The Planner - February 2020

FEBRUARY 2020 A PROFESSION UNDER PRESSURE // p.6 • HAIL TO THE CHIEFS // p.20 • WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE // p.24 • IS OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING? // p.28 • TECH LANDSCAPE: TECH TENSIONS // p.33 • NATIONS & REGIONS: EAST MIDLANDS // p.36

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

The satisfaction gap

77%

66% 54%

48% 74% 28% PUBLIC

PRIVATE ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR...

DEVELOPMENT

THE PLANNER CAREERS SURVEY 2020: Read about the reported divide between public and private sectors on pages 6 and 7

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SALARY RESOURCES

15/01/2020 15:28

“The future of the RTPI is bright.

This is a bold, ambitious plan for how to get there”

O

urs is a dynamic membership organisation with the convening power to successfully deliver our new corporate strategy. In support of our three principal areas of activity to influence, to lead learning and to be here for our members - we have identified four ‘pillars’ of focus that we will develop and deliver over the duration of the strategy.

The Four Pillars Promoting the value of membership and professionalism n The RTPI will deliver a compelling member value proposition Supporting planning services n The RTPI will be the leading advocate for campaigning for well-resourced, effective, planning functions Raising the profile of planning n The RTPI will invest in an ambitious communications and public affairs strategy to better campaign and articulate the purpose and value of planning Promoting equality, diversity and inclusivity n The RTPI will champion a diverse and representative profession This robust framework provides us with a direction, a strategy for delivery and the ambition to drive it in a

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convincing and timely way.

We want to do more for our members and their employers. We will harness our passion for placemaking to attract diverse new talent into planning. We want to attract the very best into the profession we all love, exploring opportunities to expand our planning school accreditation programmes and considering how best to support students and their RTPI-accredited educational institutions.

We will offer excellent CPD and training to our members, broadening our offering’s appeal and accessibility.

We will support our volunteer networks, including Planning Aid England, to deliver more for our members and strengthen our national and regional activity where the heart of the profession is found.

We will invest further in our world-class research, practice and policy work to improve practice and the delivery of planning excellence.

And we will leverage this capability to raise our profile and influence policymakers to ensure tangible impacts and meaningful outcomes.

We are a dynamic, innovative and resilient profession that responds to new challenges and works collaboratively with partners to solve problems at all levels from local to global. Our partners will share and support our values, ethical ambitions and quality standards while enabling us to collectively do more and effect

greater change. The opportunities to address these challenges are significant; we can and will play a positive and instrumental role in tackling them.

The initiatives detailed in this strategy are an investment in our future, but we recognise that other ideas will emerge over the coming 10 years. These will take resources and energy to address. The executive team and active volunteer members across the nations and regions are ready to embrace the challenges that lie ahead.

We want to be the best we can be.

We believe this strategy is deliverable and with a three-year rolling robust business plan, the resources to deliver the corporate strategy will provide clarity and will prioritise delivery. We will set manageable targets for each three-year period in accordance with the resources available to deliver them. Overall, we seek to grow membership by 10 per cent over the life of the corporate strategy. By working together we will achieve great success.

Victoria Hills, MRTPI, FICE Chief Executive

15/01/2020 10:20

Realising our mission

Vision

Foundations

Pillars

What we do

To be the world’s leading professional planning body. our ambition is to promte healthy, socially inclusive, economically and environmentally sustainable places

Inuence

Memb

Stand up for planning and promote good planning policy practice

Represent, and prom planners a profess

The value of membership

Member Services

Nations and Regions

Supporting planning services

International Strategy

Research and Policy

Brand

Climate 3

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15/01/2020 10:21

For more details visit www.rtpi.org.uk/corporatestrategy

Realising our mission

Mission

ent, support promote ers and the fession

Educate, train and maintain advanced professional standards

Raising the proďŹ le of planning

Diversifying our sources of income

Professional volunteering

Pillars

Learning

Equality, diversity and inclusivity

Governance

The right home for the RTPI

Business planning

Foundations

mbers

What we do

To advance the science and art of planning, working for the long-term common good and wellbeing of current and future generations

te action

PLANNER FINAL gatefold.indd 4

15/01/2020 10:42

“The RTPI is at an exciting juncture in its history as we set out a new corporate strategy.”

I

n 2020, as we celebrate 60 years of our Royal Charter, the RTPI is introducing a new corporate strategy for the next 10 years. Preparing it has been a substantial exercise involving extensive consultation with members, stakeholders in government, partners in academia, other professions, members of the public and the third sector.

The process has provided us with a clear direction based on what all these parties have said which has then been reviewed by our officers, General Assembly, committees, regions, nations and Board of Trustees.

We are therefore confident that our 2020-2030 corporate strategy is robust and that it supports the objectives set out in our Royal Charter. We would therefore like to thank all who contributed their time and ideas.

The planning profession is more relevant than ever before as it faces new environmental, societal, technological and resourcing challenges against a backdrop of rapid urbanisation, challenging regulation and climate change.

The RTPI exists for its members and to promote the science and art of planning.

We build communities of members that can learn from and support each other, ensuring that each of us is capable of tackling these challenges head on with confidence and integrity.

Key to developing our new strategy was revisiting our vision and mission, creating a framework within which we can rise to meet the challenges ahead.

3 RTPI Sue_February 2020_The Planner 3

Our principal activities The RTPI is a leading global professional body shaping a positive future for the common good. In support of our vision and mission we do three things: n We influence – by standing up for planning and promoting good planning policy and practice.

Through our policy and research, communications, marketing and our events, we employ the RTPI’s unique position as a learned society to promote good planning and lead on policy development and research globally to promote planning in the long term public interest. n We are here for our members - by representing, supporting and promoting planners and the profession. We work for members to promote a diverse and inclusive profession and to positively influence stakeholders on our member priorities. We effectively govern ourselves to be as effective as we can be within our limited resources. n We lead learning – through education, training and the maintenance of advanced professional standards. We deliver and accredit professional, world class education, training and research. We promote an ethos of life-long learning and continuing professional development.

We ensure that the profession upholds the highest ethics and professional standards. We provide professional practice guidance.

OUR VISION: To be the world’s leading professional planning body. Our ambition is to promote healthy, socially inclusive, economically and environmentally sustainable places.

OUR MISSION: To advance the science and art of planning, working for the long-term common good and wellbeing of current and future generations.

This new corporate strategy gives the RTPI a firm footing to achieve our vision and mission, and we will work with our partners to realise these ambitions. The Board of Trustees looks forward to your support over the months and years to come.

Sue Bridge FRTPI Chair, Board of Trustees

15/01/2020 09:44

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15/01/2020 13:38

CONTENTS

FEBRU ARY

08 NEWS 6 A profession under pressure – Careers Survey 2020 8 Infrastructure: Why planners must think smarter 9 13 per cent decline in applications lodged in Northern Ireland 10 Exiting the EU – the environmental and construction challenges 12 RTPI Gold Medal winner awarded MBE 14 Scotland prepares law to regulate short-term lets

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24

OPINION

16 Louise BrookeSmith: I want to be an astronaut 18 Alexandra Egge: Pull down the barriers to build better planning careers 18 Freddie Bell: Why employee wellbeing is now a recruiting tool in planning 19 Andrew Close: Inspiring the next generation and championing planning through CPD 19 John Kennedy: Planning should play a greater role in creating district heat networks

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“THERE ARE AN ALMOST ENDLESS NUMBER OF WAYS IN WHICH CONTAINERS CAN BE USED AND REUSED” JUSTIN BEARDSELL ON HIS FIRM’S SOLUTION FOR ‘ATTACHING ALMOST ANYTHING TO A SHIPPING CONTAINER’ WITH APPLICATIONS IN THE TINY HOME, SELF BUILD AND SUSTAINABLE BUILD SECTORS

20 20

“HEALTHIER, FITTER, HAPPIER PEOPLE ARE LIKELY TO PRODUCE BETTER WORK AND FEEL A GREATER ASSOCIATION WITH THEIR ORGANISATION AND ITS PURPOSE.”

FEATURES

INSIGHT 33 Tech landscape: The Planner’s Careers Survey revealed growing use of tech in planning – and mixed feelings about its impacts

20 Huw Morris finds out what being a chief planner involves 24 Employers face greater expectations that they will provide for staff wellbeing in the workplace. Serena Ralston asks how planning fares 28 Simon Wicks looks at how planners feel about the training and development opportunities provided by their employers

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36 Nations & Regions: East Midlands

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38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 42 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B considers a satire career break

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NEWS

Report { THE PLANNER CAREERS SURVEY 2020

A profession under pressure

By Simon Wicks Just 28 per cent of public sector planners feel that their team or department has the resources it needs to deliver its goals compared with 74 per cent in the private sector. Furthermore, according to The Planner’s 2020 Careers Survey, almost four in 10 (39 per cent) public sector planners feel that their team or department is not valued by their employer, compared with only 15 per cent in the private sector.

These findings indicate a growing disparity in resources since last year’s survey, when 31 per cent of public sector planners and 71 per cent of private sector planners felt that their team or department had sufficient resources.

In terms of feeling valued, the survey shows a worsening of feeling among both public and private sector planners (32 per cent and 9 per cent respectively in 2019).

“Planners are not utilised for all the skills they have, we are underpaid, disrespected and yet have many skills key to the evolution of local government engaging in strategic planning and issues such as climate change,” commented one young planner from the South East working in the public sector. “Planners are not allowed to plan.”

In this year’s Careers Survey, we asked RTPI members about: n salaries; n working conditions; n training and development; and n tech in the workplace.

The overall picture revealed by our 549 respondents is a mixed one: across a range of indicators, generally more than half of planners express satisfaction with their career paths and working conditions, and the survey reveals plenty of positive stories. Yet there is a large enough minority who said they are not happy to cause concern about the state of planning careers in 2020.

The big story is the extent to which this dissatisfaction is skewed towards

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teams, poor or absent leadership (some planners working in the public sector. reported having no head of planning), For example, 77 per cent of private sector poorly maintained workplaces, reduced planners said they were happy with training budgets, imposed hot-desking, opportunities for development provided and agile working undermining team by their employer, yet only 54 per cent of spirit. public sector planners reported feeling It’s not all wine and roses in the the same. These are both decreases private sector, either. More than one on 2019 (81 per cent and 59 per cent commentator complained about the respectively). pressures of working in an ultraMeanwhile, a new question about commercial environment. “The salaries revealed that 46 per cent of company relies on us all doing silly planners felt they were underpaid paid hours. No training is provided. No team for their position or level of responsiblity. at all. Stressful. Every second of our day A third (34 per cent) of private sector has to be charged to a client,” said a planners said they felt they this way; private sector planner in the South West. meanwhile, more than half (52 per cent) Victoria Hills, RTPI president, of public sector planners told us that said that the “worrying low levels of they felt underpaid. job satisfaction among planners”, Some comments left by respondents particularly in the public sector, tallied reveal a sector under pressure. with the institute’s own research.

“Recently half the planners in my “[This] has found that the role of team have left and not been replaced, the planning function within local which has adversely affected the team government has been reduced to such dynamic,” observed one public sector planner in the South West “The team is great, but due to staffing cuts we’re overworked, >> DO YOU FEEL YOUR under pressure TEAM/DEPARTMENT HAS constantly and THE RESOURCES IT NEEDS facing constant TO DELIVER ITS GOALS? negativity from the outside world," noted PUBLIC SECTOR a public sector planner from the East Midlands.

“This has a huge PRIVATE SECTOR bearing on staff morale.”

Respondents repeatedly settled on the same sources of dissatisfaction: limited promotion opportunities, dwindling

74%

28%

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PLAN UPFRONT

54%

82% PRIVATE SECTOR

My physical working environment is good

70% PUBLIC SECTOR

My physical working environment is OK

3% PRIVATE SECTOR

46% PUBLIC SECTOR

>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR PROGRESS TOWARDS YOUR DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

43% PRIVATE SECTOR

PUBLIC SECTOR

35% PUBLIC SECTOR

PRIVATE SECTOR

54% PRIVATE SECTOR

77%

>> HOW HAPPY ARE YOU WITH YOUR PHYSICAL WORKING ENVIRONMENT?

19% PUBLIC SECTOR

>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED BY YOUR EMPLOYER?

My physical working environment is poor

Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

an extent that many councils are now unable to tackle social, economic and environmental challenges effectively.”

The RTPI, she stressed, was fighting for more resources as a main pillar of its new corporate strategy (see gatefold at the front of this issue) and through campaigns. “Planning is crucial to the delivery of local authorities’ corporate strategies – the RTPI is working, through initiatives such as the Chief Planners of Tomorrow work-shadowing scheme and HOPE, its annual summit of heads of planning, to ensure planning is returned to the heart of local government.”

Anna Rose, head of the Planning Advisory Service, said the survey results reflected the stresses apparent at “more troubled” councils. “Those councils that either have been affected by austerity or haven’t managed it as well as others

tend to have these pockets of people who feel disenfranchised or where morale is very low,” she observed.

However, there are also “progressive” councils where “the opposite is true”, she said. “They have managed this situation far better in terms of their planning team and have managed to retain expertise and also a progression route and exciting projects to work on.

“My worry is that councils over recent years have had a tendency to outsource the more interesting work that they do to the private sector. The council either doesn’t think there’s the capacity nor trusts the skill set in-house. That frustrates junior members of staff.”

A mixed picture Overall, the survey illustrates a profession adapting to change with mixed results.

There are many positive stories, where planners report on creative, supportive employers using their resources in a way that enables their staff to do their jobs well. But the pressures faced by planners are impossible to ignore.

“All planners, whether in the public or private sector, must be adequately resourced to deliver the sustainable communities that people want to live in and specifically to reach net-zero carbon targets by 2050,” said Hills. n Download the full results (pdf) from: bit.ly/planner0220-CareersSurvey201920 n Read responses to the survey by Victoria Hills and Anna Rose by signing up to our weekly Careers Month email newsletters during February. If you receive Planner newsletters, you will get these automatically: bit.ly/planner0220-Careers

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NEWS

Analysis { TRANSPORT PLANNING

Infrastructure: Why planners must think smarter

By Laura Edgar Continued growth, the climate crisis, equality and the way we will all get around in the future are the complex issues facing transport planning. How can we move forward when these issues conflict with one another? The annual Transport Planning Network conference, facilitated by the RTPI and the Transport Planning Society, attempted to address all of this while also considering whether the planning system is equipped to deal with these challenges.

Unlocking development and economic productivity Keith Mitchell, director, community development and infrastructure at Peter Brett Associates (PBA) questioned the continued use of the ‘predict and provide’ approach, particularly given that over the past 20 years car use by men aged 17 to 34 has fallen 48 per cent, according to PBA’s own figures.

“What we’re currently doing,” he said, “is planning an environment where it is assumed we know what we’re predicting, and we’re providing for it, when actually what we ought to be doing is assuming that we know nothing, that the future is uncertain, and that we ought to create plans that allow us to adapt solutions that meet the needs of society. That’s a really different thing.”

It starts, said Mitchell, with asking what it is we want to achieve? How do we create conditions so that communities are fit for the future? Can we also be smarter about the infrastructure that we provide?

Delivering net-zero carbon Leo Murray, co-director at the Possible

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consultancy, pointed out how the government’s road to zero strategy does not feature measures to reduce traffic.

Rather, it currently plans for a 50 per cent increase in traffic between now and 2050 – the date by which the Paris agreement states the world economy should not be emitting more greenhouse gases than it can absorb.

The UK’s net-zero target requires 20,000 internal combustion engines to be taken off the road every week for the next 30 years, calculated Murray. Each passing week without progress being made means more cars needing removal.

