The Planner - September 2021 by The Planner

SEPTEMBER 2021 PLANNING’S ROLE IN DELIVERING COP26 GOALS // p.4 • BEING HUMAN: ESTELLE DEHON // p.18 • HOW LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE ADAPTING TO CLIMATE PRIORITIES // p.22 • PAYING FOR NET ZERO // p.28 • PLYMOUTH’S CLIMATE CHANGE BONUS // p.34

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

COP 26 : HOW PL A N N IN G CAN H E L P SAV E T H E PL A N E T

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The RTPI Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship >>

Grow your talent Employ a Chartered Town Planner Apprentice

Find out more at www.rtpi.org.uk/ apprenticeships

Through this apprenticeship your apprentices will:

You may be eligible for a government employer incentive of £3000 per apprentice. More information can be found at rtpi.org.uk/ apprenticeships

• Gain practical on the job experience in Town Planning • Gain an RTPI fully accredited degree • Become fully qualified with the RTPI as a Chartered Town Planner • Get free student membership of the RTPI during their apprenticeship The apprenticeship: • Typically takes three to six years (depending on existing qualifications) from start to finish Organisations in England can offer this apprenticeship. Large employers can fund the apprenticeship through the apprenticeship levy, while smaller organisations may be able to receive government funding - speak to your chosen Planning School for further details. You will still pay the apprentice’s salary. A number of RTPI Planning Schools in England are offering the apprenticeship. They are listed at: www.rtpi.org.uk/apprenticeships

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CONTENTS

SEPTEMBER

04 NEWS 4 Planning and COP26: The planner’s role in delivering COP26 goals 8 Good planning is ‘essential’ to children’s recovery after Covid-19 9 Mixed fortunes for UK heritage sites 10 Irish minister calls for less parliamentary scrutiny of new planning regime 44 RTPI CEO Victoria Hills joins Office for Place advisory board

"I FIND MYSELF SAYING ‘WHY ARE WE STILL BUILDING HOUSES THAT WE’RE GOING TO NEED IMMEDIATELY TO RETROFIT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE?’ THAT’S A NATIONAL SCANDAL.”

OPINION

14 Louise BrookeSmith: Up the Levellers and up yer levelling up! 16 UNFCCC: If we don’t take action now it will be too late to stop devastation 16 Olafiyin Taiwo: Money and cooperation are the keys to making COP26 a success 17 Sarah Scannell: Councils can set the example in the quest for low-carbon housing 17 Ana Ynestrillas: The young must be part of COP26

15 QUOTE UNQUOTE COV E R I M AG E | A L A M Y

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“YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE AN ISLAND WHEN YOU MEET OTHER PEOPLE WHO WANT THE BEST FOR YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD” RESIDENT PAULINE ALEXIS ON WHAT IS REPORTEDLY THE UK’S FIRST ARTS LED NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN, DELIVERED BY EAST STREET ARTS, LOCAL RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES IN LEEDS

I M AG E | R IC H A R D G L E E D

FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 Estelle Dehon, crusader against carbon-intensive developments, talks to Simon Wicks

38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 42 Legal Landscape: Opinions from the legal side of planning

22 How planners from across the countries of the UK are managing the drive to net-zero 26 This autumn’s COP26 conference in numbers 28 Big policy reforms are needed to unleash more climate investment, finds Huw Morris 34 Plymouth City Council’s crowdfunding of local projects take on a climate change dimension

44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute

50 What to read, what to watch and how to keep in touch

Make the most of The Planner by visiting our links for related content

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NEWS

Q&A { PLANNING AND COP26

The planner’s role in delivering COP26 goals By Laura Edgar For nearly 30 years the UN has brought together countries for global climate summits, or COPs (Conference of the Parties) This November it is the turn of the UK, in partnership with Italy, to host COP26 in Glasgow. COP21 took place in Paris in 2015. There, countries agreed to work together to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and aim for 1.5 degrees to adapt to the eﬀects of the changing climate. Four goals (see box, p5) have been outlined that need to be achieved at COP26, which was delayed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The Planner spoke to Isabella Krabbe (IK), research oﬃcer at the RTPI, to establish COP26’s relevance to planners.

Q: Why does COP26 matter to planners? What should planners get from the conference? IK: COP26 is a key opportunity not just to raise global ambition, but also for the UK to galvanise eﬀorts to reach our legally binding target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and improve biodiversity. COP26 presents a chance to deepen the shift towards more sustainable urban planning practices with fairness and justice at their heart. While COP26 recognises that we need to work nationally and internationally to secure progress on addressing climate change, we must also raise ambition for local action. Planners are at the cutting edge of the climate emergency because they have responsibility for decisions that are vital to our collective future. Eﬀective local and strategic plans can help to deliver a range of key solutions to climate change issues, and can also help local communities

to reap the economic, environmental and social beneﬁts of such action over the long term.

Q: Which of the four goals is the most important to planners – and why? IK: I would argue that all four goals are equally relevant to planners as all four global goals which COP26 will grapple with translate into important challenges for planners.

through local and strategic planning; providing certainty to renewable energy through ambitious and consistent local planning policy; setting energyefficiency standards that go beyond national minimum; and supporting a national retrofit strategy. It is also important to support a reuse first principle – whereby previously used land, buildings, places, materials and infrastructure are given preference to new.

Secure global net-zero by midcentury and keep 1.5 degrees within reach This goal requires urgent action across the built environment including reducing emissions from buildings, transport, energy and waste. The planning system can help to plan for this future and it is also a vital gateway to gaining consent for new Adapt to protect communities technologies. Planners can help keep and natural habitats a 1.5-degree future within reach by Adaptation to the risks presented integrating measures to enable walking by climate change is key to futureand cycling into wider strategies for prooﬁng our existing communities and place and locking in long-term shifts making sure that new developments in travel behaviour; designing and maintain and enhance natural locating aﬀordable habitats and the health new development in and wellbeing of local sustainable locations communities, as well as “EFFECTIVE LOCAL and minimising their competitiveness. AND STRATEGIC energy and transport Planners can support PLANS CAN HELP TO demand in local plans; this through improving DELIVER A RANGE supporting the the quality and resilience OF KEY SOLUTIONS roll-out of smart of existing homes and TO CLIMATE CHANGE energy infrastructure neighbourhoods, improving ISSUES”

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PLAN UPFRONT

What needs to be achieved at COP26? 1. Secure global net-zero by mid-century and keep 1.5 degrees within reach Countries are being asked to come forward with ambitious 2030 emissions reductions targets that align with reaching net-zero by the middle of the century.

access to green spaces, embedding ‘climate justice’ and nature based approaches in plan-making and prioritising green and blue infrastructure and sustainable urban drainage (SuDs).

Mobilise ﬁnance Despite clear links between the planning system and the UK’s sustainable development ambitions, planning services are under increasing pressure and scrutiny. Overcoming these challenges and prioritising the planning system can support planners to deliver on more ambitious development and recovery targets. Continual investment, resourcing and training is needed to ensure that the planning system can deliver on the goals of COP26. Planning must be invested in as an essential public service through investment to support capacity building and the right skills for local authority planners to ensure that policy is compliant with net-zero and providing new models of funding for plan-making to ensure that local plans are in line with locally set carbon budgets. I M AG E | I STO C K

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Work together to deliver The ambition to collaborate and respond to climate change is very much alive across the built environment sector and the level of climate action needed cannot be achieved in isolation. Reaching local targets on climate and ecological action will require a holistic understanding of the challenges and a joint approach to policy areas which have previously been managed separately. This will require a ‘whole systems’ approach, where there is collaboration with neighbouring and cross-tier local authorities and other key delivery bodies on strategies and plans, cross departmental working and engagement with local communities. In advance of COP26, we are presenting these core messages to the UK governments and Irish Government to inform their engagement in the negotiations that will take place before and during the summit discussions.

Q: What is the role of local authority planners in delivering these goals and delivering change in their area?

2. Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats Work together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to protect and restore ecosystems and build defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and lives. 3. Mobilise finance To deliver on the first two goals, developed countries must make good on their promise to mobilise at least $100 billion in climate finance a year by 2020. 4. Work together to deliver COP26 must see the Paris Rulebook (the detailed rules that make the Paris agreement operational) finalised. Action must be accelerated to tackle the climate crisis through collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society. More detail about the goals can be found here: bit.ly/ planner0921-COP26goals

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NEWS

Q&A { IK: The Climate Change Committee (CCC) recognises spatial planning as one of the biggest opportunities local authorities have to deliver net-zero. Local authority planners are increasingly ambitious in their decisions, plans and policies to tackle the climate emergency and have a range of statutory duties and powers to shape their local area. These include allocating sites in the local plan, making decisions on development through development management, planning powers over buildings and transport, requiring sustainable urban drainage or lowcarbon heating in developments, enforcement of building regulations, setting energy-eﬃciency standards which go above the national minimum, responsibility for managing climate risks such as ﬂooding and increasingly overheating, duties and powers to protect the environment, wildlife and heritage and responsibility for waste collection and disposal.

Q: To what extent are planners being supported by the relevant governments and policies? What

needs to change to help planners to deliver the goals? IK: Local planning authorities in England are bound by a legal duty to ensure that, taken as whole, planning policy contributes to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change and the revised National Planning Policy Framework also sets a requirement for planning to deliver sustainable development with a key objective being to protect and enhance the natural environment and move towards a low-carbon economy through adaptation and mitigation. However, delivery of climate adaptation and mitigation ‘on the ground’ is generally poor. The Climate Change Committee 2021 Progress Report to Parliament advises that climate change must “be integrated throughout policy and planning decisions, and must be a key consideration in the government’s proposed planning reforms” with [Pictured, right] Isabella Krabbe [below] a ‘whole systems’ approach to development will be critical to success

key requirements embedded into core policies. It should not just be guidance, it should be law. Although stronger climate change law and policy would help, practical and political issues such as uncertainty produced by government policy subject to reversals; an overwhelming focus on housebuilding; and severe underresourcing in planning departments are the key barriers to delivering these goals. Planners need longer-term policy and funding certainty to underpin investment decisions. Local authorities need to be supported by coordination from the government to prevent the fragmented delivery of net-zero and communities being left behind. We hope to see a comprehensive net-zero strategy in advance of COP26 that sets out a clear pathway for coordinated delivery, resourcing and upskilling. All local areas are different and there is no ‘one-sizefits-all’ so it is important that local authorities retain the flexibility to take account of differing local conditions and priorities and are able to deliver a place-based approach.

Q: What is the RTPI doing for its members to help them deliver the Paris agreement goals and the SDGs? IK: Through our work on climate change we are pushing for UK planning systems that deliver both climate action and nature restoration and support the UN’s campaign for the Sustainable Development Goals. The RTPI’s work on this subject is guided by the idea of ‘climate justice’; communities will be impacted diﬀerently by climate change, and to be successful, our responses must carefully consider their diﬀerent needs. In advance of COP26, we are updating our joint publication with the TCPA Rising to the Climate Crisis: A Guide for Local Authorities on Planning for Climate Change. We are also updating our Plan The World We Need campaign to make it global in reach and publishing research on how National Model Design Codes can deliver mitigation and adaptation and improve biodiversity.

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I M AG E | RT P I / S H U T T E R S T O C K / G E T T Y

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PLAN UPFRONT

News { A303 Stonehenge bypass DCO quashed The High Court has quashed the development consent order (DCO) for the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down in Wiltshire past the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Transport secretary Grant Shapps granted the DCO for the Highways England project, which sought to address congestion on the route between the south-east and south-west, in November 2020 – against the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate. It advised withholding consent, warning that it would cause “permanent irreversible harm” and the benefits to the “outstanding universal value” (OUV) “would not be capable of offsetting this harm”. The inspectorate suggested a number of modifications if the secretary of state chose to grant the DCO. Shapps, however, decided that “any harm to heritage assets, including the OUV, is less than substantial and this harm (while carrying great weight), along with the other harms identified, are outweighed by the benefits of the development”. Shortly after the decision was issued, campaign group Save Stonehenge World Heritage Site (SSWHS) asked Leigh Day solicitors to investigate the lawfulness of the decision, having crowdfunded £50,000 to bring a judicial review at the High Court. Mr Justice Holgate noted that the judgment could only consider the lawfulness of the transport secretary’s decision, therefore the judgment should not be treated as either approving or disapproving of the project.. The campaigners raised a number of grounds that the court rejected, but two separate grounds succeeded. Holgate found there to be a “material error of law” in considering the impact on Stonehenge as a whole rather than assessing the impact on individual assets. The judgment states that the court was not shown anything in the

Stonehenge was ascribed World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1986

decision letter that “could proposed western cutting, “CAMPAIGNERS be said to summarise such such as the provision of a RAISED A NUMBER matters”. cut-and-cover section to OF GROUNDS “In these circumstances, the west of the proposed THAT THE COURT the [secretary of state] was tunnel or an REJECTED, BUT TWO bored not given legally sufficient extension of that bored SEPARATE GROUNDS tunnel to the west so that material to be able lawfully SUCCEEDED” to carry out the ‘heritage’ its portals would be located balancing exercise required outside the World Heritage by paragraph 5.134 of the Site. Both of these options [National Policy Statement were estimated to increase for National Networks] project costs. and the overall balancing These two decisions exercise required by s.104 of the mean that the DCO has been quashed. Planning Act 2008. In those balancing Redetermination of the application is a exercises the [secretary of state] was matter for the secretary of state. obliged to take into account the impacts John Adams, OBE, SSWHS director on the significance of all designated and acting chairman of the Stonehenge heritage assets affected so that they Alliance, said that “now that we are were weighed, without, of course, facing a climate emergency, it is all the having to give reasons which went more important that this ruling should through all of them one by one.” be a wake-up call for the government”. Holgate upheld this challenge. “It should look again at its roads Another challenge submitted by programme and take action to reduce SSWHS was that the secretary of state road traffic and eliminate any need to had failed to consider mandatory build new and wider roads that threaten considerations, including the existence the environment as well as our cultural of at least one alternative. heritage.” Holgate concluded that the secretary of state was legally obliged to consider n The court documents can be found the merits of the alternatives to the here: bit.ly/planner0921-Stonehenge

