always remained – business as usual. We should instead see recession as opportunity, turn our attention to ‘planning without growth’ and learn how to develop viable, functioning and inclusive cities and places under conditions of decline!

CENTENARY ISSUE OF PLANNING THEORY AND PRACTICE The centenary issue of Planning Theory And Practice, the institute’s peer-reviewed academic journal, was published in March 2014. This includes a special section presenting RTPI-commissioned essays on the future of professional planning 100 years on from the founding of the institute.

The eight thoughtprovoking essays ask absolutely critical questions about the future of professional planning. All have a common theme and message – calling on planners to act as leaders in facing the challenges of the future.

Edited by RTPI Fellow Kelvin MacDonald, his opening essay asks whether planners have “emancipated

society” as the founders of planning hoped.

MacDonald poses three big questions for the profession in the 21st century: What are the purpose(s) of planning; who planners should be serving; and how the profession can develop. To MacDonald, these questions call on planners to step up as leaders in response to major 21st century challenges such as environmental destruction and social injustice.

n These essays are free to access on the Planning Theory and Practice website at: www.tandfonline. com/r/ptp-rtpi-centenary-issue

SIR TERRY FARRELL, CBE DELIVERS CENTENARY LECTURE Sir Terry Farrell, one of the world’s leading architect planners, delivered RTPI Yorkshire’s Centenary Lecture last month at the Rose Bowl in Leeds.

Kindly sponsored by DWF LLP, the lecture entitled ‘Creating Places’ was delivered to 200 of the leading planners in Yorkshire.

Following the recent publication of the Farrell Review here, Sir Terry considered why the issue of “place” matters in the design of communities, why we need more collaborative working to plan positively for future growth and to overcome the shortfall of housing, and why engagement with community values and aspirations is so vital.

Simon Smales, chair of RTPI Yorkshire, said: “We’re really pleased to host Sir Terry Farrell, one of Britain’s leading architects and planners, in Leeds.

His review on the impact of good design on planning and community development makes a significant contribution.”

J U LY 2 0 14 / THE PLA NNER

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NEWS

RTPI { Award-winning young planners cross the pond ALISON WRIGHT AND IAN STEVENS, TWO YOUNG PLANNERS FROM THE UK, RECENTLY ATTENDED THE AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION’S NATIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE IN ATLANTA

ALISON WRIGHT

IAN STEVENS

Alison Wright is an Alison attended in her capacity as RTPI Young associate planner at Savills Planner of the Year 2013, and Ian was awarded Oxford. Ian Stevens is a senior planning policy the RTPI Cymru North Wales Chapter Centenary officer at Conwy Council Travel Award. The conference took place over five days with more than 5,000 planners attending from 30 countries to share knowledge and best practice.

Alison and Ian delivered a joint presentation with delegates from the RTPI that forecast the key challenges for the planning profession over the next 100 years. Alison also took part in a “Fast, Funny and Passionate Session” and presented on local planning conflicts in her home town of Oxford.

A fascinating theme that Ian learnt about during the conference was the impact of millennials on planning, both in the present and future.

Millennials, those born after 1982, are mobile in their job searches, less interested in larger homes than their elders, and are more willing to pay a premium to live within 10 minutes walk or cycle trip from work and neighbourhood facilities. Evidence also suggests that millennials, contrary to public perceptions, are more interested in home ownership over renting (affordability being the key barrier), and prefer living in suburbs to central city living.

46

Atlanta’s planning commissioner discussed how millennials are affecting the planning system in Atlanta. Millennials’ preferences for higher-rise condominiums and public transport have led to resources being targeted on green infrastructure investments and a bike-share programme being launched next year. Another case study from Washington DC looked at millennials’ preference for choice, for example, in public transport options (bike sharing and smartphone apps, parking spaces, and street car reintroduction) giving cost reductions. Millennials are also changing the normative behaviours in the places they live; connectivity, both in public transport and online networks, effects on companies – jobs are therefore now moving to the areas of critical mass (84 per cent of the DC regional office space under construction is within a quarter of a mile of a metro station). A further project that was referenced was the “lobby project”, which is reimagining office lobbies through temporary projects, creating more active and utilised spaces inspired by boutique hotel lobbies.