Murray suggested a focus on cities.

“All of our major cities and towns basically need, in the next 10 years, to make private car use completely obsolete.

And in small towns, where they’re likely to remain dependent on cars for the foreseeable future, that’s basically where electric vehicles need to go.”

The climate crisis, said Mitchell, is an “existential imperative” that provides a “huge opportunity to completely reinvent how we get around cities”.

Promoting equality and inclusivity Joanna Ward, associate transport planner at Elliott Wood Partnership, referred to Caroline Criado-Perez’s book Invisible Women, in which she presents examples of how transport systems could be built with gender bias.

One Swedish study found that clearing snow from roads before footpaths disproportionately impacted women, who were more likely to walk, rather than men, who tended to drive to work.

“Women are more likely to use public transport. But public transport is designed for unpaid care work, change trips, school runs and then to work, or

“THE CLIMATE CRISIS PROVIDES A HUGE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPLETELY REINVENT HOW WE GET AROUND CITIES” – LEO MURRAY

from school to the shops.

Bus routes built simply for the commute fail mums or dads doing the local school run who then journey to work.”

To address this, planners must constantly ask, “who is not in the room?” A range of people with different experiences must always be engaged in public consultations.

Adapting to future mobility trends It was left to James Gleave, director at Mobility Lab, to emphasise the importance of looking beyond the surface to meet the many demands outlined at the conference. Citing traffic congestion as an example, he highlighted how it was too I M AG E | I STO C K

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PLAN UPFRONT

13% decline in applications lodged in Northern Ireland planning applications were 13% 2,944 submitted in the second quarter of 2019/2020. This is a decline of 13 per cent compared with Q1.

The 2,944 planning applications breaks down to

2,907 local applications and 37 major applications.

3,161

5%

Between July and September 2019 (Q2), planning applications were decided upon – a 5 per cent increase on the previous quarter and 3 per cent on the same period a year earlier.

83 per cent

Across councils, of enforcement cases were concluded within 39 weeks during the first six months of 2019/20, which meets the statutory target of 70 per cent and represents an increase on the figure reported for the same period a year earlier – 81 per cent.

Source: Northern Ireland Executive

easy to say, “let’s build a bypass” rather than ask if that is the right thing to do.

Gleave asked delegates what powers they, as professionals and decisionmakers, would give up to achieve future mobility aspirations and allow communities to shape their own futures.

“As planners, transport planners and public servants, sometimes we do ourselves a disservice by just focusing on control, regulation and funding.”

In a workshop session, delegates considered the ability of the planning system to address these issues.

While local planning authorities lack the power to directly implement change, national legislation – such as the UK Climate Change Act 2008 and the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 – provides them with stronger hooks for their plans and policies.

Delegates agreed that further climate activism could drive a transition towards greater use of sustainable transport, which in turn could unlock opportunities for development.

Decline in applications received over the summer in England 106,500

District-level planning authorities received planning applications between July and September 2019 – 4 per cent fewer than in the same quarter of 2018.

90,600

District councils granted decisions (88 per cent) during that quarter.

11,500 residential developments were granted, 3 per cent fewer than the same quarter in 2018.

2,200

commercial development applications were granted, 4 per cent fewer than a year earlier.

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

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NEWS

Analysis { POLITICS AND PLANNING

Exiting the EU – the environmental and construction challenges

By Laura Edgar

Environment As The Planner’s February edition headed to press, MPs had just voted in favour of the EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill. But although this constitutes a significant milestone in what has been an often-torturous process, much work lies ahead.

During the 11-month transition period that has now been triggered, the UK will continue to contribute to the EU’s budget and follow its rules. These include its environmental directives, but already there is concern about what may lie ahead in this area.

A key difference between Theresa May’s and Boris Johnson’s bill is that May’s provided reassurance on nonregression for environmental protection.

In the latter bill this component appears to have been lifted out, the government instead indicating that it will legislate separately to raise environmental standards – presumably, according to Ben Kite, managing director at ecological consultancy EPR, through its forthcoming environment bill.

“This places some doubt on reassurances that the UK will continue to be committed to the environmental standards previously set and enforced by the EU,” reasons Kite. “This leaves a worrying question mark over the longterm future of our environment should there be external pressure to water down standards to secure trade deals or the like.”

Such watering down could be “very

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significant”, believes Janice Morphet, visiting professor at the UCL Bartlett School of Planning.

From a minute past midnight on 1 January 2021, she says, “we can expect challenges to the UK courts”, the extent of which will depend on how much the UK agrees to the ‘level the playing field’ approach in UK / EU trade talks before then – “but [the playing field] will need to be non-aligned to EU environment regulations in order to do deals with the US on agriculture”.

As an individual signatory to the UN Paris Climate Accord and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UK will need to abide by them. But “compliance is much less policed outside of the EU”, explains Morphet. Outside of the EU, citizens can’t take the government to court for non-compliance, she adds.

RTPI head of policy Richard Blyth says that the EU will offer different levels of trade access in return for different levels of alignment. “The UK will wish to maximise the trade access for the minimum amount of alignment.

Expect this to go to the wire,” he warns.

The UK devolution settlement made in 1999 assumed that the EU would oversee and manage a single environmental policy for the UK, with EU directives transposed into each UK country’s own regulations. Noting that, the Scottish Government, for example, has expressed a desire to maintain close alignment with the EU.

“IN A POST­BREXIT WORLD, THE UK COULD SEE AN INCREASED RISK TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION”

“This could lead to tensions,” Blyth told The Planner, “as the UK Government may seek to impose a single view of the environment across the UK single market. This would be strongly resisted by other governments in the UK, which currently have very full environmental powers.”

The environment bill provides for the establishment of an Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) to replace the role of the European Commission in implementing environmental law.

The OEP will have a “very influential” role on the development of environmental protection regulation, say Patrick Duffy, director, environmental planning, and Elizabeth McFadyean, associate director, environmental

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PLAN UPFRONT

and both sides would be likely to agree “relatively easily” to the same standards for things like pipework and electricals.

“However, this would complicate trade deals with third countries which we know is dear to the heart of the cabinet.”

For Brian Berry, chief executive of the Federation of Master Builders, the government needs to look again at its post-Brexit immigration system to make it easier and simpler for small building companies needing to recruit non-UK labour.

“Given it takes many years to train a high-quality tradesperson,” says Berry,

planning, at Avison Young.

But while it will be an independent body, “it may still be subject to the will of the government on how it reacts to wider political imperatives”.

It is thus possible, they argue, that this could lead to a relaxation of environmental regulations and targets as a means of gaining short-term competitive advantage.

Duffy and McFadyean suggest that a question remains over “when and how the OEP will be implemented, as this will need to happen prior to 31 December 2020”.

“Without it, and in a post-Brexit world, the UK could see an increased risk to environmental protection.”

Perhaps, speculated Duffy and McFadyean, public awareness of biodiversity gain and climate change “will keep the government’s feet to the fire on these issues”.

Construction Other concerns for a post-Brexit world are the worsening skills crisis for the construction industry and the issue of importing materials. The RTPI sits on a multi-institute group on Brexit, says Blyth, and the group has expressed I M AG E S | I STO C K / A L A M Y

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Concerns have been expressed about the potential for the relaxation of environmental regulations

concerns on both.

It expects the construction industry to lobby for continued access to skilled labour, but this would be by concession by the Home Office, Blyth explains, not as of right as present. As construction labour seems to migrate short distances, the EU, says Blyth, is an “important source” of it.

Regarding materials, Blyth sees two issues. While he expects customs and the tariff-free movement of construction products to be one of the easier areas to negotiate, standards – and whether current standards for building products will be aligned – is a more complicated issue. Alignment would save “complicated paperwork”,

“there will, in the short term at least, continue to be an urgent need to recruit non-UK labour. Without this labour the industry will not be able to deliver the homes and key infrastructure projects that are needed to underpin the UK’s national productivity and growth.”

With over half of smaller builders struggling to recruit a bricklayer or carpenter, it could prove “very difficult” to fill these roles from outside of the UK under the proposed points-based immigration system.

Berry urged the government to work with the industry to ensure that the new immigration system works for the construction industry, and that the National Skills Fund “trains our domestic workforce or else the sector will struggle to deliver”.

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NEWS

News { RTPI Gold Medal winner awarded MBE in New Year’s Honours Paul Barnard MRTPI has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours, one of a number of housing industry professionals to be recognised.

Barnard, Plymouth City Council’s service director for strategic planning and infrastructure, received the MBE for services to planning in the city.

It caps a busy few weeks for Barnard.

In December,the RTPI’s awarded him its Gold Medal in recognition of his “exceptional” achievement in planning.

The institute said his “leadership, planning expertise, ability to innovate and sheer determination” have led to the planning services at Plymouth City Council being considered among the best in the country. (See page 46.)

Paul Joseph Harbard, non-executive director and founding partner of Pocket Living, and Martin Jewell MRTPI Rtd, also received MBEs for services to

From left: Paul Barnard, Paul Joseph Harbard and Polly Neate

innovative housing delivery in London and to charity and for services to business start-ups and to charity in Enfield, London, respectively.

Polly Neate, chief executive at Shelter, received a CBE for services to homelessness. Also awarded CBEs were Peter Freeman, founder of developer Argent, for services to housing and communities, and Carol Matthews, chief executive at The Riverside Group Limited, for services to social housing.

OBEs were awarded to: Dr Michael Bingham MRTPI, policy lead, National Planning Policy Framework, for services to planning; Professor Sadie Morgan, founding director of dRMM Architects, for services to the advocacy of design in

the built environment; Ali Akbor, chief executive officer at Unity Housing Association, for services to the community in Leeds; and Professor Patrick Gray, chair at Connswater Homes Limited and former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, for services to housing in Northern Ireland (City of Londonderry).

Jeremy Pocklington, director general for housing, planning and building safety at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his public service, while former planning minister Bob Neill, MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, was knighted for political service.

New-build green heating on the cards in Scotland The Scottish Government has announced changes to building regulations to ensure all new homes use renewable or lowcarbon heating from 2024.

The plans to increase energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions for newbuild homes will run alongside a £30 million investment in renewable heat projects. Renewable and low-carbon heating systems will also be phased in for non-domestic buildings approved from 2024.

Energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “We will ensure that new homes and buildings across Scotland meet the challenge of the climate emergency,

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combining the action we need to take on climate change with our ambition to provide affordable, warm homes.”

The administration is also reviewing the energy standards in building regulations. ulations.

Housing and planning minister Kevin Stewart wart added: “Social landlords are already eady making excellent progress ogress towards their energy

efficiency target, and with this standard we will help homeowners to do the same.

“By the end of 2021, we will have allocated more than £1 billion since 2009 to tackle fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat.”

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DEBATE | NETWORK | DISCOVER

-81( 0 / LONDON

New name, new voices: The Planner Live 2020 Two full days of conference sessions, a presidential dinner and a host of networking opportunities.

Here are just some of the speakers already confirmed.

Make sure you're there to add your voice to the debate.

THE MODERNISER: Mark Farmer, CEO, Cast Real Estate & Construction Consultancy

p04_PLN.FEB20.indd 2

Book now { EARLY BIRD RATES FROM £200 Discount valid unti 29/02/2020

THE ENVIRONMENTALIST: Jeremy Purseglove, Author of Taming the Flood and Working with Nature

London's County Hall, Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 June 2020

THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENTIST: Araceli Camargo, Neuroscientist and Co-founder, Centric Lab

« #PlannerLive2020 rtpi.org.uk/plannerlive

13/01/2020 17:44

NEWS

News { Scotland prepares law to regulate short-term lets Scottish housing minister Kevin Stewart has announced that local authorities will be able to implement a licensing scheme for short-term lets from the spring of 2021.

The new measures will allow councils to “know and understand” what is happening in their area, to improve safety and assist with the effective handling of complaints.

The Scottish Government explained that the licensing

scheme will include a new mandatory safety requirement covering every type of short-term let, such as Airbnb, to guarantee a good-experience for visitors. Through it, councils will have the discretion to apply conditions to address the concerns of local residents. The scheme will let councils designate control areas where permission would always be required to change the use of whole properties for short lets.

Wales amends planning rules for allotment sheds A consultation has been published on proposals to dispense with the need for planning permission to erect sheds or glasshouses on allotment sites in Wales.

Permission is currently required in most circumstances, but the Welsh Government’s consultation proposes that planning rules be amended so that a shed or glasshouse can be built on each plot subject to size limits.

It is also proposed that a limit of one shed/glasshouse per 125 square metres (half a plot) is introduced.

It is suggested that the

changes would reduce the number of minor applications that local planning authorities have to consider so that resources could be devoted to more complex cases.

Julie James, local government minister, said that the current requirement to obtain planning permission for a shed or a glasshouse on an allotment “imposes unwarranted costs on individuals and local planning authorities”. n The consultation ends on 28 February. See (pdf): bit.ly/ planner0220-Allotments

APPROVED

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

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LEADER COMMENT

Opinion onn Putting planning's resourcing issue front and centre – In a world of digitisation and databases it can be all too easy to commodify certain job roles. It’s fairly easy to assign a perceived value – usually a low one to what accountants see as repetitive process activities.

But work that involves a less predictable ebb and flow of checks, balances, creativity and nuanced appraisal? That kind of thing tends to defy easy pricing. Nevertheless, in a hyper-competitive world all activities comprising socalled ‘knowledge work’ are being assessed on a line-byline basis like never before.

I say this from the perspective of someone who sees it happening in media itself as well as other professions whose titles are published from the same offices as The Planner. But as the results of our 2020 Careers Survey show, the resourcing of planning is just as affected by a beancounting mentality. Peter

Martin Read Rees CBE, professor of places and city planning with the Bartlett School of Planning at UCL, had a delicious quote in the recent ’50 Shades of Planning’ podcast. Talking of central government’s resourcing of planning, he said: “If a problem has to be reduced down to what a politician or a civil servant can understand, then it will have to be on a spreadsheet and a spreadsheet has never made a place.”

RTPI CEO Victoria Hills, in response to our survey,

expressed concern that local authorities are outsourcing ‘the more interesting’ planning work to the private sector. That would suggest the process work is being left back in the council where it will continue to be ever more aggressively timeand-motion assessed by the accountants.

This situation does not provide a recipe for happy, empowered planning teams.

Maddening, really, when of all the departments in a typical authority, planning is surely the one that would benefit most from a dynamic team structure and the sense of camaraderie and purpose that we know such a structure engenders.

The thing is that we all know that go-ahead,

"WE ALL KNOW THAT GO­AHEAD, INNOVATIVE PLANNING DEPARTMENTS ABSOLUTELY EXIST"

innovative planning departments absolutely exist. Just look at the teams nominated for the RTPI Team of the Year award.

Our profile of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, (2018 Team of the Year winners) was peppered with quotes from its team leaders such as “we’re incredibly lucky because of the team we have,” and “we’ve taken them with us through every change we’ve made.” Evidence of the camaraderie that leads to good work and outcomes.

No one disputes the importance of the resourcing issue, but we know there are many strong stories about council planning departments being run by creative, empowered leaders.. I’ve taken our 2020 careers survey findings, as a spur to do more in these pages to celebrate and explain how local authority planning teams in progressive authorities are operating, with a view to getting others to sit up and notice. Watch this space.

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£120 – UK £175 – Overseas To subscribe, call 01580 883844 or email subs@redactive.co.uk – alternatively, you can subscribe online at subs.theplanner. co.uk/subscribe © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 78 Chamber Street, London E1 8BL This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about planning issues and articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the RTPI nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact.

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in part in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither RTPI nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed by PCP Ltd.