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NEWS

News {

‘Meaningful’consultation key to planning effectively for children Planners should engage children and young people at an early stage within policies, plans and developments rather than seeing them as an ‘add-on’ later, according to new RTPI guidance. With around 20 per cent of the population in the UK aged under 16, the guidance starts from the premise that children face numerous challenges directly related to the built environment. These include poor-quality and overcrowded housing, high levels of pollution, limited access to good-quality green space and opportunities for play, and the effects of climate change. The guidance further recognises the extent to which young lives have been affected by Covid-19 through lockdowns, school closures and reduced social

interaction. It stresses the importance of “meaningful” consultation and engagement with children and young people in the planning process through the use of creative techniques such as Minecraft, Lego building, model-making, and arts and crafts. Planners should also work closely with health and education professionals to understand the experience of children and to create spatial solutions that improve their lives. RTPI president Wei Yang said: “Major disruption to education, alongside the limited opportunities to see friends and wider families, to play and enjoy activities and the worry about the impact of Covid-19 on their families, will have taken a heavy toll on some children –

good town planning is essential if we are to help them recover. I am particularly pleased to see that one of the aims of this advice is to expand the scope of what is currently understood by most planning professionals as ‘planning for children’ – we must move beyond the provision of playgrounds and schools towards a more ambitious approach that encompasses all aspects of children’s lives.” The guidance also urges planners to explore the use of the Real Play Coalition’s Urban Play Framework, a tool for assessing the critical factors behind a play-friendly environment to maximise child development and learning. This was recently ﬁeld-tested in Burnt Oak in the London Borough of Brent. Children and Town Planning: Creating Places to Grow is available here (pdf): bit.ly/planner0921-children. Read about the urban play framework here (pdf): bit.ly/planner0921-burntoak

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PLAN UPFRONT

Mixed fortunes for UK heritage sites Liverpool has been stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage status while the Slate Landscape of north-west Wales has been awarded it (see right). The decision to delete Liverpool was made at a UNESCO meeting in China, where delegates voted 13 to five in favour of the recommendation. The move follows a UNESCO recommendation in June that Liverpool should be removed from the World Heritage List, citing the £5 billion Liverpool Waters project and the approval of plans for Everton Football Club’s stadium at Bramley Moore Dock as “serious deterioration and irreversible loss of attributes”. The city was awarded the coveted title in 2004 in recognition of its historical and architectural impact, particularly the city’s history as a key trading centre during the British Empire and because of the presence of such landmarks as the Albert Dock area, which features more grade I-listed buildings than anywhere else in the UK. However, the city has been on the UNESCO danger list since 2012, when the heritage body first spoke of its concern about the development of the city’s north docks area. “I’m hugely disappointed and concerned by this decision to delete Liverpool’s World Heritage status, which comes a decade after UNESCO last visited the city to see it with their own eyes,” said Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson. “Our World Heritage Site has never been in better condition, having benefited from hundreds of millions of pounds of investment across dozens of listed buildings and the public realm.”

I M AG E S | I STO C K

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Slate to the party… At the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee, the Slate Landscape of north-west Wales became the fourth site in Wales to be awarded this status, joining the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, and the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd. The slate landscape runs through Gwynedd. Slate has been quarried in the area for more than 1,800 years and was used to build parts of the Roman fort in Segontium in Caernarfon and Edward I’s castle in Conwy. During the Industrial Revolution, demand for slate increased as cities across the world expanded, with slate from Gwynedd’s mines used to roof workers' homes, public buildings, places of worship and factories. By the 1890s the Welsh slate industry employed about 17,000 workers and produced almost 500,000 tonnes of slate a year, which equated to around a third of all rooﬁng slate used in the world in the late 19th century. Welsh slate has been used on many buildings, terraces and palaces, including Westminster Hall in London’s Houses of Parliament, the Royal

Exhibition Building in Melbourne, Australia and Copenhagen City Hall in Denmark. The bid for UNESCO World Heritage Status was led by Gwynedd Council. The inscription is the culmination of more than 15 years of work by partners, including Cadw, to record, safeguard and recognise the legacy of the slate landscape. Lord Dafydd Wigley, chair of the Wales Slate Partnership Steering Group, said: “Partners have worked tirelessly over more than a decade to reach this important milestone, and we will now need to strengthen our cooperation to ensure that we deliver for the people, communities and businesses of the slate areas. This inscription is a celebration of Gwynedd rooﬁng the world, our unique language, culture and communities and how we exported people, technology and slate to the four corners of the world.” The World Heritage Committee added a number of other sites to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, including India, Dholavira: A Harappan City; Japan, Jomon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan; and Romania, Roșia Montană Mining Landscape.

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NEWS

News { Irish minister calls for less parliamentary scrutiny of new planning regime Ireland’s Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has asked for a waiver on parliamentary scrutiny of draft planning legislation designed to replace the fasttrack regime for large housing schemes In a letter to the Oireachtas housing committee he said the waiver was needed because of the “urgent need to introduce transitional arrangements” before the strategic housing scheme ends in February. O’Brien wants the new laws passed in the autumn session of the Dáil and Seanad, but this could prove impossible if prelegislative scrutiny by the committee goes ahead. But committee members are already uneasy. Independent senator

Victor Boyhan said new planning deadlines would leave councils with “an impossible task” unless the government gave them significant resources to recruit new planners and other staff. O’Brien says the new scheme would maintain the best practice elements of the fast-track arrangements with “enhanced public participation” on local developments. “The proposed new arrangements will effectively restore decisionmaking on such large-scale developments to local authorities in the first instance,” he pointed out. Read the full story: bit.ly/planner0921-letter

Four villages on northeast outskirts of Glasgow take shape Proposals to deliver four new villages with 1,200 homes on the north-eastern edge of Glasgow have been lodged with the city council. The plans, by Capper Farm Enterprises, are for land between Easterhouse and the M73 motorway, which has been designated as part of a so-called community growth area in the city development plan. A draft masterplan has already been agreed by the city council. The number of homes proposed for the 75-hectare Heatheryknowe site has been reduced by 300

following community consultations last year. The proposals also include a 120bed care home, a children’s nursery and 900 square metres of commercial space. The ‘villages’ will be named after local farms — Netherhouse, Rogerﬁeld, Commonhead and Heatheryknowe. Read the full story: bit.ly/planner0921-capper

NI’s Covid-19 recovery stymied by lack of powers The post-pandemic recovery of village, town and city centres is being undermined because urban regeneration powers have not been devolved from Stormont to local government, warns the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA). It claims that the decision not to devolve powers for urban regeneration to councils in 2015, despite having been mooted, is frustrating the rejuvenation of communities and civic centres. The association said that local communities and councils across the country have been seeking to remodel their shared spaces in village, city and town centres in the wake of the pandemic. Initiatives like parklets have begun trials in Belfast. However, councils and business improvement districts currently have to apply to Stormont through the departments for infrastructure and communities to deliver parklets in their areas as they do not have the powers to. Association chief executive Derek McCallan said NILGA is concerned the recovery from the pandemic will be “held back by the disjointed way in which powers like regeneration are devolved in Northern Ireland”. It is optimistic, he added, to see initiatives like parklets and changes to high streets but “this is happening too slowly”. “It matters where regeneration powers are held – the more local, the better and more eﬃcient.” A Department for Communities spokesperson told The Planner: “The functions that transferred to the 11 new councils from 1 April 2015 were agreed by the previous executive; any additional transfer of functions would require consideration and agreement by the executive.” Read the full story: bit.ly/planner0921-regen

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

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CATCH UP WITH THE PLANNER

Newsmakers N Project Gigabit to bring superfast broadband to rural communities

The government has announced an investment of £5 billion into Project Gigabit to level up internet access across England. The focus is on hard-to-reach areas. bit.ly/planner0921-broadband

Government to invest £5.2bn into ﬂood defences over six years

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

The government says “thousands more homes and businesses" will be better protected from ﬂooding and coastal erosion through its investment of £5.2 billion revealed in July. The housing secretary said he will call in and determine planning applications opposed by the Environment Agency. bit.ly/planner0921-ﬂooding

Climate changes are ‘irreversible’ Scientists say many changes in the climate are “unprecedented” and some, such as the rise in sea level, “are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years”. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, ﬁnds that it is “unequivocal” that human inﬂuence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. bit.ly/planner0921-IPCCreport

NI planning legislation review still unﬁnished The Department for Infrastructure’s review of legislation underpinning Northern Ireland’s planning system is still unﬁnished, but the b t th h department says it anticipates that the report antic c will be e published “later this year”, year” ” a spokesperson has told The Planner. bit.ly/planner0921-legislation bit.ly/pla y pa

I M AG E | C H R I S MCA N DR E W

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Two-fifths of local planning authorities in England have no access to urban design advice while three-quarters do not have architectural skills, according to research that reveals a huge "design deficit". bit.ly/planner0921-designdeficit

High Court rejects challenge to government roads strategy The High Court has dismissed a challenge by transport campaigners against the government’s £27.4 billion road investment strategy. bit.ly/planner0921-reject

4 Draft Cork LDP published for consultation

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Cork’s draft city development plan has been published for consultation. The blueprint aims to create 20,000 new homes and 31,000 new jobs by 2028. bit.ly/planner0921CorkLDP

Scottish planning statistics show major impact of Covid-19 pandemic Homes for Scotland (HFS) has branded latest annual planning performance statistics which reveal a 17-week increase in the average decision time for large housing developments as “unacceptable”. bit.ly/planner0921-statistics

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Betts hits out o at lack of detail gove e in government proposals The c chair of the Commons and Local Housing, Communities Co Government Committee has Govern n lambasted lambaste e the government for enough details of failing to give g planning how its forthcoming f reforms will work in practice. bit.ly/planner0921-detail bit.l l

Huge ‘design deﬁ ﬁcit’ nning revealed in planning authority skills

Council seeks to save Hemel Hempstead from PDRs Dacorum Borough Council is making an article 4 direction to “protect” the town centre from the loss of shops, cafés and other business premises to residential use. This is in response to a permitted development right that began in August.. bit.ly/planner0921HemelHempstead

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LEADER COMMENT

Event Action to tackle climate change starts at both top and bottom “Collective efforts fall far short of what is required by science to limit global temperature increases by the end of the century to 2°C, let alone the desired objective of less than 1.5°C.” A grim assessment indeed from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s in its latest report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, made worse by its publication in the week of raging fires across the Americas and Europe. This edition of The Planner is themed to the forthcoming COP26 conference. How this country’s legally binding commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2050 is turned into politically acceptable and practically achievable action will surely define the coming decade. It is easy to feel pessimistic about what lies ahead. Yet equally it is possible to

Martin Read be encouraged by what’s happening on a very local level – through work instigated by planners. Our case study this month about Plymouth City Council examines how that serially award-winning local authority has given its crowdfunding revolution in community engagement a timely environmental tweak. Plymouth’s City Change Fund allows local community projects to be part-funded by the council from the neighbourhood

proportion of the Community Infrastructure Levy; project managers post details to a crowdfunding site and the council looks at local buy-in before supporting projects with up to 50 per cent funding. Last year, Plymouth added a ‘climate change bonus’ to the mix – an additional sum for projects with a specifically environmental focus. A competition to raise awareness of the initiative was won by a project to remove pollutants from the local marine environment. Here is planning directly involving communities in small yet significant progress towards that daunting overall goal. It also demonstrates just how broadly this profession can help address our world’s most significant threat. Elsewhere this issue

"PLANNING IS PIVOTAL TO ANY CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVE"

we report the news that RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills has taken a place on the advisory board for the government’s new Oﬃce for Place. Beautiful design, yes – but there’s a critical environmental dimension to that work too. Planning is critical to any climate change initiative, from design downwards and local projects upwards. Finally this month, I should say how glad we are to be back with you in print and to thank all of you who completed our recent readership survey. We’ll be talking more about what that means for our product mix in due course.

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

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S EPTE MB ER 2 0 21 / THE PLA NNER

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11/08/2021 09:18

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

O Opinion

Up the Levellers and up yer levelling up! The ‘levelling-up’ agenda calls to mind a previous effort to reduce social inequality. Louise Brooke-Smith wonders what we can learn from the Levellers (not the band). If ever a phrase was meant to instil a feeling of fairness and equality, it is ‘levelling up’. But when it’s a mainstay of political strategy, then inevitably cynicism creeps in. It’s a shame because ‘levelling’ has been at the heart of social consciousness for some time. I’m not talking of the Brighton-based folkrock group, although those Levellers took their name from people who made a mark on the country’s psyche during the English Civil War. Those 17th century Levellers advocated for suffrage, equality and religious tolerance. They were innovative in using pamphlets, petitions and the press to share their thoughts and they encouraged communities across England to push for a fair deal. So what happened to them? History buffs will recall that after the Civil War, power was held by the army and opposition groups faded away. Jump to the 2020s, and we find that ‘levelling up’ remains a political hot potato. We’ve still got communities who don’t have a fair slice of the cake. Sadly, it seems that 400 years hasn’t taught us much: the Institute of Fiscal Studies has found that regional disparities across the UK are way above those in comparable developed economies. Even after trying

to get the statistics to play ball rather than tell damn lies, it has been impossible to show that living standards across the UK regions are equal. So in comes the government to try to even things up. But it’s not that easy. Productivity across the country simply isn’t the same. Nor is investment into research and development. Whether it’s funds for hightech industries or education (particularly universities), the hard truth is that more investment has been made in the South East, and Northern reaches have missed out. Having sorted out Brexit and dealt with the pandemic, the time is nigh to level up the country and get the Britain’s economy rolling again across all its constituent parts. Nearly £5 billion has been identiﬁed by the chief wizard of the exchequer to plough into town

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“THE LOSS OF OUR EUROPEAN BRETHREN FROM HOSPITALITY, FARMING AND HEALTHCARE CAN’T BE SWEPT UNDER THE SHAGPILE FOREVER” centres and local transport. We won’t be churlish and ask how it is that so many blue ﬂag-waving town centres have managed to get a large chunk of that dosh, but as the ‘red wall’ across the North has been breached, at least some of those lucky recipients lie north of the Watford Gap. We await the white paper on devolution and local recovery to see what might follow from rejuvenating tired town centres and see which regions north of Birmingham might see a relocation of civil

servants. Darlington is holding its breath for the arrival of the Treasury and the Department for Business and some from HMCLG are house-hunting around Wolverhampton. As the UK Infrastructure Bank is heading for Leeds, it might be the turning point and mean that investment in basics, like railways joining one side of the country to the other, could have a realistic chance of materialising before they are made redundant as we move on to private drones and Star Trek-style teleporters. The penny has dropped about training and skills, although there needs to be a more concerted sell on apprenticeships. And the loss of our European brethren from hospitality, farming and healthcare can’t be swept under the shagpile forever. But, never fear, we have big shiny freeports to look forward to! So levelling up will be done and we can sleep soundly knowing that Brexit has been an overwhelming success, the pandemic is under control and equality across the UK will be here before you can say ‘Up the revolution!’

