The Planner - June 2019

JUNE 2019 RESOURCING PLANNING ENFORCEMENT // p.4 • RTPI 2019 AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE: THE VICTORS // p.6 • A PLANNER’S ROLE IN DESIGN & WELL BEING // p.30 • PLYMOUTH LEADS THE CROWD // p.34 • LAW FOR A DIGITAL AGE // p.42

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

City visionary VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI ON BRINGING DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC INCLUSIVITY BACK TO URBAN PLANNING

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CONTENTS

JU NE

09 NEWS 4 Planning authorities require more resources to step up enforcements 6 Plymouth wins RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup for third time 8 Malthouse: Use neighbourhood plans to ‘take control’ 9 Wales to create its own planning inspectorate 10 TV’s George Clarke calls for radical rethink of housing delivery

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20 19

“CITIES ARE THESE AMAZING ENGINES OF ENVIRONMENTALISM AND EQUITY IF THEY’RE DESIGNED RIGHT”

26 OPINION

14 Louise BrookeSmith: Square pegs in round holes 16 Zoë Lenkiewicz: Waste management aids health and prosperity 16 Daniel Stone: How neighbourhood plans can help with the climate emergency 17 Sally Hyams: Planners need a better understanding of the natural environment 17 Gabriel M Ahlfeldt/ Elisabetta Pietrostefani: The costs and benefits of density in cities

C O V E R I M A G E | M AT T G R E E N S L A D E

FEATURES

26 Vishaan Chakrabarti tells Francesca Perry how successful urban renewal starts with a close reading of the city

34 Plymouth’s civic crowdfunding initiative has won this year’s Silver Jubilee Cup

“YOUR HOME CRAFTS WHO YOU ARE. IT IS, GENUINELY, AN EXTENDED MEMBER OF YOUR FAMILY.” TV PRESENTER GEORGE CLARKE APPEALS TO THE EMOTIONS AS HE ATTACKS THE QUALITY OF HOUSING

38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

18 How Glasgow's City Deal is aiding the transition from an industrial economy to one based on knowledge and services

30 Matt Moody considers the intersection of planning, design and well-being

QUOTE UNQUOTE

INSIGHT

30

42 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning

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44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B wonders if it is time for the capital of Little Albion to shift to the geographical centre of the nation – Morecambe Bay

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NEWS

Report { PLANNING ENFORCEMENT

Planning authorities require more resources to step up enforcement action Latest government statistics reveal that enforcement teams are maintaining the integrity of the planning system, although much of their work is in the background.

Huw Morris reports.

Mehdi Amrollahi was so scared of planning enforcement that he skipped the country.

He was prosecuted by the London Borough of Barnet using the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) 2002 for renting out flats which he had converted in Hendon Way without planning permission for six years.

The council brought proceedings despite Amrollahi absconding before it could conclude a prosecution for planning offences – the first time the authority had taken this approach.

A warrant for his arrest had been issued in 2017 after he twice failed to appear in court to answer charges for the planning offences. Last month, Harrow Crown Court ordered him to pay nearly £224,000 in his absence.

According to government figures, Barnet is the most active planning authority in England on enforcement. It issued 179 enforcement notices in 2018 as well as 73 contravention notices.

About 35 per cent of England’s enforcement notices – 1,374 – were in London. Indeed the capital’s boroughs made up eight out of the country’s top 10 most active enforcement teams.

So what do the statistics show?

And why is London so active?

A total of 3,905 enforcement notices

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This becomes all the more apparent on a closer look at the figures.

A total of 41 planning authorities issued no enforcement notices last year. Aside from City of London, Waltham Forest and the London Legacy Development Corporation, the remaining 38 were all outside the capital.

“It could be a number of factors, from lack of resources to investigate alleged breaches, to the ability of enforcement About 35 per cent of officers to adequately England’s enforcement negotiate compliance,” says notices – 1,374 – were in London Whittaker. ‘Some authorities may simply not have breaches of planning control requiring formal action. were issued across England, a fall “Due to the recent government of 8 per cent on the previous year. cuts to local authority budgets this Contravention notices, at 763, were has had a knock-on effect to the similarly down by 8.6 per cent. resourcing of planning departments and Meanwhile, breach of condition notices unfortunately it seems that enforcement at 697 fell by the same percentage. resources are the first to be cut and “Given the total number of notices issued so across the country we have seen across the country it is clear that planning enforcement teams reduced, mainly in enforcement continues to be a vital areas outside of the larger towns and instrument in upholding the integrity of cities where planning enforcement is the planning system,” says Neill Whittaker, not seen as high priority.” chair of the National Association of So is there anything the figures do Planning Enforcement (NAPE). not reveal?

“Due to London’s high population Councils will receive significantly density, need for housing and high land more complaints about unauthorised or rental prices there is more temptation development than they will take action for landlords to exploit the system,” against, says Whittaker. Therefore, just says Whittaker. “Also, in my experience, looking at enforcement, London authorities contravention or breach are better resourced “ENFORCEMENT than most to SUCCESS SHOULD NOT of condition notices does not give a full picture of investigate and BE MEASURED SOLELY take action against

BY MEANS OF NUMBERS the work carried out by enforcement teams across breaches.”

OF NOTICES ISSUED” I M AG E | A L A M Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

PLANNING ENFORCEMENT IN ENGLAND – KEY STATISTICS IN 2018

3,905 the number of enforcement notices issued by planning authorities

3,966 the number of contravention notices issued by planning authorities

41

the number of local authorities that did not issue enforcement notices

179

the number of enforcement notices issued by the London Borough of Barnet, the most active authority in the field.

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London boroughs in the top 10 most active planning enforcement teams in England

THE TOP 10 COUNCILS ISSUING ENFORCEMENT NOTICES Barnet .....................................179 Brent .......................................153 Newham ................................. 152 Westminster .......................... 120 Haringey .................................101 Bradford .................................. 84 Ealing ...................................... 80 Brighton .................................. 80 Hounslow ................................ 61 Barking and Dagenham ........ 59 THE TOP 10 COUNCILS FOR CONTRAVENTION NOTICES Cornwall ................................ 249 Westminster ......................... 221 Bracknell Forest .................. 152 Leicester ............................... 135 Leeds ..................................... 95 South Oxfordshire ................ 87 Vale of White Horse ............. 85 Southwark ............................. 78 Haringey ................................ 75 Barnet ................................... 73 ENFORCEMENT NOTICES ISSUED IN ENGLAND IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS 2018 ....................................

2017 ...................................

2016 ....................................

2015 ....................................

2014 ....................................

3,905 4,252 4,562 5,152 4,934

CONTRAVENTION NOTICES ISSUED IN ENGLAND IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS 2018 ....................................

2017 ....................................

2016 ....................................

2015 ....................................

2014 ....................................

3,966 4,949 4,373 5,053 4,918

BREACH OF CONDITION NOTICES ISSUED IN ENGLAND IN THE PAST FIVE YEARS 2018 ....................................... 697 2017 ....................................... 763 2016 ....................................... 717 2015 ....................................... 871 2014 ....................................... 914

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

the country. In most cases, formal action is not required as the breach is either resolved by negotiation or found to be minor.

“Planning enforcement success should not be measured solely by means of numbers of notices issued. If data from the whole enforcement life cycle is compared, this gives a much better indication of the effectiveness of a team and whether planning enforcement is working in that area,” Whittaker adds. “At inception of the enforcement life cycle, numbers of complaints

received is important.

On the other side of the issuing of notices, appeals and appeals success rate together with data on prosecutions, direct actions and injunctions would paint a much more accurate picture of performance.

“Nevertheless, my opinion is that planning authorities which serve higher numbers of notices tend to achieve greater successes on appeals and prosecutions. This inevitably results in a nonlinear diverging skills gap between enforcement teams that issue lots of notices and those that don’t.”

WHY IS BARNET SO ACTIVE?

The London Borough of Barnet has identified the four characteristics of an effective planning enforcement service – to be innovative, decisive, collaborative and prompt.

“We strive to exhibit these qualities in all that we do,” said planning enforcement manager Iain SutherlandThomas. “It is this cultural change which has facilitated this increase in output.”

In 2018, it received 1,948 requests to probe an alleged breach of planning control, a significant increase from 2017 when 1,596 requests were received. In 2018, the council completed 1,899 investigations.

The past year has been the first time Barnet has actively sought out potential breaches of planning control rather than responding to requests to investigate, making it one of

the very few planning authorities in the country to provide such a service.

A specially appointed compliance officer has used data from several council departments to investigate non-compliance with planning law. This data is compiled from licensing of HMOs, council tax and other data from the environmental health department going back to 2014.

Cross-referencing of these multiple data sources has proved so successful that it has been impossible for the officer to investigate all historic data because of the case workload generated.

Barnet says the number of cases investigated between 1 March and 30 October last year is very high, at 244. Of that number, 132 have been HMOs referred by the environmental health department.

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S

NEWS

lysis {

Plymouth City Council's planning team won top prize in the RTPI’s 2019 Awards for Planning Excellence – the Silver Jubilee Cup

RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE

Plymouth wins RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup for third time

By Laura Edgar A pioneering community infrastructure initiative that embraces crowdfunding technology has won the top prize at the RTPI’s 2019 Awards for Planning Excellence ceremony, which took place in London in April.

Plymouth Council’s ‘City Change Fund’ was first declared winner in the Excellence in Tech Within Planning Practice category before being chosen from all 14 category winners as the winner of the Silver Jubilee Cup. It is the third time that the council has won this overall prize.

The judges found that by embracing online crowdfunding technology, the City Change Fund has established a “genuinely citizen-led decision-making approach” for how funds for community infrastructure raised by the community infrastructure levy (CIL) were distributed.

Sadie Morgan, design industry leader and chair of the judging panel, said: “This is a unique and groundbreaking initiative. Plymouth Council went beyond simple community engagement into community

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involvement by empowering the local community to be proactive and invest with them in the City Change Fund from its inception.

“The project is a great example of the power of technology and how it can bring people and resources together more quickly than ever before. It will be exciting to see how this will continue to advance and the impacts it will have on planning in the future, as this is an approach that can be replicated globally to mobilise community development and supplement local authority funding in straitened times.”

The council has used the Crowdfunder UK website to distribute the ‘neighbourhood portion’ of the CIL towards local projects that are led and supported by the citizens of Plymouth.

The use of a digital platform has

“THE PROJECT IS A GREAT EXAMPLE OF THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY AND HOW IT CAN BRING PEOPLE AND RESOURCES TOGETHER MORE QUICKLY THAN EVER BEFORE”

increased the visibility and success of projects that receive funding, says the council. It has engaged thousands of residents in local projects, including improvements to local green space and a sonic art silent disco.

Rebecca Miller, city planning manager at the city council, said: “To me, this project is an incredible example of how a council project can make a massive difference to hundreds of people. From the moment we set it up, we were blown away by the ideas, innovation and passion people had for projects designed to make Plymouth an even better place to be.

“A city is not just about buildings, roads and services. It is about the people who live here and how they feel about Plymouth. The fact this funding comes from developments across the city means residents are benefiting from growth. We are engaging with community groups and residents in a whole new way. It is helping to galvanise people who have incredible ideas – and drive – to make things happen!”

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PLAN UPFRONT

THE WINNERS OF THE 2019 RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE ARE:

Ian Tant MRTPI, president of the RTPI, said: “Huge congratulations to Plymouth City Council and all those who won or were commended at the awards. The range of submissions this year was just tremendous and truly reflected the outstanding contribution that planning and planners make to successful places, sustainable environments, and lively, healthy communities. Nothing speaks up for planning so well as the great work showcased by our winning, commended and shortlisted projects, teams and people.”

(See our winner’s case study on p.34) The awards also saw Jenna Langford, of Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, named Young Planner of the Year. She is a senior regeneration officer for the council.

Last year, she won the Young Planner of the Year award at the West Midlands Awards for Planning Excellence.

After winning, Langford said: “I was really surprised because there were so many fantastic finalists this year. I’m still in shock, to tell you the truth! Over the last 10 years, it’s been a particularly challenging time for the whole planning profession, but for me the highlights have been creating a proactive planning team that has really driven forward regeneration in a deprived area of the country.”

The judges said Langford’s enthusiasm and tenacity, and the way she motivates teams and influences decisions, made her an exemplar role model for young planners.

“Jenna has huge enthusiasm for planning and the role it plays in building successful and prosperous communities. We were inspired by her drive to get the community involved with the work of planners and her commitment to the community she serves.”

The headline sponsors of the 2019 awards were engineering firm AECOM and real estate service provider Savills.

E Excellence in Plan Making Practice Winner: Wandle Vistas W Submitted by: Fiona Fyfe Associates S Commended: East Lothian Local C Development Plan 2018 D Submitted by: East Lothian Council Planning Service Excellence in Planning for a Successful Economy Winner: Spanish City Submitted by: North Tyneside Council Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing Winner: Cuningar Loop Urban Woodland Park Submitted by: South Lanarkshire Council Commended: Tackling Health Inequalities in South Worcestershire: a holistic approach Submitted by: Worcestershire County Council Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture Winner: Spanish City Submitted by: North Tyneside Council Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment Winner: Stirling Enhanced Landscape Mitigation Project Submitted by: Ironside Farrar Ltd and Scottish Power Energy Networks Excellence in Planning for Homes – small schemes Winner: PLACE/Ladywell Submitted by: London Borough of Lewisham Commended: Burlingham Square Submitted by: Matthews City and Country Homes Excellence in Planning for Homes – large schemes Winner: Dargavel Village

Submitted by: Renfrewshire Council Commended: Castleward Urban Village redevelopment Submitted by: HTA Design LLP Excellence in Planning for Tech Within Planning Practice Winner: City Change Fund Submitted by: Plymouth City Council Commended: Drones in Coastal Management Planning in North Norfolk Submitted by: NPS Group International Award for Planning Excellence Winner: Ibadan City Masterplan Submitted by: DAR Commended: Development Plan of Jinjiang Dream Town for Talents Submitted by: Wei Yang + Partners Commended: Plan your Brisbane Submitted by: Brisbane City Council In-house Planning Team of the Year Winner: Sport England Commended: Natural Power Consultants Local Authority Planning Team of the Year Winner: London Borough of Brent Commended: Aylesbury Vale District Council Small Planning Consultancy Winner: NTR Planning Planning Consultancy Winner: LUC Commended: Nexus Planning Limited Young Planner of the Year Winner: Jenna Langford, Sandwell MBC Commended: Ailsa Anderson, Aberdeenshire Council and Charlotte Morphet, London Borough of Waltham Forest

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NEWS

News { Malthouse: Use neighbourhood plans to ‘take control’ Housing minister Kit Malthouse has urged local communities to use the neighbourhood plan to take control of planning in their area.

Speaking at the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Civic Societies’ Building Better, Building Beautiful meeting, organised by Civic Voice, Malthouse said that neighbourhood plans can be a “powerful voice for what should happen, within the constraint of having a nice generous land supply”.