Alison’s lasting impression of the conference was the closing keynote speech from Candy Chang, an artist, journalist and planner who now lives in New Orleans. Chang focuses on bringing art and social interaction to public spaces. Her experiments began after the death of a loved one when Chang painted the side of an abandoned house in her neighbourhood with chalk and wrote, “Before I die I want to...”. Anyone walking by could pick up a piece of chalk, reflect on their lives, and share their personal aspirations in a public space. Within a day, people had covered the wall with their aspirations and there are now more than 400 ‘Before I Die’ walls in more than 60 countries. Chang continued her experiments with the ‘Neighborland’ project, which focused on the idea of combining planning with public art. Simply put, a group of stickers were placed on disused buildings with the words “I wish this was...”, leaving space for visiting members of the public to write down their inspirations for the future of the building.

The advantage of this type of public engagement is the ability to reach a wide audience, its anonymity, and the opportunity to personally handwrite your thoughts. Alison adds: “Candy’s key message in encouraging more inclusive public participation in planning was to have an open mind, to find ways for the quiet ones to share their views and to have fun whilst doing it! Her story was inspirational and thoughtprovoking and I’d encourage everyone to take a look at her website [www.candychang.com].”

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STEP CHANGE

RTPI members discuss their big career-changing decisions RTPI DOES 11 INTERVIEWS IN ONE DAY RTPI recently filled the airwaves with as many as 11 interviews in a single day on housing issues, Chief Executive Trudi Elliott was up very early, discussing housing and planning on BBC 5 Live’s Wake Up To Money, then went over to provide the lead interview in an extended piece on BBC London’s Breakfast Show, before taking part in a succession of local BBC radio interviews that were broadcast from Shropshire to Stoke.

Trudi was asked for interviews in the wake of the governor of the Bank of England’s warning of an overheating housing market. What did the RTPI think were the main problems in preventing more homes being built? During the interviews she referenced our recent housing and infrastructure reports, as well as RTPI-commissioned research on household formations. n To find out more on the RTPI@ views on housing visit: www.rtpi.org.uk/briefing-room

“TO BE ABLE TO HELP SHAPE THE ENVIRONMENT OF SUCH AN ICONIC LANDSCAPE IS A PRIVILEGE”

Jonathan Cawley Director of Planning and Cultural Heritage SNOWDONIA NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY

CENTENARY CYCLE CHALLENGE SUCCESS Leading consultancies Barton Willmore and Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners were delighted to sponsor and take part in the recent RTPI North East Centenary Cycle Challenge.

Open to RTPI members and non-members, more than 30 participants turned out to mark the occasion created to celebrate the RTPI’s centenary year, which started from The Cycle Hub in Newcastle upon Tyne. Participants could choose either a 100km route or, for the less energetic, a 50km was also included. Stephen Litherland, RTPI North East Chairman and group planning manager at house builder Bellway Homes, said: “It was fantastic to see RTPI members and colleagues come together from all sectors to share in the North East’s Centenary celebrations.”

The event is just one of a number being held in the region to mark the RTPI’s 100th birthday and will culminate in a Special Centenary Ball and Awards ceremony in October.

My experience is of one career-changing decision leading to another. After completing my degree in Newcastle I stayed in the North-East and worked for Newcastle Airport as an airport planner – an unusual but interesting start. Then I followed the more standard local government route, which resulted in my being appointed as planning policy manager at Denbighshire County Council. Despite five enjoyable years there, I had a nagging ambition in the back of my mind to return to the private sector to take on new challenges.

This led me to join West Coast Energy Ltd as a planning and development manager. This was a great opportunity, with renewable energy interests across the UK. It gave me experience in dealing with large developments at various stages in the development processes, dealing with specialist environmental professionals – landscape architects to noise consultants – and it provided a lot of public inquiry experience. I also got involved in issues that I had not previously considered, such as lobbying and public relations. In the long term the onshore wind industry will become increasingly tough and a slightly uncertain environment for planners.

This led me to my role as planning director for Snowdonia National Park Authority, which I joined about a year ago. This is a satisfying role for several reasons – to be able to help shape the environment of such an iconic landscape is a privilege, and a big responsibility. We have a committed team who have helped me settle in to my role. It is also satisfying to work in predominantly Welsh-speaking communities and a work environment that does most of its business in Welsh. I have two young children and you won’t get a greater motivator than the belief that we are helping shape the National Park’s economy, environment and landscape for future generations to live in, work in and enjoy.

J U LY 2 0 1 4 / THE PLA NNER

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23/06/2014 12:58

ADVERTISEMENTS

Recruitment { Uttlesford is an attractive district in North Essex which contains a very high number of important listed buildings and conservation areas.

The district is under considerable development pressures and is currently responding positively to the Government’s growth agenda.

