6 minute read
Louise Brooke
LOUISE BROOKE SMITH OBE Opinion O
2021? It’s a walk in the park
Don’t you just love it when something comes along that is a real surprise, or you fi nd something that you had been looking for but had given up hope of fi nding? Th en it’s there, staring you in the face, like the last edge piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
Lockdown, isolation, furlough, remote working – all mean that we are still balancing time in front of the screen with the odd visit to the offi ce. Or should that be the visit to the odd offi ce, given that you can’t tell who might be there and you may end up spending the day with someone playing it absolutely by the book?
We have all had to follow the letter of the law in terms of ‘hands, face, space’ and I’m sure our respective quiet Christmases and New Years are all but distant memories of high frivolity watching Skyfall for the millionth time and going to bed early with a cocoa.
But it’s nearly spring – hoorah! At least the nights are getting marginally shorter (if you measure things in milliseconds) and the vaccine is coming to a village hall near you very soon, or so the government keeps telling us.
In the meantime, we can be grateful for little things, while getting to grips with a Brexit economy and trying to be upbeat about the Covid-19 recession.
Th ere are things to look forward to, with little surprises around every corner. Remember when you went for one of your government-advised daily walks and came across a tiny pocket park in an area you rarely visit? Or when that cycle route you mapped out had some really good downhill bits and a pop-up coff ee stop had miraculously appeared in a lay-by?
Like fi nding odd things in coat pockets. A roll of poo bags that you’d completely forgotten about since handing the early morning pooch exercise over to the other half, because that fi ts in better with your Zoom regime. Or the slight embarrassment of thinking it was a tissue in your bag when it was actually a mix of sweet wrappers and spare tampons. Good job you’re not in the face-to-face meetings now, eh?
Surprises come in all shapes and sizes. A social
media message from someone who actually did read your seasonal greetings and is following up with a ‘Hi, how are you?’. A nomination for staff member of the month award.
Perhaps, as we get to grips with the world according to Brexit, we might indeed hear the phrase ‘Surprise surprise’, and not fi nd Cilla turning in her grave. Who knows, all those webinars and endless pontifi cations by worthy panellists since 2016 could actually make sense, and we all cry out, “Oh so that’s what it all means”?
Sarcasm and politics aside, we have no alternative other than to accept that democracy, of a sort, has had its day and we have to make the best of it. In my mind that means looking forward, not back. It means seeing the good in things when trying to make sense of the thousands of regulations that some poor civil servant spent most of the back half of 2020 cutting and pasting to get the Brexit deal done by midnight (Europe time). It means not being put off by the red tape that might accompany our foreign travel when the rest of the world eventually reopens its doors to the Brits.
Let’s look forward to supporting those airlines and ferries when they start up their propellers again. Let’s dream of the summer of 2021 when we will be able to take holidays in the sun – remembering the plethora of new paperwork and pet passport if you want to take your dog with you. And all the poo bags in your old coat pocket.
Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director
Quote unquote
FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB
PHOTOGRAPHER SIMON PHIPPS, WHOSE BOOK BRUTAL NORTH HAS SURVEYED THE SURVIVING BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND “Local conversations that simply ‘ask about housing’ can reduce stress and worry and help improve people’s housing situation before it escalates into homelessness”
MAGGIE BRÜNJES, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF HOMELESS NETWORK SCOTLAND, ONE OF THE 31 ORGANISATIONS IN THE ‘EVERYONE HOME COLLECTIVE’ THAT IS URGING PEOPLE IN COMMUNITIES AND THOSE RUNNING LOCAL SERVICES TO PREVENT HOMELESSNESS CLOSER TO HOME IN 2021 AND BEYOND E IN 2021 AND BEEYOND “Th e environment bill states that air quality is a priority, but this must be backed up with concrete policies and actions to ensure cleaner air in our cities and a healthier outdoor workforce”
MIKE ROBINSON, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE BRITISH SAFETY COUNCIL, CALLS FOR UK LAW TO MATCH WHO AIR POLLUTION LIMITS FOLLOWING THE RULING BY SOUTHWARK CORONER’S COURT THAT AIR POLLUTION MADE A MATERIAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEATH OF ELLA KISSI DEBRAH
DAVID JONES OF AXIS PLANNING ON PROPOSALS FOR ‘THE ISLAND QUARTER’, A ‘COHESIVE USE’ SCHEME IN NOTTINGHAM COMPRISING HOTELS, CO WORKING SPACE, APARTMENTS, GREEN PUBLIC REALM AND LEISURE FACILITIES
CRISPIN TRUMAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF CPRE, ON HOW THE LATEST HOUSING ALGORITHM ANNOUNCEMENT COULD LEAD TO “A MUCH NEEDED DEBATE ABOUT HOW TO ENSURE THE RIGHT DEVELOPMENT IN THE RIGHT PLACE ACROSS THE WHOLE COUNTRY” “Th e assessment makes clear the smentmakesclearthe“Theassess case for increasing budgets above and beyond the NIC baseline to ensure maximum benefi t is realised through completion of HS2 in full, along with complementary schemes including Midlands Engine Rail and Northern Powerhouse Rail”
A HIGH SPEED RAIL GROUP SPOKESPERSON COMMENTING ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE COMMISSION’S RAIL NEEDS ASSESSMENT FOR THE MIDLANDS AND THE NORTH
PETER HOGG, LONDON CITY EXECUTIVE AT ARCADIS, RESPONDS TO THE UK GOVERNMENT’S REVISION OF PLANS TO CREATE A FORMULA FOR LOCATING NEW HOMES