The minister noted that people harbour a resistance to change and to large-scale housing development “that frankly comes from bad experience”.

When we look at what has been built across the UK since the war, he suggested, it hasn’t provided ‘ornaments’ for local communities to be proud of; “this is the fear that people have”. Malthouse said that during his travels around England, the word he hears the most is “spoil” – “it will spoil their area”.

Malthouse spoke of the government’s “massive”ambition to deliver the housing the country needs, with 300,000 homes a year by the mid2020s as its target. But, the minister acknowledged: “We won’t get to 300,000 homes a year unless the people out there accept them.”

Becoming ‘bulletproof’ There are two problems to overcome, suggested Malthouse. The first is that “people feel like they are victims of the planning system”.

He agreed with Sarah James, membership and policy officer at the Civic Voice, that the planning system could be “confrontational” rather than collaborative. Malthouse was keen for local communities to use the neighbourhood planning process to

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solve this – but to ensure that they are “bulletproof on planning”, a “generous” land supply is also required. “Don’t bother limping over the five, go for 10, 15 [years]; because then you run the tape about where it goes, what type it is [and] what it looks like.”

The second problem is that what is being built is “ubiquitous, it looks the same”. Communities are looking for a sense of harmony, suggested Malthouse, something they can see as an ‘ornament’ to be proud of. He then questioned whether we are building the conservation areas of the future.

“Will we be turning up in 30 or 40 years with a preservation notice, or will we be turning up with a bulldozer?

Are we building permanent housing

that will last for centuries – as much of the old stuff does – or are we building temporary housing?”

Malthouse concluded by telling the audience to get involved in the neighbourhood planning process and to “pressure your local council, as I am doing, to make space for beauty”.

Design should be at the forefront of the demands that councils put on local developers, he said; councils should have a design code that reflects and represents their area.

“The NPPF gives them the power to be much more assertive on design and typology if they have their land supply in place. The same with affordable housing. With this, I think you stand a chance of making a difference.”

I M AG E S | G E T T Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

Wales to create its own planning inspectorate

New Dublin cultural quarter backed

Welsh housing minister Julie James has announced that work has begun to create a new, separate planning inspectorate for Wales.

Currently, the Planning Inspectorate for England and Wales is responsible for making decisions and recommendations on planning-related land issues and appeals. It is funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Welsh Government.

Based in Cardiff, the inspectorate’s Wales Division manages casework on planning and related applications and appeals, including developments of national significance. It examines local development plans, which set out land use planning policies and form the basis of local planning decisions, using a team of dedicated Welsh inspectors and administrators.

The new Welsh inspectorate is expected to be fully operational by the end of the current assembly term – May 2021.

James said: “Planning law and policy has diverged and continues to diverge at an accelerating rate from England, in order to meet the unique needs of communities and businesses in Wales. We are also moving forward to consolidate and unify planning law in Wales to form a separate Welsh planning code … I have instructed officials to begin work on a separate, dedicated service for Wales.”

Roisin Willmott OBE FRTPI, director of RTPI Cymru, told The Planner: “Given the marked divergence between the two planning systems both in terms of policy and legislation it makes sense to have an autonomous service for Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have independent services and these work well for their respective jurisdictions and much can be learned on their models to create a service to fit Wales’s needs.”

An Bord Pleanála has approved the long-awaited proposals for the redevelopment of Parnell Square as a new ‘cultural quarter’.

The scheme involves the relocation of the city’s main library, the creation of a public plaza, and the restoration of some of Dublin’s finest Georgian houses.

In addition to the library, the project will include a 200-seat conference centre, a music centre, education facilities, and a café and exhibition space.

On-street car parking will be removed from Parnell Square North, the roadway will be reduced in width and a new public plaza created in front of the library buildings and the existing Hugh Lane Gallery.

The council submitted its application to the planning agency last September, which attracted no objections.

The scheme is expected to have a price tag of about €110 million.

Dublin’s city council is expected to provide just under half of this amount with the remaining balance funded through philanthropic donations.

UK Government hikes funds for Derry & Strabane The UK Government has announced a boost for the Derry and Strabane City Deal as part of a £105 million economic package for the north-west.

The news surfaced as leaders of Northern Ireland’s main political parties met for a fresh round of talks at Stormont.

The package – £50 million for the Derry and Strabane City Deal and £55 million for the new so-called Inclusive Future Fund – aims to boost the economic potential of the city and support a more united community.

The city deal investment is designed to empower innovation and the digital

potential of the city region as well as unlocking local partner funding. This will enable new projects such as a Centre for Industrial Digitisation, Robotics and Automation and a programme of digital and smart cities initiatives, subject to business case approval.

This funding will be bolstered by a £55 million Inclusive Future Fund aimed at bringing greater prosperity and social benefits to the whole of the community.

John Boyle, mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, said: “This will go some considerable way to addressing the long-standing obstacles to economic

development that this city region and its people face. It is the result of an enormous amount of work and sustained effort invested by council and the city and regional partners to develop, deliver and negotiate on the bid.”

Karen Bradley, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said: “This … will help to strengthen the foundations for greater prosperity and a stronger, more united society. The new Inclusive Future Fund recognises the unique circumstances facing the region and will help to create new opportunities for the whole of the community, especially for young people.”

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NEWS

News { HOUSING

TV presenter George Clarke calls for radical rethink of housing delivery

By Martin Read Architect and broadcaster George Clarke used the recent Town & Country Planning Association’s (TCPA) annual Frederic J Osborn lecture to call for a major overhaul of the way housing is procured, designed and delivered.

Clarke began by declaring his abiding love for Washington in Tyne & Wear, the new town in which he grew up.

Extolling the virtues of Washington’s original masterplan, Clarke declared himself as a “home obsessive”.

“For me, the home is the absolute centre of your life,” he said. “Your home crafts who you are. It is, genuinely, an extended member of your family.”

In a passionately delivered speech, Clarke railed against the poor image of the built environment professions (“less than one in 10 people want to work in our industry”) and poor quality of housing output (“it’s all about the numbers; we’re building absolute s**t.”).

He was, he said, embarrassed that “the profession I love” is so often described as being dysfunctional.

In addressing the economics of mass housebuilding, Clarke said that “somehow, we’ve got to find that balance between minimum space standards and creative spaces”, and that “we can’t keep thinking of property as a commodity”.

There were, he declared, no innovations, no quality, no sense of community and no placemaking boundaries.

And while in the 21st century we all work differently, eat differently, communicate and buy products differently, in mass housing developments, “we aren’t designing and building differently”.

The lack of local authority house building since the 1970s meant, said Clarke, that “we’ve absolutely nacked the system – and it absolutely breaks my heart.

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George Clarke: “We can’t keep thinking of property as a commodity”

Everyone’s blaming everybody else and it’s so boring”.

Looking to the future, he said that sustainable building was essential.

“We must build zero-carbon homes. The industry keeps saying that we can’t afford to, but that’s a load of bollocks.”

What was needed, Clarke suggested, was for homes to be designed, built, procured and financed differently. “We need to disrupt a broken industry and give young people what they want.”

The United Kingdom, Clarke continued, should be building “the best ecological new town/green towns in the world;

we need to build at scale and create amazing towns for 21st century living”.

And for new homes to be truly affordable, “the state needs to build again”.

“At a time of national crisis we need a consistent, cross-party, 30-year housing plan that we can all focus on and deliver … for new-build and existing homes.”

He added that the existing “antiquated” procurement system needs radical overhaul (“I could spend another entire lecture talking about changing the procurement system”) and there was also a need to change “the culture and value of ‘design’ in Britain”.

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

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PLAN UPFRONT

BEAUTY AND DESIGN

86%

think the visual appeal of new development matters

65%

do not think visual appearance is sufficiently taken into account through the planning system

67% 68%

consider that modern buildings can be beautiful

Radical transport blueprint for Glasgow includes Metro network A radical transport blueprint for Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest conurbation, has been published.

It includes ambitious proposals for a Glasgow-wide light-rail Metro system, a tunnel linking Glasgow Central and Queen Street stations, an extension of the Central station across the Clyde to accommodate HS2 trains, and a metro connection between the city centre and the airport.

The scheme comes with a price tag of £10 billion and a 20-year time frame.

It is the outcome of the deliberations of the Glasgow Connectivity Commission, chaired by transport guru Professor David Begg.

The commission’s report highlights measures to transform the economic performance of the city region and reconnect left-behind areas to Scotland’s economic powerhouse.

The commission concluded that developing a Glasgow Metro was critical to connect areas of the city that are currently poorly served by rail.

Equally important, said the commission, was making sure that both HS2 and metro developments would act as catalysts for regeneration, generating private sector investment and capturing the uplift in land value.

The commission has also called for a regional transport authority to coordinate land-use planning and transport investment. It would develop plans for bus priority on Glasgow’s motorway network and it would prepare for the shift to electric and autonomous vehicles by considering new methods of road pricing. n Connecting Glasgow: Creating an Inclusive Thriving, Liveable City can be found here on the Glasgow City Council website (pdf) bit.ly/planner0619-Glasgow

thought if the aesthetic appeal or beauty of a development were given more focus it would receive more community support

42%

want training to understand the benefits of using design codes and style guides Source – Civic Voice survey of its members (750 respondents)

SME CONSTRUCTION

29%

of companies surveyed reported a decrease in workloads in Q1 2019

41%

of construction SMEs think expectations have strengthened for the future and workloads will be higher

64%

The trade in shortest supply was bricklayers, with 64% of SMEs struggling to hire them

88%

think material prices will rise over the next six months Source – Federation of Master Builders

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LEADER COMMENT

Opinion onn A big issue for the small screen – The visibility of planning on our most ubiquitous entertainment medium has a chequered history.

Historically, there are some tremendous documentaries, but in recent years it’s been a bit quiet. Back in 2013, planner Phil Skill shot to fame as the star of BBC 2 ‘docutainment’ series The Planners (later Permission Impossible: Britain’s Planners), but if we’re honest that series did little to dispel all-too-easy stereotypes of planners (process-oriented), developers (avaricious), local politicians (partisan) and activists (parochial).

Its packaging in a jauntily scored half-hour magazine format, positioned in a pre-watershed slot, gave the whole thing an unwelcome air of superficiality.

Still, the ‘Beeb’ continues to dip its toes in planning’s waters. Flagship programme Countryfile recently covered the issue of environmental net gain, but did so by quite

Martin Read literally sticking greengrocerstyle price labels on trees and bushes with the topic explained in broad terms via voiceover. Sure, so we got a couple of brief interviews with interested parties, the issue of infrastructure exceptions clearly presented – but the section was over all too quickly. Just as I was hoping for a studio panel considering the wider net gain issues of the Defra metric, oversight et al, we were thrust back into a section on lambing, kite-

flying or cheese shops (I’m guessing here – I’d quickly switched over in disgust).

There are, of course, higherprofile celebs telling stories that segue into admittedly brief explanations of the wider planning process.

Kevin McCloud’s Grand Designs now has a strand focused on custom-build plots in Bicester’s Graven Hill site, and I was brought right up to speed with the work of McCloud’s Channel 4 stablemate George Clarke at a recent lecture.

Neither man pulls any punches when talking about good or bad design, Clarke, in particular, is happy to label as ‘s**t’ what he sees as ubiquitously bland large-scale housebuilding across the UK. In the main,

"WHERE, IN PRIME TIME, IS A PRESENTATION OF THE GRANDER SCALE GRAND COMPROMISE THAT PLANNING REQUIRES?"

however, both men focus on human interest stories; on individuals and their concerns, not the broader placemaking agenda.

It strikes me just how rarely we see British television present the hustle and tussle of a warts-andall planning process in a manner the layman can digest. And it further strikes me that in this age of long-form, high-quality TV drama, it’s high time that the long-form, high-quality drama of planning got more mainstream exposure.

Chasing human interest stories is all very well, but where, in prime time, is a presentation of the grander scale grand compromise that planning requires?

Surely a spotlight on the process would resonate with viewers desperate for more substantial entertainment in an age when it’s all too easy to fall back on false jeopardy.

I know many who’d love to see more large scale planning on television and I’m with them all the way.

Lights, camera – action?

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£120 – UK £175 – Overseas Average net circulation 18,373 (January-December 2016) (A further 5,700 members receive the magazine in digital form) © 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.

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LO U I S E B R O O K E ­ S M I T H

O Opinion

Square pegs in round holes So, you’ve been working on a scheme that will set the word alight. A striking scheme that absolutely hits the mark.

Impressive without being glitzy and efficient through really clever design features. There have been months of delicate discussions with members of the development team.

Community consultations with local councillors and the passionate few speaking for the ambivalent many from the local area have been effective.

Careful steps have been taken through environmental and technical statutory regulations, and countless meetings to discuss the subjectivity of all those design codes.

Then comes the art of putting it all together, like a complicated pavlova. A persuasive planning, design and access statement has been prepared and every possible illustrative plan churned out of the CAD/CAM sausage machine. Then you put the cake into the Planning Portal oven and wait for the statutory determination process to tick away. The odd comments that come back from third parties and statutory consultees who had not wanted to join the party at the pre-submission stage are swiftly dealt with, and the officers’ report is drafted. There is bated breath while it is presented to elected members for the all-important ratification of a positive recommendation, subject of course to a realistic legal agreement and sensible conditions. And you are there – drinks down the pub with the team and a start date sorted, after conditions are discharged and a judicial review is no longer a risk.

14

Then silence. The accountants have awakened from their slumbers. Those pesky accountants who somehow failed to do the sums six months ago, or is it because of a turn in the market, or that well-used perennial – Brexit.

Whatever the reason, the figures don’t now add up.

That commuted sum is how much? Are you sure we need a SUDs scheme? That wooden cladding – really? Surely a cheaper concrete panel would do the trick? And how about all that landscaping – it’s a maintenance nightmare.

And slowly the scheme that blood was sweated over is refined, is value engineered, is tweaked. And you are left with a scheme with the heart and soul knocked out. The very essence of the project that had all that love and attention poured into it is now a shadow of its former self.

“ALL THOSE MONTHS OF NEGOTIATION AND PROFESSIONAL DIALOGUE APPEAR TO COUNT FOR NOUGHT” A series of tactical minor amendments is pursued and a deed of variation drafted and ‘hey presto’, the ‘need’ for the scheme is arguably more vital that the look or feel or spirit. All those months of negotiation and professional dialogue appear to count for nought.

The building is efficient but will never set the world alight and becomes yet another that addresses functionality, as opposed to shaping the place where it sits and contributing to the community’s environment.

The finance didn’t fit the goals and aspirations. It’s a common enough scenario but

by trying to make something fit all parameters, part of its soul is lost. It’s rather like getting a share peg into a round hole. Yes, it will go in after a bit of a push and having undergone some shaving around the corners. But sometimes those corners are the very things that make that peg stand out as effective.