Senior Planning OfƂcer (Development Management) Salary PO1- 4 £28,922- £31,160 (Ref: GDC001/1003)

We require an experienced Town Planner, who is a Corporate Member of the RTPI, with a positive “can-do” approach to development, to handle a varied caseload including large development planning applications. The successful candidate will be able to work with minimum supervision, support the Team Leader and mentor and assist in the development of other team members.

For an informal discussion about this post, please contact Nigel Brown, Development Manager on 01799 510476 or Karen Denmark, Development Management Team Leader (South) on 01799 510495 Interviews intended week commencing 11 August 2014.

In addition we are seeking an additional

Conservation OfƂcer, Salary PO1- 4 £28,922- £31,160 (Ref:S880)

We require an experienced Conservation OfƂcer, who has a professional qualiƂcation in architecture, planning, building surveying or urban design and is a member of the RTPI/IHBC and/or RIBA also comprehensive working knowledge and experience of design, Conservation Areas and Listed Buildings.For an informal discussion about this post, please contact Andrew Taylor, Assistant Director on 01799 510601.

If you are interested in either post please telephone our 24 hour recruitment answerphone on 01799 510666 quoting the relevant reference for an application form and information pack, or alternatively visit our website at www.uttlesford.gov.uk to download an application form.

The closing date for completed applications is 24 July 2014.

CVs and agencies will not be accepted. | We positively welcome applicants from all sections of the community.

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PLAN YOUR NEXT MOVE

on the move • • • •

See latest job listings Create job alerts by email Save and email jobs from mobile Apply for jobs by saving your CV to your profile • Keep track of your activity

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ADVERTISEMENTS

Associate / Director – Planning & EIA RPS Group is an international environmental consultancy employing over 5,000 people. We provide advice upon the development and management of the built & natural environment and the exploration and production of energy and other natural resources.

The Infrastructure Business Stream, providing services across the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland, wishes to recruit an Associate / Director to join our Planning and EIA team based in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Planning and EIA team provides a range of services primarily centred on development advice, planning applications, appeals and the preparation of Environmental Statements. The work is concentrated on (but not confined to) renewable energy, minerals, waste, residential and infrastructure projects.

We are looking for an individual with the following attributes: • Chartered Town Planner (MRTPI) and/ or IMEA membership; • Significant experience of development projects and consultancy within Scotland; • Previous experience of playing a leading role within a planning and/or environmental team; • Considerable experience of business development activities and a record of winning instructions from new clients; • An interest in working with a diverse range of clients; • A full driving licence.

Please send a CV and covering letter by email to jessica.norcliffe@rpsgroup.com or post to: RPS Group Plc, Human Resources, Unit A1, Lowfields Business Park, Elland, West Yorkshire, HX5 9DE. For full job description and person specification, please visit our website www.joinrps.com Closing date for applications: 18th July 2014 In return, RPS offers an attractive remuneration package.

RPS is an Equal Opportunities employer.

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19/06/2014 16:35

Principal Planning Officer £33,998 to £36,676

Reach the largest possible talent pool of RTPI candidates by advertising your planning vacancies in The Planner.

The new RTPI magazine provides the only way to access all 20,000+ members each month and is the best way to reach the largest targeted and relevant audience.

Sedgemoor is a fast growing place in the heart of Somerset with significant environmental challenges including the impact of Hinkley Point C and National Grid Projects. We are looking for an experienced and dynamic individual to be responsible to lead one of two area teams, together with a team of specialists. The successful applicant will have substantial experience within development management as a Senior Officer and be committed to performance management and improving customer service.

For further information regarding the above vacancy please visit our website: www.sedgemoor.gov.uk/vacancies

The next booking deadline for Recruitment Advertising is: 1.30pm Thursday 17th July

Closing date: Friday 18th July 2014 Interview date: Thursday 31st July 2014 To request an application pack please contact our Customer Services Team: 24 hour Recruitment Answer Phone: 01278 435444 E-mail: customer.services@sedgemoor.gov.uk

Please contact the recruitment team on 020 7880 7665 or email david.barry@redactive.co.uk

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23/06/2014 11:43 23/06/2014 11:47

INSIGHT

Plan B P

BIGGER, BETTER, BECKHAM Obviously, we’re loathe to let the World Cup slip by with no mention of the footie. So it’s good that the planning gods have gifted us a story. Current England ‘star’ Adam Lallana made the news recently (well, the Daily Mail, to be precise) because of a football court that he had built in his back garden without the proper permissions. Tut. David Beckham, as ever, does it bigger and better. Not for him some crummy little football court for ‘kickabouts’ in a garden in Hampshire.

No way, Jose. Becks has applied to build an entire 20,000-seater stadium. For his own professional team.