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

11/08/2021 09:13

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“The juxtaposition of increasing the use of permitted development rights with proposals to introduce rigorous design standards seems confused and is an uneasy contrast and risks creating a two-tier system” RTPI CHIEF EXECUTIVE VICTORIA HILLS EXPRESSES THE INSTITUTE’S ONGOING DEEP CONCERN ABOUT THE FURTHER ROLL OUT OF PD RIGHTS WITH CLASS E TO C3 EXEMPTIONS COMING INTO FORCE

“There has been a marked increase in development of high-rise residential towers... other cities are emerging as major centres of high-rise building activity especially Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow and Sheﬃeld”

“Levelling up and the digital transformation of the nation are dependent upon policymakers delivering on infrastructure modernisation” JOE BRUSUELAS, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT RSM, ON RESEARCH SHOWING THAT RURAL BUSINESSES WANT GOVERNMENT TO PRIORITISE DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

“Forcing disadvantaged people to use expensive tumble dryers risks driving them into fuel poverty, which is at odds with the basic principles of human rights” COUNCILLOR DAREN VEIDMAN, SEFTON COUNCIL’S CABINET MEMBER FOR PLANNING AND BUILDING CONTROL, ON WHAT HE SEES AS THE “DANGEROUS AND BAFFLING” DECISION BY THE PLANNING INSPECTORATE TO ALLOW A HOUSING DEVELOPMENT THAT WOULD SEE OCCUPANTS DEPRIVED OF PRIVATE OUTDOOR AMENITIES

“It’s no surprise that the UK is predicted to miss climate change goals without new ‘credible’ policies by 2024, given that little concrete action is being taken to implement tangible actions that will have a real impact”

ALEX BLAGDEN, OF AMA RESEARCH, ON DATA SHOWING THAT 78 PER CENT OF HIGH RISE BUILDINGS UNDER CONSTRUCTION OR UNDER CONSIDERATION THIS YEAR, ARE RESIDENTIAL LED. JUST 15 PER CENT OF HIGH RISE COMPLETIONS BETWEEN 2016 AND 2020 WERE OFFICES

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

“You don’t feel like an island when you meet other people who want the best for your neighbourhood” RESIDENT PAULINE ALEXIS ON WHAT IS REPORTEDLY THE UK’S FIRST ARTS LED NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN, DELIVERED BY EAST STREET ARTS, LOCAL RESIDENTS AND BUSINESSES IN THE BURMANTOFTS, LINCOLN GREEN AND MABGATE AREAS OF LEEDS.

“We We have worked long and hard to get gove government th locally to understand that employing and retaining SMEs are part of the levelling-up age agenda and a key component of solving the housing crisis”

JOSEPH DANIELS, CEO AND FOUNDER OF DEVELOPER ETOPIA GROUP, WANTS TO SEE MORE FOCUS ON THE POTENTIAL OF MODULAR HOMES TO SOLVE THE CRISIS

RICO WOJTULEWICZ, J , HEAD O OF HOUSING AND PLANNING POLICY AT THE HOUSE H BUILDERS ASSOCIATION,, IN SUPPORT O OF THE PLANNING REFORM PROPOSALS TO ENABLE ENA A BROADER MIX OF DEVELOPERS TO BUILD

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11/08/2021 09:14

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

O Opinion

1 BLOG

UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) secretariat

If we don’t take action now it will be too late to stop devastation

In the wake of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s climate change assessment, published in early August, the UNFCCC secretariat issued a statement calling for immediate global action. This is an extract. Unless there are rapid, sustained and large-scale reductions of climate changecausing greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2, methane and others, the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared with pre-industrial levels, as was set out in the Paris agreement, will be beyond reach. This assessment of the latest science is a severe warning regarding the wellbeing of human society and all life on Earth. It is testimony to the fact that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the past decades have been wholly insufficient. With respect to the intergovernmental negotiations on climate change, 2021 marks a crucial year as nations submit their new or updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), embodying the efforts and actions of each country to… reduce emissions. An initial synthesis of submitted new or updated NDCs early in 2021 showed that collective efforts fall far short of what is required

Olaﬁyin Taiwo MRTPI is co-chair of Planners for Climate Action at UN Habitat and convenor of the young planners’ network for the Commonwealth Association of Planners

Money and cooperation are the keys to making COP26 a success

by science to limit global temperature increases by the end of the century to 2°C, let alone the desired objective of under 1.5°C. As the IPCC’s Summary for Policy Makers underscores, limiting warming to 1.5°C can only be achieved through immediate and significantly scaled-up reductions. The only way to reach this goal is through the rapid implementation of more ambitious NDCs. At present, only slightly more than half of all parties to the Paris agreement have submitted new or updated NDCs. All nations that have not yet done so, still have the opportunity to submit ambitious NDCs. Nations that have already submitted new or updated NDCs, still have the opportunity to review and enhance their level of ambition. The collective effort of all submissions will be captured in an updated synthesis report later this year. Given the latest assessment of the physical science basis of climate change, accepting and rising to the challenge of increasing ambition needs to be the way forward. Pursuing efforts towards 1.5ºC through the implementation of ambitious NDCs is essential for our future.

“EFFORTS TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS OVER THE PAST DECADES HAVE BEEN WHOLLY INSUFFICIENT”

2 BLOG

Tackling the climate crisis remains a multidimensional challenge. Targets for mitigation and adaptation are plausible; however, without the right frameworks and actions capable of addressing the impacts of climate change, targets cannot be met. The challenges posed by the escalating intensity of the climate disasters in the past 18 months made circumstances more favourable for the spread of Covid-19 and they affected measures to curb the pandemic. This affected mostly the poorest and most vulnerable in communities that contribute least to the climate crisis. The role of climate change as an environmental determinant of public health should no longer be denied. It cannot be business as usual. How governments act next is critical to tackling the worst effects of the crisis on present and future generations. It is anticipated that COP26 will achieve a clear pathway for climate-resilient economies and an effective mechanism for collaboration on climate actions. But climate adaptation cannot be achieved without delivery of the $100 billion climate finance goal. Assembling the finance to

respond to the climate emergency is a challenge faced by every nation. Underinvestment in climate action initiatives will affect the most disadvantaged communities. Without finance for resilient infrastructure and green jobs, the protection of human rights, including rights to housing and livelihood, will be weakened. The scale of the measures needed to confront the emergency require all forms of finance – public and private, local and international. These challenges require holistic action. Siloed thinking and poor coordination within institutions, governments, and industries has not only hindered the realisation of targets, it has led to duplication of systems and so to resource mismanagement. Emphasising collaborations between governments, academia, businesses, civil society and communities will help to tackle the crisis more efficiently. Vested interests and nationalism should not undermine the collective abilities to address the climate emergency. Maximising the opportunities created by the pandemic to regenerate plans that will build resilience communities is important.

“VESTED INTERESTS AND EXTREME NATIONALISM SHOULD NOT UNDERMINE THE COLLECTIVE ABILITIES TO ADDRESS THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY”

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11/08/2021 09:15

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

3 BLOG

Ana Ynestrillas is program lead at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s Local Pathways Fellowship

Young people must be part of COP26

More than 50 per cent of humankind lives in urban areas. By 2050 this number will increase to 70 per cent, leaving no doubt that our ability to transform the cities we live in plays a crucial role in determining the success of COP26´s goals (see page 5). Cities are home to millions of young people. Half of the world’s population today is under the age of 30 – the large majority of them already living, or aspiring to live, in urban areas. Our young are growing up hyperconscious of climate change because they are living with its consequences. Recent events such as the German ﬂoods and Turkish wildﬁres have reinforced the fact that climate change is not a geographically isolated issue. At the Local Pathways Fellowship (LPF), a UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network programme that I lead, we support growing knowledge capacity in cities around the world by training young urban sustainability leaders. We provide them with the resources they need to advance problem-solving for sustainable development at the local level. The programme also includes visibility opportunities such as participation at global events.

4 BLOG

Sarah Scannell is assistant director of planning and development at the London Borough of Hounslow

Councils can set the example in the quest for lowcarbon housing

Our hope is that a greater number of young people get to attend events such as COP26. This enables the youth to be part of the global conversation that will ultimately shape the world they will inherit. Participation in these events is a critical development opportunity for the young. It allows them to hone their skills, but is also essential in ensuring that their voice is heard internationally. In the past year-and-a-half, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of collaboration. As stated through COP26’s goals, this is crucial and we must work together to deliver them. Cities hold an enormous concentration of the world’s best knowledge and innovation resources. The young are ready to contribute their energy, creativity, ambition, capacity for activism, and ability to conceive of a better world. That’s why at the Local Pathways Fellowship we are convinced that climate change is a young and urban aﬀair. Find out out more here: Local Pathways Fellowship: bit.ly/planner0921-pathways

“PARTICIPATION IN THESE EVENTS IS A CRITICAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY FOR THE YOUTH”

UN Sustainable Solutions Network: bit.ly/planner0921-youth

In June 2019, Hounslow declared a climate emergency. In doing so, we put sustainability at the centre of our borough's development agenda. In the quest to achieve zerocarbon schemes, however, our oﬃcers found they were constantly coming up against a developer achieving the bare minimum of 35 per cent betterment in carbon reduction against building control levels, with the odd solar panel to enhance a site’s ‘green credentials’. So we decided to invest in the sustainability of the council’s own housing schemes so that they would become an exemplar for others. We wanted to prove that deep reductions in the carbon requirement of the scheme can be achieved within a relatively standard scope if given early consideration in the development of the scheme. Achieving our desired outcome required strong crosscouncil working. With colleagues in the housing development team, Hounslow’s planners explored delivery options for zero carbon developments and the implications this would have on the cost and delivery timetable of schemes. We developed a training course on sustainability for all

officers and members, educating people on what we needed in the assessment and the questions they should ask. We reviewed the way we scoped and procured schemes. We ensured that sustainability discussions were placed at the front end of the pre-application discussions, bringing our sustainability consultant and specialist designers into the pre-application process. To date, we have secured planning permission for four exemplar councilowned schemes. These have achieved carbon reductions of 83-93 per cent against building regulations. They have also provided 218 affordable homes. The project has resulted in a step change in the way sustainability is considered in the development process. We now have private schemes being submitted at the application stage that are consistently proposing carbon reductions in excess of the 35 per cent level. Planning committee members expect schemes to meet high levels and are comfortable considering the sustainability merits of applications. Our community holds us to account, too. There is a long way to go in the sustainability agenda, but we believe we are making significant progress.

“WE WANTED TO PROVE THAT MAKING SIGNIFICANT REDUCTIONS IN THE CARBON REQUIREMENT OF THE SCHEME CAN BE ACHIEVED”

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11/08/2021 09:15

INTERVIEW: ESTELLE DEHON

COP26 GOAL 1. SECURE GLOBAL NET ZERO BY MID CENTURY AND KEEP 1.5 DEGREES WITHIN REACH Read the four goals: bit. ly/ planner0921-COP26goals

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11/08/2021 09:22

INTERVIEW: ESTELLE DEHON

BEING HU M AN ESTELLE DEHON HAS A GROWING REPUTATION AS AN ADVOCATE FOR COMMUNITIES FIGHTING CARBONINTENSIVE DEVELOPMENTS. SHE TELLS SIMON WICKS WHY THE SYSTEM IS SLOW TO DELIVER NETZERO AND WHY IT MATTERS TO STAY HUMAN

“T

he thing about South Africa is that wherever you are, even if you’re in a large city, the environment is really close to you. There’s a kind of visceral feeling that you’re still in nature, even if you’re in a big city.” “So,” continues Estelle Dehon, “I suppose that meant I always had that feeling of the human in nature.” Even so, it took a while for Dehon, an established public law practitioner with Cornerstone Barristers, to move into environmental practice. She now has a growing reputation for taking on challenging, prominent cases. “I think it was properly recognising the climate crisis, what that meant if you wanted to be a lawyer who could look yourself in the face – that’s what forced me into saying ‘Right, I’m going to develop my expertise and my practice in a way that picks up these issues’.” A “happenstance” request from Friends of the Earth dropped her into one of the most controversial environmental issues of recent times – fracking. She was involved in a series of cases opposing fracking in Lancashire and Cheshire that ended only when Cuadrilla’s fracking operations were suspended by excessive I M AG E S |

RICHARD GLEED

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In particular, she is critical of the earth tremors and the government common practice of counting only imposed a moratorium on the practice. the emissions generated by the Dehon was also instructed by Friends extraction process itself when assessing of the Earth to oppose an opencast coal the environmental impacts of such mine at Druridge Bay in Cumbria; and developments. she has appeared for community groups, “It should be made absolutely plain that individuals and charities in cases involving if you’re going to be doing a development, mining, airport expansion and oil drilling, the whole point of which is to take fossil many of them crowdfunded. fuel out of the ground in order for it to It’s a precarious way, she concedes, to be burned, then the burning of the fossil make a living. But it’s one to which Dehon fuel is your impact,” she is now committed: initially stresses. open-minded about claims “YOU WANT TO made by applicants in PUT UP NETZERO Systemic flaws favour of new fossil fuel INFRASTRUCTURE? Dehon’s arguments around developments, her court LET ME BE THERE experience has taught her the failure of the legal and TO HELP YOU” to be wary. planning systems to deal “There was lots of effectively with emissions rhetoric around how are subtle. She argues, for actually it [fracking] was example, that England’s necessary to bridge our environmental legal transition from coal. I went framework is sufficient into that not necessarily to hold the government having a fixed view about the issue, and to account, but this is inhibited by an not really understanding the extent to innate reticence within the legal system which the climate crisis had developed. to lay down firm emissions targets for the But as a result of the work I got involved government, even when justified by law. in, I became acutely aware of the impacts More sinisterly, perhaps, Dehon observes of greenwashing around various types of a political atmosphere shaped by “many industries and developments, and of quite years of politicians… telling the courts ‘If how serious things are.” you go too far, you will be knocked back.