The moral of this story is a simple one. Know what you are working towards at the outset. Make sure that everyone sees it the same way and that all the variables have been absolutely thrashed out. Ideally, tweaks aren’t made at all. But if they are unavoidable, then a scheme should have sufficient flexibility built in to allow for eventualities, whether it’s the ongoing Brexit saga, or a shortage of Italian marble for that stunning entrance or the need to include new digital wizardry.

With a little bit of forethought and vision, square pegs into round holes can work if the hole is big enough to accommodate the whole peg and those inevitable tweaks can then still take place. A stunning scheme can then still emerge, at the end of the day, and all is good with the world.

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a partner at Arcadis LLP and UK Head of Development and Strategy Planning

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Quote unquote I M AG E S | I STO C K / S H U T T E RSTO C K

FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB “We simply cannot build the structure this country needs infrastructure out private finance” without LIZ JENKINS, INS,, PARTNER AT CLYDE N MOVES TO ABOLISH & CO., ON PFI AND PF2 PRIVATE NG MODELS FINANCING

“The d development evelopment proposed is construction of a timber lodge with associated parking and septic tank to be used as tourist accommodation” THE IMPORTANCE OF THE COMMA WRIT LARGE IN THIS RECENT PLANNING APPEAL

“We hardly y have a planning system e have in the UK; we pment a development ystem” control system” CRAIG MCWILLIAM, CEO AT GROSVENOR VENOR UK AND IRELAND, ADDRESSING A STATEMENT TATEMENT S ON HOW AT THE APPG FOR CIVIC SOCIETIES PLANNING COMMITTEES DON’T HAVE THE POWER COMMUNITIES THINK THEY HAVE

“Our buildings are illequipped for the climate we have at present, never mind the climate to come with one, two or, Heaven forbid, three or even four degrees of warming” DANIEL STONE, OF THE CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY, LAYS THE BASIS OF HIS ARGUMENT FOR WHY NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANS SHOULD TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE

“We must build zerocarbon homes. The industry keeps saying that we can’t afford to, but that’s a load of bollocks.”

GEORGE CLARKE’S FORTHRIGHT ASSESSMENT OF OUR ABILITY TO BUILD AND ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE. YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE QUOTES WE COULD HAVE USED

“We need to move away from confrontation to collaboration” SARAH JJAMES,, MEMBERSHIP & POLICY OFFICER AT THE CIVIC VOICE,, ON MEANINGFUL ENGAGEMENT IN THE PLANNING SYSTEM,, AT THE APPG FOR CIVIC SOCIETIES

“Your home crafts who you are. It is, genuinely, an extended member of your family.”

TV PRESENTER GEORGE CLARKE APPEALS TO THE EMOTIONS AS HE ATTACKS THE QUALITY OF HOUSING

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

O Opinion

1

Zoë Lenkiewicz is head of programmes and engagement for WasteAid and one of The Planner’s Women of Influence 2019

Waste management aids health and prosperity – and the plastic problem

Seventy per p cent of marine plastic pollution comes from land-based pollutio sources – but much of it is from lower-income countries with no waste management systems.

Worldwide, there are some three billion people whose household waste is not properly managed. Without a functioning collection and disposal system, people are left to deal with their rubbish themselves, either burning or dumping it nearby. As plastic doesn’t degrade it gathers in ditches, causing often catastrophic flooding in poor communities that also lack basic sanitation.

Thus, incidences of waterborne and mosquito-borne diseases increase.

Air quality also declines as people resort to burning heaps of rubbish.

Children growing up in these places have been found to suffer from doubled levels of diarrhoea, six times the normal levels of respiratory illnesses, and mental and physical stunting.

Identifying suitable sites for waste management activities is notoriously tricky in the UK, but in developing countries the challenge is intensified. Planning departments are usually underresourced and their planning policies out of date. Developers are keen to sell plots of land and rudimentary waste management facilities have little in their favour.

WasteAid is a charity set up

by British waste management

professionals to share skills in waste management and recycling in developing countries – helping people to see waste as a resource by turning a pollution problem into an economic opportunity.

Our government supports these goals. UK aid is funding a two-year project in an informal settlement in Kenya, where WasteAid and its partner the Kwa Muhia Environmental Group are setting up total community waste management. The Department for International Development is also funding a twoyear initiative in a Gambian village, where trainees capture oceanbound plastic and turn it into useful products like paving tiles. Just two months after the first round of training, the group had prevented the equivalent of a million plastic bags from reaching the Atlantic.

Communities, municipalities and governments in lower-income countries need support to preserve the fragile environment upon which billions of people depend.

The issue of plastic in the oceans is just one symptom of a broken system that needs urgent redress.

Through training and sensitisation, WasteAid is helping to deliver sustainable change, enabling people to improve their living conditions and protect our shared natural heritage.

Find out about the latest WasteAid projects and how you can support them: wasteaid.org

“THE ISSUE OF PLASTIC IN THE OCEANS IS JUST ONE SYMPTOM OF A BROKEN SYSTEM THAT NEEDS URGENT REDRESS”

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2 BLOG

BLOG

Daniel Stone MRTPI manages the Centre for Sustainable Energy’s Low Carbon Neighbourhood Planning Programme

How neighbourhood plans can help with the climate emergency

Anyone n not living under a rock will have no noticed the increase in public concern about climate change expressed by schoolchildren on strike, Extinction Rebellion’s high-profile actions, the passing of climate emergency resolutions by local councils, or Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg speaking truth to power.

All are bottom-up demands for greater national ambition. Several factors have provoked this. One is the lack of any meaningful climate action by global leaders.

Another is extreme weather events, from wildfires in Australia to flooding in the US and India. David At tenb orough’ s intervention has helped, too.

On 1 May, Parliament responded by adopting a UKwide climate emergency. And in its report the following morning, the Committee on Climate Change recommended that our existing commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050 be upgraded to full carbon neutrality.

The truth is, though, that the government needs all the help it can get to make this happen, as we aren’t even on track with our current carbon reduction targets.

What can the planning system do? The TCPA and RTPI talk persuasively about the role local plans can play in adapting to and mitigating climate change, and the need to achieve carbon reductions

in line with the Climate Change Act – an existing legal requirement that would have far-reaching effects if only it were enforced.

But I believe that there’s also a critical role for neighbourhood plans. After all, does it make sense to develop five-year neighbourhood plans that don’t take into account an existential threat that needs to be solved within the next 10? What use is a plan that tacitly assumes that everything can go on unchanged?

Most of the technical solutions to tackling the climate crisis are already here.

What’s lacking is the political will to apply them, not least because now that we’ve picked off the low-hanging fruit, the radical changes that lie ahead require the informed consent of the public.

Neighbourhood planning is a chance to nurture this consent: a rare moment when a local community gets together to talk about the future.

So let’s encourage them to plan for the range of futures that might be ahead of them. Let’s use the opportunity to normalise and localise discussions of climate change that are mostly so removed from daily experience, thereby expanding the space within which politicians can safely work, and providing some of the answers to the question “what now?”

This is an abridged version of an article first published on the CSE website: bit.ly/planner0619-cse

“MOST OF THE TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS TO TACKLING THE CLIMATE CRISIS ARE ALREADY HERE”

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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

Sally Hayns is chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM)

Planners need a better understanding of the natural environment

ecologist’s perspective, the From an e increasing visibility and emphasis increasi given to the natural environment in national planning policies and frameworks is a good thing. But how good is it for planners?

I’m not suggesting that planners don’t value the environment; far from it. But it is yet another thing to know/think/make decisions about in a fast-changing policy world.

Biodiversity net gain, district-level licensing policies for protected species, natural capital valuation – these are all new ideas that planners need to get their heads around, whether they are involved in planning policy, development control or consultancy.

I hope these topics are making their way into the higher education curriculum, easing the path for those coming into the profession. But what about those already established in their careers? Fewer than a third of local planning authorities have access to ‘in-house’ ecological expertise. Others buy in advice through a service level agreement or rely on their planners to have ‘acquired’ sufficient knowledge.

It is a dangerous route to travel.

In 2013, a survey of local authority planners in England by the Association of Local Government Ecologists showed that more than two-thirds did not feel sufficiently competent or confident to make sound decisions in respect of the biodiversity issues they are

4 BLOG

BLOG

expected to deal with. There is no evidence that planning consultants are any more comfortable with their advice to clients.

This means that many planners lack the knowledge and support needed to do their jobs properly.

It leaves your profession exposed to criticism and challenge from residents, community groups and developers, which is wearying, time-consuming and expensive to deal with. It also means that biodiversity assets are probably not being managed as well as they could or should be.

How many local authorities know the extent to which biodiversity is affected by policy implementation or development delivery?

What monitoring is done?

So how to fix it?

If budgets allow, the best advice for local planning authorities who do not have access to in-house ecologists is to ‘go get one’. But in an era of cuts to planning services that may simply not be possible.

CIEEM is conducting a survey of planners on what type of help you need and in what biodiversityrelated topics, the results of which we hope to share in a future issue of The Planner. Meanwhile, we know a lot is being asked of you, so get angry and demand help. Challenge organisations such as CIEEM and the RTPI to provide that help.

Take part in CIEEMA’s survey at: bit.ly/planner0619-CIEEMA

“HOW MANY LOCAL AUTHORITIES KNOW THE EXTENT TO WHICH BIODIVERSITY IS BEING IMPACTED

BY POLICY IMPLEMENTATION OR DEVELOPMENT DELIVERY?”

Gabriel M Ahlfeldt is associate professor of urban economics and land development, and Elisabetta Pietrostefani is a PhD candidate in regional and urban planning at the London School of Economics

The costs and benefits of density in cities

Most countries cou pursue policies that implicitly im or explicitly promote ‘compact urban form’, reflecting the concern that unregulated economic markets will fail to deliver allocations of uses and infrastructure that are efficient and equitable.

The key question is whether the dominating ‘compact city’ policy paradigm can be substantiated by evidence. This question is difficult to answer because density effects materialise in a broad range of outcomes, such as accessibility (to jobs and amenities), p r o d u c t i v i t y, innovation, rent, e nv i r o n m e n t a l outcomes, efficiency of public service delivery, health, safety, social equity, transport and selfreported well-being.

Until recently, there was no accessible summary of positive and negative density effects. But in a new paper published in the Journal of Urban Economics we fill this gap by providing a synthesis on the state of knowledge on the economic effects of density.

Our evidence base contains 347 estimates (from 180 studies) that quantify the effect of density. We then enrich this evidence with original estimates where the evidence base is thin or inconsistent. For some outcomes, such as the density effect on preserved green space, our estimates are without precedent.

Our study shows that dense cities have many benefits: higher

productivity, shorter commutes, cheaper provision of public services, better green space and a lower carbon footprint.

But these advantages come at a cost. With space at a premium, housing is more expensive and there are increased levels of inequality. High-skilled workers benefit from higher wages, but lowskilled workers, renters and first-time buyers struggle with housing costs,. Our study reveals that more densely built cities also lead to traffic jams and pollution.

The analysis also gives insights into geographic heterogeneity in density effects. For example, doubling density in a developed country is associated with a 2.8 per cent rise in wages. In non-highincome nations the effect is about twice as large, implying large economic returns to moving into cities.

Mode choice is less likely to change with density for non-highincome countries, whereas the gains from density in terms of domestic energy use appear to be larger. Compared with other developed countries, density in the US is associated with larger skill wage gaps and higher, rather than lower, crime rates.

Despite sizeable economic returns to density, there are limits to economically efficient and feasible urbanisation. Our results show that policy-induced densification may lead to positive net effects in most high-income countries.

“DENSE CITIES HAVE A RANGE OF BENEFITS. HOWEVER, THESE ADVANTAGES COME AT A COST”

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IN 2014, GLASGOW BECAME THE FIRST CITY OUTSIDE ENGLAND TO NEGOTIATE A CITY DEAL WITH THE UK GOVERNMENT. SIMON WICKS LOOKS AT HOW £1.13 BILLION IS BEING SPENT TO LITERALLY DIG INTO THE HEART OF THE CITY REGION AND CREATE A PLATFORM FOR CHANGE

Heart of the deal 18

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G L A S G O W CI T Y D E A L

that make up the wider ‘functional’ In the late 19th and early 20th area around Glasgow. centuries, Glasgow was a major “We’ve had a long tradition in centre for shipbuilding, marine the Glasgow city region of regional engineering, chemicals production collaboration,” says Forbes Barron, and textiles manufacture. head of planning for Glasgow City Industry (and accompanying Council. “The benefit of the city artistry) shaped its form and deal is that it’s got money, and function, as it did most of the cities money enables you to not just do that grew in the wake of the policy documents or try to Industrial Revolution. influence people, but actually Now mostly gone, the great age directly influence what happens by of industry has left its legacy both your own spend.” above and below the ground. There are 1,002 hectares of vacant and derelict land over 721 sites in A platform for change Glasgow City. Within the Glasgow Glasgow City Region is composed city region, there are more than of eight local authorities which are 3,000 hectares. economically, socially, culturally Much is currently undevelopable, and spatially interdependent. sitting on soil carrying the toxic What happens in one will likely residue of dirty industries or so have knock-on effects elsewhere in poorly connected that the site the region, explains Kevin Rush, cannot be considered a sustainable director of regional growth for location for housing or business.

Glasgow City Region. This sense of There’s Govan, for a whole has example, a district that underpinned the “PLANNING grew around the selection of the 27 IS THE GLUE shipyard, where projects that will IN ALIGNING employees lived just a receive a share of the ALL OF THESE few minutes’ walk from £1.13 billion pot. their work. The industry THINGS” City deal cash is now gone, Govan is intended to fund poorly connected to projects that promote alternative sources of economic growth and employment and so not employment. In attractive to commercial Glasgow’s case, the city investment. deal has three themes: Or there’s Sighthill – perfectly infrastructure; employment and positioned at just 15 minutes’ walk skills; innovation and business from Glasgow city centre. It is growth. Rush stresses that two poisoned by chemicals principles have guided project manufacturing and joined to the selections. First, they had to show city by an unwelcoming bridge how they would improve access to over the M8. Or Ravenscraig, a jobs for people in the bottom 25 former steelworks in North per cent in the Scottish Index of Lanarkshire that once employed Multiple Deprivation. Second, they 10,000 people but is now – mostly must have a “regional spread” of – an island of semi-dereliction benefits which “doesn’t necessarily amid the homes of the people who mean a regional spread of projects.” once worked there.

The partnership – driven by a The Glasgow City Deal, which cabinet comprising members from will address all of the above all eight authorities – decided to challenges, could be seen as the eschew eye-catching projects for latest iteration of an ongoing the gritty work of cleaning up the project to reconfigure city built on city’s industrial legacy and industry into one that can thrive in upgrading its infrastructure. the era of knowledge economies “The best way to generate an and information. It is backed by instant economic return for the £1.13 billion of public money and a Glasgow city region would have partnership of eight authorities been for us to build 10 speculative I M AG E | G E T T Y

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G L A S G O W CI T Y D E A L

SECOND SIGHT

grade A office developments in the heart of the city and filled them with high-performing businesses,” he says.