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

O Opinion

I want to be an astronaut ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ It’s the perennial question that all youngsters are asked at some stage by well-meaning relatives, says Louise Brooke-Smith.

These days I’d like to think that we don’t automatically think of gender stereotyping.

So when little Oliver wants to be a nurse and Olivia wants to be a firefighter we shout hurrah in unison.

But it’s a little odd to think that someone’s chosen career path will lead to 30 years with the same organisation followed by a gold watch.

Today’s career paths are so different. While little Helena might be good at maths and Jonny might like animals at age seven, does this have any bearing on how they will eventually earn a living?

Kids excel at what they enjoy and in our exam-driven culture it used to be the case that our profession was full of people who in their teens had shown some interest in human geography. But while there is some correlation, do the best planners really need to know their Abercrombies from their Von Thunans?

Some of the best planners I know started life in very different arenas and excelled because roles have changed and they happen to have the right aptitude rather than an encyclopedic knowledge. And in any event, the idea of ‘good planning’ is tricky to define.

Sadly, the public and political perception is that it’s a means to an end rather than a tool to improve our environment. As such, the skills of a ‘successful’

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planner have changed. They must have a mix of project management and PR skills at their core, balancing different strands of activity, working to fixed deadlines under increasing pressure, diminishing budgets, and draconian performance targets and then ensuring different stakeholders are all kept relatively happy.

Understanding and applying the current rules and regs is something of a secondary level of knowledge.

A successful planner has to add financial acumen, design empathy and a full understanding of the economics of the development industry.

Passing those land use theory and law exams years ago was just a means to an end as today’s digital innovation allows much of the technical and legal side to be accessed by an app or Google search.

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“THREE YEARS IN THE SAME PLACE IS COMMONLY SEEN AS MORE THAN ENOUGH” So perhaps we should be looking beyond Oliver and Olivia’s interests and concentrate on their soft skills, their interaction with others, how they react to rules and how they solve challenges to achieve their goals. And when they get what they want, what do they do next? Inevitably they move on to completely new targets – much like the career pattern they will follow later.

Few people stand still and three years in the same place is commonly seen as more than enough. There is also an acceptance that if your environment isn’t conducive

to your goals then you can and should do something about it. That can involve changing things from the inside and risking retribution from those who don’t recognise why organisations have to change to be relevant, to simply upping sticks and moving on.

Skills and experience seem to be acquired far quicker these days and can be used as stepping stones to the next stage of any career. Is planning a flexible career choice to accommodate all the categories of bright young things? Could we see planning as a far broader ‘land use’ profession and present it in a different way to make use of those soft skills that can differentiate between a nine-to-fiver and someone with passion and effectiveness? We can all accept the benefits of digital innovation and it’s a no-brainer to be inclusive when staffing our ranks. But perhaps we should also think about the soft skills that make the difference between a planner and a great planner to ensure that the profession stays relevant to them.

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

15/01/2020 09:52

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB “We have always tried to find the right balance between the need for growth in housing and employment land and the need to protect our unique environment.”

I M AG E S |

ISTOCK / ALAMY / SHUTTERSTOCK

BOB STANDLEY, LEADER OF WEALDEN DISTRICT COUNCIL, EXPRESSING HIS FRUSTRATION AT HAVING TO WITHDRAW ITS DRAFT LOCAL PLAN

“Securing the delivery of pitches in plan-led developments should be no different from other forms of housing.”

TRISTAN PEAT, FORWARD PLANNING TEAM LEADER AT MID DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL, COMMENTING ON A PROJECT INVESTIGATING THE BARRIERS LOCAL AUTHORITIES FACE WHEN TRYING TO INCLUDE GYPSY TRAVELLER SITES AS PART OF MIXED USE DEVELOPMENTS ON THE EDGE OF TOWNS

“We saw more industry action around sustainability in the second half of 2019 than in the whole preceding decade.

Ultimately, achieving net zero is an engineering problem that needs a technical solution.”

SIMON WYATT, SUSTAINABILITY PARTNER AT CUNDALL, OUTLINES ITS SUPPORT FOR THE UN’S #2030ISNOW CAMPAIGN AND ITS OWN #YEAROFNETZERO INITIATIVE

“Technology is changing so fast that it has nullified all the traditional wisdom of securing borders.”

HIMANSHU GARG, INDUSTRY PRINCIPAL WITH FROST & SULLIVAN’S MEASA REGION AEROSPACE & DEFENCE PRACTICE, ON EMERGING NEW W DYNAMICS IN THE DEFINITION AND SECURITY OF BORDERS

“This isn’t just about houses, jobs, roads and schools. It’s more than bricks, mortar and bitumen. It’s about people and about heart and soul, opportunity and aspiration for everyone in the town.”

COUNCILLOR FERRIS COWPER, PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR WHITEHILL & BORDON AT EAST HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL, ON PLANS TO DELIVER A ‘FUTURE PROOFED’ NEW TOWN CENTRE

“Ministers and policymakers must move beyond the misconception that shire counties are all affluent.”

COUNCILLOR DAVID WILLIAMS, CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNTY COUNCILS NETWORK AND LEADER OF HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL, ON THE CCN’S URGING OF GOVERNMENT TO ABANDON ITS ‘CITY CENTRIC POLICY OBSESSION’

“There are an almost endless number of ways in which containers can be used and reused.”

DOMINO CLAMPS FOUNDER JUSTIN BEARDSELL ON HIS FIRM’S SOLUTION FOR ‘ATTACHING ALMOST ANYTHING TO A SHIPPING CONTAINER’. APPLICATIONS FOR THEIR USE ARE SEEN IN THE TINY HOME, SELF BUILD AND SUSTAINABLE BUILDING SECTORS.

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

O Opinion

1 BLOG

Alexandra Egge is a transport planner at Mott McDonald and the first RTPI Cymru Young Planner of the Year

Pull down the barriers to build better planning careers

I have always been fascinated by the way the built environment influences the course of people’s lives. I followed this curiosity to a master’s degree in spatial planning, where I explored the impact of urban design upon wayfinding and the psychological processes of navigating the built environment.

I wanted to understand how to use urban design to create vibrant, walkable cities and how to dissect the psychological systems underpinning them. I was drawn to transport planning as a way to apply this analytical approach to placemaking on a larger scale.

As a transport planner, I work to create mobility systems that respond to human behaviour and connect c o m m u n i t i e s.

Transport planning is at times viewed as a niche corner of the planning industry, but when we consider the transformational power of mobility to improve access to jobs and services, create viable new sites for development and support regeneration, it becomes clear that transport is at the very heart of effective placemaking.

I’m an advocate for the integration of social and placemaking impacts of transport projects to ensure that community outcomes are at the heart of projects from the start.

The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015 creates a legal requirement to embed sustainable development

Freddie Bell MRTPI is principal recruitment consultant at Mattinson Partnership

Why employee wellbeing is now a recruiting tool in planning

into development. My colleagues and I are pioneering new tools for transport planners to embed this act into our decisions to ensure that the transport systems we’re building today will create resilient communities in the future.

I’m constantly trying to think about the holistic interplay of systems within spaces and it’s this perspective that prompted me to change the way we consider community wellbeing impacts in the transport sector.

I believe my background in spatial planning makes me a more holistically minded transport planner and my experience within transport planning makes me a more analytical spatial planner.

There is much to be gained when we remove the barriers between different specialisms and encourage people to move between sectors and develop truly multidisciplinary views of planning. By working with specialists in different fields, from transport to health to ecology, planners gain a better understanding of the complex systems within which we operate and how to ensure that a holistic view shapes planning decisions.

I recommend young planners to consider developing a specialism in transport, health, economics or another niche at the start of their careers. The best way to foster a dynamic and inclusive planning profession is to give experts from a range of sectors a place at the table.

“THERE IS MUCH TO BE GAINED WHEN WE REMOVE THE BARRIERS BETWEEN DIFFERENT SPECIALISMS”

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2 BLOG

Over the past decade, planners at junior to intermediate level have been paid extremely well. While Northern and rural regions are closer to national averages, planners in large urban centres and the South East have financially prospered.

The median London salary is £34,473, but I regularly speak with senior planners in the city who, with just four to five years’ post-qualification experience, are earning over £40,000.

This is no bad thing and has happened as a natural result of there being fewer planners than there are jobs. But as more planners join the profession, this is showing signs of rebalancing itself and companies are refusing to pay what they once did.

So how do forward-thinking practices attract the best staff? By fostering a culture of wellbeing.

Young planners are often attracted by three main things: a good salary, training and development opportunities, and flexible working hours.

My research shows that the average salary paid to planners is marginally down on past years, with employers looking for more expertise before paying premium wages. Therefore, companies not offering a premium salary to attract high-level staff might want to consider their wellbeing offer.

First, this could focus on training and development. Often looked at as a chance to improve

technical planning knowledge, sessions could also look at managing work/life balance and mental wellbeing at work.

Second, more companies are now offering flexible working hours, part-time opportunities, or home-working options – and this is actually an area where the public sector is leading the way.

These organisations are providing more autonomy to employees to manage their workload to fit their personal life.

This is just a one-sided snapshot of flexible working and there are many factors to consider in implementing it effectively. But if offering flexibility allows your firm to attract high-quality planners, keeping them motivated and healthy, why wouldn’t you look at it?

These are also solutions to help hire and retain from a wider pool of talent; parttime hours are more desirable for employees returning from maternity/paternity leave and it’s easier to schedule a school run if you have flexible working hours.

As workers look at how employers view their wellbeing, especially when looking for a new job, it’s time for companies to reflect on broader solutions for their staff.

And if you’re a planner looking for a job, what motivates you? If a better work/life balance is top of your agenda, then in a market adjusting itself you will have to temper your salary expectations.

“IT’S TIME FOR COMPANIES TO REFLECT ON BROADER SOLUTIONS FOR THEIR STAFF”

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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

3 BLOG

Andrew Close MRTPI is head of careers, education and professional development at the RTPI, overseeing the institute’s accreditation, CPD, apprenticeship and training teams

Inspiring the next generation and championing planning through CPD

Your institute continues to develop resources to engage with teachers and young people through its Future Planners Ambassadors campaign, the introduction of the apprenticeships scheme and an annual school competition.

Many RTPI members also wish to ‘give back’ and inspire new planners. Throughout all our work as planners, RTPI members represent the profession on a daily basis, something that is recognised in the code of conduct expectations of integrity and reputation.

Though 50 hours of required CPD over two years only amounts to half an hour a week, I know from friends it may sometimes feel a chore. Can it be fun? Well yes – under the institute’s core CPD framework I’d like to propose we all think of ourselves as Future Planners Ambassadors and use some of those 50 hours to actively participate and advocate planning as a career choice.

‘Championing Planning’ is top of the list of 10 areas of professional development identified in the core CPD framework. Perhaps as part of your personal CPD goals you want to practise your presentation and Q&A skills, and use consultations on work proposals to raise awareness in local schools and convert university students.

Inspired?

Register your ideas and activity with us at ambassadors@rtpi.org.uk The framework sets out

4 BLOG

guidance for members because the RTPI’s role must be more than just monitoring. It is based on research done with members and employers, and is not compulsory but sets the standard for the profession. It is hopefully broad enough for members at any point of their career.

I am struck by great examples within The Planner Careers Survey of members taking responsibility for their own CPD. We would like more employers to support members to do this – look no further than the winner of the RTPI Learning Partner of the Year award in 2019: Edinburgh City Council.

All four skills from the survey in which planners feel they need training (technical, project management, management, soft skills) are provided at various locations in this year’s RTPI UK training programme – you can book these masterclasses on our website.

So if you are stuck for options, I’d urge you to look out for the Core CPD badge. ‘Championing Planning’ also relates to how planners can practice and improve their effectiveness through mediation, negotiation and good communication in the workplace.

Look out for online advice on communication tips and engagement techniques on RTPI Learn in 2020. Members can sign up for free to choose bite-size e-learning modules to do while commuting or at lunchtime.

“THE FRAMEWORK SETS OUT GUIDANCE FOR MEMBERS BECAUSE THE RTPI’S ROLE MUST BE MORE THAN JUST MONITORING”

John Kennedy is a land consultant with WSP and a postgraduate in urban and regional planning

Planning should play a greater role in creating district heat networks

Heating our homes has been a grey area for town planners.

The preparation of the local development plan is often at arm’s length from what happens on gas or electricity grids.

But the energy landscape is changing. Big on the climate agenda is decarbonising heat supply for homes and businesses.

Chief among the solutions is district heating: a ‘low-regrets’ infrastructural necessity as we sift through the range of heat sources available, like biomass or waste heat – that is to say, the network itself can be built before committing to a specific heat source.

The spatial nature of heat networks determines that the planning system will own the problem of distributing the UK’s future low and zero-carbon heat supply.

It seems we have an addiction to the gas boiler, as only 1 per cent of Scottish homes are fed by heat networks (in Denmark it’s 65 per cent). The Scottish Government is addressing this through pilots of the Local Heating and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) that oblige local authorities to produce a heat strategy comprised of two parts: the development of ‘zones’; and a regulated approach to socioeconomic assessments on each heat network project.

Zoning and project assessment.

Sound familiar? There are significant parallels between the zoning process for heating and

developing a local plan, while socio-economic assessments are akin to development planning.

The decarbonisation of heat supply should be a planning issue.

Commercial viability of heat networks requires two things: a guarantee of long-term demand to ensure a return of investment and a minimisation of capital costs. Planners have a central role in addressing this through the local plan, such as the colocation of industries producing waste heat with areas of high heat demand.

Our training has always told us to avoid this colocation.

But breweries, factories and watercourses produce excess heat, and that waste heat can be funnelled into our homes. LHEES recommends socio-economic assessments for district heating project applications, a process well set up for development management planners. This is because the assessment is largely a demographic analysis exercise.

The complexity of local energy planning requires a pooling of resources and well-collated local knowledge, data for which the local authority is the custodian.

There are also shared objectives between LHEES and what we, as modern planners, are trying to achieve. Taking gas boilers out of homes will categorically improve air quality. Wasn’t our profession largely born out of addressing this issue?

“PLANNERS WILL OWN THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTING THE UK’S LOW AND ZERO­CARBON HEAT SUPPLY”

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LIFE AT THE TOP THE END GOAL OF MANY A CAREER IN PLANNING IS TO HEAD A LOCAL AUTHORITY PLANNING TEAM. HUW MORRIS FINDS OUT WHAT BEING A CHIEF PLANNER INVOLVES

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fter a decade of stringent cuts, for planning and building control. “Dealing with financial straitjackets, constantly the strategic to the minutiae – when a member changing legislation and hamstringing has an issue it doesn’t matter how small or of planning’s influence, one question big it may seem, it needs to be dealt with and stands out. Who would want to head a dealt with properly. It involves meeting, liaising, local authority planning department? discussing and negotiating with a whole range of The answer is plenty of people, with job bodies, be they major investors through strategic satisfaction a huge draw. Bath and North East developments, to extensions and alterations of Somerset Council development residents or commercial business, and public protection director Lisa or dealing with objectors. They are “PLANNERS ARE Bartlett speaks for many of her all important,” she adds.

MASTER JACKS contemporaries of the sense of “It also involves leading specialist OF ALL TRADES accomplishment from seeing her groups of staff that are progressing – THE ONE ROLE work come to life. development applications or THAT HAS TO “If you are really interested in the shaping future policies reflecting LOOK ACROSS environment, people, and how they the political organisation, and how THE PIECE are managed within finite resources, these polices are shaped to reflect AND INVOLVE it’ss one local circumstances.” on of those jobs where you can EVERYBODY” have a real impact,” she says.