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11/08/2021 09:23

INTERVIEW: ESTELLE DEHON

guidance which made these arguments If you take liberties, we will act to ensure irrelevant, that would be very useful,” that you can’t do that any more. If you Dehon adds. criticise too closely, we’ll clip your wings’.” She would also toughen enforcement In addition, the scale, complexity of environmental regulations. Although and global interconnectedness of the pleased to see “high-level principles” issues surrounding climate change are and the introduction of an Office so daunting that the legal and planning for Environmental Protection in the systems struggle to convert what is forthcoming environment bill, she is understood to be necessary into welldismayed by the OPE’s lack evidenced decision-making. of power to penalise ruleThis leaves gaps to be “MY JOB WITH breakers. exploited. THE COMMUNITY This is exacerbated by “There are so many ways IS TO TRANSLATE “defunding” of regulatory in which, even if there are THE CONCERNS bodies such as the significant emissions, what ANIMATING THEM Environment Agency. will be said is, ‘Well, we Moreover, legal aid cuts should be doing this sort of IN A WAY THAT have reduced the ability development here. Because RESONATES of communities to fight if we don’t, then we’re going WITHIN OUR proposals. Opponents to to have the emissions from PLANNING new fossil-fuel extraction burning the oil or gas, plus POLICY AND are increasingly falling back the transport emissions’. So LEGAL SYSTEM” on crowdfunding to fight there are arguments about their corner in court, which substitution, about how the puts lawyers like Dehon whole market works. into a financially precarious “The difficulty often faced position. Yet, without by environmental groups professional representation, it is deeply is that the issue is so enormous, and challenging to hold power to account, she works on so many different levels, that observes. saying to a planning decision-maker, ‘to “Our system tells communities that grant permission for this development, they can and should be involved and that you’re going to need to understand how their voice will be heard. So they expect it the whole world market in coal works’ – to be, and then it is very disenfranchising funnily enough, they’re quite reticent.” when communities realise their voice will Likewise, planning inspectors can struggle not necessarily be heard unless they fit to unpick arguments around climate themselves into certain ways of presenting change. “If there was absolutely clear

what they have to say. Very often, my job with the community is to translate the concerns animating them in a way that resonates within our planning policy and legal system. It’s very concerning that the areas of funding available for that type of work are less and less and are more and more precarious. The only reason I can do the work I’m doing is because there’s Aarhus costs protection.” Dehon dismisses my suggestion that she is a “campaigning” lawyer: “No lawyer is that. If the law permits questioning of decisions – and in fact obliges questioning of decisions in certain circumstances, because they are unlawful – it’s not campaigning to take those points. Simple as.” Nevertheless, she does convey a sense of service to an imperative (“my understanding of what’s facing the world”) that has led her to take risks. This, though, “has meant that I have been involved in some of the most interesting cases that have come to the courts in the last four years”. In addition to environmental work, these have included challenges to use of an algorithm to determine A-level results and to poor PPE guidance for care workers She insists that the broad span of her work (planning, environment, constitutional law, data protection and human rights) is united by a common theme: “Sensible, clear, guided decisionmaking, which is very often framed within a quite black letter law framework of legislation.” She follows up: “It’s also very often the best and most sensible approach in terms of advice, just to tell my clients to do the thing that is most human… often, that’s the best possible approach in all of this. But that’s the thing that gets lost.”

A sense of justice Dehon grew up in Apartheid South Africa. As a young woman, she experienced its transition to a fully enfranchised state. “It is diﬃcult to have had that background and not understand the value of fairness and respect for human dignity and how vital the law is to achieving that – or to destroying it,” she tells me. In fact, her mother, a journalist, is Scottish and her father, a photojournalist, Belgian, and Dehon attended the independent, interracial Roedean School in Johannesburg before becoming the ﬁrst in her family to go to university. “I had this incredible disconnect between the community that I had at

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INTERVIEW: ESTELLE DEHON

CU RR I CU L U M VI T AE

Education: Roedean School, Johannesburg, South Africa; University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (BA Hons Law, Politics, English, 1997; LLB 1999); University of Oxford (BCL, 2002; MPhil International Criminal Law, 2003); College of Law (Bar Vocational Course, 2005) Career highlights

2020present Trustee of Women’s Environmental Network

2019 present Trustee of UK Environmental Law Association

2013present Barrister, Cornerstone Barristers

Key environmental cases Fracking 2015-2019 Appeared in multiple cases opposing fracking at two locations in Lancashire. Fracking proceeded at Preston New Road, but was suspended within weeks for causing earth tremors.

Banks dropped its appeal. 2021 In September, Dehon will appear for South Lakes Action on Climate Change in an inquiry for an application for Woodhouse Colliery, a deep mine in Cumbria.

Coal mining 2018 Appeared for Save Druridge opposing Banks Group’s challenge to the secretary of state’s refusal of an opencast coal mine in Northumbria. The court quashed the secretary of state’s decision; but Robert Jenrick rejected the mine again and

a campaigner against drilling for oil at horse Hill in Surreyl.

Airports 2021 Dehon is acting for community action groups in inquiries into expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport, and Bristol Airport.

Oil 2021 Dehon will represent at appeal Sarah Finch,

Peat burning 2021 Dehon is representing Wild Justice in a challenge to regulations preventing burning on blanket peat bogs. Their case is that limitations on the extent of the ban result in poor regulations.

Renewables 2018 Represented North Norfolk District Council in development consent processes for offshore wind farms Hornsea 3 and Norfolk Vanguard.

2017present Expert (independent legal member) GDPR Multistakeholder Expert Group, European Commission

2012 Called to the Bar in South Africa

20082013 Barrister, 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square

2006 Called to the Bar in the UK

20002001 Clerk to Justice Richard Goldstone, Constitutional Court of South Africa

19992000 Researcher, Independent International Commission on Kosovo

school, which was interracial, highly motivated, highly engaged. Then there was what I would experience via my mum telling me about what was going on in the broader South Africa.” The early 1990s was a “joyful time to be in academia in South Africa”. Later in the deacade, she clerked to a constitutional justice before leaving for Oxford University. This she found, unlike the open South African academy, “stuck in a very positivist, very narrow-minded tradition, which I really struggled with”. She did, however, meet future husband Matthew and stayed in England, where she was called to the bar in 2006. Legal directory Chambers and Partners describes Dehon as a “first-rate” advocate who has “a wonderful manner with clients”. Legal 500 finds her advocacy “nuanced, well-reasoned and highly effective”. I find her candid, good-humoured, conscientious and firm in her principles. She’s also self-aware. “I’m sure people have this experience of me, that I’ll pop up here and there and I always seem to be against something. Actually, I’m very pro things. I want us to be able to develop. If you brought me

a development full of Passivhaus houses, I would be the first to want to go and promote it. You want net-zero infrastructure? Let me be there to help you. But those things haven’t been coming in enough for me to be able to say I’m positively out there promoting the things that need to happen. At this stage, I find myself saying ‘Why are we still building houses that we’re going to need immediately to retrofit for climate change?’ That’s a national scandal.” I ask her if she is hopeful that we will meet the net-zero targets we have set ourselves. She answers promptly and ruefully: “No.” We put too much faith, she remarks, in distant technological solutions when what is needed is “immediate and urgent” action, including individual behavioural change and cultural change within the systems we use to regulate the built and natural environments. We need to come back to the ‘human’. “If you’ve always got that human experience, that need for human health and human wellbeing in the back of your mind when you’re interpreting the law – which you can do – then it’s possible to reinfuse.”

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The trickledown eﬀect 22

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11/08/2021 09:25

LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND NETZERO

ACHIEVING NETZERO REQUIRES ALL TIERS OF GOVERNMENT TO WORK IN CONCERT TO A SHARED SET OF AMBITIONS AND STANDARDS. BUT IS THIS HAPPENING? SIMON WICKS AND MATT MOODY CONSIDER HOW UK LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITIES ARE MANAGING THE DRIVE TO NETZERO

Committee, the UK’s own independent adviser wo reports published this summer on climate change. Progress in Reducing have highlighted the urgent need Emissions and Progress in Adapting to Climate for government action on carbon Change found, among other failings, that: emissions from the national level down to the local. The National Adaptation Programme for The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel England hasn’t developed the preparedness on Climate Change’s Climate Change 2021: required for even a 2ºC rise in global the Physical Science Basis, published in midtemperature, let alone the higher temperatures August, laid out in stark terms the immediacy that are possible by the end of the century. of the threat facing the globe. The UK has the capacity and resources to If current trends continue, it stressed, respond effectively to the 61 risks identified in planetary warming will exceed the limit of its technical report but “it has not done so”. 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels The reports urged the Ministry of Housing, enshrined in the Paris agreement within Communities and Local Government to do 20 years. All nations are required to submit more to support local government through Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), increased resourcing and guidance, and by embodying their efforts to react to climate reforming the planning framework to enable change and to reduce emissions. delivery of low-carbon and climate-resilient “Collective efforts fall far short of what is measures. required by science to limit global temperature By February 2021, according to increases by the end of the century to 2°C, climateemergency.uk, 74 per cent of the UK’s let alone the desired objective of less than district, county, unitary and metropolitan 1.5°C,” it stated. councils, along with eight combined The report’s warnings were so dire that it was authorities and city regions, had declared a described as “code red for humanity” by the climate emergency. UN Secretary General António Guterres as he Many are introducing climate-friendly called on nations to make sure that COP26 is a policies into their planning policy. But they success. can be hamstrung by national laws and The UK has made a legally binding policies that fall short of their own ambitions commitment to reach net-zero carbon by – at least one local authority has had its 2050, along with bold statements about its carbon target successfully challenged in climate ambition. Its pledges are somewhat court because it exceeds what is required by undermined, however, by national policy. continuing support for new The different nations within fossil fuel exploration in the UK are also contending British territory, and a failure with different planning and to back them up with policy legislative frameworks that WORK TOGETHER TO and action. shape development. How do DELIVER At least, the latter was the they compare and to what conclusion of two highly extent do they help local Read the four goals: bit. critical linked reports in late authorities in the drive to ly/planner0921-COP26goals June by the Climate Change net-zero?

COP26 GOAL 4:

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Scotland: The golden thread

Wales: An expectation of change

first draft expected before COP26. “It looks like a pretty impressive document from a green credentials point of As it prepares to host COP26, view,” says Alexander. “For the first time, the climate change is high on NPF will form part of the the agenda in Scotland. development plan – The Scottish government the idea is there’ll be a has led the way since 2019, golden thread flowing when it committed to from national government reaching net-zero by 2045 through to local authority – five years earlier than the level, which will hopefully rest of the UK. deliver more consistency in Scotland’s largest plan-making”. authorities – Edinburgh and Net-zero emissions is one Glasgow – have adopted of NPF4’s four a stiffer ‘key outcomes’, 2030 target, says Rory “THERE’LL BE A along with Alexander, GOLDEN THREAD resilient communities, partner and FLOWING FROM a wellbeing head of the NATIONAL economy, and climate change GOVERNMENT “better, greener unit at Scottish THROUGH places”. The last, law firm TO LOCAL focusing on how Morton Fraser. AUTHORITY planners can “There’s been LEVEL” use and deliver a real focus on open space, has sharpening taken on new local pertinence with development Covid-19. plan policies While court around battles rage in England, there climate change,” he says, are fewer environmental particularly on electric challenges in Scotland, says vehicle infrastructure and Alexander, which reflects low-emission zones. well on the country’s policy The game-changer, framework. “The most however, is the forthcoming recent one we had was over National Planning the Sutherland spaceport, Framework 4 (NPF4), its and we’ve had a few Trumprelated ones… but there’s not the same appetite for litigation.” For a lot of local authorities in Scotland, however, “just trying to keep up” with ambitious national targets will be a challenge, says Alexander. “There’s real pressure on planning authorities in terms of numbers. If people retire and budget restraints mean they aren’t replaced, that has a real impact.”