“But actually there’s no real long-term benefit that comes from that. We focused on enabling infrastructure. We would invest in the things that the private sector wouldn’t do, that the public sector didn’t have the money to do but what it has always wanted to do.”

Many of the projects are, therefore, “really AUTHORITIES dull” – “Building a wall under the ground to in the Glasgow City cap some industrial waste isn’t something Region partnership: East Dunbartonshire, East that’s easy to sell as a great initiative” – but Renfrewshire, Glasgow they provide the all-important platform for the City, Inverclyde, North kind of development the city region requires.

Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, “Sighthill, for example, when it’s completed, South Lanarkshire and West Dunbartonshire it’s a brand new community that’s going to be connected to the city like never before.”

The Glasgow approach is, above all, plan-led, says Forbes Barron. “You cannot get that compact city form unless you spend lots of money dealing with infrastructure and what’s under the ground.”

“We got 3D mapping of the city which lets us take a more strategic approach “YOU CANNOT GET THAT towards use of land. If we COMPACT CITY FORM UNLESS have to go round the city YOU SPEND LOTS OF MONEY decontaminating every site DEALING WITH INFRASTRUCTURE for housing then it won’t AND WHAT'S UNDER THE GROUND” happen. We have to be smarter and look to see what parts of the city are underserved and how you make a more connected city – which is one of the outcomes for the city plan.”

Overall, the investment is expected to attract an addition £3 billion of private sector investment. But this is still far short of what Glasgow – the city and its wider metropolitan region – needs, says Barron.

The Victorian quay walls of the River Clyde are weak and giving way. Priorities are everywhere. He’s already thinking about ‘City Deal 2’.

At this point, that’s merely speculative.

What Barron is sure about, however, is the role of planning in delivering transformation. “Planning is the glue in aligning all of these things. We have to make sure we have everyone inside the tent, collaborating.”

8 LOCAL

Location: Sighthill, a 50-hectare site just north of Glasgow city centre Project: Site remediation; roads, pavements and landscaping; SUDS; utilities; design and commissioning of new bridge; masterplanning for 826 homes and additional development Cost: £250 million, divided 86%/14% City Deal/Glasgow City Council

in

n Find out more about the Glasgow City Deal bit.ly/ planner0619-GlasgowDeal

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Back in the 18th century, French chemist Nicholas Leblanc invented a process for creating sodium carbonate (soda ash) from sea salt. Soda ash was an essential elemnent in the production glass, soap and detergent.

By the mid-19th century, Leblanc’s method meant England’s thriving soda ash manufacturing industry – in Liverpool, Newcastle and Glasgow – was producing 200,000 tons a year.

But every ton of soda ash produced 1.5 tons of hydrogen chloride and calcium sulphide waste. Known as ‘galligu’, this would be piled up near the soda works where it released hydrogen sulphide, a toxic gas smelling of rotten eggs.

In Glasgow, soda ash was produced at Sighthill, a canal-side site only a 15-minute walk north of the city centre.

The industry died out in the early 20th century and Sighthill became home to Pinkston power station. In 1969, ten 10-storey tower blocks housing 7,500 people were built, as well as the M8 motorway, which separated Sighthill from Glasgow and left the two linked by an uninviting, poorly located footbridge.

In 2012 the city council purchased the site with a view to redeveloping it as the athletes’ village for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. The towers were pulled down and residents rehomed, some on new houses on the site. The bid was unsuccessful, but Sighthill was named a priority regeneration area. In 2014, it was an obvious candidate for city deal funding.

Cleaning up the galligu Some £190 million of city deal cash – topped up with £60 million from the city council – is being spent on preparing Sighthill for development. It is a huge, complex and mucky task, the biggest part of which is cleaning

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The proposed 'street in the sky', a new pedestrian and cycling bridge linking Sighthill with Glasgow city centre

up the toxic galligu and making the site safe to build – and live – on.

Site preparation will create new roads and pavements, see new utilities infrastructure installed and the site landscaped. Drainage is critical; there are no natural watercourses for water to run into, so the site is at risk of flooding. Sustainable urban drainage systems will channel water into the adjoining Pinkston basin, built originally to balance the levels of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

The city deal will pay for two bridges to better link the site with its surroundings: a new and more attractive cycling and pedestrian bridge over the M8 motorway, and a road bridge over the Glasgow-Edinburgh rail line that also borders the site.

The clean-up and site preparation, conducted by Morgan Sindall, has been a monumental task. Graeme Baillie, chief architect of Glasgow City Council, says galligu is too toxic to be taken off site so has be dealt with in situ.

“It has to be classified according to health guidelines. If it fails it gets buried at depth, at a level where it meets bedrock or clay, which prevents seeping. It’s contained within a bentonite slurry, and cleaner material is then used to create a 2.5-metre cap over the top of the toxic waste.”

A geosynthetic membrane of bentonite material is then used to create a protective I M AG E S | G L A S G OW C I T Y CO U N C I L / I S TO C K

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“THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH OF THE CITY IS THAT YOU DON'T TURN A SPADE IN THE GROUND THAT'S NOT CONTAMINATED “ – FORBES BARRON

1.8m Population of the city region, a third of Scotland’s people

curtain around the perimeter of the area where the galligu is buried. They’re not taking any chances.

The scheme The Sighthill scheme, to be developed over nine years by Keepmoat, will consist of 826 homes for private sale and 198 homes, already bought by Glasgow Housing Association, for mid-market rent.

The site's masterplan, drawn up with city council. envisages wide pedestrian boulevards, open public spaces and a public plaza where the new ‘street in the sky’ bridge meets the development on the north side of the motorway.

In addition, City Building, the council’s own arm’s-length development company, will build a new community school campus to house a primary school, a nursery, and a room for Sighthill youth club.

The landscaping, designed with LDA Design, is focused on active travel routes, greenways, allotments and 20 hectares of parkland with stepped terraces down to the Pinkston Basin. It’s a dramatic transformation of a more or less derelict site just a short walk from Glasgow’s city centre.

“It’s a brand new community that's going to be connected to the city in a way like never before,” says Kevin Rush of Glasgow City Region. “It's a chance to put things right.”

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ON THE ROAD

Location: Ravenscraig, a 455-hectare vacant site in North Lanarkshire, 17 miles east of Glasgow Project: Ravenscraig Infrastructure Access project – new roads to ‘unlock’ development at one of the biggest regeneration sites in Europe Cost: £95.9m (City Deal £66.2m/ North Lanarkshire Council £29.7m) within a larger £202m scheme The Ravenscraig project embodies characteristic themes of Glasgow City Region’s approach to its city deal. Here there is reclamation of former industrial land in an area of high deprivation, made viable by new road infrastructure that opens the site for development.

From 1954 until 1992 Ravenscraig was a large steelworks that provided direct and indirect employment for around 10,000 people. Many lived in the communities around the 455-hectare site, from where they would walk to work. Reliance on cars was minimal.

The steelworks closed in 1992, leaving a 455-hectare site mostly derelict and partially contaminated. It comprised 13 per cent of the total vacant and derelict land in the Glasgow city region.

But the closure of Ravenscraig also left a legacy of unemployment and social decline. In 2016, sizeable chunks of neighbouring communities in 22

Craigneuk Wishaw, Motherwell South, and Carfin and Cleekhimin scored among the most deprived across a range of measures in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

It’s an area in need of a kickstart, with a huge tract of derelict land at its heart. since 2001 multiple masterplans have been put forward by the site’s owners, Ravenscraig Ltd, a joint venture of Tata Steel, Wilson Bowden Homes and Scottish Enterprise.

The first plan in 2001 envisaged a new town for 10,000 people, with 3,000 homes and 57,000m2 of retail space. By 2007 this had been scaled down to 1,000 homes, with business/retail space, a primary school, a hotel, a college and a regional sports facility.

Between 2007 and 2015, the college, sports centre, hotel and 400 of 850 consented

3,426 Hectares of vacant and derelict land in Glasgow city region – 31% of Scotland’s total – across 1,785 sites. Glasgow City itself has 1,002ha of vacant and derelict land, and North Lanarkshire a whopping 1,334 hectares

An extract from Ravenscraig Ltd's planning application for the former steelworks site, showing the proposed new dual carriageway in orange

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G L A S G O W CI T Y D E A L New College Lanarkshire, already built on the Ravenscraig site

£3.3bn Private sector investment the deal is predicted to attract

homes were built. But progress has been piecemeal, derailed by the 2008 crash and changing retail trends among other things. A 2017 masterplan added just 550 homes, a convenience store and a bus interchange.

In April 2019 a new proposal was submitted to North Lanarkshire Council for approval, more closely aligned with the original vision: 3,000 additional homes (taking it to a total of around 4,500 over the whole site); 19,000m2 of industrial space; 30,000m2 of retail space; five primary schools; an extension to the regional sports facility and a seven hectare town park.

To be built out over 25 years, this plan is projected to create 6,500 jobs and boost the regional economy by £360m a year. “Its main focus is the regeneration of industrial land and from that creating employment,” says Allan McQuade director of business infrastructure at Scottish Enterprise.

“It’s moved to very much a housing-led masterplan, which I think is the right thing. I cannot see that changing in the short term.

What may change is the other uses and what we consider to be employment space in 10-15 years time.”

New connections Where does the Glasgow City Deal come into play? “On the existing access to the site, it would not be able to accommodate up to 4,500 homes,” says Kate Bryson, the council’s programme leader for North Lanarkshire City Deal.

The site, though just a mile from I M AG E | COL I N PR IOR

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“TO BE ABLE TO TACKLE THESE SORTS OF PLACES YOU NEED TO BE STRONG IN NOT GIVING PEOPLE AN EASIER OPTION. YOU NEED TO SAY THAT YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON YOUR DIFFICULT SITES AND YOU DON’T GIVE PEOPLE EASY GREENFIELD SITES TO DEVELOP.” – SHIRLEY LINTON, HEAD OF ENTERPRISE AND PLACE, NORTH LANARKSHIRE COUNCIL

Motherwell town centre, has just one road access – a major constraint on development.

North Lanarkshire’s roads are struggling to cope with demand as it is, and the council has committed to a £202m ‘Pan Lanarkshire Orbital Corridor’ to ease congestion. This scheme will create a direct dual carriageway link between the M74 at Motherwell and the M8 north of Ravenscraig, and beyond to the A73 past Airdrie. The link would cut through Ravenscraig itself.

In concert with related 'sub projects' covered by other funding, the corridor should take the pressure off the roads around Motherwell and make the town and its neighbouring communities, such as Wishaw and Ravenscraig itself, easier to access and move around.

In March 2019, Northern Lanarkshire Council committed £29.7m to the Ravenscraig elements of the pan orbital corridor - effectively the southern portion of the larger scheme. Glasgow City Region cabinet also agreed to reallocate £66.2m of City Deal funds, persuaded by the anticipated economic benefits of what was now called the Ravenscraig Infrastructure Access scheme. It’s considered essential to enable to site to carry the scale of development proposed and to link the communities in and around the site.

Specifically, the work will see: a new southern access to the site; a new dual carriageway linking Motherwell Civic Centre with the sports centre at Ravenscraig and on through the north of the site; upgraded road infrastructure to the north improving the site’s connection to the local and strategic transport network.

Incorporated into the scheme will be SUDs, a road bridge over a railway, a new footbridge, lighting, cycleways and footpaths, fresh junctions, and so on. It’s a considerable undertaking.

“There’s a real sense of determination for the site to have a positive legacy,” says Shirley Linton, head of enterprise and place at North Lanarkshire Council. “£30m is a significant investment for the council to make. Locally it was accepted that needed to happen.”

Bryson reinforces the point.

“Our current local plan is quite specific about the knock-on role of this [development] and its effect,” she says. “A big focus now is about inclusive growth. It’s not just road infrastructure for infrastructure’s sake.”

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Visualisation of the proposed Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland

QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE

Location: Glasgow City Airport, Renfrewshire Project: Glasgow Airport Investment Area Cost: £39.1m (within a wider City Deal investment of £274m in Renfrewshire) “We’ve acquired a large tract of land on the perimeter of Glasgow City Airport,” explains Alan Anderson, Renfrewshire Council’s City Deal project manager for the Glasgow Airport Investment Area. “It’s been identified for a long time as an ideal base for a high quality business park. But connectivity was poor, service provision was poor and the road alignment didn’t help.”

The stage is set for another enabling project under the aegis of Glasgow’s City Deal. In this case, the work will create the foundation for construction of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland (AMIDS), a hub for businesses and organisations operating in the life sciences sector.

Specifically, AMIDS will provide a home to the National Manfacturing Institute for Scotland and a Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre. The location of this 50 hectare greenfield site is in many ways perfect ¬– right next to Glasgow City Airport six miles west of Glasgow city

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3 INNOVATION

DISTRICTS

IN

supported by Glasgow City Deal funding: the Technology and Innovation Centre and the Tontine business accelerator (both in Glasgow city centre); and the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland in Renfrewshire A visualisation of the proposed AMIDS development between the airport and the River Cart

centre; within a stone’s throw of the M8 motorway; close to Renfrew and Paisley; next to the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Forming Research Centre.

The scheme will provide high-skilled jobs and innovation with commercial potential.

Such facilities are the endgame of the transition of Glasgow City Region from an industrial economy to one based on knowledge.

“It’s about economic and industrial collaboration,” Anderson goes on. “The companies that want to invest here want to be close to AMIDS so they can use the research and manufacturing areas.”

He anticipates a “clustering effect” that will snowball outwards into the wider area. The masterplan prepared by Renfrewshire Council is intended to aid this, with an American-style ‘campus’ with public public spaces and meeting places to encourage collaboration.

But immediate connections to the site are poor. So, too, are connections to the deprived communities of potential employees and service providers in Yoker and Clydebank on the other side of the River Clyde from what it is hoped will become a buzzing economy.

In the first instance, £39.1m of City Deal funding will better connect AMIDS to its surroundings through a new bridge over the River Cart that separates the site from Renfrew; through the realignment of Abbotsinch Road on its other boundary; and through the creation of a cycle route that will connect to National Cycle Route 7 that links Paisley with Glasgow.

Two other Renfrewshire projects will see the River Clyde’s first opening road bridge connect Renfrew directly with Yoker, avoiding what has hitherto been a two-hour between the two locations. A new rail line will also offer a faster route from the airport to Glasgow city centre, via nearby town of Paisley.

But “this isn’t just about roads and bridges,” insists Anderson.

“It’s about regeneration and placemaking.