In Miami.

The outcome was pretty much the same, though.

Having gone through the proper channels, Beckham Miami United’s application was turned down. Tut.

TELLY SAVALAS: MY KIND OF VOICEOVER ARTIST Major redevelopment nt of Birmingham city centre is great for the city but would no doubt have produced a small, achy pang of sorrow in the heart of the late and undeniably great Telly Savalas.

We may think of the Kojak star as a glamorous character, but in 1981 he famously provided voiceover for a wonderful tourism promotion film about Birmingham called – obviously – Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham.

In it, the ex-Bond villain extols the virtues of the city’s postwar rebuilding (including the execrable Bullring), its parks and gardens and its family-friendly atmosphere while informing us – repeatedly and shamelessly – that Birmingham is “my kind of town”.

The funniest thing is that this isn’t even the funniest thing.

No, the actual funniest thing is that Telly Savalas Looks At Birmingham was just one in a series of films in which Telly Savalas “looks at” some of the most unappealing cities in recession-hit recession-hit Britain in the early

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1980s. For what few people realise is that Telly also cast his discerning eye over Portsmouth and Aberdeen before the series petered out. One assumes the end came because the whole thing made its British cinema audience cringe, rather than race up the M1 to Brum, where the sun always shines, it seems (director Harold Baim only filmed on sunny days).

Plan B thinks the time is ripe to revive this wonderful series extolling the virtues of Britain’s most unattractive towns and cities.

Obviously, Telly is no longer available for the gig, but we reckon your average Hollywood celeb would break their arm for such a prestigious role. How about these for starters?

(1) Katy Perry looks at Bacup (2) Robert Pattinson looks at Barnes (3) Angelina Jolie looks at Newport (4) George Clooney looks at Swindon – in February.

Ah, we’re easily pleased. n By the way, you can see clips from all three ‘Telly Savalas Looks At’ films on the marvellous Baim Films collection website: www.baimfilms.com/clips/ w

Torbay local newspaper the Herald Express reports that councillors made a planning decision in early June on the toss of a coin when deciding whether hether to allow a takeaway van to continue trading in a children’s en’s play park.

Five of the councillors ncillors present at the Torbay bay Council place policy development opment group committee meeting had authority to vote. But the chair – deputy mayor David avid Thomas – could not exercise se his casting vote because he runs uns his own takeaway van nearr the play park

iin question. The honest C Councillor Thomas justified his d decision by – quite reasonably – pointing to the recent Police F Federation election of a new c chair that was decided on the ttoss of coin.

In fact, electoral law says this iis OK in the UK. It’s also OK in C Canada and The Philippines, w where it’s a ‘best of five’ affair.

In Torbay, the coin opted to g go with heads – no takeaway v van – and thus the group rrecommended to the Mayor of T Torbay that Atomic Café owner C Claire Hall be denied the right tto sell Capri Sun and hot dogs to k kids in a play park.

Ms Hall complained – also

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quite reasonably – that “It just seems like a game to them”.

We think that in the spirit of the British values of fair play and decency on which we built a nation (and its electoral system), Claire Hall should be given a best of five toss to really make sure of the outcome.

Each toss could take place on a different night in a different venue before ‘live viewers’, thus building tension and bringing an entirely new audience to the arcane world of local planning decisions.

If we’re going to treat people’s livelihoods as a game, then let’s really make it a game. Or are we being a touch too flippant here?

23/06/2014 11:21

Celebrate with the RTPI in 2014 To mark the occasion of our Centenary a number of projects and events are taking place throughout the year.

Check out the RTPI Centenary 2014 page on our ZHEVLWH WR À QG RXW ZKDW \RXU UHJLRQ LV GRLQJ DQG KRZ \RX FDQ JHW LQYROYHG 2XU &HQWHQDU\ LV D WUHPHQGRXV RSSRUWXQLW\ WR UDLVH WKH SUR¿ OH RI SODQQLQJ the Institute and its membership and the profession as a whole. It gives us a unique chance to look forward to the future of planning whilst at the same time celebrating our rich history and past experience.

rtpi.org.uk

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19/06/2014 17:18

Are you proud of planning and proud of planners?

If you want to let the planning world know of a great initiative, award, major project or just want to endorse some of the great work that planners across the world are involved in, then join our Facebook page today.

Find us at: Proud of planning proud of planners.

Set up by the Royal Town Planning Institute, following the RTPI’s President Dr Peter Geraghty’s inaugural speech in January 2013, to demonstrate pride in the profession and its achievements.

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19/06/2014 24/09/2013 17:19 12:32