“You can see the results of your Taking the lead actions on o the ground. People have This raises two issues for chief a home to live in, they have jobs and planners. Leadership is the first. “It’s the infrastr infrastructure to get around. It’s the opposite of heroic leadership,” one of those roles that develops over says Nottingham City Council time and you can see over time the results of your planning and regeneration director Paul Seddon. actions, wheth whether it’s policymaking, plan-making or “By its nature planning is fundamentally the decision-making side.” collaborative. It’s about stepping up to the mark, decision-m However, before being visible, being visionary, negotiating across befo the satisfaction comes graft.

What does job of a local authority chief the authority and with external government, Wh hat doe es the jo planner involve? building relationships and partnerships, asking p an pl nne n r actually a in “Everything,” questions, influencing – not just the plans but that “Everytthing,” says say Victoria Geoghegan, the London Borough of Greenwich’s assistant director people can use planning to find answers.”

B G

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CHIEF PLANNERS

LISA BARTLETT PAUL SEDDON

I L L U S T R AT I O N | D AV I D D E S PA U

Director of planning and regeneration, Nottingham City Council

Director irector of development velopment and public lic protection, Bth and North East Someret ret Council

VICTORIA GEOGHEGAN

RUSSELL HUGHES-PICKERING

Assistant director, planning and building control, London Borough of Greenwich

Corporate lead officer: Economy nomy and regeneration, Ceredigion County unty Council FE B R U AR Y 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER

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CHIEF PLANNERS

The second issue is politics. “It’s a political role and a political environment we work in,” says Bartlett. “You need to be aware of that and what the implications are. You need to provide professional advice to the council and councillors and appreciate it’s their prerogative not to agree with you – and you have to be able to cope with that.”

An everyday example is a planning committee rejecting officers’ advice, she acknowledges.

“The key is to have clear codes of conduct which everybody understands and it’s really important to develop a good working relationship with councillors so you can have those robust conversations so that everybody knows where they stand. We are on the same team but we have different roles within the organisation.”

Russell Hughes-Pickering, Ceredigion County Council’s corporate lead officer for economy and regeneration, says planners need to “be politically astute and look above plans and policies”. This means understanding the organisation, their role in delivering corporate objectives and thinking strategically “so they see how they fit in across the board and in turn help deliver better services and better places for people”.

“The more I’ve been involved in preparing corporate plans or the council’s development programme, the easier it is to see, influence and ensure planning is involved at the right time.

This has helped avoid issues when major projects go through their planning stage, whether that’s a town centre development, a change to a care home or a new school. Fortunately, I’m involved in an excellent leadership group where the culture focuses on improvement and helping each other to achieve better services.”

>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR CAREER PATH?

YES

69% 31% NO

Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

WHAT THE RTPI IS DOING

The RTPI is campaigning for heads of planning to be incorporated into local authority senior leadership teams, amid fears of a declining profile and diminishing corporate presence of spatial planning. Research by the institute has revealed that only 23 per cent of UK and Irish local authorities have a head of planning reporting directly to the chief executive. Nine per cent have no clearly defined head of planning at all.

A second study into the corporate and strategic influence of planning in local authorities found that a chief planning officer at the top table “can provide a long-term vision, engagement with communities and certainty for development”.

Later this year, the RTPI will launch HOPE: Heads of Planning Everywhere, an annual summit of planning chiefs from across England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales to discuss best practice, making the case for resourcing planning and for putting planning at the heart of local government delivery.

An RTPI initiative that will continue is Chief Planners of Tomorrow, where young planners to shadow a chief planning officer for a day to understand the everyday challenges and opportunities at senior level. Find out more at bit.ly/planner0220-CPT

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This raises another question. Should the head of planning be at the council’s top table as the RTPI argues? Opinions differ, depending on the size of the council.

“If you are a district council, you need a planner at your top table because planning is often the most important thing a council is doing to impact on that place,” says Seddon. However, that is not necessarily the case at a big unitary body as long as “the leadership and chief executive can appreciate the role planning can play in helping to deliver the priorities with a strong planning department”.

Geoghegan says what is important is “the organisation has a full understanding of planning and placemaking, the head of planning has a voice, is listened to and has the opportunities to influence political leaders”.

Dealing with constraints As with every job, there are downsides. An everpresent constraint is ‘doing more with less’, a mantra chanted by several chiefs after the extensive cuts experienced by planning departments in the past decade. Bartlett admits it was “horrible to see what it was doing to our ability to plan for the future but also horrible for the people having to do the cuts and those losing their jobs”.

In the face of such problems a positive attitude is crucial, she adds, and to keep helping. “The key is to keep communicating about outcomes and explain the process that needs to be gone through

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>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED BY YOUR EMPLOYER?

>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR PROGRESS TOWARDS YOUR DEVELOPMENT GOALS?

38% ARE YOU HAPPY WITH OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENT PROVIDED

BY YOUR EMPLOYER?

I am happy that my current employer provides me with good opportunities to develop as a planner and progress my career

62%

to get there rather than tell people what to do. In a nutshell, we are an arbiter in the public interest of conflicts over the use of land, which is a finite resource. We’re here to help, not stop.”

Another bugbear is constantly changing legislation and policy. Several chief planners note that they used a handful of books and guidance notes when they started their careers but now need to fill up several bookcases.

What advice would chief planners give their younger colleagues with an eye on the summit?

Russell Hughes-Pickering wants to see more authorities improve arrangements on major development projects by setting up corporate development and project management groups and involve planners in them. “Young planners should get involved in these as much as possible so they’re involved in a wide range of service improvements, embrace projects or new development, seek ways to help progress and improve them, and engage in a positive way.”

“Get as much varied experience as you can as early on in your career as possible,” says Geoghegan, while Bartlett urges tyro planners to “try everything – policy, development management, enforcement, get involved in development and how it evolves, help applicants and agents as much as you can and keep learning on the job”.

Which all leads back to that crucial sense of accomplishment. “It’s the best job in the world,

I don’t feel that my current employer offers me enough opportunities to develop as planner and progress my career

YES

74%

NO 26%

SKILLS OF A CHIEF PLANNER

A paper by the Planning Officers Society published in December outlines the key skills of a chief planner. They are: n Negotiation n Interpersonal skills n Working collaboratively n Strategist skills n Commercial and

“BY ITS NATURE PLANNING IS FUNDAMENTALLY COLLABORATIVE. IT’S ABOUT STEPPING UP TO THE MARK, BEING VISIBLE, BEING VISIONARY”

financial awareness n Relationship builder and influencer n Analysis n Knowing who to bring in n Share and escalate information n Taking opportunities Source: bit.ly/ planner0220-POS

without being too dramatic about it,” says Seddon.

“Planners are master jacks of all trades – the one role that has to look across the piece and involve everybody to make the best decisions. decisions “If you spend a bit of time somewhere, you get to see the fruits of your and your team’s labours, whether through decisions, ecisions, policies or supplementary planning g documents on the buildings getting built, the public realm being improved, schools getting g extended or people having homes. Why would ld you want to do anything else?” n Huw Morris is consultant tant editor for The Planner

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W E L L B EI N G AT W O R K

THE FEELGOOD FACTOR EMPLOYERS ARE FACING GREATER EXPECTATIONS THAT THEY WILL PROVIDE FOR STAFF WELLBEING IN THE WORKPLACE. HOW DOES PLANNING FARE? SERENA RALSTON FINDS OUT

W

ellbeing in the workplace is a hot topic – not least because employers are under scrutiny as never before through social media and employer review websites.

But what do we mean by wellbeing? In a workplace context it appears to cover an array of benefits, from free coffee and fruit to ‘mental first-aiders’ and access to counselling services. However, the impact of much of what we refer to as support for wellbeing is debatable – for example, research cited below suggests that, even as awareness is growing, work-related mental health problems are on the rise.

According to business charity Business in the Community, wellbeing is “the mutually supportive relationship between an individual’s mental, physical, social and financial health and their personal wellbeing”. It argues that businesses should take “a whole organisation approach to embedding wellbeing into

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an organisational culture” to achieve “maximum impact” from any wellbeing initiatives. The ultimate goal should be “thriving people, thriving business and thriving communities”.

Generally, it seems, the components of wellbeing are split into physical (i.e. the physical working environment) and mental (i.e. the impacts of organisational culture, workload, team dynamics, career pathways, and so on).

The argument is that when employees are ‘happy’, they perform better and this has numerous knock-on effects for their employer, from increasing output to boosting recruitment drives.

How does planning fare as a profession? The Planner Careers Survey asked several questions that relate to aspects of wellbeing. The responses give some insights into the conditions in which planners work, and their impact on mental health and physical comfort.

The survey found that a substantial minority of planners were dissatisfied

across a range of workplace conditions.

For example, 38 per cent of respondents felt that their employer did not offer enough opportunities to develop as a planner and progress their career.

Differences between private and public sector planners appear stark in some areas, as explored in our report on pages 4-5. For example, 34 per cent in the public sector said they feel that their employer does not value their team or department, as opposed to just 13 per cent in the private sector.

Across the survey, 57 per cent of planners said they thought that their team or department did not have the resources it needed to deliver its goals.

Comments left by respondents were telling and – bearing in mind that people are more likely to comment if they have something to get off their chest – reveals a sector under considerable pressure.

“The team is great but due to staffing cuts we’re overworked, under pressure constantly and facing constant negativity

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from the outside world. This has a huge bearing on staff morale,” said a public sector planner in the East Midlands.

“We have no team. Each second of our day has to be charged to a client. No time to chat or do any training or research.

Nothing but profit. Staff welfare is zero,” noted a private sector planner in the South West These comments reflect concerns that were repeatedly expressed. When it comes to wellbeing, the survey suggests that for a substantial minority of planners, the picture is far from rosy.

I M AG E | G E T T Y

A platform for wellbeing But planners are not alone in this. A 2018 health and wellbeing at work survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that significantly more respondents (55 per cent) had reported an increase in common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression, among employees in the previous 12 months, compared with

“HEALTHIER, FITTER, HAPPIER PEOPLE ARE LIKELY TO PRODUCE BETTER WORK AND FEEL A GREATER ASSOCIATION WITH THEIR ORGANISATION AND ITS PURPOSE”

2016 (41 per cent). Fewer than six in 10 (58 per cent) said their organisation was currently meeting the basic legal requirements for reducing stress in the workplace.

A recent mental health at work YouGov survey, conducted for Business in the Community and Mercer Marsh Benefits, revealed that 39 per cent of respondents said they had experienced a work-related mental health issue in 2019.

There is patently far more to wellbeing at work than ping-pong, smoothies

and slides. Neil Usher, author of The Elemental Workplace, a framework for creating a “fantastic” workplace for all, says there are three actors in wellbeing: “You, other people (whether you know them or not) and place: The actors exist in an interrelated and constantly changing dynamic. We need to address each – but understand that place can’t solve everything. A fantastic amenity-rich workplace won’t fix a toxic culture.”

Usher says that much depends on the organisation and its stage of development. “Some organisations are immensely successful and engage their people while their workplace is relatively poor – because their vision, purpose and sense of potential impact is extremely high. People want to be there despite the workplace.”

But are today’s employees’ demands for a workplace that supports their wellbeing unrealistic?

Dr Riëtte Oosthuizen, who leads HTA Design LLP’s planning team, says

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not. “We need to break down common perceptions that a concern about wellbeing has no place in a business aimed at making profit. Investing in wellbeing adds extra operational costs but the benefits in terms of what you get back from a more positive attitude and staff satisfaction are substantial.”

HTA received a commitment level award under the London Healthy Workplace Charter in November 2017 in recognition of its efforts relating to staff wellbeing, and it plans to renew this accreditation in 2020. The firm also holds the Investors in People accreditation.

Despite the results from The Planner’s survey, many public sector employers do place a stress on employee wellbeing.

Laura Webster has split her 15-year planning career almost equally between the private and public sectors, and recently joined Central Bedfordshire Council (CBC). “Wellbeing boils down to the fact that unless you feel valued, trusted and supported you are not going to be happy or healthy at work,” she says.

“Good employers in either the private sector or public realise this, and many local authorities are leading the way.”

Her own employer is an RTPI Learning Partner, a status recognised for its commitment to staff development. Jennie

Business in the Community says wellbeing is “the mutually supportive relationship between an individual’s mental, physical, social and financial health and their personal wellbeing”

Selley, the council’s head of planning delivery, says: “There’s no great mystery to a happy, healthy working environment.

Colleagues at all levels should be valued, trusted and supported with all the tools and technology available.”

Doing this requires a concerted effort by the employer across a range of physical and mental comforts. HTA, for example, has introduced a raft of measures that include daily hot meals for staff, weekly CPD sessions and skills

>> HOW HAPPY ARE YOU WITH YOUR PHYSICAL WORKING ENVIRONMENT?

masterclasses, flexible working, and even office yoga.

A deliberate investment Oosthuizen says her practice is also working hard to stamp out the stigma of mental health problems in the workplace.

“We discuss this as part of our induction, providing training and support through colleagues trained as ‘mental health first-aiders’. All staff can also access an employers assistance programme for

>> ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR TEAM DYNAMIC? My physical working environment is good 41% My physical working environment is ok 46% My physical working environment is poor 13%

Yes, always 36% Yes, sometimes 44% No, not always 17% No, never 3%

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>> HOW VALUED IS YOUR TEAM OR DEPARTMENT WITHIN YOUR ORGANISATION?

>> DO YOU FEEL YOUR TEAM/DEPARTMENT HAS THE RESOURCES IT NEEDS TO DELIVER ITS GOALS? Yes 43% No 57%

My team or department is not valued by my organisation 58% My team of department is not valued by my organisation 28% Other 14%

Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

as a result (although counselling services if “WE NEED TO it’s worth noting that a needed.”

BREAK DOWN number of comments in Multidisciplinary COMMON The Planner’s survey were consultancy WYG, which PERCEPTIONS critical of agile working). employs more than 100 THAT A Selley says: “We planners, is also focusing CONCERN ABOUT make huge use of on good mental health.

WELLBEING shared documents, It has newly trained HAS NO PLACE videoconferencing and mental health first-aiders IN A BUSINESS applications like Microsoft and has also signed up AIMED AT MAKING Teams. We no longer have a to the Time to Change PROFIT” ‘bums on seats’ approach.”

Pledge, a campaign that The agile approach aims to change how appeals to Laura Webster. people think about “As long as the work is done, mental health problems. genuinely it is irrelevant The company promotes whether I am working a flexible working, strict 9-5 in the main council offices, a offering extended leave initiatives and satellite one, or at home, provided I am encouraging staff to take volunteering contactable and responsive.” days.

The council’s planning teams have Central Bedfordshire Council, also benefited from its own Planning meanwhile, has focused on tackling Academy, originally set up in response presenteeism, which, according to the to a national shortage of planners. Each CIPD, is a major cause of anxiety and year the academy takes on a cohort of depression in the workplace. The whole trainees, each of whom is assigned a organisation has moved to an agile more senior planner as a mentor. The ‘working smarter’ model that embraces positive effects of a mentoring culture remote working, including working from have provided an unexpected benefit. home. Staff, it says, are more productive

Deliberate investment in strategies that support wellbeing at work clearly pays off. Neil Usher says: “Healthier, fitter, happier people are likely to produce better work and feel a greater association with their organisation and its purpose. They are likely to want to do their job well and to enjoy doing it. It’s a simple proposition.”

Gary Morris, a director at WYG, agrees that this is not just ethically desirable, but builds a stronger platform for business success. To be effective, however, requires a ‘whole organisation’ approach.