It’s about encouraging people to stay in this area and live work and play.”

n Read more Planner coverage of

Glasgow's city deal, including the innovative 'smart canal' scheme and Simon's reflections on his trip to Glasgow at bit.ly/planner0619GlasgowHeart

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View our brand new 2019 list of courses at: rtpi.org.uk/training

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

14 locations across the UK

Boost your career in 2019 High-quality expert training for planning professionals p25_PLN.JUNE19.indd 25

14/05/2019 17:29

INTERVIEW: VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI

VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI TELLS FRANCESCA PERRY HOW SUCCESSFUL URBAN RENEWAL STARTS WITH A PRINCIPLE OF EQUALITY AND A CLOSE READING OF THE CITY AS IT IS

C

ities are these amazing engines of environmentalism and equity if they’re designed right,” declares PAU founder Vishaan Chakrabarti. “But currently they’re not – as they don’t have the infrastructure that they need to achieve those goals.”

You won’t find a more passionate advocate of the potential of cities than Chakrabarti, who outlined his urban manifesto in the 2013 book A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America (Metropolis Books), heralding the importance of ‘hyperdense’ cities with well-funded infrastructure in the form of mass transit, affordable housing, schools and public space.

Like the practice he founded in 2015, Chakrabarti spans the various practices of architecture and urban design, having attained degrees in engineering (at Cornell University), city planning (at MIT) and architecture (at UC Berkeley). He went on to be director of city planning for Manhattan and principal at SHoP Architects before founding PAU. He is also an associate professor of practice at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation (GSAPP).

Chakrabarti became fascinated by cities when travelling the world with his family as a child, his exploration translating into a preoccupation with urban design and planning. In the early 1990s he enrolled at MIT for a master’s in city planning.

“Back then, urban planning was considered passé,” he says. “Jane Jacobs had pulled apart the idea of physical planning and decried it as a bankrupt discipline, concluding that planners were doing more harm than good in cities, which there was some truth in, in terms of the prioritisation of the automobile. So that kind of physical planning almost became politically incorrect. Since globalisation and climate change, however, cities have become much more important.”

If cities are so important, how can we help to support, plan and design successful ones?

“It’s always about starting with what is there,” says Chakrabarti, outlining the responsibility to work with and enhance the existing physical, social and cultural infrastructure in a place.

“The big difference between the 20th and 21st

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centuries,” he continues, “was that in the 20th century, especially after the Second World War, it was about starting everything from scratch as if the world were a blank piece of paper. That tabula rasa mentality was what Jacobs criticised. Now we have an entirely different mentality focused around community and ecology. Our team motto is taken from the quote by [architect and urban design theorist] Diana Agrest: ‘In order to write in the city, one must first read the city.’ It’s a very deep understanding.”

Social mobility At PAU, explains Chakrabarti, “we always start with the premise of doing no harm. Planners and developers often look at a place and think of it as a bunch of parking lots and old manufacturing buildings and decide to tear it down and create something new and shiny. But the 21st-century approach is a much more careful reading of what exists, and amplifying the positive qualities”.

But enhancing the positives is not as simple as it sounds. There are core challenges that planners, designers and architects face when trying to support more sustainable, inclusive, thriving cities.

“In cities we are struggling with the 20th-century obsession with the automobile and planning around it,” says Chakrabarti.

“Anywhere from 25-35 per cent of the land mass in cities is dedicated to roadways. One of the big conversations in New York is around congestion pricing, which we have just passed here.

“That’s a first step in achieving less traffic, but you need to think about that new surplus base that’s created – where does it go? Can it be put towards bike infrastructure, or public spaces? Those are all opportunities to rethink the fabric of our public space.”

Another big challenge is the growing divide between cities and elsewhere, often characterised by economic inequality and resulting in political divergence.

CARE E R

HI G HL IG HT S

VI SHAAN C HA KR A B A R TI Born: 1966, Kolkata Education: BSc Operations research and industrial engineering and BA History of Art, Cornell University 1988; Master’s city planning, MIT 1993; Master’s architecture, Berkeley 1996

Before 2002 Associate partner, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LP

2002­2005 Director of the Manhattan Office for New York Department of City Planning

of New York’s Pennsylvania Station

2009 Inaugural Jaquelin T Robinson visiting professor in architecture, University of Virginia

2005­2009 2012­2015 President of the Moynihan Station Venture, advocacy group for the reconstruction

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Marc Holliday professor and director of the MSc in Real Estate Development

at Columbia University’s architecture and planning school/ Founding director of the Center for Urban Real Estate

2013 A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America published

2015 Founder of PAU Studio

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INTERVIEW: VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI

“There is a significant distinction between national mentality and urban mentality at the moment,” says Chakrabarti. “Cities create most of our economic wealth in the US but they tend to donate much more tax revenue to the government than they get back – so there is not enough money to maintain infrastructure.”

On top of this, the rise of technology presents not an obstacle so much as a challenge for the future of our cities, says Chakrabarti. “Autonomous vehicles mean we don’t have to design roads the same way – maybe we can have streets without kerbs, more humane and a return to a more pedestrian scale.

“But these vehicles could also make the world a much worse place. It could lead to more segregation and kill street activity because people are travelling to work in their own tin can, which goes straight from their home right into their office building.”

The smart city rhetoric, Chakrabarti suggests, is too centred on utopian ideologies rather than – as he has emphasised – enhancing what is already there. “For me, it’s never about technology first,” he says, “it’s about human need – and how does technology address that human need? As we look to the future, it isn’t about building brand new cities in the deserts – spaceships in the sand.

“What we’ve gone through as a society – the switch from the industrial age to the information age – is one of the most dramatic transformations and it has left a tremendous amount of people on the losing side of the equation. That, combined with climate change, represents one of the biggest existential challenges of our time. To try to address that with vanity projects out in the desert is absurd.”

The better option, suggests Chakrabarti, is to “go in and work with communities and try to figure out how to build infrastructure that builds social mobility – through mass transit, housing, public space. That’s what we’re dedicating ourselves to”.

president. They can’t be overly ideological: they have to reach compromise… to get stuff done.”

That sense of accountability, democracy and public inclusivity is vital for Chakrabarti and his practice, which states frankly on its website: “We don’t work for autocratic/dictatorial nations.”

Although Chakrabarti concedes that involving the public in urban design projects can be challenging if the community is dead set against growth, he stresses the importance of a healthy dialogue. One of PAU’s current projects is the proposed transformation of a 185-acre rail yard in Queens, New York, into a new district of homes and community infrastructure for the city’s rapidly growing population.

“Our approach is about listening to the community,” says Chakrabarti.

Ultimately, even though Chakrabarti believes in core driving principles for successful cities – a focus on sustainability and equality achieved through density, public transport, generous public spaces, affordable housing and robust infrastructure – their application should always be done in a place-specific way that celebrates existing communities and cultures.

“There’s no one-sizefits-all solution. What I hear time and time again is that communities are concerned about places that feel that they could be anywhere and have no relation to local context.

“Growth linked to local culture and climate is the true path to 21st-century urbanism. These are the things that really matter in terms of going into the future. You have an obligation as a designer to reflect local custom, climate and culture. One of our main preoccupations [at PAU] is: how does one build a bridge between history and the future?”

“Since globalisation and climate change, cities have become much more important”

Place specific But this is not just the responsibility of architects and planners, who obviously work in a range of contexts and to a range of briefs. Chakrabarti sees effective mayors as vital for successful cities.

“Everyone should be working together, of course, but the mayor should be at the centre. The mayor in a major city can impact a huge number of people at scale. But at the same time the mayor is much more directly accountable than a prime minister or a

n Francesca Perry is founder and editor of Thinking City

Vishaan Chakrabarti is speaking on the theme of successful cities at the RTPI’s Planning Convention, on 19 June at County Hall, London bit.ly/planner0619-convention

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Designe for life 30

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D E S I G N A N D W E LL ­ B EI N G

d

WOULD A GREATER SAY FOR PLANNERS IN THE DESIGN OF BUILDINGS LEAD TO HIGHER WELL­BEING STANDARDS – OR JUST ADD ANOTHER LAYER OF COMPLEXITY? MATT MOODY CONSIDERS THE INTERSECTION OF PLANNING, DESIGN AND WELL­BEING

Research into this relationship has yielded The Carbuncle Cup owes its name to Prince some surprising results. In a paper produced Charles, who in 1984 called the design of a by the paint company Dulux1, researchers planned extension to the National Gallery “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a muchfound that the colours chosen for the loved and elegant friend”. interiors of healthcare environments could Since 2006, the competition has crowned affect patients both physically and mentally. what its judges deem the ugliest UK building For example, findings that the colour orange completed that year. Each year the result is can stimulate appetite and blue can suppress picked up by the press, reigniting the debate it were used to inform design choices at over building design in Britain. facilities for people with eating disorders.

In 2018, the government, faced with the The same paper cited research that blue task of tackling the housing crisis, launched surfaces have been found to enhance the the Building Better, Building Beautiful blue skin colouration in patients with low Commission. One of its aims is “to make the oxygen levels, making it easier to diagnose. planning system work in support of better Another study by the BRE Group found that design and style, not against it”. hospital patients in rooms with This reflects the common public more sunlight required fewer perception that planners are – in painkillers when compared with “MY PROBLEM IS part – responsible for standing in those in darker rooms.2 THAT PLANNERS the way of good design.

TEND TO DIVE IN In response, the RTPI Healthy houses TO THE DETAILS commissioned a survey asking House design impinges on the OF DESIGN AND planners for their opinions on health of the people living in MISS THE BIG building design, and how they them, too. “Many housing design ISSUES’ perceived their role in it. The elements contribute to mental response was conclusive: 98 per health and well-being,” says cent believed that improving Phillip Barnes, group land and design improves placemaking, planning director at Barratt and 87 per cent agreed that good Developments. These, he says, design helps communities accept new include safety and security features, access to development. There was no lack of appetite outdoor space, and, as in hospitals, “the amount among respondents for getting more involved of natural light and air in the home”. in building design: at least half said they have But how much say do planners have in these “limited influence” over the quality of areas? “Planners have a very significant say on building design as things stand, and 87 per urban design, or placemaking,” Barnes cent said they wanted more influence. explains, and are experienced in dealing with This interest in building design comes at things like maximum building height, access the same time as a growing awareness that routes and phasing. In terms of building design, the design of buildings plays a role in the however, they “generally have less influence”. well-being of the people who inhabit them.

There are exceptions, such as projects This was explored in depth at a recent where a site design code or development Wellcome Collection exhibition in London brief is required. Here, planners will take a entitled ‘Living with Buildings' (see box “key role” in deciding things like brick types overleaf). The exhibition used case studies and bonds, roof materials, and door colours. from the past century to investigate how Nonetheless, the RTPI’s design survey buildings affect physical and mental health. revealed an overwhelming desire on behalf of

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D E S I G N A N D W E LL ­ B EI N G

planners to get more involved with building design. But is greater involvement in the details of building design for planners the best way to achieve higher well-being standards?

Barnes says a better understanding of building design among planners would be beneficial – with an important caveat. “Simply asking planners to improve their understanding, and then to apply that understanding to planning applications will inevitably lead to inconsistency, uncertainty and delay.”

Sue Morgan, director of architecture at the Design Council, says that in her experience, planners, engineers and other built environment professionals with less design training “will often look to nationally recognised standards and guidance to help them formulate a response”. She refers to the popularity of Building for Life 12, published by the Design Council, that sets out criteria for achieving good-quality design.

Barnes agrees, calling for “clear government policy and guidance, backed up with relevant training for practitioners”, and warns against “unclear expectations and requirements across different regions” in the absence of national guidance.

As a first step, he says, the government could “make it clear that BfL12 should be the yardstick for considering whether a scheme is good and healthy”. According to the RTPI survey, this would be a popular move among planners – 86 per cent of respondents said the government should “do more to promote the use of design codes and style guides”.

Morgan also describes design education for planners as critical for raising well-being standards. “Despite the wealth of evidence about health and well-being, we are still regularly building single-aspect, north-facing flats that provide little or no direct sunlight or air circulation,” she says.

A bigger picture But not everyone agrees on the best approach to improving design education. Carole-Anne Davies, chief executive of the Design Commission for Wales, says planning has become “fundamentally regulatory and insufficiently visionary”.

Davies agrees that planners “need a great deal more design training and experience”, but queries whether this should be focused on building design. “Buildings are just one component. Good urban design principles and the necessity of good architecture for

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Maggie’s cancer centre in Finland

Living with buildings The Wellcome Collection’s ‘Living with Buildings’ exhibition explored the relationship between design and well-being through a series of examples, some of which referenced planning and spatial planning, as well as design.

The Finsbury Health Centre, built in the 1930s, embodied many of the early 20th century’s progressive ideals and offered the working classes a beautifully designed Modernist building with a light, airy and welcoming atmosphere.

The Maggie’s cancer centre in Paimio, Finland, has introduced curtains that give the viewer the realistic impression that they are looking through a transparent screen at a natural scene beyond. The curtains draw on research indicating that views of nature can reduce the need for pain relief and speed up recovery. bit.ly/planner0619-Wellcome

Finsbury Health Centre’s progressive ideals

1

Transforming the healing environment: Choosing colours and products that make a difference for patients bit.ly/planner0619-colour

2 Daylight benefits in healthcare buildings bit.ly/planner0619-daylight

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The Porter Building in Slough

WELL WELL WELL

durable, beautiful, high-performing buildings all need to come together.”

She proposes removing “the silos of built environment education”, allowing planners and other disciplines to work together earlier to “understand the value of collaboration”.

In urban design consultant David Rudlin’s view, however, greater involvement in building design for planners may not be the best solution.

“Of course there’s no harm in teaching planners about design, but that doesn’t solve the problem. My problem is that planners tend to dive into the details and miss the big issues, like how big the building is, where it is, which way it faces,” he says, echoing Morgan’s view that design decisions taken by undertrained planners are “too often reduced to aesthetics and materials”.

He agrees that better training would improve the dialogue between planners and those responsible for building design, but he is not convinced that they should get more involved. “My hardline view is that we should leave design to building designers, and planners should be assessing whether those designs meet the rules,” he says. “They should be focused on the bigger picture.”

So though there is some consensus that planners should be better informed on design, disagreement remains over whether greater involvement would improve outcomes.

n Matt Moody is a reporter for The Planner

Phillip Barnes, Sue Morgan and Carole-Ann Davies will be speaking on design at the Planning Convention on 19 June. bit.ly/planner0619-convention

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In recent years, as well-being has risen up the list of priorities for employees, a new type of building standard has emerged from across the Atlantic.

Focused on supporting the health and well-being of occupants, these standards fill a perceived gap left by existing UK standards such as BREEAM, which are more concerned with environmental impacts.

The WELL standard, launched by American property developer and “wellness pioneer” Delos, aims to “advance health and well-being in buildings globally”. The standard sets performance requirements in seven categories. Some of these areas, like temperature control and access to healthy food, fall under the remit of facilities management.

Others, however, such as air quality and light levels, are of interest to planners and building designers.