Key plan or policy: Future Wales: The National Plan 2040 bit.ly/planner0921-wales2040

Key plan or policy: NPF4 bit.ly/planner0921scotframe

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Planning and building control is devolved to the Welsh Government, which is “fully supportive of the move to net-zero”, says Mark Hand, head of placemaking at Monmouthshire County Council. The government’s “ambitious and supportive policy framework” is embedded into Future Wales 2040 (the national plan), and planning policy guidance. The government has paused new roadbuilding, is improving building regulations on energy eﬃciency and has invested £35 million in a housebuilding innovation programme. Monmouthshire’s councillors declared a climate emergency in 2019, and net-zero is “more expectation than support”, says Hand. In his view, planning has multiple roles to play: “getting the right development in the right place” by allocating land; ensuring infrastructure can support a sustainable travel hierarchy; and ensuring that new buildings emit minimal carbon. Hand also recognises the importance of retroﬁtting, but in Wales, improvements to existing homes fall outside the planning process

Northern Ireland: Picking up speed Key plan or policy: Strategic Planning Policy Statement for Northern Ireland bit.ly/planner0921-spps Northern Ireland is playing catch-up, hampered by the suspension of its executive for three years from January 2017 and by political divisions over climate strategy. Planners are mandated by the Regional Development Strategy 2035 (2012) to “work towards a reduction in

greenhouse gas emissions by at least 35 per cent on 1990 levels by 2025”. According to the Energy Savings Trust, NI’s emissions are currently just 20 per cent below 1990 levels. Renewables generate half of the region’s electricity; but twothirds of homes have oil-ﬁred boilers and car journeys average just 6.5 miles. The Climate Change Committee saw scope for improvement, recommending an 82 per cent reduction in all

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LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND NETZERO

and are mostly permitted development. Tightening of the Welsh housing quality standard (WHQS) to include retrofit would secure improvements to social housing, but for private homes planners can only raise awareness – which Monmouthshire is doing through an advice service. Hand believes local authorities must lead by example. Monmouthshire has installed solar panels at its offices and set up a solar farm. Employees are equipped to work remotely, and the council’s fleet of hybrid cars is under review, with funding from government for an electric vehicle charging strategy. Challenges remain, particularly in transport: rollout of electric vehicles is hindered by National Grid capacity, as well as the multitude of charging suppliers. Monmouthshire’s ageing population and hilly terrain pose obstacles to a sustainable travel hierarchy. Hand is also concerned that the less well-off could be left behind by changes. “MONMOUTHSHIRE But he is hopeful: COUNTY COUNCIL government support HAS DECLARED is not just reflected by A CLIMATE planning policy and EMERGENCY, building regulations, AND THERE but also by ministerial IS COMPLETE portfolios, with a minister SUPPORT FOR for climate change whose NETZERO” responsilbities encompass all climate relevant activity, from planning to digital connectivity.

greenhouse gases and 100 per cent reduction in carbon emissions ` by 2050. In March, the executive published an energy strategy consultation, focusing on a green economy. Currently two separate climate change bills are in circulation: one targets a 100 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2045; the other, supported by the DUP only, has the more conservative 82 per cent by 2050 target. Belfast City Council declared a climate emergency in October 2019 and launched a climate plan in December 2020, setting

out 30 “transformational programmes to transition Belfast to a.n inclusive, zero emissions. climateresilient economy in a generation”. A member of the RTPI NI Policy and Research Forum said: “From a Belfast perspective the emerging local development plan is very ‘sustainable’, but doesn’t say a lot explicitly on net-zero carbon. There are general principles about energy eﬃciency, renewable energy sources and low/zerocarbon buildings and a fabric-ﬁrst approach, but it is all fairly high level and obviously hasn’t been adopted yet.”

England: Policy blind spots Key plan or policy: NPPF bit.ly/planner0921-nppf Of 48 enterprise zones in England, only one is in London. The Royal Docks in Newham are envisaged to deliver 35,000 jobs and 4,000 homes. Newham Borough Council is also promoting the area as an incubator for green technology – one of a number of measures within the council’s climate emergency action plan. This applies across the council’s functions, says Jane Custance, Newham’s director of planning and development. Her team, however, is reliant on the teams or climate emergency London Plan, because champions. This plays into Newham’s own local plan a wider issue surrounding was adopted in 2018, before it declared a climate emergency. upskilling and resourcing. In May, housing secretary This is innovative in Robert Jenrick was criticised some ways, says Custance, for rejecting like pushing Swale Borough developers to go beyond building “PLANNING CAN Council’s attempt to regulation ONLY REALLY impose stringent requirements, LOOK AT NEW carbonbut Newham DEVELOPMENT” reduction hopes to go conditions on further with its the developers new plan, to of a 675-home be adopted in scheme near 2024. Sittingbourne, As in Wales, in line with its climate retrofitting remains a policy emergency declaration. blind spot. “Planning can Jenrick, however, ruled that only really look at new the council’s stance “went development,” says Custance. beyond national policy” and One problem is VAT: repair was therefore unreasonable. and maintenance attracts The decision reflected the it, while most demolition frustration that some local and new development is authorities in England feel exempt. Meanwhile, schemes that the government’s aim introduced to encourage to achieve net-zero by 2050 retrofitting, such as the is stymying their own more Green Homes Grant, have ambitious plans. In Newham, suffered from poor take-up. planning inspectors have In Custance’s view, councils overruled local policies need more resources to on biodiversity for similar champion retrofitting work, reasons, says Custance. either through planning

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COP 26

COP26

According to the IPCC (Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change), environmental impacts of climate change include1:

Shifting rainfall patterns

the breakdown

COP26 WILL BE THE 26TH ANNUAL ‘CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES’, A GLOBAL SUMMIT ORGANISED BY THE UNITED NATIONS TO DISCUSS INTERNATIONAL ACTION ON GLOBAL WARMING AND ENACT POLICIES TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

Rising atmospheric CO2

Rising sea levels

COP26 takes place in Glasgow from 31 October-12 November.

THE PROBLEM

417PPM

Carbon dioxide has reached 417 parts per million in the global atmosphere, its highest concentration in 650,0000 years1

If the current rate of warming continues, the global temperature will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by 20403

1°2040 Human induced warming reached approximately 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels ( 18501900 ) in 20172

Sources: 1 NASA, 2,3 IPCC Special Report on Global Warming 2018

Extreme weather events such as ﬂoods, droughts and heatwaves

CLIMATE CHANGE

IMPACTS These in turn will have impacts on the rest of nature, including humanity, including:

Loss of water availability

Loss of coastal land to sea level rise Changed agricultural management, including crop failures

Damage to infrastructure

Source: IPCC Special Report on Global Warming 2018

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COP 26

CLIMATE ACTION – AND INACTION

Share of fossil fuels in the global energy mix in 2019, compared with 80.3% in 2009. Renewables made up just 11.2%, compared with 8.7% in 20091

$575BN Average annual investment in fossil fuels globally over the past ﬁve years2. Overall energy investment will need to rise to $5 trillion a year by 2030 to achieve net-zero3

£22.4BN The UK’s renewable energy industry grew 8.7 per cent in 2019/20 to £22.4bn, with the sector employing nearly 140,000 people4 Sources: 1 REN21; 2, 3 International Energy Agency Net Zero by 2050 report; 4 Renewable Energy Association

PARIS AGREEMENT

80.2%

WHAT COP26 AIMS TO ACHIEVE

At COP21 in 2015, 195 countries agreed to work together to “pursue eﬀorts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”

Secure global net-zero by mid-century and keep 1.5°C within reach

Adapt to protect communities and natural habitats

Mobilise ﬁnance

Work together to deliver

COP26 https://ukcop26.org/

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COP26 Goal 3: MOBILISE FINANCE

ZERO

Read the four goals: bit. ly/ planner0921-COP26goals

GAME COP26 WILL ACCELERATE THE DRIVE FOR CLIMATE FINANCE, AND PLANNING HAS A ROLE TO PLAY IN DIRECTING THIS MONEY TO WHERE IT’S NEEDED. BUT MAJOR POLICY REFORMS ARE NEEDED TO UNLEASH FURTHER INVESTMENT, FINDS HUW MORRIS

ovember’s UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties will urge developed countries to fulfil their promise to mobilise at least $100 billion in climate finance, with financial institutions exhorted to help unleash the trillions in private and public sector investment to meet net zero. The UK government has made some progress since its Green Finance Strategy in 2019 and the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, which introduced mandatory reporting by companies of their climate-related activities in their annual reports. The launch of the UK Infrastructure Bank was another milestone. Even so, just a third of banks and building societies regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority have a science-based target or

net zero strategy, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Private investment in low-carbon and environmental projects is rising but not yet even close to meeting net zero commitments. A deafening alarm has been sounded by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) in a 500-page progress report published in June this year: it estimates that around £50 billion in extra infrastructure investment will be needed every year from 2030 for the UK to meet its 2050 net zero target. In one key area – a hugely signiﬁcant one for the planning system – environmental performance is lamentable, the CCC reveals: more than 570,000 homes built since 2016 will not withstand rising temperatures. Government policies have failed to tackle overheating “despite it being one of the top risks in all UK climate risk assessments published to date”, the

committee warns. Updating building regulations to embrace such passive cooling measures as better shading, reflective surfaces and green cover for homes is a key demand. More fundamentally, the government should review the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to avoid the dreaded concept of “lock-in” – where actions or decisions are made with long-term effects that “are not included in the decision itself, which potentially increases future risk or causes irreversible change”, says the CCC. “More than 300,000 homes are due to be built each year across the UK and there is a major risk of lockin if they are not planned and built to address overheating alongside energy efficiency and low-carbon heating,” the report cautions. “Inaction now will create unnecessary retrofit costs later and

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could even leave many existing and new homes uninhabitable as temperatures rise.”

Investor-friendly policies The CCC’s warning is backed by major private sector ﬁgures, who want to see clear policy signals from government that will unleash the investment required for the UK to meet its net zero obligations. More than 100 prominent business leaders have called on the government to ensure the forthcoming Planning Bill directly aligns with obligations under the Climate Change Act 2008 and plans to reverse nature’s decline in the Environment Bill. A letter co-ordinated by the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and the Aldersgate Group – an alliance of leaders from business, politics and civil society lobbying for a sustainable economy – demands clarity on how land allocated in ‘growth’ zones will be compatible with achieving net zero, securing nature’s recovery and delivering development

Private finance’s climate momentum Board members of major companies are well aware of demands to manage climate-related risks following the government’s introduction of mandatory reporting for premium listed businesses. This requirement will be extended throughout the economy by 2025 – but firms are already increasingly under the cosh from investors. The Climate Action 100+ is an investorled drive to target the boards of 167 companies representing more than 80 per cent of global corporate industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Almost 550 investors, representing $52 trillion of assets under management, have signed up, including BlackRock and State Street Global Asset Management, the first and third largest asset managers in the world. The Partnership for Carbon

Accounting Financials is another investor-driven initiative flexing its muscles. Signatory financial institutions commit to quantifying and publicly reporting on the GHG emissions supported or financed by their deals. Observers predict this will drive investment towards greener companies. A total of 105 institutions have signed up, including Barclays, Federated Hermes, Lloyds, Nationwide and NatWest. The UN’s Net Zero Asset Owners Alliance comprises 34 international institutional investors managing $5.5tn in assets. It is pressing the highest emitters to meet their sector-specific carbon reduction targets, particularly oil and gas, utilities, transport and steel. Members are also targeting at least 20 companies that have yet to align with the Paris Agreement.

Last year, the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change launched an initiative committing signatories to net zero by 2050 and requiring them to set interim targets to be reviewed every ﬁve years. Its 73 signatories account for a third of all assets under management. Schroder’s, a major asset manager, has asked all FTSE 350 companies to deliver net zero transition plans this year, while Cevian Capital, Europe’s largest activist investor, has pledged to punish companies that fail to set environmental, social and governance targets when deciding executive pay through voting at annual meetings. Meanwhile more than 4,500 “non-state actors” have joined the UN-backed Race to Zero campaign. Major corporates include Apple, ENGIE, Google, JLL, Microsoft, Pﬁzer and Visa.

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How investment in historic buildings can help tackle climate change

resilient to climate change. Upcoming legislation is a “critical opportunity”, says Julie Hirigoyen, UKGBC chief executive. “Planning is part of a wider system that is failing to deliver both the quality and quantity of homes needed to tackle the environmental and social challenges we face, and the upcoming reforms must form part of a coherent, long-term commitment by the government to environmental protection; one that gives developers clarity around low-carbon, nature friendly investment.” Josie Murdoch, Aldersgate Group senior policy oﬃcer, says the government’s forthcoming net zero strategy must take a holistic view of the economy and policies. “Setting planning regulations which require charging points in new homes will encourage the purchase of electric vehicles and reduce the need for fast-charging points in petrol stations, generating a costsaving on infrastructure upgrades at diﬀerent sites. Such a plan would also create jobs across building and transport construction by growing supply and value chains, which will help to deliver the government’s levelling up agenda. “Local authorities have a vital role to I M AG E S | I KO N I M AG E S / A L A M Y

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The Grosvenor Group, one of the largest privately-owned international property companies, is pressing for fundamental reforms to the NPPF to align heritage protection with environmental sustainability. Around 500,000 buildings in England alone are protected by statutory listing and hundreds of thousands more are situated in around 9,900 conservation areas. Grosvenor’s research estimates that fabric improvements to listed buildings in England and Wales, combined with unlisted homes in conservation areas, could deliver carbon savings equivalent to 5 per cent of the UK’s emissions from all buildings. It wants to see three paragraphs in Chapter 14 of the NPPF amended to explicitly tackle climate change adaptations and energy eﬃciency: Paragraph 148 should include an overarching policy reference to appropriate adaptations and energy eﬃciency measures to highlight their importance. Paragraph 149 should include a reference to ensure these issues are

“REFORMS MUST FORM PART OF A COHERENT, LONG TERM COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION THAT GIVES DEVELOPERS CLARITY AROUND LOWCARBON INVESTMENT”

addressed in plan preparation. Paragraph 154a should include a new development managementrelated paragraph on proposals for climate change adaptations and energy efficiency. “There are two tensions at play,” says Matt Bell, Grosvenor’s corporate affairs director. “One is about heritage protection and a desire to adapt carefully amid a degree of anxiety about the capacity of the supply chain to do it well. There is also a very strong consciousness about the clock ticking on climate change. Across both the heritage and sustainability sectors, there’s a very large consensus about doing this but different views about speed. “Experience across the country shows you get different decisions from different authorities about the same issues,” Bell continues. “To help historic buildings tackle the climate crisis, planning policy is the key starting point.” Read Heritage and carbon: How historic buildings can help tackle the climate crisis (pdf) https://www. grosvenor.com/Grosvenor/files/c1/

play in using their knowledge to deliver planning upgrades which deliver net zero and nature restoration based on the needs of their areas,” Murdoch continues. “This will require wellresourced and up-skilled planning departments and the ability for local authorities to set their own targets. This approach would create clear project pipelines for private investors at the local level which would deliver the low-carbon infrastructure and nature restoration the UK needs.”