“Employee wellbeing stems from a culture where everything lines up to support it,” says Morris. “Initiatives like yoga, encouraging healthy eating, and employee assistance programmes are important, but they can’t transform a culture on their own. Managers need to step up as the keepers of openness and empathy within their business. It’s part of every company’s responsibility.” n Serena Ralston is a freelance journalist specialising in planning and the built environment

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I

n the region of 70 per cent of the 551 planners who responded to our survey said they would like more training in technical, management soft skills, with a few more emphasising project management.

Sixty-two per cent told us they were happy with opportunities for development provided by their employers (meaning close to 40 per cent are not), and the greater portion of planners prefer to receive training from external courses than other formats.

Dig into the figures and some interesting stories start to suggest themselves. Notably, as we report on pages 6-7, there is a discrepancy between the workplace experiences

28

reported by private and public sector planners.

For example, 77 per cent of private sector planners were happy with opportunities for development compared with just 54 per cent of their public sector counterparts.

Almost half of public sector planners, therefore, said they were not satisfied with a key element of their career progress. Their comments indicated that this is almost certainly a story about resourcing.

The survey tells us, too, that people’s training needs are very similar across sectors. But, unsurprisingly, they differ at different stages of planners’ careers. So, early-years planners have

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the greatest appetite for training in technical planning skills (85 per cent) and planners with 25 years’ or more experience the least (52 per cent).

But we also learn that the appetite for project management training peaks among planners with 16-20 years’ experience (84 per cent), as does the desire for more training in soft skills (80 per cent). Can we infer that planners’ careers are tending to change at this point – perhaps with moves into more senior positions, for example?

What’s more, the poll informs us that planners working in housing report a much lower appetite for training in technical planning skills (58 per cent), project management (68 per cent) and soft skills (63 per cent) than their counterparts in development management and planning policy. But they have a greater requirement for management skills (73 per cent).

Is this a reflection of the different balance of skills actually required in different areas of planning, or of what planners working in different areas perceive their skills requirements to be?

“We need training in those four broad areas and I think all four are covered in our training programmes,” observes Andrew Close, the RTPI’s head

of careers, education and professional development. “[The survey] illustrates generally the need for planners and members to keep those skills updated and renewed.”

As the main provider of training to planners, and the guardian of chartered status, the institute can gain insights from the survey to inform its own approach to professional development.

There is, for instance, a strongly expressed preference for external training courses, with in-house training coming a distant second. Close says this illustrates two things – “the benefit of peer-to-peer learning” but also the need for employers to recognise that “there’s real benefit to getting out of the office and learning”.

“Employers need to have training budgets and we have good examples of that from our learning partners,” he adds. However, as resourcing issues are prominent in the survey, Close acknowledges the need to mix up learning formats.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to get out of the office, hence we have other things people can do. …You have to be clever about different things. People shouldn’t be afraid about webinars and online courses, for example.”

LEARNING

CURVES WHAT DOES THE PLANNER’S CAREERS SURVEY TELL US ABOUT HOW PLANNERS FEEL ABOUT THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES PROVIDED BY THEIR EMPLOYERS? SIMON WICKS TAKES A LOOK

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>> IN WHAT AREAS WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE MORE TRAINING?

Technical planning skills

68%

Project management

73%

Management

70%

Soft skills

69% Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

Breadth or depth?

One thing that emerges from the survey and the interviews in this issue of The Planner is that planning is often being integrated into regeneration or ‘placemaking’ in local authorities, or set alongside housing and economic development.

Is this a response to a loss of distinct resources for planning, or a recognition that it has a crossdisciplinary breadth? Even so, policy and practice demand ever more niche capabilities. Should you be a generalist or a specialist? How do you even know which pathway is best for you?

In Edinburgh City Council – winner of the RTPI’s 2019 Learning Partner Award – planners work alongside architects, environmentalists, transport specialists and more within the city’s ‘place development service’.

David Leslie, the council’s chief planning officer, says he and colleagues take a “joined-up view” of development, encouraging staff to move between different teams within the service.

“There are quite a number of people who have moved from the planning service into related services, such as housing and economic development,” he remarks. “A number of people who operate in those other services previously worked in planning, some in management roles and some in project roles.”

The department benefits from monthly training workshops delivered by staff (which are open to neighbouring authorities), and its planning training extends both to elected members and to community groups. These, Leslie insists, are a “two-way exchange”, with planners also learning from the closer contact with representatives and all benefiting from improved relations.

More corporately, Leslie encourages planning staff to take the council’s wider leadership

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“INDIVIDUALS DO NEED TO TAKE OWNERSHIP AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT”

development programme. “That’s about developing some of the softer skills but also some of the key management skills that they and we will require in the future and now,” he explains.

“We are quite focused on leadership and there’s a benefit in learning from perspectives from other services within the authority.”

It’s a similar story at AECOM, also an RTPI learning partner, where associate director David Carlisle tells us the company provides a blend of formal and informal learning for planning staff. The package includes: • monthly APC surgeries for graduate planners taking the RTPI’s licentiate or associate routes; • multidisciplinary graduate programme and ‘AECOM University’ (online learning modules); • a requirement for all staff to do 50 hours of CPD every two years; • a mentoring scheme; • lunchtime planning sessions (with a technical focus) and ‘Third Thursday Club’, which welcomes external speakers.

“This year (2020) we’re launching a ‘training wallet’,” says Carlisle. “This is a set budget for each individual to spend on their own CPD events. Or you can pool it with others – last year some of us went on a study trip to Stockholm.”

He continues: “Everyone has to prepare a professional development plan, which gives you a lot of freedom to choose CPD events [to support your plan]. But this has to link back to your goals.”

Then there are the wider opportunities that come from working for a multidisciplinary organisation. “Planning is a relatively small part of the whole business,” Carlisle explains. “Depending on what your interest is – development management, sustainability, transport – you have a fair amount of latitude to follow your interests and

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cultivate opportunities.”

He is realistic about the fact that his current employer is better resourced than most public sector organisations and sympathises with the situations described by some respondents to our survey.

“I joined as an assistant planner before the recession and then went through about three reorganisations. I’ve got a mixed story: on the one hand Croydon and TfL paid for a masters in the early years. But in the later years it was more challenging to fulfil the required CPD and get training funded. There seems to be a greater onus on individuals in the public sector to seek out evening events to supplement free training opportunities from the likes of PAS, Urban Design London and online resources such as RTPI Learn.”

MORE INFO

Read about the RTPI’s career development support: bit.ly/planner0220EducCareers

Low-cost learning Both Edinburgh and AECOM benefit from their scale to deliver structured, organisation-wide career development and training. What about smaller organisations and those with greater resource constraints?

Our survey hinted at some strains at smaller employers, with one private sector planner from an independent consultancy in the South East commenting: “Insufficient opportunities to attend external training and masterclasses which could give me valuable skills and make my job easier and therefore progress faster. I feel everything I do is self-taught, which is good in some ways, but not the most efficient method of training.”

On the other hand, some private sector planners at larger multidisciplinary consultancies felt that planning was undervalued in the context of a big

>> HOW DO YOU PREFER TRAINING TO BE DELIVERED? PLEASE RANK IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE (GRAPHIC SHOWS FIRST CHOICE ONLY)

firm where the bulk of revenue tends to come from other disciplines.

It’s not easy to get it right, although the RTPI’s learning partners illustrate that good practice need not be limited by the size or structure of the organisation. As outlined on pages 24-27, HTA Design, which employs just eight planners, hosts talks, organises study tours and supports independent research.

Close points out that the RTPI provides free and low-cost learning tools for individuals and employers. These include the online RTPI Learn, which delivers ‘bite-sized’ chunks of training, and local and national events. The institute also supports a number of specialist networks where members can exchange knowledge, and manages a CPD framework to guide members through their professional development.

“Individuals do need to take ownership and responsibility for their own personal development, although we also expect employers, as part of a duty of care and talent development, to encourage and support them – especially as legislation and processes keep changing,” says Close.

He also highlights the positives of the survey, citing the respondent who is an apprentice at a mid-sized district council that has taken advantage of government cash to fund the position. Close is impressed, too, by the number of employers that provide mentoring programmes to their staff.

Overall, it’s a mixed picture, with plenty of evidence of strong training and development practice. But there are signs, too, of the growing toll that dwindling resources is taking on the public sector – a lower percentage of respondents in this year’s survey reported happiness with opportunities for development than last year’s.

We will be keeping an eye on this trend from year to year. n Simon Wicks is deputy editor of The Planner

Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

External courses

47%

In-house training courses provided by your employer

17%

Technical planning skills

13%

Online

10%

Seminars

7%

Workshops

7%

Independent study

2%

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ADVERTISER CONTENT

Making moves

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

Why Orkney is a great place to be a planner in 2020 Perched 10 miles beyond the northern edge of the British mainland, Orkney is the best place to live in the UK according to the 2019 Halifax Quality of Life Survey.

The islands are famed for their spectacular landscapes and archaeological treasures.

But what sealed the top spot is the quality of life enjoyed by Orcadians: our 20 inhabited islands have a thriving, diverse community with high employment levels, low crime rates, excellent educational and recreational facilities, and good health and happiness scores.

Orkney also has a strong cultural life built on thousands of years of history. Some 5,000 years ago, the prehistoric people of the Orkney Islands began building extraordinary monuments out of stone.

There was a flourishing culture on the islands recognised in Orkney’s worldfamous Neolithic structures – Skara Brae, Maeshowe, Stones of Stenness and Ring of Brodgar achieving UNESCO World Heritage status.

Such enterprise and resourcefulness continues today as the archipelago leads the UK’s drive toward a low-carbon renewable future. We’re home to the world-leading European Marine Energy Centre, as well as a growing centre of excellence based at the Orkney Research and Innovation Campus. Having pioneered the generation of hydrogen from tidal power, plans are under way to use hydrogen for a new generation of ferries serving the islands.

Though the smallest local authority in Scotland, serving a population of just 22,000, Orkney Islands Council endeavours to ensure its citizens have access to high-quality services – including planning. Orkney’s is a leading planning service, recognised through multiple awards in recent years. In 2017, we were the overall winner of the Scottish Award for Quality in Planning ; in 2018, we won the RTPI’s Silver Jubilee Cup for the regeneration of the historic coastal town of Stromness.

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

Tourists at the entrance to St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall

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

Not only is the Planning Service involved in terrestrial planning, it has now taken on

"Orkney’s is a leading planning service, recognised through multiple awards in recent years" duties associated with marine planning, providing an additional opportunity for the service to develop its expertise.

With good transport links to the Scottish mainland – daily ferry sailings to the mainland and daily flights to the main Scottish cities with subsidised fares for island residents – Orkney is a lot closer and more accessible than you think.

Make the move!

We’re recruiting We’re currently recruiting for new planners to join our award-winning team.

Turn to page 48 for details of all the positions and how you can apply.

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LANDSCAPE

Tech { L A N D S C A P E

P33 TECH P36 REGIONAL P38 DECISIONS P42 LEGAL P51 ACTIVITY

TECH TENSIONS THE PLANNER’S CAREERS SURVEY REVEALED GROWING USE OF TECH IN PLANNING – AND MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT ITS IMPACTS. MATT MOODY REPORTS Of the 551 respondents to this year’s survey, only 7 per cent of respondents said they thought that technology has not improved outcomes in planning. But what tech are planners using – and how are they using it?

The most common use case we identified was finding out about land ownership or land designation, with 57 per cent of respondents using tech for

this purpose. Half of those surveyed had also used tech for the similar purpose of researching a site’s planning history, while 49 per cent had used it in helping to assess a planning application.

Thirty-two per cent of the planners we polled reported that technology had improved their efficiency or eliminated aspects of their job. When asked to elaborate, a common theme among

those who answered ‘yes’ was the amount of time spent on “menial” work.

“I’m happy that PlanTech will do the menial and admin-heavy work, which gives me more time to assess, evaluate and advise more efficiently and effectively”, one private sector planner told us. Another planner noted that “automating some tasks… will help to address staffing shortages and allow planners to focus on tasks requiring detailed analysis”.

Twenty-eight per cent of those surveyed reported using tech to improve engagement with the public. Some more detailed responses considered how emerging tech, in particular artificial intelligence (AI), might transform this process. As tasks such as picking up common themes in objection letters are increasingly automated, observed one public sector planner, the skills planners will need to draw on could change.

Others agreed, including one local authority young planner who predicted that “AI will be functionally able to determine basic householder applications within the next five years” and, depending on the criteria for determination set out by the government, “large swathes of our profession could be carried out by AI”.

Some were pessimistic about the impact of AI on the profession. One public sector planner cited concerns that planners could “become redundant” if “algorithms rather than people” are used to assess planning applications.

>> TOP 10 USES FOR TECH IN PLANNING Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

57% 50% 49% 41% 30% 29% 28% 28% 26% 24% Finding out about land ownership or land designation

Researching planning history of a site

Assessing planning applications

I M AG E | I STO C K

33-34 Tech Landscape_February 2020_The Planner 33

Public consultation

Gathering demographic data

Spatial analysis

Development visualisations

Public engagement

Gathering evidence for local plans

Environmental or heritage assessment or similar

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TTech { L A N D S C A P E >> DO YOU THINK THAT USING TECHNOLOGY TO CARRY OUT THESE TASKS PRODUCES BETTER OUTCOMES?

>> HAS DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ELIMINATED ANY ASPECTS OF YOUR JOB OR IMPROVED YOUR EFFICIENCY – AND DO YOU FEEL IT WILL DO SO IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? Source: The Planner Careers Survey 2020

Yes 56% No 4%

Another experienced planner concurred that “whilst AI has a role in validating – and maybe dealing with very simple planning applications – it is not suitable for more complex proposals”.

Others were more hopeful, anticipating a realignment of the average planner’s skill set to work with, rather than against, technology.

One respondent predicted that “in the longer term, planners will be needed to determine more emotively controversial issues, to weigh up and balance considerations and deliver compromise”. Another pointed out that staffing shortages and budget constraints mean that, in the short term at least, tech is more likely to free up existing overworked planners rather than make them redundant.

Some respondents were more doubtful about technology as a planning panacea, citing practical difficulties that are sometimes forgotten in tech discussion, such as adjusting to a paperless office and viewing complex plans on small screens, or simply hardware failure disrupting workflow.

Another key theme to emerge was the ability of tech to save time and resources when it comes to site visits. The Planner

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Sometimes 37%

Yes 32%

Never 3%

No 68%

recently reported on the growing use of drones by planning and enforcement authorities as “a cost-effective surveying tool that can reach inaccessible or hazardous areas and gather data about property condition and use”.

Respondents also cited an even cheaper tool for remote site surveys, with 36 of those polled mentioning it by name. Google Earth, launched in 2001, now covers more than 98 per cent of the world, and has captured 10 million miles of street-level imagery. It recently added 3D building modelling in some areas.

One Scottish public sector planner mentioned the usefulness of mapping software outside of cities. “I can gain a lot of information about a site without actually visiting it”, said the respondent, adding that in “a large rural authority, driving between sites can take up a lot of time”. One private sector planner was more ambivalent, commenting: “I think it’s important to get out on site, but the mapping sites make it extremely easy to do things from your desk.”

The government maintains another piece of software popular in our survey.

Since 2002, MAGIC has provided “geographical information about the natural environment from across

government”. Through partnerships with Defra, Historic England, the Environment Agency and others, it overlays data on an interactive map that can be accessed through a standard web browser. In the private sector, start-ups like VU.CITY and LandEnhance are also working to streamline the planning process.

Overall, our survey indicates that tech is becoming more integrated into planning practice across all sectors.

However, it’s still a very patchwork picture in terms of what tech is being used, for what and how – not to mention disparities in tech resources from one organisation to another.