The Fitwel standard, meanwhile, has been “optimising buildings to support health” since its launch in 2017 against a similar set of categories.

Both standards are vying for preeminence, and while they are similar in many ways, WELL has acquired a reputation for stringency, while Fitwel is considered more affordable and accessible.

In January 2018, The Porter Building, a new office block built by commercial developer Landid, became the UK’s first WELLcertified building. So how did the standard shape the planning process for the building?

“We were already on site in Slough before we decided to pursue WELL certification for The Porter Building,” says Chris Hiatt, director at Landid.

“The WELL Institute [which certifies the standard] had decided to make a push in Europe, and having been at the forefront of sustainability as a company since the late 2000s, we saw this as the next big thing. We were lucky that the bare bones of the building were good anyway, but we had to make some physical enhancements to comply with the

standard, which cost us around £50,000 extra.”

Landid’s next project is in Southwark. This time the firm will think about how to achieve WELL certification before submitting its application. However, Hiatt explains, Southwark Council already has well-being “at the forefront of what it’s trying to achieve as a borough”.

He says: “They appointed a director of place and well-being in 2018, and there are policies coming through that touch on well-being, like ensuring access to affordable food at work.”

So if policymakers are already pursuing well-being as a priority, what role do building standards like WELL have to play in the planning process? What makes them worth the money?

“We think this is very much market-led,” says Hiatt. In the context of record employment levels in the UK, “employers are going to be looking at everything they can do to make themselves attractive to potential employees.

It’s a question of recruitment and retention of staff”.

In the case of The Porter Building, he adds, marketing was crucial, given the lingering negative perceptions associated with the town.

So why not just build in line with the requirements of the standard and save on the cost of getting it formally certified?

“We want to be able to say ‘Don’t take our word for it, this building is independently assessed’.”

The Porter Building’s website confidently states: “In five years every new office will be seeking a WELL certification.”

Whether or not this comes to pass, it is clear that developers are looking to maximise well-being standards in any way they can.

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Stonehouse Action, a group of local residents, wanted to bring Plymouth’s Union Street back to life

FOLLOWING THE CROWD A GROUNDBREAKING CIVIC CROWDFUNDING INITIATIVE IN PLYMOUTH WON THIS YEAR’S SILVER JUBILEE CUP AT THE RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE. RACHEL MASKER LOOKS AT THE PIONEERING PROJECT

Decisions about how to spend council budgets have always been made by professional officers and elected councillors. Local people don’t get to vote.

But the City Change Fund – a project pioneered by Plymouth City Council four years ago to distribute a pot of developers’ contributions – is shaking things up. Today, thanks to the council embracing crowdfunding technology, there’s an entirely new form of digital democracy.

Council chiefs only pledge the ‘neighbourhood portion’ of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for bright ideas and worthwhile causes that win online support of the citizens of Plymouth.

The civic crowdfunding platform has proved so effective at engaging the community and boosting budgets for projects to improve the city, it has now been taken up by 56 other councils across the United Kingdom.

In April, the scheme won the RTPI’s Silver Jubilee Cup as overall winner at the 2019 Awards for Planning Excellence. It also won the award for Excellence in Technology Within Planning Practice. It is the third time the council has taken home the Silver Jubilee Cup.

THE BACKGROUND CIL was introduced in 2010 to allow local authorities to raise funds from

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developers undertaking new building projects in their area. Most of the money helps to pay for infrastructure, such as safer road schemes and schools but a minimum 15 per cent must be spent on projects agreed by the local community.

“Plymouth City Council didn’t become a CIL-charging authority until 2013 and it was only once funds started being collected that we were faced with looking at how to spend the neighbourhood portion in line with the legislation,” says Rebecca Miller, city planning team manager.

“As a unitary authority with no obvious structure, for example town and parish councils, to which to devolve the funds to distribute, we needed to think how best to support local projects.”

The council considered several options, including administering a small grants scheme. Instead of going down a conventional route, it seized the opportunity to innovate. In 2015, Plymouth became the first council in the country to partner with Crowdfunder UK, a website that came out of the local univer-

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

The local authority will pledge up to 50 per cent of a project’s target – up to a maximum £20,000 – if it meets its criteria. The decision to pledge is made only after consulting local ward members and the portfolio holder, a process that takes just one week.

Advantages of using a public crowdfunding site include speedy, more transparent decision-making, reduced administrative burden on the council and ‘community buy-in’ to projects, says Miller. Best of all, it pulls in significant extra funding for local projects.

Miller is adamant that the initiative isn’t budget-driven. “It was never about less council budget,” she stresses. “It was about building a closer relationship with communities to deliver projects in their area at a time when there is less access to funds of any type.”

THE IMPACT Between 2015 and 2019, Plymouth City Council has pledged more than £250,000 on more than 60 projects. The Crowdfund Plymouth platform, meanwhile, has raised more than £1.5 million in

A crowdfunded artwork now stands on the pillars situated at the boundary between Minster and City

sity. Together, they tailored the existing online platform to create Crowdfund Plymouth to distribute the levy.

But there were obstacles: the idea was not universally welcomed. The neighbourhood planning team, which manages the fund, had to overcome serious reservations about the legality, practicality and political implications of the scheme. Concerns were addressed by working closely with the council’s legal, financial and democratic departments plus detailed discussions with elected members. Now the new way of working has strong cross-party political support, says Miller.

THE PROJECT Crowdfund Plymouth is citizen-led, says the council. Any individual or group seeking funding for a project can upload their campaign to the civic crowdfunding platform. Projects must reach 25 per cent of their funding target to be eligible for a council contribution.

This makes sure that local people are behind the scheme.

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“ADVANTAGES OF USING A PUBLIC CROWDFUNDING SITE INCLUDE SPEEDY, MORE TRANSPARENT DECISION­ MAKING, REDUCED ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN AND ‘COMMUNITY BUY­IN’”

J U D G E S’ C O M M E N T : “The project is a great example of the power of technology and how it can bring people and resources together more quickly than ever before. It will be exciting to see how this will continue to advance and the impacts it will have on planning in future, as this is an approach that can be replicated globally to mobilise community development and supplement local authority funding in straitened times.”

Sadie Morgan, chair of the judging panel

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15/05/2019 11:19

Senior Strategic Land Manager

Now is the moment to join our growing family At family-owned Mactaggart & Mickel we take pride in creating high-quality products and delivering ground-breaking solutions and exciting new projects within the construction industry.

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We are proud to be the first housebuilder in Scotland - and the second in the UK - to be awarded the coveted Investors in People Platinum accreditation for the investment and care in our People.

We are now recruiting for a number of roles to join our Strategic Land team, including the Senior Strategic Land Manager position.

9

If you would like to join our award-winning growing family, view our latest vacancies and apply online at: careers.macmicgroup.co.uk

p36_PLN.JUNE19.indd 36

14/05/2019 17:30

CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

CITY CHANGE FUND PLYMOUTH HAS LOTS OF DEVELOPMENT

GOING ON

THIS DEVELOPMENT

HAS IMPACTS ON THE CITY

£

£ £

£ £

£

£

£

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PAYS COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE

LEVY

MOST OF THIS

IS SPENT ON BIG THINGS

?

THAT KEEP THE

CITY RUNNING a c b

SOME OF THE MONEY FROM THE CITY CHANGE FUND

COULD BE USED ON

YOUR

PROJECT

Community Infrastructure Levy explanatory notes

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you’re on the right track and the city with 4,200 individuals have got the seal of approval and organisations pledging their from your community, your own money. To date, all the procrowd. It meant we didn’t have jects to which the council has to go through a long grant applipledged funding have reached cation process and while we their cash goals – many receivwere still accountable, we didn’t ing overwhelming support and have strict key performance ‘overfunding’. The use of a digindicators around the grant, so ital platform has increased the it was quite flexible.” visibility and success of comNow Hart and other volunmunity-led projects, says the teers have turned The Clipper, council. once a notorious 24-hour pub, Perhaps the real impact of into the city’s first communiCrowdfund Plymouth is seen ty-owned indoor market, with in the mind-boggling diversity units that can be hired by fledgof projects that receive fundling local businesses. ing, from a one-off silent sonic art disco at a tidal pool to family-friendly wrestling events LOOKING AHEAD and the first robot ship to cross The new funding model also has the Atlantic to mark the 400th had its challenges. During 2017anniversary of the Mayflower 2018, out of a total £362,496 voyage. available to distribNew comute only £82,460 “THE USE OF munity gardens was pledged by the A DIGITAL have been crecouncil on 17 proPLATFORM HAS ated and boardjects – less than a INCREASED THE ed-up buildings quarter of the pot, VISIBILITY AND brought back to according to the SUCCESS OF life. Stonehouse City Change Fund’s COMMUNITY­LED Action, a group latest annual report.

PROJECTS” of local residents, Unspent money is wanted to do carried over to the something about next year. the empty, run“Actual spend down buildings each year depends on the projects that on Union Street in come forward from the comthe city’s red-light district. Once munity,” said Miller, who added packed with pubs and clubs, it that the City Change Fund had become largely silent and approach is being reviewed and shut. updated to maximise spend in The group raised £10,704 from future.

Crowdfund Plymouth, including a council contribution of What can other councils learn £5,000, to transform a derelict from Plymouth’s experience of civic crowdfunding? “Whilst shop, ‘Union Corner’, into a new it is admin-light when up and community space. Today Union running, it requires a culture Corner hosts weekly craft and change in the council itself as music ‘jam sessions’. It provides well as community groups, but space for Plymouth Watercolour it’s a journey worth going on,” Society, Tai Chi classes and a said Miller. drop-in soup kitchen.

“It leads to far more success, “Crowdfund Plymouth made impact and joy than if the proa massive difference for Union jects had simply received a sum Corner,” says Wendy Hart, one of money from a traditional of the organisers. “The funding funding pot.” was absolutely crucial. It shows

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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

Bristol artists’ collective must make way for offices The owner of a listed working men’s club in Bristol who leased it to a popular artists’ collective as a ‘stop-gap’ has won permission to convert the building into offices, after persuading an inspector that his plans would best preserve the heritage asset.

The appeal concerned a working men’s club in St Pauls, central Bristol, which had occupied two grade-II listed Georgian town houses since the late 19th century.

In June 2016, the club closed because of declining membership. In March 2017, the owner of the buildings granted a short-term lease to a group of 40 artists and musicians, and it reopened as the Brunswick Club.

In April 2018, however, the owner applied to convert the buildings into flexible office space, removing its dance hall, skittle alley, billiard room and basement bar.

After receiving more than 300 objections, the council rejected the scheme.

Although it vacated the premises the week before the inquiry when its lease expired, the artists’ collective indicated that it retained a “strong interest” in continuing to occupy the premises.

Inspector AJ Mageean noted that the collective had successfully accommodated more than 40 artists and had provided a catalyst for collaborative work across a range of art forms, the venue having been attended by nearly 5,000 people.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS A Bristol City Council spokesman said: ( “Whilst the council is naturally disappointed that the appeal has been allowed, we are pleased that the inspector agreed with a number of aspects of the council’s case. ( The inspector agreed with the council’s position that a private members’ club constitutes a community facility, that the marketing carried out was inadequate and that the search of alternative venues was also inadequate.

LOCATION: St Pauls, Bristol AUTHORITY: Bristol City Council INSPECTOR: AJ Mageean PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ Z0116/W/18/3209837

Mageean further noted that the collective had attracted “significant external funding” from the Arts Council and others. Notwithstanding

this funding, he said, it was “difficult to see that a long lease could be secured at a commercially realistic level”.

He rejected suggestions that the appellant had engaged in “art-washing” – whereby a developer seeks to support artists to prime an area for more profitable development – by leasing the building to the art collective for a short period. He was satisfied that the appellant only ever intended this use as a “stopgap measure”, calling it “an eminently practical ‘win-win’ arrangement”.

In his conclusion, Mageean commented that the building’s role in “hosting the development of the art collective as a significant

( “Ultimately, the inspector gave greater weight to the benefits of the conservation of the designated heritage asset and its optimum viable use. The council had been unable to take such an overall view at the application stage as pertinent information regarding the proposals was only submitted during the appeal process.’’

component in the city’s cultural profile” was not to be underestimated. However, he continued, that use had “not arrested the decline of [its] historic fabric”.

The proposed conversion, on the other hand, would “secure the active conservation” of the buildings, and therefore represented their optimum viable use. On this basis, Mageean 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

Progressive illness justifies self-build home An inspector has approved a disabled man’s plans to build a single-storey home in his rear garden contrary to the council’s spatial plan, ruling that to refuse permission would compromise the appellant’s human rights.

Expansion of Europe’s largest distribution centre approved Long-mooted plans to double the size of Magna Park in Leicestershire can go ahead despite opposition from a local MP, after an inspector found the scheme’s public benefits outweighed harm to a scheduled monument.

Magna Park was built on the site of RAF Bitteswell in 1988.

It is now Europe’s largest distribution centre, employing 9,300 people. It occupies an area of land near Lutterworth bound by the M1, M6 and M69 motorways, known as the ‘golden triangle’ for its favourable location for distribution purposes.

The appellant proposed a major expansion to the complex, which would create up to 5,500 new jobs and contribute an additional £275 million to the local and regional economy.

The plans included 427,000 square metres of additional storage and distribution floor space, plus educational facilities including a logistics technology institute, an HGV driver training facility, a museum and heritage centre, and office space for start-up businesses.

The main issue at the inquiry was whether the scheme would harm the significance of Bittesby, a nearby deserted medieval village and scheduled monument, and whether the public benefits of the plans could outweigh this harm.

Pope found that the “very considerable” public LOCATION: Lutterworth benefits of the scheme outweighed its harm to the AUTHORITY: Harborough District medieval village, which Council he found to be “less than substantial”.

INSPECTOR: Neil Pope On this basis, Pope allowed the appeal.

PROCEDURE: Inquiry In a separate decision, Pope ordered an award of DECISION: Allowed costs against the council for failing to alert the appellant REFERENCE: APP/ before changing its case F2415/W/18/3206289 before the exchange of proofs of evidence, and then failing to substantiate its new argument.

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The appellant sought permission to build a singlestorey home in the garden of his home in Old Burlesdon, near the River Hamble.

At the hearing, he explained that in 2015 he had been diagnosed with a serious illness was now permanently confined to a wheelchair.

Although he and his wife had adapted their existing home, everyday activities still took a disproportionate amount of time and effort.

The couple had been searching for a new home since the diagnosis and had viewed several bungalows, but all required adaptation at considerable expense.

Inspector Robert Parker concurred that “the status quo cannot be sustained”.

He also agreed that a care home would be unaffordable, ill-equipped to meet the appellant’s specialist needs, and would require the couple to live apart, causing “stress and mental anguish”.

The appellants argued that their only remaining option was to construct a new single-level home in their

LOCATION: Burlesdon AUTHORITY: Eastleigh Borough Council

INSPECTOR: Robert Parker PROCEDURE: Hearing DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ W1715/W/18/3216696

rear garden, before selling the existing property to fund it.