Local inﬂuence Commentators point out that even without policy reform there is

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Zero sums enormous momentum across the global authority planners need to be able to ﬁnance sector for change, and COP26 ensure this takes place.” will very likely accelerate this (See box Leeds City Council is committed to ‘Private ﬁnance’s climate momentum’). achieving net zero by 2030. Its strategic One major investor said the UK planning chief Martin Elliot hopes to see government should ignore “feet-draggers a time when zero-carbon developments within industry”, who he predicted will are the only schemes in local plans. “bow to the inevitable eventually”. “We need a cultural change from all But what can planners do in the parts of the development industry and meantime? planners, but the question should be: More than a third of the UK’s ‘Why wouldn’t we want to see better population is represented by local quality homes that are well insulated, authorities planning to reach net-zero cost less to heat, are healthier, more emissions ahead of the government’s accessible and sit within places that are 2050 commitment. A total of 58 resilient to the impacts of a changing climate-aligned councils are part of climate?’. UK100, a network of local authority “In so doing, growth becomes a key leaders committed to tackling climate lever for other aspects of good placechange. Collectively, they represent 23.5 making such as enhanced opportunity million people. for active travel, healthier and inclusive The leaders pledge places and biodiverse to neutralise council places. It is possible to emissions by 2030 and bring all these things those of their residents together, but it takes will “GROWTH and businesses by 2045. and cultural change.” BECOMES A UK100 says more than 100 Elliot acknowledges KEY LEVER FOR authorities also promise that while the OTHER ASPECTS to run on 100 per cent government encourages OF GOOD PLACE clean energy by 2050, planners to consider MAKING SUCH AS while the most ambitious sustainability issues in ACTIVE TRAVEL, among them aim to go planning guidance, “sadly HEALTHIER AND “further and faster than the they often taken a back INCLUSIVE government” on net-zero. seat to the objectively PLACES AND The network is lobbying for assessed needs that are BIODIVERSE more powers and resources enshrined in the tests of PLACES” to enable them to take soundness” and while it ambitious climate action. is important to deliver the “Local authorities need right number of homes the tools to impact current and jobs in the right development plans and places this should not are critical at delivering override legal obligations the local changes that are necessary to for climate change. achieve the transition to net zero,” says “I’d like to see the environment and Rupert George, UK100’s campaigns carbon less as a constraint on achieving and communications director. “But it numbers and more as a win-win isn’t just about the built environment. alongside it. To do that requires a clearly Local authorities need planning powers set out purpose of planning – one with to ensure places function in a way that [its aim to provide] healthier, more supports net zero. resilient places that mitigate and adapt “Developments need to be able to climate change and also deliver to support the transition to net zero housing numbers and jobs. transport, the installation of electric “That would immediately de-risk vehicle charging infrastructure local authorities from putting in and supporting modal shift, and place policies that the climate agenda new housing shouldn’t require desperately needs. Set that way around, car ownership to be functional for local opposition to planning would residents. Developments need to reduce.” support community-based solutions, heat networks and community-ton Huw Morris is consultant editor with grid sustainable energy projects. Local The Planner

The Oﬃce for Budget Responsibility has unveiled staggering ﬁgures for the transition to net zero in the UK by 2050.

£1.4 trillion Total cost of achieving the 2050 target

£400 billion The bill for retroﬁtting all buildings.

£250 billion The cost of replacing gas boilers with heat pumps and better insulation.

£330 billion The bill for net zero vehicles.

£500 billion The price tag for power generation.

£1.08 trillion Estimated savings from reduced energy costs across the whole economy. Source: OBR Fiscal risks report July 2021 https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/Fiscal_ risks_report_July_2021.pdf

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

Plymouth’s City Change Fund has been lauded for its simplicity, accessibility and transparency

CROWDS FOR A CHANGE PLYMOUTH CITY COUNCIL HAS EXTENDED THE SCHEME IN WHICH CROWDFUNDING HELPS ALLOCATE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD PROPORTION OF ITS COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE LEVY – A CLIMATE EMERGENCY BONUS NOW INCENTIVISES ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS. MARTIN READ REPORTS

Award: Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing Winner: Plymouth Climate Challenge and the Climate Emergency Bonus Submitted by: Plymouth City Council

a local community”, and since 2015 this In 2019 the RTPI Awards for Planning model has boosted community action Excellence showered Plymouth City across the city in support of all these Council with praise for its innovative aims. City Change Fund / Crowdfund PlymPlymouth’s City Change Fund has outh (CCF) – a method allowing local seen Plymouth City Council pledge community projects to be part-funded close to £500,000 for nearly 100 proby the council using funds from the jects, with justr shy of 10,000 backers community infrastructure levy neighraising £1.6 million. At the time of its bourhood proportion. 2021 RTPI Awards submission, for every Essentially, local project leaders £1 pledged by the council £2.37 was upload details to the Crowdfunder.co.uk pledged by other organisations and the platform before encouraging local peolocal community. ple to pledge money in support of them. The CCF has been lauded for its simOnce a project is at least 25 per cent plicity, accessibility and transparency. funded in this way, thus demonstrating The council speaks of facilitating bota groundswell of local support, Plymtom-up community action, making it outh City Council assesses the project; easy for anyone to start it could then pledge up to their own project; certainly 50 per cent of the target it is difficult to envisage sum, up to a maximum “PROJECTS more direct way of engag£30,000. ‘NEED TO HAVE ing with people to effect Project assessment DEMONSTRABLE criteria says that projects ECONOMIC, SOCIAL change. It allows word to “need to have demonstraOR ENVIRONMENTAL be spread about projects and their aims, and for ble economic, social or BENEFITS TO A environmental benefits to LOCAL COMMUNITY’” people to observe the accu-

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CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

O F T Y R E S, B E E S, M O T H S NAPPIES AND MORE… Projects proposed showcase a variety of broad benefits, both social and environmental. 1000 Tyres Initiated by Plymouth marine archaeologists shocked by what they discovered on the sea bed, this project will to remove pollutants from the marine environment and raise awareness on the issues of discarded tyres and the dumping of rubbish in high traffic areas. Seen as supporting Plymouth’s promotion of the city as the UK’s first National Marine Park, this project was the winner of Plymouth’s December 2020 Climate Challenge competition. Project Pollenize A schemes to help schools and schoolchildren to rewild parts of the city, including designated areas in schools, encouraging children to document the growth and visitation from pollinators in their assigned areas. Moths to a Flame A collaborative, mass participation art and energy project designed to take the city’s voice on the climate emergency to World Leaders gathering at COP26 in Glasgow. Thousands of digital and handmade moths will be created by local people and displayed at the Botanic Gardens during the conference.

mulation of project funds, all openly visible to anyone who cares to look. This year, Plymouth is again in the awards limelight for its adaptation of the original CCF concept. A new ‘Climate Emergency Bonus’ component can add up to another £15,000 per project in addition to the maximum £30,000 CCF contribution. Thus, up to 75 per cent of a project’s funding could ultimately come from the council. The bonus is available to projects which the council views as making a contribution to Plymouth’s climate emergency response, for example, through renewable energy, sustainable transport, waste reduction, biodiversity protection/enhancement, in Plymouth’s green and blue spaces. The vlimate change bonus has its origins in March 2019, when the council declared a climate emergency pledging to make Plymouth carbon-neutral by 2030. The decision led to discussions within city planning teams about what role they could play I M AG E | G E T T Y

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and the bonus was the result. The only problem? Its launch in July 2020, during the midst of the pandemic. A way to raise awareness and kick-start the crowdfunding in a safe but eﬀective way was required, so Plymouth’s planners worked with Crowdfunder to organise a ‘climate challenge’ contest to culminate with a live-streamed event in December. Seven shortlisted projects were e given a £250 start-up pledge and given a month to raise as much ass possible; the three projects raising ng the most money received an additional nal £2,500 before taking part in the live ive online event where the winner was awarded another £5,000. Backerss interviewed live during the eventt gave passionate endorsements of the projects they were pledging towards. At the time of Plymouth’s 2021 awards submission, 12 climate action ion projects had come forward, covering ing issues from rewilding, water conservaervation, waste minimisation, the marine rine

Plymouth Nappy Library Discounted reusable nappies, tailored kits for toddlers, and disabilities and potty training for some of the city’s poorest families, in a project that delivers both social and environmental beneﬁts. Watch the Climate Change Bonus competition event: bit.ly/planner0921-bonusevent bit.ly/planner0921-pcc yp p

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Visualisations for a positive outcome

NPA

Visuals

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30/07/2021 12:33

CASE STUDY: RTPI AWARDS

Plymouth’s experience oﬀers a powerful example of what true grassroots engagement to tackle climate change can look like

environment, low-carbon energy and the engagement of young people. These projects had amassed more than 1,000 backers with Plymouth having pledged £27,625 to 10 of them and ﬁve having qualiﬁed for the bonus. In total, the projects had raised £231,373. Tracking what happens once council funding has been pledged is key. Once funded, project managers are asked to submit a progress report to the city council a year after it has pledged on the project after the money has been spent.

THE PLANNERS’ ROLE Jessica Vaughan is a planning officer in strategic planning and infrastructure for Plymouth City Council. She has played a big role in managing the CCF fund, and has been key to developing the bonus’s delivery, liaising with councillors and Crowdfunder. “At the start of the financial year we transfer a pot of money to Crowdfunder and they distribute it on our behalf,” thus cutting council admin costs. Plymouth’s city planning team has built up considerable credit over the years for its innovative approach to engaging with communities. Its CCF is now seen as an effective way of furthering the Plymouth Plan, the city’s strategic plan, through its emphasis on the empowerment and engagement of communities. It was Plymouth’s council planners who came up with the concept and creation of the CCF and the climate emergency bonus, as well as the competition to help launch it. The idea of the bonus immediately gained traction with I M AG E | I STO C K

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organisation connecting volunteering groups, charities and social enterprises across the city. A series of videos has been commissioned, comprising short explainers and case studies, to bring the scheme and its beneficiaries to life. Vaughan emphasises the value of the CCF’s broader, bottom-up approach. “It isn’t just about the council identifying the problem and coming up with a solution they may or may not want; this is engagement coming in from the grassroots. We have a problem, for instance, ‘this green space is a bit of a mess, and we want it to become something better for the community’. I think if you give people the tools and the power to come up with solutions themselves, they will.” The council concedes that many of the successfully funded projects are quite simple ideas – but sees the climate emergency bonus as helping to tackle climate senior members and officers as well as change at the most local of levels. the council’s Low Carbon City team. Vaughan is delighted to see the extent Plymouth’s link with Crowdfunder to which planning is playing a pioneering has been critical, as has support from role here. Does she agree that the CCF non-profit group Cities of Service, which and its climate change customisation recognised the CCF in 2019, and whose helps make the actual job of planning a grant supported the 2020 Climate Chalmore satisfying one? lenge competition and live event. ”Definitely. I wasn't sure what to expect Ultimately, the Climate Change Bonus when I started planning but I know it brings front of mind the importance of wasn’t this and it’s brilliant this is haplocal action at every level. Although the pening, especially in Plymouth where council has created the platform and we’ve got brilliant senior process, it doesn’t directly management who have deliver the outcomes which “THE IDEA OF really good relationships are instead delivered by a THE BONUS with our politicians.” local community ‘empowIMMEDIATELY “That makes it so ered and equipped to bring GAINED TRACTION much easier to streamforward their own ideas for a WITH SENIOR line the process and more sustainable world’. MEMBERS AND bring them along with it. Other councils have conOFFICERS” And because we've been tacted Plymouth, looking to so successful [with other replicate the CCF idea. The planning initiatives], council speaks of the importhere’s quite a lot of trust tance of showing a “willingthere as well which I ness to do things differently” think has helped.” and the need to “trust local While the focus remains understandcommunities to bring forward solutions ably on promoting the Climate Change to an area’s problems”. Bonus and the CCF framework that underpins it, Vaughan agrees that there’s FURTHERING THE CONCEPT nothing to stop other key priorities getjessica Vaughan says that a second event, ting a similar ‘bonus’ status in future, a follow-up to 2020’s Climate Challenge perhaps those with a wellbeing theme. contest, is likely to take place later this year. Talks with Crowdfunder are ongoing, The flexibility, transparency and openness of the scheme would allow for such with the event’s scheduling potentially targeting. For now, though, the climate tied to World Town Planning Day. emergency bonus project is providing a Part of Vaughan’s role is to generate powerful example of what true grassroots more awareness of the CFF, which she engagement to tackle the world’s most does through the press and by working urgent crisis looks like. with the Plymouth Octopus Project, an

S EPTE MB ER 2 0 21 / THE PLA NNER

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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

Westminster Holocaust Memorial Centre wins minister’s backing Housing minister Christopher Pincher has backed an inspector’s recommendation and granted planning permission to build a Holocaust memorial and learning centre at Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the palace of Westminster. The proposal included a basement and mezzanine for the learning centre, a single-storey entrance pavilion and refreshments kiosk. Pincher said “a series of very significant public benefits” weighed in the scheme’s favour, although it did not accord overall with the Westminster City Plan. The delivery of a national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and genocide was a public benefit of great importance to which he afforded considerable weight. Its location next to the Palace of Westminster also sent a “very powerful message”, which was another public benefit of great importance to which he also gave considerable weight. The minister said that limited weight should be given to alternative locations, a factor “reinforced by the desirability of delivering the project within the living memory of survivors, as a fulfilment of the nation’s obligation to honour the living as well as the dead”.