The survey hints that tech can free up planners to do more creative work in the future, while others were worried that it represents the first step in a wider move towards redundancy. Either way, it seems clear that technology is changing the way that planners work and will continue to do so. Will it lead to a reframing of the planner’s role and greater specialisation in the aspects of the job that technology may struggle with, such as face-to-face interaction? That remains to be seen. n Matt Moody is Landscape section editor for The Planner

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Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council have a shared planning service – Greater Cambridge Shared Planning. Growth across Greater Cambridge addresses the pressing housing need, with small developments in existing villages and major new developments including new towns at Northstowe (the largest since Milton Keynes) and Waterbeach (9,000 homes).

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You could help to shape how our new Shared Planning service develops, to meet the challenge of delivering our extraordinary range of innovative and rewarding projects.

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15/01/2020 10:06

N AT I O N S &REGIONS

W H AT ’ S H A P P E N I N G I N T H E E A S T M I D L A N D S ?

HERE’S A ROUND­UP OF KEY PROJECTS AND EVENTS IN THE REGION IN 2020

The East Midlands IN THE PIPELINE

Natural capital assessment for Tresham Garden Village The NCA was undertaken during 2017 and 2018 to identify and assess the environmental impacts of the draft masterplan and delivery strategy for the garden village.

In May 2019, the project’s natural capital accounts were published. This work is helping to shape guidelines and methodology on embedding the natural capital approach in the planning process. bit.ly/planner0220-NCA

The Everards Meadows scheme includes 70 acres of green space, with cycling and pedestrian walkways that connect to route 6 on the National Cycle Network

North and east Melton Mowbray distributor road

RECENT SUCCESSES

Approved in June 2019, with construction due to begin in spring 2021, a new 7km road around Melton Mowbray will facilitate the delivery of 3,980 homes by 2036 and 20 hectares of employment land, as well as relieving congestion in the town. The scheme has received approval from Natural England for diversion and improvement of the River Eye SSSI. It was the winner of the RTPI natural environment award. bit.ly/planner0220-Melton

Everards Meadows, Enderby The development at Everards Meadows will include a new Everards brewery and head office, construction of which began in August 2019, as well as hospitality and retail space, a café and cycle centre.

A new footbridge over the River Soar will guarantee access for pedestrians and cyclists to the development and the extensive area of grazing land nearby. bit.ly/planner0220-Everards

Friars Mill phase two

The Birkin Building

Two new office buildings of around 500 square metres each have been built for sale on the open market. The offices are of a high-quality contemporary design that is rooted in the area’s industrial heritage. The scheme completes regeneration of the listed Friars Mill site and underpins the continuing regeneration of the Waterside area of Leicester. bit.ly/planner0220-FriarsMill

John Smedley Mills eastern site, Lea Bridge This project involved the redevelopment of the last surviving textile mill in the Derwent Valley Mills World

Heritage Site. The works included the refurbishment of three grade II listed cottages that were on the at-risk register, bringing them back into residential use.

Proceeds will be reinvested to secure the future of the mill as a manufacturing business. bit.ly/planner0220-JohnSmedley

The Birkin Building, Nottingham This renovation project is bringing back to life one of Nottingham’s most architecturally and historically significant buildings. The works have repurposed the grade II listed former lace warehouse into sought-after creative spaces.

An online archive has been created to bring the history of the building and its former inhabitants to life. bit.ly/planner0220-Birkin

I M AG E | A L A M Y

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Regional contact details: eastmidlands@rtpi.org.uk

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

CASE STUDY: LEICESTERSHIRE’S FIRST SUSTAINABLE URBAN EXTENSION

Blaby’s newest community – and Leicestershire’s only sustainable urban extension (SUE) – is being delivered at New Lubbesthorpe.

Blaby District Council’s new approach to forward-planning for large-scale housing delivery, developed in light of its approach to its local plan review in 2008, has built a collaborative partnership with landowners, housing developers, and public and private sector partners to deliver most of the district’s housing to 2029.

The land has been owned by the Drummond family and trustees for generations. The family had a vision of a new community on its land that was motivated by the desire to leave a strong legacy. This vision evolved into a 20-year project.

The council granted permission for New Lubbesthorpe in January 2014, and the project has so far been delivered at an impressive pace, with 356 properties already occupied.

There are four housebuilders on site, and houses continue to sell months in advance. Up to 315 homes a year are projected to be delivered over the 20-year build period.

The whole scheme will provide: n 4,250 homes, of which 873 will be affordable;

n 21 hectares of strategic employment land; n two motorway bridges; n two primary schools, accommodating 1,050 children (the first opened in September 2019); n a secondary school to accommodate 930 pupils; n local centres with retail, leisure and community facilities including a new library; n a new leisure centre with outdoor courts and all-weather pitches; n a health facility with six GPs; and n 320 acres of open space maintained through the land trust, and a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS).

Gina Isherwood has been working on the New Lubbesthorpe project as major schemes officer at Blaby District Council for two years.

“As our first major SUE and a council and corporate priority, New Lubbesthorpe has been a learning curve for all involved,” she said. “We have a great working relationship with the landowners, but we have found that when the housebuilders submit their reserved matters applications, we do have to manage expectations.

“In terms of our housing need, we have to be very firm because we have to ensure consistency The first of two primary schools planned for New Lubbesthorpe opened last September

Lincoln

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LEICS NORTHANTS No r t h a m p to n

throughout the development. Our biggest battle to date has been ensuring that we get the right mix and standard of housing. Words like ‘viability’ are used quite a lot in these conversations with housebuilders.”

The project has so far exceeded expectations in terms of delivery and occupancy rates, said Isherwood. “It is rewarding when you see the houses being built and occupied. The social infrastructure being delivered is fantastic and you can’t put a measure on how much that has contributed to the success of the scheme as a whole,” she said.

The project won an RTPI award in the ‘Excellence in Planning to Deliver Homes’ category last year, also going on to win the award for best overall project. “When you win an award, you can’t put into words what that means.”

Gina Isherwood is major schemes officer at Blaby District Council COMING UP

Head over to the RTPI’s events page to see what’s coming up in the new year. www.rtpi.org.uk/events/events-calendar/

NEXT MONTH:

Wales FE B R U AR Y 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER

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C&D { C

CASES &DECISIONS

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

Second ‘paragraph 79’ home approved next to RIBA award-winner A Leamington Spa nightclub owner has won permission to build a deconstructed, mirror-clad ‘invisible house’ on land adjacent to his existing awardwinning home, which was completed this year after a decade-long planning battle with Stratford-upon-Avon District Council.

In 1959, an Edwardian country house in Warwickshire known as Moreton Paddox was demolished, and its formal gardens divided into private plots. Since then, the area has evolved into a hamlet of self-build houses in an eclectic range of architectural styles. One of these plots was purchased in 2003 by Steve Smith, a Leamington Spa nightclub owner.

After a 10-year planning battle, Smith won permission through NPPF paragraph 79 for a project known as ‘Ghost House’, a “brutal and dynamic” concrete-framed, partially subterranean building that features two ink-dyed pools. It won the RIBA West Midlands award 2019, and was also longlisted for RIBA house of the year.

Shortly after the project was complete, Smith, working again with Birmingham architect BPN, applied for permission to build another paragraph 79 house in a 0.17 hectare wooded area adjacent to Ghost House.

The aim of the project was to “deconstruct a traditional

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LOCATION: Moreton Paddox AUTHORITY: Stratford­upon­Avon District Council

INSPECTOR: Brendan Lyons PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ J3720/W/19/3233351

house into its individual components”. Each of the building’s seven rooms was conceived as an individual

flat-roofed pavilion, arranged in a loose semi-circle and connected by short glazed link elements.

Each room would be clad in mirrored glass and would appear as if “floating above the ground”, which would “blur the boundary between building and landscape”, informing the project’s name: Invisible House. All but two of the trees on the site would be retained, and the house would sit beneath their canopy. A black timber-clad outbuilding containing gas tanks and bins would be shared with Ghost House.

After ascertaining from pre-application discussions with the council that it

“did not have any in-house design review capability”, the appellant consulted West Midlands design review board MADE, which praised the appellant’s “pursuit of architecture of the highest quality”. It called the design “not only sensitive but completely responsive to the unique characteristics of the site”, commenting on its “delightful sculptural quality”. It recommended various adjustments to the application, which the appellant incorporated prior to the appeal.

However, the council still refused permission. It stated that the proposal was not eligible to be considered under NPPF paragraph 79 because Moreton Paddox was a “small-scale settlement” and not an open countryside location. It also argued that the project was “not of exceptional design quality” and “not innovative”.

Inspector Lyons agreed that in light of the Court of Appeal’s ‘Braintree judgment’, the site could not be considered part of the open countryside. However, he continued, “irrespective of the site’s status, design quality is an important consideration of the appeal”.

The council contended that the home would fall short of being “truly outstanding and innovative”, but Lyons ruled that this was “not borne out” by evidence. Concluding that “specific considerations” outweighed the project’s conflict with the council’s spatial policy, he allowed the appeal.

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

Top showjumper’s indoor arena refused in green belt An inspector has rejected a three-time British Open champion showjumper’s plans to build a private indoor arena in Surrey, citing harm to the green belt that was not outweighed by personal circumstances.

‘Intimate’ memories outweigh aerial photographs at inquiry

I M AG E S |

GETTY

An inspector has quashed enforcement action alleging that a building in rural Kent was built recently without permission, after a witness’s account of his ‘childish antics’ inside it persuaded her that it had indeed stood there since the 1970s.

The council alleged that there had been no pre-existing building on the site in East Hill, a Kent hamlet, and the home now on the site had been newly built. The appellant disputed the notice, arguing that the building had long stood on the land.

One witness, a neighbour named Ayton who had grown up nearby, explained that he had known the building as a scout hut in the late 1970s and 80s. He described the building’s interior and explained how he had ridden his bike around inside it. He said it had not been new at that time, and was rumoured to have been used to house prisoners of war.

A declaration from another witness who had grown up with Ayton’s daughters indicated that between 2005 and 2009 he had met friends in the building, which he described as “unlocked but weatherproof”, to “smoke and drink beer” on more than 100 occasions.

The appellant explained that he had bought the property in February 2013. His friend, a builder, corroborated his account of the works undertaken to turn the building into a two-storey home since then.

Inspector B M Campbell LOCATION: Sevenoaks said Ayton’s “recital of his antics as a child and how AUTHORITY: Sevenoaks District the building featured in Council his youth” portrayed “a convincing and intimate INSPECTOR: B M Campbell knowledge of the area in general and of the PROCEDURE: Inquiry building in particular”.

The council’s evidence DECISION: Notice quashed in the form of aerial photographs, on the REFERENCE: APP/ other hand, was “far from G2245/C/18/3203208 clear”, she found, and was “insufficient to cast doubt on the appellant’s clear version of events”.

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The appeal was lodged by three-time British Open showjumping champion Robert Whitaker. He had sought permission to demolish the pole barn and part of the stables on his land and replace them with an indoor riding arena.

The appellant pointed to clauses (b) and (g) of NPPF paragraph 145, which refer to facilities for outdoor sport and the redevelopment of brownfield land respectively as exceptions that justify green belt development.

Inspector David Murray did not concur on clause (b), saying the arena proposed would be “beyond the scope of outdoor activity” because it would be “an enclosed space away from the elements”.

While he was satisfied that the scheme would constitute the reuse of previously developed land, he noted that clause (g) also stipulates that proposals must have no greater impact on openness.

While the footprint of the buildings to be taken down would total about 400 square metres, Murray noted that this

LOCATION: Horley AUTHORITY: Reigate & Banstead Borough Council

INSPECTOR: David Murray PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ L3625/W/19/3235566

would amount to only half the proposed floor space of the arena. The new building’s “three-dimensional bulk” would far exceed the volume of the existing buildings.

The appellant stressed his need for the facility to develop his international showjumping career, and to train his horses in the winter.

But Murray ruled that while the appellant’s personal factors were likely to change, the planning aspects of the case were “likely to be applicable in the long term”.

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C&D { C Winter wonderland appeal rejected despite High Court win

The appeal concerned St John’s Plant Centre in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, which operates a popular annual winter wonderland attraction.

The council was of the view that the business only had permission to operate as a wholesale outlet, and that its retail and seasonal activities were unauthorised.

In 2017, the council sought an injunction against the business, but the High Court ruled in its favour and it continued to trade. The council then issued an enforcement

notice with a compliance period of only six weeks, to prevent the 2018 winter wonderland from going ahead.

The appellant first argued that the retail operation at the site was ancillary to the authorised use, and no material change of use had occurred. After considering three relevant legal cases, inspector Diane Fleming decided that “what may have begun as an ancillary use” had “morphed” beyond that.

The appellant also sought retrospective permission

for the change of use under appeal ground (a). The council said the development had led to queues along the site’s access route, which were harming highway safety.

The appellant did not deny this effect on traffic, indicating that he had hired traffic marshals. But Fleming said the appellant had failed to take full account of highway safety policies, and “substantial levels of traffic congestion” were causing “unacceptable harm to the living conditions of local residents and businesses”.

‘Idiosyncratic’ observatory tower would cause heritage harm

appellant’s argument that the proposal would “respect the overriding classical design and proportions of the existing building”.

Noting that its significance was derived from its “Georgian simplicity and clarity of overall design”, he concurred with the council’s suggestion that the tower’s “large domed roof shape would jar with the angular hipped roof of the house”, which would “completely dominate the main elevations of the house in a discordant and damaging manner”.

In the planning balance, he considered that the scheme’s only benefit would be that the appellant would have

“unrivalled views from the observatory”.

“This might well be a laudable and understandable personal aim,” he commented, but it would be a private benefit that would be “completely outweighed by the scheme’s effect on the public realm”.

LOCATION: Clacton­on­Sea AUTHORITY: Tendring District Council INSPECTOR: Diane Fleming PROCEDURE: Hearing DECISION: Notice upheld REFERENCE: APP/ P1560/C/18/3214046

An inspector has blocked plans to add an observatory tower to a grade II listed house in Keswick that would afford ‘unrivalled views’ of the Lake District, despite agreeing that the design was ‘deliberate, bold and idiosyncratic’.

The appeal concerned a gradeII listed house in Keswick, a market town in the Lake District, dating from around 1840. It occupies a prominent position within the Keswick conservation area.

The appellant planned to build an observatory tower above the two-storey bay window on the building’s south side. The tower, complete with cupola and dome, would provide “spectacular 360-degree views over the Lakeland Fells”.

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Inspector Anthony Wharton considered the design of the structure in itself “satisfactory and competent”. He agreed with the appellant’s suggestion that the proposal would be a “deliberate, bold and idiosyncratic addition to the building”, calling it “slightly eccentric and with little precedent”.

However, he “completely disagreed” with the

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

An inspector has upheld enforcement action against a popular winter wonderland attraction at a garden centre in Clacton-on-Sea, despite the High Court having previously ruled in its favour.