Parker agreed, noting that the area was familiar to the appellant and close to the couple’s three children, who provide “vital support”.

Dismissal would render the appellant homeless or forced to live apart from his wife, he noted, which would compromise his human rights.

Granting permission, on the other hand, would “make life considerably easier” for the couple. He allowed the appeal.

MAY 2018 / THE PLANNER

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C&D { C Relocation of WW2 allotments to make way for housing rejected

LOCATION: Peebles AUTHORITY: Scottish Borders Council INSPECTOR: Chris Norman PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: CAC­140­2000 and PPA­140­2074

After the mill closed in 2015, its owner applied for conservation area consent to demolish the buildings on the site – with the exception of the engine house and gate lodge, which would be converted to a home – and planning permission to build 69 new houses.

A petition against the scheme gathered more than 1,300 signatures, and in November 2018, a local group announced plans to pursue a community buyout of the site.

The planning appeal turned

Councillor wins permission after 36 applications An Oxford councillor and former planning committee vice-chairman has won consent to convert an annexe to a separate home for his disabled son, 22 years after first seeking permission.

The appeal was lodged by David Henwood, an Oxford councillor. He sought permission to convert an existing annexe on the side of his house into a permanent and separate home for his disabled son and his carer.

The application was the 36th lodged over a period of 22 years, six of which had gone to appeal. Henwood was formerly vice-chairman of one of the council’s planning committees, and would leave the room when his application was discussed.

The annexe comprised a kitchen on the ground floor,

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with a large open-plan room and bathroom above.

The appellant sought permission to move the kitchen upstairs and add two bedrooms, then convert the

on the planned relocation of allotments on the site. The allotments were created as part of the government’s ‘Dig for Britain’ wartime campaign.

The appellant considered that because of the site’s topography the relocation of the allotments to the eastern part of the site was the only option to allow a viable redevelopment of the site.

Reporter Chris Norman considered it evident from the volume of representations received that the allotments were of considerable value

to the community. In quantitative terms, he noted, the relocated allotments would provide seven fewer plots, extending the council’s waiting list by 20 per cent.

Having refused planning permission, he noted that there was no other acceptable alternative scheme for the redevelopment of the site. If he approved the demolition of the existing buildings, he said, the site could become overgrown, to the detriment of the conservation area. He duly dismissed both appeals.

ground floor to incorporate a sensory area for his son.

The council was concerned that the sensory room would have a limited outlook.

Inspector Sian Griffiths noted that “such rooms are often entirely windowless because they focus on removing distraction”. She also accepted that the appellant’s daylight and sunlight assessment demonstrated that light levels would be adequate on the first floor.

Given that the annexe already existed as a building, she continued, a change of status to a separate dwelling would not harm the character of the area.

Griffiths allowed the appeal, subject to a condition that removed permitted development rights to extend the development.

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

A reporter has refused permission to redevelop a 19th century textile mill in the Scottish Borders after a petition opposing the relocation of allotments at the site to make way for 69 homes gathered 1,300 names.

LOCATION: Littlemore, Oxford AUTHORITY: Oxford City Council INSPECTOR: Sian Griffiths PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ G3110/W/18/3213886

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE SUBS to our appeals appe digest:

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

Tower that could ‘constrain regeneration tion plans’ allowed An inspector has approved plans for an n eight-storey tower in Catford comprising 42 flats, despite acknowledging that it could ‘constrain’ future plans to regenerate the Plassy Island area. bit.ly/2planner0619-Plassy

‘No prospect of viability’ despite pub owners’ best endeavours

Portable golf shelter is a building, rules inspector A 10-metre wide and four-metre tall “portable golf shelter” designed to allow play to continue in bad weather has not harmed the openness of Leeds’ green belt, an inspector has found. bit.ly/planner0619-golf

An inspector has approved plans to convert a Suffolk pub recently registered as an asset of community value into a home, ruling that its location meant it was unlikely ever to become a viable business. bit.ly/planner0619-pub

Housing scheme at green beltt golf club rejectedd An inspector has cited harm m to green belt openness in n refusing plans for 30 homes on n brownfield land at a golf club b near Basildon, despite the locall council’s housing land supply y of only 1.61 years.. bit.ly/planner0619-Basildon n

Primate cabins rejected despite compulsory purchasee order An inspector ctor has blocked six cabins intended to house a “private primate collection” in the Dorset green belt, despite acknowledging cknowledging that plans to widen the M4 motorway y had forced the appellant to relocate from her previous home in Buckinghamshire. bit.ly/planner0619-primates nner0619-primates

Plastic bags do not allay garden play­frame privacy concerns

Lone badger ger thwarts Passivhaus us scheme An inspector ctor has rejected plans for a sensitively designed, self-sufficient five-bedroom oom home on previously y developed land in Lancashire, hire, due to the presence of a badger sett “infrequently ntly used by a single badger”. bit.ly/planner0619-badger

A back-garden timber play-frame was allowing unacceptable overlooking of a neighbour’s garden, an inspector has ruled, despite the appellant’s attempts to screen views from the structure’s tower using plastic bags. bit.ly/planner0619-privacy

Housing allowed near HS2 route

Appellant pays full costs for ‘deliberate untruths’

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An inspector has ordered a full award of costs against an appellant for claiming that an outbuilding behind his property was built to temporarily accommodate builders, ruling that the appeal asked him to “believe the unbelievable”. bit.ly/planner0619-outbuilding

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An inspector has approved pl plans for 40 homes in a national landscape character area near the proposed HS2 route through Buckinghamshire, Buckinghamsh noting the “considerable “considerabl physical changes” it c would bring wo to tthe area in near future. the n bit.ly/planner0619-HS2 bit.ly/planner

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LLegal landscape OPINION

‘Plantechnicon’: law for a digital age Current planning legislation is insufficient to address the changes being wrought by digital technology, says James Corbet Burcher. We need to frame fresh legislation for the digital age

A Tuesday morning in 2030. The inspector opens a planning inquiry. After opening statements and third-party comments (automatically transcribed), the two parties’ landscape experts begin 30-minute visual presentations, referring to development projections on a large screen.

Thirty minutes of crossexamination follows and, time-unlimited, inspector questions. All viewpoints are geolocated for the augmented reality-assisted site visit. In the afternoon, housing land supply presentations are scheduled.

Housing requirements and completion data have long since been automated and centralised. However, predictive analysis will be deployed to demonstrate the practical and socio-economic consequences of underdelivery across the local authority area in successive years one to five.

The following day’s evidence, climate change resilience and drone pathway witnesses will appear, followed by general planning witnesses.

Closing submissions will proceed with hyperlinked references back to the continuous audio transcript and written evidence.

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detail is woven in each day.

A rough working typology might identify developments in at least five separate (but interconnected directions): • Digitising development plans • Automating development control processes • Improving public access to the application register Members of the public can • Big data collection and follow every document and performance monitoring every spoken word on their • Scheme visualisation (VR/ tablet screens. They wonder AR) and mapping how it was ever done before.

All of these sit alongside As planning professionals’ developments bespoke to Twitter and LinkedIn public hearings; planning timelines fill with references appeals, plan examinations to new initiatives in ‘PlanTech’ and potentially High Court and ‘PlaceTech’, the question litigation. arises as to whether a legal It will fall to framework rooted legislation to set in legislation from "THERE ARE the principles the 1990s (Town SIGNIFICANT that can create and Country LEGAL ISSUES optimum Planning Act 1990) AS TO HOW TO conditions and the midRECONCILE 2000s (Planning AUTOMATION WITH for plantech’s development, and Compulsory DISCRETION” while avoiding Purchase Act the stifling of 2004) can provide innovation and a sufficient dynamism of the regulatory sector, and to frame a set of framework to assist (and working principles to guide: not constrain) technological (1) transparency innovation in plan-making (2) access and decision-taking.

(3) accuracy Early legal research has (4) independence/discretion focused on questions such (5) the right to review as data privacy, but there are There are already early significant issues as to how signs of bespoke legislation, to reconcile automation with in the data standards under discretion, speed of decisionthe Brownfield Land Register making with transparency and Regulations 2017 and section technical sophistication with 7 of the Neighbourhood public comprehension.

Planning Act 2018. However, This is not a single this is a fragmentary start. revolution, but a spider’s Central government, in web-like expansion across consultation with the sector, many sectors, in which the

needs to consider and consult upon how to shape the core principles that should govern the use of such technology. In particular, this should cover the use of automation.

These guiding principles and statutory requirements will enable courts to address the new wave of disputes where courts have to decide how to address allegations that consultation submissions were ignored, automation eroded the exercise of discretion and initial data errors invalidated the ultimate decision.

The system will change as much in the next 10 years as in the last 30. Plantech will change our collective working practices irreversibly, but there is abundant opportunity to shape its development.

James Corbet Burcher is a specialist planning barrister with No5 Barristers’ Chambers

In brief Digital technology will be effectively integrated into all aspects of planning inquiries But we need to overcome the limitations of current regulatory frameworks This requires practitioners and legislators to appreciate the breadth of tech’s likely impact on planning In framing fresh legislation, they will need to establish a set of working principles that can guide tech’s impact on planning

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS Man fined for breaching enforcement notice Haverfordwest Magistrates Court has fined a man £15,000 for contravening a planning temporary stop notice and two charges of breaching an enforcement notice.

Richard Scarfe pleaded guilty to the charges in May, which included developing land and moving caravans near an ancient monument without planning consent. The land in question is near The Ridgeway, Manorbier Newton, close to a Bronze Age barrow, a scheduled ancient monument.

Matthew Paul, prosecuting for Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, said Scarfe and his family enquired about establishing a settlement on the site in 2015, but were told that it would not be acceptable.

After this, the authority was notified that earthworks were being carried out and a caravan had been brought onto the land. Despite a temporary stop notice, development continued and more caravans arrived. Further stop and enforcement notices to restore the land, following a failed appeal, were not complied with. The breaches took place over four years.

The judge found Scarfe guilty. As well as the fine, he was ordered to pay £2,000 costs and a £170 surcharge.

LEGAL BRIEFS Lessons from the Heathrow Case Planning lawyer Simon Ricketts considers the implications of the recent High Court decision to reject a challenge against plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. bit.ly/planner0619-Simonicity

£100k confiscation order for renting property hit by enforcement notice A couple who bought a property containing nine flats at auction despite being aware that an enforcement notice required its demolition have been ordered to pay a total of £136,240 for continuing to rent it out, Local Government Lawyer reports. bit.ly/planner0619-confiscation

Planning Law Update: London

Heathrow runway legal challenge dismissed Environmental campaigners and five London boroughs have lost their challenge to the development of a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Legal actions were mounted by a coalition of local authorities surrounding the West London airport and the Mayor of London, as well as environmental groups Plan B, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

Friends of the Earth alleged that the government’s decision to allow the expansion is unlawful because it failed to take account of the need to mitigate climate change under the Paris agreement.

The councils contend that the extension could bring long-term damage to the health of millions of Londoners and warned that the surrounding area would be affected by noise from the north-western runway.

Lord Justice Hickinbottom and Mr Justice Holgate found that none of the grounds pursued against the Airports NPS had been made good.

A spokesperson for Heathrow said the ruling is a demonstration that the debate on Heathrow expansion has been had and won, not only in Parliament, but also in the courts.

Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council, said the expansion “still faces enormous legal obstacles, particularly around air pollution.”

South London council wins POCA order Southwark Council has won over £1 million under a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) order against a landlord who converted three flats into two cramped studios and bedsits.

The council originally won a planning prosecution against Andre Charles Trepel, 74, for illegally converting three flats within 2-4 London Bridge Street in 2010. He was fined and ordered to return the property back to its original condition.

But investigations by the council’s enforcement in 2015 and 2016 found that little had been done to address the original illegal work and further charges were brought against Trepel in 2017. He was found guilty. To allow the council’s trading standards team to conduct a financial investigation into the profits Trepel had gained from renting the properties, his sentencing was deferred.

Trepel and his company will have to pay back £1,118,601 criminal benefit under the POCA within the next three months or he will face a seven-year jail sentence. He has also been fined £10,000 and ordered to pay £35,000 costs by the Inner London Crown Court for breaching a planning enforcement notice, with another £1,000 fine for his firm – No.1 (London) Ltd.

This briefing, held on Tuesday 4 June in London, will examine the latest legislative and case law changes within the English planning system. bit.ly/planner0619-LegalUpdate

Ombudsman criticises council for 11-year decision delay The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised Cornwall Council over its failure to determine a village green application made more than 11 years ago, Local Government Lawyer reports. bit.ly/planner0619-PublicOrder

Planning for an ageing population Rachael Herbert, senior associate at Dentons, looks into how planning law and policy are affecting the delivery of homes for older people and whether more can be done to accelerate extra care housing. bit.ly/planner0619-ageing

Exploring the Influence of Land Reform on the Scottish Planning System This event, on Wednesday 12 June in Falkirk, will give an insight into the work of the Scottish Land Commission on land use planning and land reform. bit.ly/planner0619-LandReform

Further changes to permitted development Martin Goodall assesses new plans announced by the government and the Labour Party to alter permitted development rules. bit.ly/planner0619-PDO

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

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

Outstanding contribution of planners celebrated at RTPI Awards

PLACE/Ladywell was described by judges as ‘exemplary’

Winners at the prestigious RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence included an innovative scheme to provide affordable housing for 24 homeless families in south-east London.

Lewisham Council’s PLACE/Ladywell – winner in the Excellence in Planning for Homes (Small Schemes) category – is designed to be redeployable and was described by the judges as an “exemplary solution to the affordable housing shortage faced by councils”.

In total, winning submissions were announced in 14 categories including, for the first time, Excellence in Tech within Planning Practice, a new category recognising projects that have used a new LUC was named Planning Consultancy of the Year

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type of technology or used technology in a new or innovative way.

The Silver Jubilee Cup, presented to the category winner judged as best overall, was won by Plymouth City Council for its City Change Fund initiative.

The judging panel, chaired by leading architect Sadie Morgan, was made up of 33 prominent planning experts from local authorities, private practices, universities and non-departmental public bodies.

David Jackson MRTPI, Head of Planning at headline sponsor Savills, said: “The winners this year reflect the positive impact planning has on our communities across the UK, Ireland and internationally through projects, plans and people. I’d like to congratulate all of those shortlisted for awards and the category winners on behalf of the team at Savills.”

For a full list of winners in all categories, plus more details on Plymouth City Council’s groundbreaking winning project, see pages 6 and 7.

Tweet of th h the month The team at @Sport_England were delighted to win at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence

“Excuse us while we brag a little... We’re thrilled to have won the @RTPIPlanners award for In-House Planning Team of the Year at the #RTPIAwards. Huge congratulations to everyone involved, and thanks to the judges for their ki kind comments.”