LOCATION: Westminster AUTHORITY: Westminster City Council

INSPECTOR: David L Morgan PROCEDURE: Calledin decision DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ XF990/V/19/3240661

The delivery of an outstanding piece of civic design in empathy with its context was also judged to be a public benefit of great importance deserving considerable weight. Pincher said the proposals “comprise a design of exceptional quality and assurance”. This was supported by paragraphs 126 and 134b of the NPPF, which anticipate high-quality design being fundamental

to what the planning process should achieve and that great weight should be given to outstanding or innovative designs. Although any significant intervention to Victoria Tower Gardens, a grade II Registered Park and Garden, would be likely to affect its established character, particularly the setting of the Buxton Memorial and a limited number of trees within the park,

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I M A G E S | H AY E S D AV I D S O N

40 or so appeal reports are posted each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions. Our Decisions Digest newsletter, sponsored by Landmark Chambers, is sent out every Monday. Sign up: bit.ly/planner-newsletters

the overall harm would be moderate, the minister found. However, when considered as a whole against the significance of the Westminster Abbey and Parliament Square Conservation Area, with the internationally important twin assets of the abbey and palace, he concluded that harm was slight. He said the setting of the Palace of Westminster would be preserved and conserved. The proposed development would also not compromise the Outstanding Universal Value of the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, including St Margaret’s Church World Heritage Site. Pincher also agreed with the inspector that the proposal would preserve the setting of other designated and nondesignated memorials and structures in the vicinity of the site, specifically the grade II* listed memorial to Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, the grade I listed Burghers of Calais Memorial, the grade II listed River Embankment Wall and the unlisted Spicer Memorial. He found no material harm to the significance of St John’s Smith Square Concert Hall or its conservation area, and that the proposal would preserve and conserve the settings of adjacent listed buildings. Overall, the minister concluded that the public benefits of the scheme demonstrably outweighed its harm. He therefore agreed with the inspector’s recommendation and granted planning permission.

EXPERT COMMENT Kate Olley is a barrister at Landmark Chambers

( “Even for those not involved in the planning world, the report behind this decision letter is worth reading, even if only for the collection of powerful representations made by the high number of interested parties who contributed to the inquiry. ( “I would probably highlight in particular that made by Ellie Olmer, a teacher (see pp301304 of the report). It is fair to say, also, that the report is exceptionally thorough and at times exquisite in its analysis, fitting to a decision on a onceina generation project. ( “The issues range from the effect on the trees in Victoria Tower Gardens, the impact on the setting of the Buxton Memorial to slavery, the other memorials in the Gardens and the Palace of Westminster itself, security, flood risk to the below ground learning centre and the effect of increased visitor activity on the recreational function of the Gardens. ( “In a passage which reflects the recent learning including the decision in the Whitechapel Bell Foundry

case, the inspector referred to what he called the ‘divergence in the methodology to the applied to [the] calibration’ of harm to heritage assets.

( “Noting the respective reliance on the Bedford test and the wording in the PPG in terms of what would count as ‘substantial’ harm, the inspector felt that ‘there is in fact little to call between both interpretations… In both interpretations, it is the serious degree of harm to the asset’s significance which is the key test’. ( “The inspector found forcefully in favour of the principle of development, deciding that to avoid building a memorial in case it incited racist action ‘would mean the defeat of Holocaust memorialisation and remembrance and an open door to wider denialism’. ( “He also noted, movingly, that ‘achieving a memorial within the lifetime of survivors, so seeking to honour the living as well as the dead, has a resounding moral importance that can legitimately, in my view, be considered a material consideration and a public benefit of great importance, meriting considerable weight in the planning balance in this case’.

( “Somewhat presciently, in view of the very recent tweaks to the NPPF which see the insertion of the need for places to be well designed and beautiful, it is notable that the inspector highlighted that matters of design in planning ‘are almost always likely to draw an opinion one way or the other’. His own observation, gracefully put, was that: ‘The memorial would avoid overt references to religious symbolism or text, relying instead on the twin primary motifs of the swelling landform and the cresting bronze portals with the descent into the chambers below’. ( “The graduated mound, rising out of the tabular lawn to the north, would convey a sense of the growing tide of orchestrated racial aggression and violence, finally breaking with the cataclysmic events of the Holocaust, symbolised by the bronze armature above the descending portals. ( “These defining elements of the memorial, fashioned from the brown alloy of sculpture, would have a power and grace distinctly of their own. Collectively, these elements would make a bold and poetic visual statement of great power and beauty, and one that can be readily understood as such. He found that the manifest design qualities would enrich the park as a whole as an asset of cultural and social value, and that the design was of ‘exceptional quality and assurance’. ( “As such, the identified design merits were a public benefit of great importance which merited being given considerable weight in the planning balance. In the writer’s view, this conclusion honours the memory of the memorial’s designer, the genius Asa Bruno, who died so tragically only days before the issue of the secretary of state’s decision.” Read the full comment on our website: bit.ly/planner0921memorial

SEPTEMBER 2021 / THE PLANNER

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C&D { C An inspector has approved 29 over-55s apartments on land at a Northamptonshire village that had been set aside for a pub since permission for the whole village was granted in 1995. He ruled that it should not be expected for the site to remain vacant indeﬁnitely. In 1995, outline permission was granted for a new village – to be called Mawsley – in north Northamptonshire, comprising 750 homes, a school, shop, village hall, church, and pub. Construction began in 2001 and was largely completed, except for a 0.62-acre site set aside for the envisaged pub. Full permission for a change of use of the pub site from agricultural was granted in 2005, and the site was sold in 2006 to a ﬁrm that was expected to build and run the

pub. Instead, an application to build 29 ﬂats for over-55s was lodged in March 2020. Inspector Wraight noted that the appeal site had been available for the development of a pub for 16 years but one had not been delivered. It was therefore unreasonable to expect the site to “remain vacant for an indeﬁnite period of time”. There was only one road in and out of Mawsley, Wraight noted, so the pub would rely on the patronage of the village’s residents. A

Airport authority overruled on public safety zone scheme An inspector has approved plans for the redevelopment of a warehouse within the exclusion zone of Exeter Airport’s runway, overruling the airport authority’s view that the number of people allowed on site at any one time should be limited to six. The appeal concerned a cluster of buildings, previously used for the storage and wholesale of antique furniture and cars, at Clyst Honiton, a village in east Devon. The appellant sought permission to redevelop the site, demolishing some buildings to make way for a single large industrial-style warehouse building, as well as renovating an existing brick structure. The development was to be used for storage, welfare facilities and oﬃces.

However, the site fell within the public safety zone at the end of Exeter Airport’s runway where, inspector John Wilde noted, development

LOCATION: Mawsley AUTHORITY: Kettering Borough Council

INSPECTOR: Graham Wraight PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ L2820/W/20/3265335

should be restricted to “control the number of people on the ground at risk of injury or death in the event of an aircraft accident on take-oﬀ or landing”. The airport authority had objected to the appeal scheme, indicating that it would withdraw its objection only if the appellant accepted a condition limiting the number of people on the site at any one time to six. The appellant said that although up to 12 people would be employed at the development, only two would be based on site, with others coming and going, and there would be rarely more than six people there at any one time. But Wilde pointed out that the existing lawful use for warehousing and wholesale was not restricted and “could result in a considerable

community centre already existed adjacent to the site, he considered, to screen sport events, host functions and serve drinks, with similar opening hours to a pub. These factors, along with the fact that the village was not expected to grow in the near future, led Wraight to conclude that it could not sustain a pub. The appeal scheme, on the other hand, would deliver 29 homes for older people, which he decided carried “moderate weight” in its favour.

I M A G E S | G E T T Y / I S T O C K / S H U T T E R S T O C K / PA U L T H O M P S O N A L A M Y

Homes allowed on land saved for pub since village’s inception

number of people on the site at any one time”. On this basis, the appellant maintained that the number of people on site at one time should be capped at 10. Wilde agreed with the appellant and he allowed the appeal.

LOCATION: Clyst Honiton AUTHORITY: East Devon District Council

INSPECTOR: John Wilde PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ U1105/W/21/3272290

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

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

‘Netzero’ homes vetoed A 22-home scheme that would double the number of “net-zero carbon-ready” homes in the area was rejected by an inspector. He cited unacceptable aﬀordable housing provision, conﬂict with local spatial strategy and harm to the area’s character. bit.ly/planner0921-carbonready yp

Personal circumstances do not justify Kent Traveller pitch An inspector has rejected a Gypsy Traveller family’s application to settle on green belt land near Maidstone, ruling that their personal circumstances did not outweigh the harm to the green belt and risk of ﬂooding he had identiﬁed. bit.ly/planner0921-traveller

Council must pay costs despite cyberattack An inspector has ordered Hackney Borough Council to pay costs for failing to properly engage with an appeal concerning a roof extension in Shoreditch, commenting that the council’s “predicament” did not “absolve it of all responsibility” in dealing with appeals. bit.ly/planner0921-cyberattack

Autonomous minehunting tech facility would harm heritage An industrial unit at a marine business park on the Plymouth waterfront would cause unacceptable heritage harm, an inspector has ruled, noting that doubt remained over whether the company that was intended to occupy the unit would take it up. bit.ly/planner0921-mine

Brownfield scheme allowed with no outdoor amenity space ce An inspector has approved plans for 39 aﬀordable homes on a long-vacant site in Crosby with no outdoor amenity space, ce, ruling that various other factors including ng the provision of tumble dryers meant nt occupants’ living conditions would not be harmed. bit.ly/planner0921-crosby by y

Selfbuild home ‘not outstanding or innovative’ Plans for a self-build home in the Staﬀordshire green belt have been rejected by an inspector, who commented that the design’s energysaving features were “commendable” but “relatively well known” and not innovative. bit.ly/planner0921-staﬀs

Increased developer contribution secured from 125home scheme An inspector has approved plans for 1125 homes in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, with w a bigger aﬀordable housing and infrastructure contribution from the developer, after scrutinising viability d arguments. bit.ly/planner0921faringdon

Swindon conversion rejected for staircase impact on heritage setting

Nitrate neutrality concerns scupper Isle of Wight barn conversion

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Plans to convert a redundant agricultural building on the Isle of Wight have been rejected by an inspector, who found no suitable mechanism to ensure that the proposal would uld not harm the nitrate neutrality of the Solent special protection area. bit.ly/planner0921-wight

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Plans to redevelop a former telephone exchange in Swindon into seven apartments have been dismissed after an inspector decided a proposed external staircase would harm its setting within a conservation area and listed buildings. bit.ly/planner0921-swindon

SEPTEMBER 2021 / THE PLANNER

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LLegal landscape OPINION

The environment bill: ‘A Ferrari with its doors locked shut’? The proposed environment bill has much to recommend it, says Kimberley Ziya, but there are fears about enforcement and the funding of local nature recovery strategies

“A Ferrari with its door locked shut.” This quote, first used by a former advocate general to the Court of European Justice to describe German environmental law, was adopted by Lord Anderson of Ipswich to describe the Environment Bill 2020 during its second reading debate in early June. It neatly summarises a prevalent view shared by the bill’s critics: it has much potential to be a force for real change which is not being fully realised. Now that it has completed its committee stage in the House of Lords, it’s worth reflecting on whether enough is being done to overcome this general criticism. Three areas of the bill are of interest to planners: n The role of the new Office for Environmental Protection n Local nature recovery strategies n Biodiversity net gain conditions.

The Oﬃce for Environmental Protection (OEP) The OEP is to be the new

As for enforcement, environmental watchdog for the OEP has big shoes to England, taking over from the fill in the form of the EU EU Commission. However, Commission’s powers to significant concerns have strike down decisions or been expressed about failures to act by member its independence from states in breach of EU law government and ability and to require reparations. to hold public bodies to The OEP’s enforcement account. functions are somewhat As for independence, the milder. They are: concerns stem n A complaints from the fact “THE OEP HAS procedure, that the new BIG SHOES TO leading to an watchdog is to FILL IN THE investigation sit within Defra FORM OF THE EU process before (Department for COMMISSION’S deciding Environment, POWERS TO whether to take Food and Rural STRIKE DOWN further steps by Affairs). Indeed, DECISIONS OR way of a new the bill gives FAILURES TO “environmental the secretary of ACT BY MEMBER review” power. state for Defra STATES” If the OEP does the power to not decide to issue guidance take further to the OEP on steps it must its enforcement issue a report policy. The OEP setting out any must then have recommendations that regard to that guidance in it may have in light of preparing that policy and its conclusions. Such exercising its enforcement recommendations do not functions. This apparent appear to be binding. lack of independence is n The issuing of information exacerbated by the fact that and decision notices. The funding for the OEP is also to latter may be given where be provided by Defra.

the OEP is satisﬁed that the authority had failed to comply with environmental law and that the failure is serious. It must set out the steps that the OEP considers the authority should take in relation to the failure. n The consequence of failing to respond to a decision notice is that the OEP can exercise its power to bring an environmental review. In considering such cases the court is to apply the principles applicable in judicial reviews and, if

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it finds that the authority has failed to comply with environmental law, it must make a “statement of non-compliance”. Such a statement has no effect on the validity of the conduct in question. The court may also grant any remedy that would be available in a judicial review (other than damages) but only if satisfied that such a remedy would not “be likely to cause substantial hardship to, or substantially prejudice the rights of, any person other than the authority”. n Only in urgent cases can the OEP apply for judicial

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or statutory review. Various amendments were tabled during committee proceedings to seek to strengthen these powers and guarantee the independence of the OEP, but none appears to have been successful. More amendments have been tabled for consideration ahead of the report stage.