LOCATION: Keswick AUTHORITY: Lake District National Park Authority

INSPECTOR: Anthony J Wharton PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ Q9495/Y/19/3231825

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE to our appeals digest:

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

‘Dual use’ cabin with zip wire platform harmful to AONB A timber cabin in the High Weald AONB ostensibly built to enable woodland management work was in “dual use”, an inspector has ruled, citing the cabin’s domestic furnishings recreational zip wire and platform outside. and the re bit.ly/planner0220-Zipwire

Paragraph 79 ‘pin­wheel’ house is not innovative

NPPF green belt exceptions list ‘not exhaustive’

Plans for a contemporary country home in Essex proposed under NPPF paragraph 79 have been blocked by an inspector who described the building as “sprawling and disjointed” and did not agree that its design was innovative. bit.ly/planner0220-Pinwheel

The owner of a property on green belt land in the West Midlands has been allowed to extend his garden into a nearby field, after an inspector ruled that the list of changes of use under NPPF paragraph 146(e) was “not exhaustive”. bit.ly/planner0220-GBExceptions

‘Restructuring’ of listed Abaraeron hotel blocked

Portishead employment land saved for ‘return of certainty’

A developer’s plans to split a popular hotel into three separate businesses following the retirement of its former owners has been rejected, after local residents “spoke powerfully” about the effects of losing a community meeting place. bit.ly/planner0220-Abaraeron

An inspector has refused plans for extra care housing on long-vacant land allocated for business use in Portishead, commenting that Brexit uncertainty was unlikely to continue “for the next few years”. bit.ly/planner0220-Portishead

Contemporary home to incorporate Cont part of disused railway bridge

Retrospective extension to stable allowed in green belt

Plans to incorporate two brick walls from a disu disused railway bridge in East London into the design of a contemporary canal-side home can go ahead, an inspector has ruled, finding no harm ins to the th Victoria Park conservation area. bit.ly/planner0220-Victoria

An extension to a stable at a traveller site in Yorkshire that enlarged it by more than 50 per cent has been retrospectively approved despite concerns over the quality of materials used. bit.ly/planner0220-Stable

Housing does not justify loss of unique air raid shelters

Policy clash precludes 160­home scheme

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An inspector has rejected plans to build 73 homes in Halstead, Essex, citing unacceptable heritage harm. He said the development would see the demolition of a unique group of Second World Warera air raid shelters. bit.ly/planner0220-AirRaid

Plans for homes on greenfield land in Cambridge have been refused after an inspector ruled that the scheme’s conflict with local spatial policy carried decisive weight in light of the council’s satisfactory housing supply. bit. ly/planner0220-Cambridge

FEBRUARY 2020 / THE PLANNER

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LLegal landscape OPINION

Rosewell reforms may not work as hoped The Planning Inspectorate’s implementation of recommendations from the Rosewell review may have unintended consequences, says Stuart Andrews

Changes made in August 2019 to the administration of planning inquiries following the Rosewell review are only now beginning to be fully understood.

PINS has implemented recommendations from the Rosewell report in relation to statements of case (SoC) and statements of common and uncommon ground (SoCUG) for English appeals where an inquiry is requested. These changes include for: n a prior notification process for appeals where an inquiry is the preferred procedure; n the setting of dates for inquiry appeals; n standard case management conferences; and n arrangements to deal with some topics by hearings or written representations as set out in the updated guidance.

The SoC guidance includes the notification form advising the council of the intention to appeal by way of inquiry, to be submitted 10 working days before the appeal.

Where an appellant requests an inquiry, the guidance says an SoC should set out the appellant’s case, identifying the main issues and the evidence to be called.

There are some nuances in the guidance as to what

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and submission of the full complement of evidence when the appeal is lodged. What constitutes a ‘borderline case’ is clearly a matter of careful judgement.

When submitting an appeal, the appellant must submit a draft SoCUG to identify areas of agreement and areas of no an SoC must include and, consensus. The agreed SoCUG notably, these relate to: is to be submitted within five n focus on areas of weeks of the start date. This difference; reflects earlier versions of the n provision of text with PINS procedural guide, but relevant imagery only; the expectation is that this is n include the documents to now prescribed to ensure that be referenced; and the document can effectively n a summary of overall inform the case conclusions. conference It is also “THIS NEW process. noteworthy that PROCEDURE As part of the the council must AND PROGRAMME case management identify potential PRESENTS CLEAR process, the rule 6 parties.

RESOURCING AND inspector may SoC guidance TIMETABLING request detailed states that if PINS ISSUES” topic-specific determines that a SoCUGs. hearing or written Depending on representations the topic, these are more may need to be appropriate, agreed with another party or “details of the procedure and a rule 6 party. These topicrelevant timescales will be specific SoCUGs should be clarified separately”. submitted at the same time There is no more advice as the relevant proofs. The about what happens in this standalone guidance advises situation and there have been that the agreed SoCUG can cases where a hearing has also be used to “inform been elected by PINS and the a subsequent Position appellant has then been left Statement on Main Issues”. with no established process The case management to submit further evidence conference will take place beyond the original SoC. within seven weeks of the In the absence of any start date, as a call with the procedural remedy, there appellant, council, rule 6 party is an emerging practice for and invitees of the inspector. ‘borderline cases’ where A pre-conference note will prior work is undertaken be sent out in advance to to allow for the preparation

include the inspector’s assessment of what the main issues are likely to be.

A note of the proceedings with the inspector’s decision on matters discussed in the conference call will subsequently be issued.

PINS confirms that “since the start of issuing decisions in the new ‘Rosewell style’ in March 2019, decisions from 15 inquiries have been issued using the new process and timeline all within the expected time frame of 24-26 weeks; over 90 per cent have been within 24 or less; under 10 per cent within 26 weeks.”

The imposition of this new procedure and programme presents clear resourcing and timetabling issues for appellants and councils, effectively removing the benefit of parallel resubmissions and increasing the prospect of cost awards.

These changes will have a big impact on the profession.

Stuart Andrews is partner and national head of planning and infrastructure consenting with Eversheds Sutherland

In brief New SoC guidance may leave appellants without the means to submit a full complement of evidence A PINS trial suggests that the procedures deliver decisions within the desired time frame But they also present resourcing and timetabling issues, and increase the prospect of costs awards

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

NEWS Sevenoaks wins hostel enforcement case Woolwich Crown Court has fined the owners of a hostel in Swanley £14,000 for failing to comply with two planning enforcement notices.

Sevenoaks District Council issued Bhupinderjeet and Narinder Kullar with a notice that required them to stop using The Convent of Mercy as a hostel. A second notice required the removal of a wooden shed that had been put up without permission.

The owners did not comply with these. The building continued to be used as a hostel until 11 March 2018. The council obtained a closure order from Sevenoaks Magistrates’ Court, which came after repeated antisocial behaviour.

In a four-day trial beginning on 2 December 2019, Woolwich Crown Court fined the Kullars, who owned the land, £4,000 and £10,000 in costs.

In August 2019, Mustafa Kemal Mustafa, who ran the hostel, was fined £15,000 for failing to comply with the planning enforcement notice to stop using the building as a hostel.

Alison Salter, planning team manager at Sevenoaks District Council, said: “The building was not fit to be a hostel and there were numerous reports of antisocial behaviour associated with its tenants. The safety of our residents is our top priority and thanks to colleagues across the council and partnership working with Kent Police, the Fire Service and the HSE [Health and Safety Executive], we were able bring Mr and Mrs Kullar to justice.

“The £14,000 fine sends a clear message that we will not tolerate people who ride roughshod over the law.”

Little Aston man fined for tree felling Cannock Magistrates’ Court has fined a man from Little Aston £1,750 and ordered him to pay £3,000 in court costs for felling three protected trees.

In December, Scott Francis pleaded guilty to felling the protected trees, which were in his garden.

The trees, an English oak, a mature Scots pine and a young Scots pine, were all within the Little Aston conservation area. Francis must also pay a victim surcharge of £175.

Angela Lax, cabinet member for legal and regulatory services, said: “This case shows how seriously the court takes breaches in tree preservation orders. Anyone buying property or considering carrying out work to trees should check with their local authority and whether the property or trees within it are subject to conservation areas or tree preservation orders.”

Council bids for retrospective permission for ground source pumps Northumberland County Council had to apply for retrospective planning permission for three ground source heat pump arrays after realising that it had gone ahead believing that permission was not needed.

The pumps are at Ashington Community Association Football Club and Cambois and Seahouses primary schools.

Two pumps were installed at the first two sites and three at the last.

The council discovered the error when applications were made to the government for Renewable Heat Incentive funding.

A report to the county council’s strategic planning committee said the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 (amended) set out the circumstances in which ground source heat pumps can be installed without the need for planning permission.

However, as more than one heat pump was involved at each site, planning permission was required.

The strategic planning committee granted retrospective permission.

ANALYSIS

LEGAL BRIEFS Gaining insight into NSIP and PINS This event, on 28th April in London, will explore the process of development consent order (DCO) applications. bit.ly/planner0220-LondonCPD

Spring planning law update DLA Piper will host the first of two planning seminars in the West Midlands this year on 17th March, providing an overview of legislative changes. bit.ly/planner0220-LawUpdateWM

Scotland to regulate short-term lets Scottish housing minister Kevin Stewart has announced that local authorities will be able to implement a licensing scheme for short-term lets from spring 2021. bit.ly/planner0220-ShortTermScot

Key Supreme court village green ruling The Supreme Court has allowed appeals

by Lancashire County Council and NHS Property Services over whether statutory incompatibility defeats an application to register land as a town or village green. bit.ly/planner0220-VillageGreen

Suffolk district backed on housing stance The Court of Appeal has rejected a parish council’s claim that Babergh District Council, when assessing the fiveyear supply of housing land, misdirected itself on the relevant policies in the NPPF, reports Local Government Lawyer. bit.ly/planner0220-Babergh

Connecting air quality with commercial success Simon Stanion of Shakespeare Martineau considers how greater scrutiny of air quality impacts in planning appeal decisions recently is affecting developers. bit.ly/planner0220-AirQuality

Blue Christmas Planning lawyer Simon Ricketts considers what the new government’s planning policy priorities are likely to be based on the post-election Queen’s Speech. bit.ly/planner0220-QueensSpeech

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NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

by Will Finch at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

High-profile speakers announced for The Planner Live 2020

29­30 JUNE 2020 / LONDON A number of leading voices in the planning community have been confirmed as speakers at The Planner Live 2020, the RTPI’s relaunched annual planning convention.

Tickets are on sale now for the event, which takes place in London on 29-30 June. It promises to be the must-attend event of the year for the profession.

Among the confirmed speakers is Mark Farmer, who will be the subject of a live interview about modular and off-site construction.

Mark is well-known as the author of 2016’s ‘Modernise or Die’ report, which identified key failings in the British construction industry.

Also speaking will be Araceli Camargo, the cover star of December’s issue of The Planner. Araceli, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, will be examining how the built environment presents risks for certain health issues and how planners can help.

Also confirmed for The Planner Live 2020 is environmentalist and Working with Nature author Jeremy Purseglove, another recent subject of an interview in The Planner. Jeremy will be looking at the role of planners in ‘future-proofing’ the UK’s infrastructure.

RTPI President Sue Manns said: “It’s great that we’ll have such high-profile speakers joining us for The Planner Live.

The topics they are addressing are some of

Neuroscientist Araceli Camargo (left) and environmentalist Jeremy Purseglove will be among the speakers at The Planner Live 2020

the most interesting in the profession right now, and I am really looking forward to hearing what they have to say.

“As well as these star names, The Planner Live will also feature more opportunities than ever before for you to get involved, including voting and polling during sessions and the opportunity to submit your questions before the event.”

Antony Rifkin from headline sponsors Allies and Morrison said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be supporting The Planner Live this year. The RTPI’s planning convention has always been one of the highlights of the year for Allies and Morrison and we’re proud to have been a part of it over many years.

“This year, rebranded and relaunched as The Planner Live, we believe this innovative event will be bigger and better than before, with an extensive programme of conference sessions and even more opportunities for networking. We look forward to seeing you there!”

TICKETS FOR THE PLANNER LIVE 2020 – ON SALE NOW A range of one-day and two-day tickets is now available, with some tickets also including an evening networking event hosted by RTPI President Sue Manns.

Keep up to date with the latest news of confirmed speakers by following us on Twitter @RTPIPlanners using the hashtag #PlannerLive2020.

n Many thanks to all the sponsors of The Planner Live, who for 2020 include architecture and urban planning practice Allies and Morrison. Sponsorship and exhibiting packages are still available for this event – to discuss how your business could take advantage of this great opportunity, email helen.gibb@rtpi.org.uk

n To buy tickets and for more information, visit www.rtpi.org.uk/plannerlive

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I M AG E S | P E T E R S E A R L E / T I M G E O RG E / U N P / RT P I

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no.

262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

M Y V I E W O N … D I G I TA L P L A N N I N G S Y S T E M S Stefan Webb believes the digital transformation of planning must be achieved in a more unified manner The digital transformation of the planning system is already happening, but while the future might already be here, it’s not yet evenly distributed.

Until all planning authorities in England approach digital transformation in a unified manner, we will continue to develop disparate ways of solving common challenges.

Connected Places Catapult and the RTPI have been working together to understand how planning professionals can best adopt new technologies to create a more efficient, effective and accessible planning system that frees up planners to plan.

Our joint vision is underpinned by a series of principles that should guide planners, digital teams and decision-makers when making choices about how to design, procure and build the different components of a future planning system.

We’re encouraging organisations to sign up to the principles, as well as creating specific calls to action, setting out what government departments and agencies, local authorities and the planning industry must do to begin delivering a digital planning system. n Stefan Webb is Director of Digitising Planning at the Connected Places Catapult. For more details of the joint vision visit bit.ly/planner0220-Digital @cpcatapult #PlanTech

POSITION POINTS

PLANNING PRIORITIES FOR 2020 VICTORIA HILLS, RTPI CHIEF EXECUTIVE In a letter to government ministers, we’ve welcomed a commitment to invest £100 billion in much-needed infrastructure but powers and funding for infrastructure should be devolved and local authorities allowed to establish dedicated teams focused solely on infrastructure coordination.

We also welcome the government’s commitment to address the climate change crisis, but planners need more direction and resources to help them reach net-zero carbon targets by 2050. I’m also pleased to see that a planning White Paper is being proposed to make the planning process clearer – again, this is good news as long as the system is properly resourced.

Local authority planning teams have seen a reduction of 42 per cent in funding over the past decade, a situation that must now urgently be addressed. Planners have to be adequately resourced to deliver sustainable communities that people want to live in.

To read Victoria’s letter in full, visit bit.ly/planner0220-Priorities

CHILD FRIENDLY PLANNING AUDE BICQUELET LOCK, RTPI DEPUTY HEAD OF POLICY AND RESEARCH A new report commissioned by the RTPI and written by Dr Jenny Wood, co-founder of A Place in Childhood, and Dinah Bornat, co-director of ZCD Architects, calls for a more rights-based approach to future planning policies, which would include children in decisionmaking processes.

Child Friendly Planning in the UK – A Review found that planning systems in the UK are failing to consider the rights and needs of children, leading to detrimental effects on their health, wellbeing and future prospects.

If we are honest and serious about building inclusive and diverse communities, we have to take into account children’s needs and rights. The stark truth is that children are most visible across UK planning policies through their absence – in most cases social issues relevant to planning are relegated to guidance rather than to key national planning policies and frameworks.

To download the report, visit bit.ly/planner0220-Children

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NEWS

RTPI N E W S

Bright future for planning, says RTPI The future of the planning profession is looking bright says the RTPI, with more Student members continuing along the path to Chartered status than ever before.

Half of eligible Students in 2019 converted to paid-

for Licentiate membership following the completion of their course. This represents a 10 per cent increase on the previous year.

The total number of members of all classes leading to Chartered membership –

Student, Licentiate, Affiliate and Associate – also rose, with a year-on-year rise of 8 per cent.

As the RTPI celebrates the 60th anniversary of its Royal Charter, Chief Executive Victoria Hills said that the new figures showed that both the RTPI and the planning profession as a whole were in good health.

She said: “It’s vital that we continue to attract the brightest and best to become Chartered members and to do this we need to focus on planners at an early stage of their careers – these encouraging numbers certainly validate the Board’s decision to invest in free Student membership.