F For all the latest fr from the RTPI, follow @RTPIPlanners follo

The @Sport_England team at the awards

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

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262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

MY VIEW ON… PLANNING Design industry leader Sadie Morgan believes the achievements of the planning profession deserve greater public acclaim The work planners are doing to improve the built environment to create great places to live, work and play in, supporting economic growth and development, promoting health and well-being, and enhancing the quality of life for communities needs to be applauded.

As guardians of our built environment, planners are best placed to help us navigate the changing world, from the pressures of climate change, to our complex and very confusing politics. Planners are here to challenge those who put personal or shareholder gain above the public.

I’m not sure that the industry appreciates quite how much you do or thanks you enough for it. I, for one, thank you.

The planning profession is crucial to ensuring the quality of the built environment. You should come out of the shadows and take your rightful bows and celebrate your achievements. n Sadie is a co-founding director of dRMM Architects,

and currently chairs the Independent Design Panel for HS2, reporting directly to the Secretary of State. She was speaking as chair of the judging panel at the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2019.

POSITION POINTS

INTERGENERATIONAL FAIRNESS TOM KENNY, RTPI POLICY OFFICER I was pleased to submit oral evidence last year to the House of Lords Select Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision and I am delighted that the view of the RTPI has been featured in the committee’s new report.

I told the committee that, by designing places that are suitable for older people, planners can create places that work better for people with young children and for disabled people too – the same features often help each group. I also said that if local authorities were given broader powers to dispose of local authority land at less than market value this could help them meet social needs in their areas. The RTPI welcomes local authorities taking a bigger role in proactively planning to meet the needs in their areas.

A lack of resources and capacity are a problem for local authorities that are struggling to deliver the housing that their local area wants; they can lose through attrition when they cannot compete with the resources that developers can put into viability negotiations.

To read our full response, visit bit.ly/planner0619-fairness

PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS RICHARD BLYTH, RTPI HEAD OF POLICY The government’s response to the consultation Planning Reform: Supporting the High Street and Increasing the Delivery of New Homes is disappointing.

From the response, it appears that the government is determined to expand permitted development rights (PDRs), despite concerns raised by the RTPI and others that this approach could lead to communities and local planning authorities having no say over how and where a PDR might be used.

A new permitted development right to extend buildings upwards to create additional new homes could lead to poor quality, unsafe homes – an approach entirely at odds with the government’s stated priority of increasing building safety.

The government says that it welcomes the range and detail of responses to its consultation, but it seems not to have taken sufficient notice of them. While there is undoubtedly a pressing need to build more homes, this is not the way to go about it – any new homes must be subject to full local planning scrutiny.

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NEWS

RTPI { NEWS

Nominations opening for 2019 RTPI elections This year is a particularly special one for the RTPI – in September, we’ll be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the granting of our Royal Charter.

Over the past 60 years, we’ve grown to become the largest planning institute in Europe,

raising professional standards, promoting the planning profession and influencing planning policy.

Could you help to define our priorities for the next 60 years, and contribute to our continued success?

We’re looking for a diverse range of nominations for positions on both the Board of Trustees, the group responsible for the management of the RTPI’s affairs, and the General Assembly, which provides a forum for debate about the development of planning policy and practice.

One of the Board positions

open is that of Vice-President for 2020, who will then go on to become President in 2021.

Don’t miss this opportunity to help shape the future of the RTPI – put yourself or a fellow member forward when nominations open on 12 June. n For more information, visit bit.ly/planner0619-elections

POSITIONS OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS General Assembly n 14 Chartered Members n 1 Legal Member/Legal Associate n 3 Students/Licentiates Board of Trustees n Vice-President for 2020 n Honorary Secretary and Solicitor n Nations and Regions Trustee n 3 Chartered Trustees – Corporate n Young Planners Trustee

When does voting begin?

Key dates in the election process n Nominations: 12 June-14 July n Voting: 27 August – 26 September n Candidates notified of results: first week of October n Candidates asked to express interest in serving on a RTPI Committee for 2019: 7 October-30 November n Induction for successful candidates: 10 December

England’s best – enter your project now If you’re in England, don’t miss the chance to submit your project for the 2019 RTPI Regional Awards for Planning Excellence.

Showcasing positive planning across England, these awards highlight the impact of planners’ work on their local communities.

Winning an RTPI Regional Award raises the profile of your team and your project throughout your organisation and the wider region.

This year a number of regions have added the Young Planner

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category, celebrating the achievements of planners in the early stages of their career.

RTPI Head of English Regions Sarah Woodford pointed out that entering the Regional Awards is also a great way of getting national recognition.

She said: “Don’t forget that all Regional Award winners are automatically entered into the RTPI’s national awards, so entering now could be your route to the glamour and glitz of a national Award for Planning Excellence next year!”

Awards ceremonies will

take place later in 2019 in each English region to announce regional winners.

Get your entry in for the RTPI Regional Awards for Planning

Excellence before 28 June. n For more information on how to enter, visit bit.ly/ planner0619-RegionalAwards

REGIONAL AWARDS CEREMONIES FOR 2019 26 Sep 27 Sep 3 Oct 4 Oct 18 Oct

East Midlands East of England Yorkshire North East North West

18 Oct West Midlands 21 Nov South East Nov/Dec South West

The Roundhouse, Derby University Arms, Cambridge The Hospitium, York Crowne Plaza Hotel, Newcastle The Principal, Manchester (Annual Dinner) Burlington Hotel, Birmingham Emirates Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth At or near the winning project

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G PLANNIN AHEAD MEMBER NEWS

Key dates for 2019 There are still a few tickets remaining for this year’s edition of the biggest and most important gathering in the planning calendar, the RTPI Planning Convention. To be held at etc. venues County Hall in London on Wednesday 19 June, this year’s event will look at the future of the planning profession. Among the line-up of confirmed speakers is Kit Malthouse, Minister of State for Housing and Planning (pictured), who will give the ministerial address. There will also be a great range of stimulating special interest sessions, including the latest updates on enforcement from Sarah Richards MRTPI (Chief Executive, Planning Inspectorate), Neill Whittaker MRTPI (Planning Associate, Ivy Legal Ltd and Chair, National Association for Planning Enforcement) and Alice Lester MBE MRTPI (Head of Planning, Transport and Licensing, Brent Council).

19 JUN

n Tickets for the RTPI Planning Convention 2019 start at just £220+VAT – to buy your ticket, visit www.rtpi.org.uk/convention2019. There are also a limited number of discounted tickets available for student members – for more information, email conferences@rtpi.org.uk.

Join the conversation on Twitter using #plancon19 SAVE THE DATE! The Young Planners’ Conference is always a lively and interesting event, and one not to be missed for those planners with less than 10 years’ professional experience. This year’s edition, hosted by the North East Young Planners, will take place in Newcastle on 1 and 2 November, and will be sponsored by Lichfields, Kings Chambers and Barton Willmore. Last year’s event in Nottingham, hosted by East Midlands Young Planners, was a sell-out – make sure you don’t miss out this time.

1­2 NOV

n Please register your interest to hear when tickets are available for the Young Planners’ Conference by emailing conferences@rtpi.org.uk.

Join the conversation on Twitter using #ypconf2019

PAST PRESIDENT JOHN MILLAR John Stanley Millar CBE BArch ARIBA FRTPI, President of the RTPI in 1972/73, has died at the age of 94.

John was born in Liverpool and after studying at the University there, he worked for Liverpool City Council and Lancashire County Council before joining Manchester City Council, where he made his name as a leading planner of his era. He became the first City Planning Officer in 1964 at the age of 39, and formed a department that was full of talent and ideas.

In 1973 he was appointed as County Planning Officer at Greater Manchester Council, where for the second time he built a new and successful department. In 1982 he retired early to care for his wife, who had developed MS, and his young daughter.

A strategic thinker, a believer in public service and a professional with a strong ethical code, John was a man of vision and ideas who led by example. A huge number of planners owe an enormous debt to this inspirational figure – indeed, around 25 of a professional staff of 100 at Manchester City Council later became chief planning officers in their own right.

His passing marks the end of an era, but he will be remembered with gratitude and affection by all who had the good fortune to work with him and to know him.

John Collins FRTPI, President of the RTPI in 1980/82, said: “John Millar was a great personal friend of mine when I was Cheshire county planner. He was a key member of a quartet of chief planners from Cheshire, Lancashire, Manchester and Merseyside who met quarterly in each other’s offices to discuss key regional planning issues. We were able to ensure that we contributed jointly to a truly regional planning strategy.

“This was, I believe, quite a unique way of working together in UK local government when regional planning and the preparation of regional strategies were in their infancy.”

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

East of England James Page London D Howard Christine Mill South East Christine Case-Leng Ronald Kenyon

South West Neil Garrard Keith Mould Charles Pescod Scotland John Marshall Yorkshire Nicholas Leuchars

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INSIGHT

Plan B P The realm of Albion – all at sea?

Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital city from Jakarta on the island of Java to somewhere else on another of the 922 inhabited islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia – though it’ll probably be Borneo. Indonesia’s president is minded to make the move because the heavily polluted and massively populated megacity is slowly but certainly sinking into the sea. Which seems as good a reason as any.

If it goes ahead, it will join a cluster of other nations that have shifted capital in modern times, usually to a purposebuilt city. There’s Brasilia in Brazil, for example. And Canberra in Australia.

Egypt is currently building a new capital in the desert.

Then there’s Myanmar, which moved its capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw in 2006. This is the 11th change of capital in 300 years, so it is hardly news. What is news, however, is that having surreptitiously moved the capital to the middle of the jungle, the country’s secretive regime swiftly collapsed.

There may be a lesson there.

Our dear Britannia, too, has had numerous capitals over 2,000 years.

There was the first Roman capital Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester in Essex) before the invaders settled on Londinium. Post-Rome, the Celts, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Picts, Gaels and Vikings had as many capitals as kingdoms on these islands.

The first city that could reliably be called a capital of anything resembling a modern nation (England) was Winchester, where King Alfred invented burnt artisanal cakes 1,200 years before Shoreditch hipsters could even

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pronounce the word artisanal, let alone pass off a basic failure to pay attention to the oven as the latest health fad.

A more permanent English capital was not settled on until the Normans arrived – and look at us now.

Plan B suggests that in these times of upheaval, we throw off the cloying vestiges of fealty to outsiders and re-establish ourselves as a proud and independent nation answering to no one.

Since London is virtually a state unto itself anyway, we need a new capital for our soon-to-be free and happy nation.

Let’s change the name of Great Britain while we’re at it, too.

How about Little Albion? It both speaks of the long, backwards gaze that some say characterises our national identity, and it also serves to acknowledges that our role in the world may well have diminished of late.

Plan B suggests these candidates: Winchester. The nostalgic option – let’s just revert to the chief city of Wessex and de facto Saxon capital. Cons. Inevitable transgression on green belt; anyway, we need a capital for the whole of Little Albion, not just Little England.

Birmingham. The practical choice. It has scale, infrastructure and is well located for the major cities of the smaller nations that

make up Little Albion. Cons: Black Sabbath Stranraer. The Myanmarese option, hunkering down away from scrutiny and challenge. There is almost nothing in Stranraer, bar a ship breaker’s yard and a perennially poor-to-middling football team. Even the ferry out has been scrapped. Once there, you are there forever. Cons: Very few – this could be ideal.

Brussels. There are those who argue that Brussels is already the capital of the United Kingdom. Why not just formalise that and give them something to really moan about? Cons: You will need a visa to get to work.

Plan Sea. For the sake of fairness to all the peoples that inhabit these islands, let us place the capital of Little Albion at the geographical centre of the nation formerly known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

According to Ordnance Survey, this is a position “in the middle of Morecambe Bay”.

In the sea.

Perfect.

Let’s just tip Little Albion into the sea, where it belongs, and get on with our lives.

We could even call it Jakarta.

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

GET IN THE SEA

n Give us a wave Tweet us - @ThePlanner_RTPI 15/05/2019 11:00

LANDSCAPE

THE MONTH IN PLANNING The best and most interesting reads, websites, films and events that we’ve encountered this month WHAT WE'RE WATCHING...

Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village

George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces

Archaeologist Ben Robinson unlocks the roots of the Northumberland village of Warkworth. Clues point back almost 1,000 years to the Norman Conquest, when the invaders “laid the foundations of a planned community, still visible to this day”.

On the back of his robustly presented TCPA Frederic J Osborn lecture (in a nutshell: there’s too much sh*t being built and it all looks the same) we thought we’d check out George Clarke’s day job. You can see why he’s become so popular over the last few years; this particular series sees Clarke shadowing self-build hopefuls as they look to develop their projects – it’s nothing if not an eclectic mix. bit.ly/planner0619-Clarke

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/planner0619-calendar

bit.ly/planner0619-Warkworth

WHAT WE'RE READING...

The 50 Shades of Planning podcast A podcast!

50 Shades of Planning, “about the foibles of the English planning system” is hosted by planner Samuel Stafford in association with communications consultancy BECG (Built Environment Group).

They’re only one episode down at time of going to press, but the aim is to feature “a regular group of contributors discussing current issues in the profession”. bit.ly/planner0619-50Shades

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING ­2...

Marine and Coastal Planning Retreat! Planning the future of our coastal areas 12 June, RNLI College, Poole, Dorset

the processes and timescales involved in the deal as well as the prospective benefits.

A seminar examining how the developing areas of marine and coastal planning are working, and highlighting best practice.

Accelerating Public Sector Housing Delivery – Planning’s Key Role 18 June, Pinsent Masons, Colmore Row, Birmingham

bit.ly/planner0619-coastal

Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal – An Understanding 13 June, Morton Fraser, 2 Lister Square, Edinburgh This event seeks to provide a greater understanding of

bit.ly/planner0619-Edinburgh

A look at the role of planning in helping to deliver housing. bit.ly/planner0619-housing

RTPI Planning Convention 2019: The future of planning 19 June, etc venues, County Hall, London SE1 What lies ahead for the profession. bit.ly/planner0619-convention

WHAT WE’RE PLANNING July se sees us celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Skeffington Report while considering use class the Ske boundaries and the latest news on the Great North bound Plan. In August we will be running our annual review of the RTPI Planning Convention with its theme, what next for planning? Contact editorial@ theme theplanner.co.uk with your ideas for future features. thepla

Shaping great places in an online world 1 July, Newcastle Library, Newcastle upon Tyne How to exploit changing economic and social patterns to produce great places to live. bit.ly/planner0619-online

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

VENUE: CLIFFORD CHANCE 1O UPPER BANK STREET LONDON E14 5JJ

ANNUAL

CONFERENCE WEDNESDAY

26 JUNE 2019 JOIN THE UK’S LEADING INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING STAKEHOLDERS to debate the issues & opportuities for national infrastructure planning SPEAKERS WILL INCLUDE representatives of MHCLG, the Planning Inspectorate, The National Infrastructure Commission, DCO promoters and local government

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