“A strong and diverse workforce of Chartered planners is essential to enable the public and private sectors to deliver on the challenges

GOLD MEDAL WINNER

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16%

increase in the number of first­time APC submissions in 2019 compared with 2018

WYNDHAM THOMAS

Paul Barnard, Plymouth City Council’s Service Director for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure, has been awarded the RTPI Gold Medal in recognition of exceptional achievement in the field of town and country planning.

In his citation, Paul (pictured) was described as an ‘exceptional’ town planner whose leadership, planning expertise, ability to innovate and sheer determination have resulted in planning services at Plymouth City Council now being considered among the best in the country.

Reacting to the news, Paul said: “I have always been proud of planning and proud of what we as planners achieve. Planning is an inherently democratic process and I am therefore extremely honoured to be awarded

the Gold Medal which, for me, acknowledges what local authority planners deliver day in and day out for the communities that we serve.”

Chair of RTPI’s Board of Trustees Sue Bridge said: “It is significant that the RTPI is awarding the highest honour it can give to a local authority planner who has delivered so much through positive planning.”

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faced by the UK. The RTPI’s corporate strategy for 20202030 will enable us to continue to demonstrate the value of membership to Students and promote Chartered status to all those entering the profession.”

Overall number of members at the end of 2019 was 25,579.

This is the highest figure ever reached, and a year-on-year increase of 2 per cent.

The RTPI offers its condolences to the family of Wyndham Thomas CBE, who has died at 95.

Mr Thomas, described as “one of the giants of town planning”, was made an honorary member of the RTPI in 1979 and was also a senior VicePresident of the TCPA. He was for many years General Manager of Peterborough New Town Development Corporation, where he made a great effort to draw the city council into the core of the Development Corporation’s project. He later became Chair of Inner City Enterprises, was on the board of the London Docklands Development Corporation, and also chaired the House Builders’ Federation Committee of Inquiry into Private Housebuilding and the Inner Cities, which reported in 1987.

Kelvin MacDonald FRTPI said: “I met Wyndham Thomas on a few occasions when I was working at the TCPA in the early 1980s and I still remember reflecting on the fact that a man whom I held in such awe could be so approachable.”

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G PLANNIN AHEAD MEMBER NEWS

FELLOWSHIPS

Key dates for 2020

The RTPI is delighted to announce that the following members have been elected Fellows in recognition of their major contributions to the planning profession.

The RTPI Fellowship is only awarded to those planners who have made a major personal contribution to the profession to further the science and art of planning for the benefit of the public.

Join us for the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2020, to be held at Milton Court Concert Hall at the Barbican in central London. With a record APR number of entries this year, the competition across a range of categories for teams, projects and individuals will no doubt be fierce. Also awarded on the night will be the coveted Silver Jubilee Cup for the best project overall, won last year by Plymouth City Council. Tickets for this exciting event go on sale later this month when the shortlisted entries in each category will also be announced..

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Jon Suckley FRTPI, Principal and Senior Director for Planning, Development and Regeneration at Avison Young in Manchester Warren Marshall FRTPI, Group Planning Director for Peel Ports Group John Sturzaker FRTPI, Senior Lecturer in Civic Design/Planning at the Department of Geography and Planning at University of Liverpool Abigaile Bromfield FRTPI, Director at Arup Owain Wyn FRTPI, proprietor of BURUM Consultancy Services

n For more information, visit www.rtpi.org.uk/excellence #RTPIAwards Relaunched for 2020 as The Planner Live, the RTPI’s annual convention will be bigger and better than ever before, running across two full days. Don’t miss JUNE this opportunity to hear from leading names in the planning community from both the UK and overseas including Araceli Camargo, Mark Farmer and Jeremy Purseglove.

For more details, see page 44.

Congratulations to RTPI members recognised in the New Year Honours list 2020. n Paul Barnard MRTPI – MBE for services to planning in Plymouth n Dr Michael Bingham MRTPI – OBE for services to planning n Martin Jewell MRTPI Rtd – MBE for services to business start-ups and to charity in Enfield, London

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n Keep up to date with the latest news about The Planner Live at rtpi.org.uk/plannerlive #PlannerLive2020

29­30 JUNE 2020 / LONDON

n Tim Smith, a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP and a member of the RTPI’s Conduct and Discipline Panel, has been appointed a Deputy High Court Judge for England and Wales. n Bernadette Hillman LARTPI, the RTPI’s Honorary Secretary and Solicitor, has been appointed to the Law Society’s Planning and Environmental Law Committee.

The annual Young Planners Conference, hosted each year by one of the RTPI’s regional Young Planners’ Networks, is always among the highlights of OCT the calendar. Following the success of the 2019 event in Newcastle and Gateshead, hosted by the RTPI North East Young Planners and attended by 350 delegates, join us later this year in Edinburgh for the 2020 edition.

The two-day conference at McEwan Hall at the University of Edinburgh will feature high-profile speakers from across the UK as well as valuable networking opportunities. There will also be a Gala Dinner at the nearby National Museum of Scotland.

IN MEMORIAM

n For the latest information, visit www.rtpi.org.uk/ypc #YPConf2020

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It is with regret that we announce the deaths of the following members. We offer our sincere condolences to their families and colleagues.

Christopher Bryan South West

Ian Currie East of England

David Linley North West

John Franklin East of England

David Price South East

John Washington East of England

David Short North West

Nicholas Beckley Wales

David Watts South West

Nigel Hill North West

Eduard Sekler Overseas

Peter Dahl West of Scotland

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If a job role’s worth filling…

Don’t just take our word for it - here’s what our customers are saying about Planner Jobs, the official planning recruitment service of the RTPI “We got a good number of applications for the planning of·cer posts and, having a brief look through the submissions, the candidates are from various necks of the woods.

Placing the advert with you has certainlyy helped us to reach a wider audience.”

MAY 2018 – MATTHEW PARRY DAVIES, DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT MANAGER, WIRRAL COUNCIL

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

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

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

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

OCTOBER 2018 ALAN N COLEMAN, HEAD OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING & ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENT SERVICES, WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL

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

OCTOBER 2018 – TOM VENABLES, PLANNING DIRECTOR, PRIOR + PARTNERS

“We have had really positive results with the adverts we have placed in The Planner. Our two new principals started with us this week, and we have had a series of interviews off the back of the advert.”

JULY 2018 KEVIN JAMES, SUPPORT TEAM MANAGER, AYLESBURY VALE DISTRICT COUNCIL

“The Planner worked fantastically well for our client’s senior planner role and massively exceeded expected applications! We would heartily recommend them to any client or business for their planning roles.”

NOVEMBER 2018 – DEAN TRANTER, ACCOUNT MANAGER, JUPITER ADVERTISING

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

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RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENTS

Recruitment {

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

Greater Cambridge’s world-class partnerships, projects and places can supercharge your planning career Cambridge has a remarkable city centre with iconic structures like King’s College and a history of world-renowned thinking. It is also home to 125,000 residents and 5,500 businesses. Surrounding the city centre, South Cambridgeshire has 103 picturesque villages and new towns, alongside booming science and tech clusters; AstraZeneca’s £500 million investment on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus is currently in build.

You could enjoy the daily buzz of practising in Greater Cambridge, with our large number of strategic site developments and the country’s first ever joint Local Plan, in what is also the fastest-growing city economy in the country.

We have opportunities within both our Strategic Sites and Development Management teams for: Principal Planners Salary: up to £40,286, plus 15% market supplement and a golden hello bonus payment of £3,000

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Planners Salary: up to £29,185 For more information, or to apply before the deadline on Monday 17 February, visit our website: www.greatercambridgesharedplanning.com Or have a chat with one of our planning managers about the opportunities: Nigel Blazeby, 07827 233836; Chris Carter, 07851 383902

Greater Cambridge HPH.indd 1

09/01/2020 17:15

DEVELOPMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE Planning, Development and Regulatory Services Orkney’s award-winning Planning Service is recruiting to the following posts.

Turn to page 32 to read why Orkney is a great place to be a planner in 2020.

Planning Manager (Development and Marine Planning) (Ref: ORK03909) Permanent, 35 hours per week £43,327- £47,141 (including Distant Islands Allowance) We are looking for a highly motivated qualified Planner to lead and manage our Development and Marine Planning Team. You should have Full Membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute with significant post RTPI full membership experience.

You can discuss this post with Roddy Mackay, Head of Planning, Development and Regulatory Services: roddy.mackay@orkney.gov.uk; 01856 873535.

Please note that relocation expenses will be paid for this post.

Planning Officer/Senior Planner (Ref: ORK03912) 35 hours per week Temporary for a period of up to 2 years £32,323 to £36,100 / £36,593 to £39,239 (including Distant Islands Allowance) depending on qualifications and experience We are looking for an individual with a sound knowledge of planning legislation, policy and guidance to work in our Development Management team. As a Planning Officer, you will have experience in development management and take on a varied caseload of planning applications.

As a Senior Planner, you will also present committee reports to Elected

S eaOrkney rc h HPH t h epV2.indd l a nn e1r.co .u k / j o b fo r t h e b e s t v a canci e s

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Members, and supervise other Development Management staff. Both posts require RTPI membership.

Please note that relocation expenses will be paid for this post.

Planning Control Officer (Development Management) (Ref: ORK03914) 35 hours per week for a period of up to two years and 31.5 hours per week Permanent £28,947 - £31,848 pro rata (including Distant Islands Allowance) We are looking for a Planning Control Officer to deliver the Council’s planning enforcement and development monitoring role. The successful candidate will hold a HNC or equivalent level qualification in Planning or other relevant discipline.

You can discuss the above posts with Jamie Macvie, Planning Manager, Development Management: jamie.macvie@orkney.gov.uk; 01856 873535.

Closing Date: Sunday 1 March 2020 For all three posts you should be able to travel efficiently and effectively between various work locations within Orkney to meet the operational requirements of the Service. The posts are also subject to Basic Disclosure Scotland clearance. Further information is available from, and online applications can be made through www.myjobscotland.gov.uk/orkney Please note that interview expenses will be paid for the posts in accordance with Council policy.

13/01/2020 13:20 F EB R U AR Y 2 0 20 / THE PLA NNER

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13/01/2020 17:30

A message from Plan B “It is with a mixture of sadness (ours) and relief (yours, probably) that Plan B is considering a period of semi-retirement.

The world is now beyond satire, and that’s obviously bad news for a satirist.

“This is a world in which it is perfectly legitimate for a former upholstery workshop, situated between the back of an office and a car park in central Watford, to be converted into 15 flats, seven of which would have no windows. No windows.

Satirists have no business in a world where such breathtaking absurdity has become the norm. We can no longer compete with reality.

“We’ve enjoyed our 70-odd interventions in the world of planning and we thank our loyal reader for their forbearance. We’re disappointed that we’ve only actually received two complaints in six years (although one of them was a beauty).

“There have been highlights. To whit, we’ve composed a planning application for Stonehenge, turned Eric Pickles into a pea, invented planning minister Top Trumps, created the ultimate planning rock supergroup, revived Ye Olde Planner’s Almanac, logically determined that Britain’s new capital should be in the Atlantic Ocean and discovered the secret poetry lurking at the heart of planning appeal reports.

“It’s been fun, but we’re beginning to wonder what else there is to say. Besides, this is no time for frivolity; the age calls for high seriousness and a furrowed brow.

Hence we’re considering the pursuance of Plan C – retraining as a clown for corporate entertainments and political conferences.” n (What do you think - has Plan B run its course?

Contact us or visit our social media feeds to add your voice to the debate.)

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CALL TO ACTION

Nominate your Women of Influence for 2020 Who are the women working in and around planning who you think are having a positive impact – on individual planners, on planning policy and on the broader planning process?

As you receive this print edition, there may yet be time for you to nominate individuals for our Women of Influence list 2020. (At the time of gong to press, the closing date for nominations was Friday 31 January.) Now in its fifth year, the list acknowledges the substantial contribution of women to planning across a range of sectors, technical disciplines and regions.

This might include, for example, a public sector planner doing a great job of inspiring colleagues, an elected politician who champions planning in their community, a community activist driving change locally through the planning process, a health researcher influencing thinking about place – and so on.

Whatever their impact on planning, we want you to nominate the women whom you feel deserve recognition for their influence. Tell us who they are, and what they’ve done in the past two years that merits recognition.

Last year our judges selected 50 Women of Influence from your nominations. This year we’ll be asking our judges to come up with a shorter final list – and we’d like to acknowledge a new cohort of women who are having an impact. n Take a look at last year’s list at bit.ly/planner0220-WomenOfInfluence n Make your nominations at bit.ly/Influence2020(note: case sensitive) n We’ll be publishing the 2020 list on Friday 6 March, in time for International Women’s Day on 8 March

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LANDSCAPE

THE MONTH IN PLANNING The best and most interesting reads, websites, films and events that we’ve encountered this month WHAT WE'RE CLICKING ON Scottish planning The Scottish Government has launched a site allowing visitors to follow the progress of, and joining in with, key strands of the continuing transformation of Scotland’s planning system and national policy. It’s structured around the work that will done over the next couple of years on National Planning Framework 4, planning reform and digital planning. bit.ly/planner0220-Scot

WHAT WE'RE READING..

Landscape Appreciation: Theories since the cultural turn – David Jacques A recent blogger in these pages (January 2020, p18), landscape historian David Jacques’s book seeks to explain what makes one landscape scene preferred over another. It critiques the many theories, concluding with an analysis of ‘satisfactions’ from immediate formal qualities, the sublime, meanings, and beauty. The final part expands upon ‘environmental aesthetics’. Available through g Amazon and other bookstores.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING 2...

Agent Plan-It: town planning for kids Last year, Agent Plan-It – the superhero created to explain town planning to the next generation – was the subject of 10 short educational cartoon videos. The idea, originated within the RTPI, is simple; our hero accompanies an inquisitive youngster around town to explain the basics of planning. If your own children are asking you about the day job, this YouTube channel is the place to send them. bit.ly/planner0220-AgentPlan-It

WHERE WE'RE GOING...

Each month the RTPI runs a range of free or low-cost events up and down the UK. Here’s our pick for the next few weeks.

See the full calendar here: bit.ly/planner0120-calendar Dorset Young Planners – The Climate Emergency and Ecosystems 12 Feb, 4.30pm-8.30pm, Savills, Wessex House, Wimborne Nick Squirrel, conservation and planning adviser with Natural England, presents on nitrate neutrality and explains how measures can be used to mitigate the impact of new development on the ecosystem, while Councillor Ray Bryan, chair for The Climate Change Executive Advisory Panel at Dorset Council, explains the council’s response to the issue. bit.ly/planner0220-Ecosystems

WHAT WE’RE PLANNING Our March M issue considers gender-sensitive planning, while the success of Walthamstow’s planni nightlife enterprise zone comes under the nightli microscope. In April our interviewee will be Griff micros president of Civic Voice, focusing on Rhys Jones, Jo rst 10 years of the organisation. And we’ll be the firs offering erin readers a chance to question speakers in advance advanc dvan of June’s Planner Live conference.

Green Infrastructure, Conservation of Biodiversity & Ecology 18 Mar, 9am-4pm, Sheffield Biodiversity is rising up the agenda, formalised in the government’s landmark environment bill. This conference will consider how the planning system can effectively safeguard local habitats and wider ecological networks. bit.ly/planner0220-Biodiversity

Implementing the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 – CPD Masterclass 4 March, 9am-4pm, 16 St Mary’s Street, Edinburgh This RTPI masterclass will walk you through the practical implications of the legislation as it evolves, including the new regulations on performance, the introduction of statutory chief planning officers and the implications for development management. (NB: Delegate numbers are restricted to enhance learning outcomes.) bit.ly/planner0220-CPDMasterclass

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

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