Local nature recovery strategies The bill states that local nature recovery strategies for areas in England are to be prepared by local authorities and reviewed and

republished “from time to a new schedule 7A to the time”. Such strategies are Town and Country Planning to include a statement of Act 1990 but in essence biodiversity priorities for requires the biodiversity the strategy area and a local value attributable to the habitat map for the whole development to exceed the strategy area. pre-development value What is unclear is by at least 10 per cent. how local authorities Any habitat enhancement are expected to fund is only to be taken into the preparation of these account in calculating poststrategies; and how to use development biodiversity them in decision-making. value if it is required The bill does not confer by condition, planning powers on councils to, for obligation or conservation example, designate land covenant to be maintained as being a for at least 30 site at risk of years after the “WHAT IS NOT biodiversity development is CLEAR ON loss, nor does completed. THE FACE OF it provide that A welcome THE BILL IS the strategies government HOW LOCAL are to form amendment AUTHORITIES part of the passed during ARE EXPECTED development the committee TO FUND THE plan or stage makes PREPARATION otherwise be provision for OF THESE a material biodiversity net STRATEGIES” consideration gain in relation in planning to Nationally decisions. Signiﬁcant This is Infrastructure particularly Projects. signiﬁcant given the government’s proposed Conclusion planning reforms that It is unfortunate that include zoning – ie, topamendments to alleviate down designation of land some of the above as suitable for development concerns have been so or protected on account of strongly resisted. environmental issues. How Nonetheless, the bill can such an approach be is an important one, and reconciled with giving local does take many steps communities greater nature in the right direction to conservation powers? securing a wide range of long-awaited and muchneeded environmental Biodiversity net gain protections. conditions Finally, the bill provides for biodiversity net gain to Kimberley Ziya is a barrister with Landmark Chambers specialising be a condition of planning in planning, property and permission in England. environmental law The detail will be set out in

11/08/2021 09:37

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

RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills to be part of new Oﬃce for Place

Victoria Hills at the Policy Exchange event with Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick (centre) and fellow Oﬃce for Place advisory board member Paul Monaghan

RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills has been named as a member of the advisory board of MHCLG’s new ` Oﬃce for Place. The government says that the Oﬃce for Place will help councils and communities ‘banish ugly developments and deliver beautiful, green homes and places using Britain’s world-class design expertise”. Joining Victoria on the new task force will be developers, architects and other planners. The group will be chaired by Nicholas Boys Smith, director of Create Streets and previously co-chair of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission. Also announced by the government were revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework following a consultation earlier this year, enabling planners to reject ugly, unsustainable or poor-quality design – something that the Institute has called for on numerous occasions. A National Model Design Code has also been launched to help councils and communities to create their own

testing and piloting the National Model Design Code with more than 20 local councils and communities. “Experience from around Europe suggests that a small and agile national design task force like this can have a huge impact, but only if it reaches out to work with an inclusive network of local partners to build capacity and approaches that are right locally and that have local buy-in. “Among today’s other announcements, I particularly welcome the strengthening of the NPPF to enable RTPI members to reject poorly designed developments. In our response to MHCLG’s consultation, we set out how it can often be hard for an LPA to refuse a scheme only on the grounds of bad design. “The input of Chartered planners will be essential if the government’s plans to promote and increase the use of highquality design for new-build homes and neighbourhoods are to succeed.” The RTPI is commissioning consultants to undertake research on design codes, net-zero and nature recovery, with publication of the research due in autumn 2021.

local design requirement. Guidance will be provided across all aspects of new development including tree-lined streets, sustainable drainage and design to support walking and cycling. The announcements by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick were made during an event at think tank Policy Exchange in central London attended by Victoria Hills and streamed online. n Watch the Policy Exchange event in Victoria said: “I’m delighted to have full at bit.ly/planner-0921-beautiful been appointed by the Housing Secretary to be a member of the advisory board of the new Oﬃce for Place. “Over the coming months, I look forward to working with Nicholas Boys Smith, chief planner Joanna Averley and other board members to support local planning Victoria at the event with Chief Planner Joanna Averley authorities to drive up design standards,

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no. 262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

Good design: The Newt in Somerset, submitted by AZ Urban Studio & South Somerset District Council, was the winner in the Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture category at the RTPI Awards 2020

POSITION POINT

RICHARD BLYTH: LET’S DO DESIGN! So, it has finally happened. Government policy in England has come out firmly in favour of the ability of local authorities to refuse poorly designed planning applications. This is a great step forward. In our response to MHCLG’s consultation, we set out how it can often be hard for an LPA to refuse a scheme only on the grounds of bad design. This is also a long way from my early days in planning when Circular 22/80 paragraph 19 said: “Planning authorities should recognise that aesthetics is an extremely subjective matter. They should not therefore impose their tastes on developers simply because they believe them to be superior.” A lot of harm was done in the drive to grant a lot of planning permissions that way in the 1980s, many of them on greenfields only accessible by car, and we as a country have learned our lesson. To help the drive towards better design, the government has also I M AG E S | RT P I / A Z U R B A N S T U D I O

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published the ﬁnal version of the National Model Design Code and its guidance to local authorities on how to produce their own codes. An Oﬃce for Place has been established which includes RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills and Head of the Planning Advisory Service Anna Rose on its advisory board (for more see page 44). The government has also responded to calls from the RTPI to increase the funding available to local planning authorities to support production of design codes by establishing funded design code pilots. Naturally, we would wish the pilots to be followed by a national scheme so that all areas were funded properly to take on the additional work involved. This would be especially important if greater reliance is placed in future on decisions taken ‘upstream’ in the local plan and the design code takes over from the determination of individual planning applications. The greater role for codes also means that in an era where action on climate and nature recovery is a key priority for

nations and for communities, we need to see how they can be used to achieve real progress towards net-zero, greater active travel, nature recovery and ensure people’s access to green and blue infrastructure. The RTPI has, therefore, commissioned a study into design codes, net-zero and nature recovery, with publication of the research due in autumn 2021. In this context, it is especially important to note that the modified National Planning Policy Framework includes improved messaging on flood resilience. The planning system is now required to take account of “all sources of flood risk” and to make “as much use as possible” of natural sources of floodrisk mitigation as part of an integrated approach to flood risk management. The RTPI’s position on so many aspects of development is that a holistic approach should be taken. We need to integrate across sectors and across spaces. I think the new emphasis on design is exciting and can form the starting point for such broader actions, as well as creating places which future inhabitants will cherish. n Richard Blyth FRTPI is the RTPI’s Head of Policy, Practice and Research

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NEWS

The approval of a new entry-level town planning apprenticeship is an important step forward in efforts to diversify the profession, says the RTPI. The role of the Level 4 Town Planning Assistant Apprenticeship is to work with Chartered town planners to deliver developments and to help members of the public and clients to navigate the planning system. The RTPI says the apprenticeship offers an important new route into planning. It is designed for those who would either like to embark on a career in town planning or for those now working in support roles in the profession who would like to ‘upskill’ and open up new career paths. RTPI Director of Education & Profession Andrew Close MRTPI said: “We’re delighted that this new entry point into town planning has now been approved for delivery and would like to thank all the employers in the Trailblazer group who have worked so

hard to make this happen. “Apprenticeships are vital for the future of planning, helping not only to increase the number of planners and address skills shortages, but also to diversify the profession, demonstrating that it is a career open to all. “They are an excellent way of getting more qualified and dedicated professional planners coming through so we can respond effectively to the many challenges ahead of us, including post-Covid recovery, climate change and housing shortages.” The Level 4 apprenticeship joins the Level 7 Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship which was approved for delivery in March 2019. There are currently about 300 degree apprentices studying at 10 RTPIaccredited planning schools around the country, working with employers in both public and private sectors. Philip Ridley MRTPI, Head of Planning and Coastal Management at East Suffolk

Image of the month

Following the easing of lockdown restrictions in July, RTPI President Wei Yang FRTPI was delighted to visit Welwyn Garden City to record her part in a forthcoming ﬁlm from the Town and Country Planning Association. The Welwyn Experiment – A Century

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of Innovation will be premiered on 15 September at the TCPA event ‘Celebrating Welwyn Garden City at 100 – Garden Cities Symposium’. For more details, visit bit.ly/planner0921-wgc

Council and Co-Chair of the Trailblazer group, said: “I was delighted to lead this work alongside CBRE’s Hannah Blunstone on behalf of both the RTPI and employers. “At a time when the government acknowledges that there is an acute shortage of planners, this new apprenticeship will further broaden potential entry routes into the profession and give opportunities to many who would not previously have considered a career in planning. “This will increase the number of planners who can move on to the Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship or provide much-needed technical support for Chartered planners working as part of multidisciplinary teams. Perhaps most importantly, the approval of this apprenticeship is a great opportunity to increase the diversity of the profession which can only enhance the quality of planning schemes to deliver the places we need.” n For more information on planning

apprenticeships, visit bit.ly/planner0921-apprentice

RTPI Elections – voting now open Voting is now open in the RTPI Elections for 2021. You can cast your vote for a range of positions on the RTPI’s Board of Trustees, the General Assembly, National Executive Committees, Regional Management Boards and Regional Activities Committees. Members should look out for a letter or email from this year’s election provider Mi-Voice and cast their vote by 5pm, Wednesday, 20 September. n For more information, visit

rtpi.org.uk/elections or contact the RTPI Governance team by emailing elections@rtpi.org.uk

I M AG E S | RT P I

Government gives go-ahead to Town Planning Assistant apprenticeship

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MY VIEW ON… WORK EXPERIENCE Becky Howarth and colleagues at Richmond and Wandsworth Councils devised a ﬁve-day virtual work experience programme mme for local sixth-formers How can we make our workforce representative of the borough we serve? This was the starting question which sparked a team of 40 planning and engineering officers at Wandsworth and Richmond Councils to facilitate a pilot work experience programme. The programme aimed to give local students opportunities to develop and demonstrate a variety of the skills which planners and engineers employ in their everyday life. We wanted students to come out of the week with a flavour of the industry and have experience to draw upon should they apply for a job or course in the field. Twenty-one students applied to the programme and chose one of four specialisms. We recruited officers to

be a mentor for each specialism lism and these mentors guided students through individual and group tasks. The week was broken up by speed networking king events, presentations on schemes, CV writing workshops, hops, a local plan workshop and evaluation activities. We were particularly pleased sed to welcome Dr Wei Yang, President of the RTPI, to join n the judging panel for the presentations on the final day. We are already looking forward to rolling the work experience programme out again next year – fingers crossed we will be able to incorporate some real-life site visits into the programme!

n Becky is Transport Strategy Programme Co-ordinator in the Environment and Community Services Directorate serving Richmond and Wandsworth councils.This is an edited version of a post on the RTPI blog, bit.ly/planner0921-work

POSITION POINTS – TRANSPORT PLANNING SPECIAL

GOVERNMENT DECARBONISATION PLAN VICTORIA HILLS, RTPI CHIEF EXECUTIVE VICTORIA HILLS SAID: The Government’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan contains a range of great proposals that will help in reducing transport’s greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050. In particular, the RTPI welcomes recognition that the planning system has an important role to play in creating developments that promote a shift towards sustainable transport networks. We are also pleased to see some imaginative ideas such as the adoption of ’20-minute community’ principles, the reallocation of roads to cycling, walking and green space, the creation of more ‘school streets’, and better facilities for cyclists on trains. However, too much emphasis is still being put on ‘doing the same things diﬀerently’ – we must aim for an even more radical transformation of how we plan, design and use space and how we live and move around if we are to reduce the need to travel and encourage people to shift from private vehicles to more active, public and shared modes of transport. bit.ly/planner0921-transport

THE FAILURE OF ‘PREDICT AND PROVIDE’ HARRY STEELE, RTPI INFRASTRUCTURE SPECIALIST The ‘predict and provide’ approach to transport planning has failed because it is conﬁned to how we understand and plan for transport infrastructure now. There is still too much of an emphasis upon individual travel rather than planning and constructing communities centred around active travel and public transport. The transport sector needs to be inventive and forward thinking. We can’t decarbonise the sector with our current approach to travel. Instead, we need to plan and deliver transport systems and communities that are future-proof, oﬀering public and active transport links that can facilitate the behavioural changes that are required. Alongside this, we need to build developments that can provide everything communities need on their doorstep, reducing the need for individual travel. Our recent report on net-zero transport focused on the ‘20-minute neighbourhood’ policy which helps to deliver these much-needed changes. Read the RTPI report on Net Zero Transport at bit.ly/planner0921-netzero

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Here is a selection of the most recent opportunities from a few of those organisations working with The Planner to recruit the best quality candidates in the marketplace.

Planner Development Management

Planning Manager Salary: £41,000 pa + generous bene·ts Location: Flexible Location

Salary: £30,451 £33,782 pa Location: Neath Port Talbot

Director Salary: Salary is dependent on experience and current remuneration. Location: Lancashire/West Mids

Senior Policy Of·cer / Policy Manager Salary: Competitive. Location: Edinburgh

Senior Planning Enforcement Of·cer Salary: £34,202 £38,644 pa Location: Cirencester

Senior Case Manager Salary: Starting at £45,798 pa Location Gravesend, Kent

To a dve r ti s e pl ease em ai l : t he pl a n n e r jobs@redact ive. co. uk or ca l l 0 2 0 7 880 6232

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theplanner.co.uk/jobs 09/08/2021 14:42 14:39

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Recruitment {

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

PERFECTLY PLACED FOR SUCCESS Planning Department

Head of Service – Planning

G15 – £55,191 to £58,799 per annum (2021 pay award pending) ;I EVI PSSOMRK JSV E LMKLP] UYEPM½IH ERH I\TIVMIRGIH 8S[R 4PERRMRK SV VIPEXIH TVSJIWWMSREP [MXL I\XIRWMZI WIRMSV PIEHIVWLMT QEREKIQIRX ERH PSGEP KSZIVRQIRX I\TIVMIRGI =SY [MPP LEZI VIWTSRWMFMPMX] JSV PIEHMRK E XIEQ SJ 4PERRIVW ERH &YMPHMRK 'SRXVSP 3J½GIVW EXXIRHMRK 4PERRMRK 'SQQMXXII EW XLI 'SYRGMP´W TVMRGMTEP EHZMWIV SR 4PERRMRK QEXXIVW VYRRMRK ER IJJIGXMZI ERH IJ½GMIRX WXEXYXSV] WIVZMGI ERH PIEHMRK SR ZEVMSYW GSVTSVEXI TVSNIGXW 8LMW MW E JERXEWXMG STTSVXYRMX] XS FI TEVX SJ XLI WIRMSV XIEQ MR XLI 'SYRGMP XS PIEH XLMW TEVXMGYPEV WIVZMGI XS EGX EW ER I\TIVX EHZMWSV XS XLI 'SYRGMP SR EPP 4PERRMRK QEXXIVW ERH XS GSRXVMFYXI XS SYV ³3RI 'SYRGMP´ GSPPIGXMZI PIEHIVWLMT EGGSYRXEFMPMXMIW ERH KSEPW =SY [MPP VIGIMZI ER I\GIPPIRX VERKI SJ IQTPS]II FIRI½XW MRGPYHMRK XLI PSGEP KSZIVRQIRX TIRWMSR WGLIQI E KIRIVSYW PIEZI EPPS[ERGI ERH ¾I\MFPI EKMPI [SVOMRK -J ]SY [MWL XS HMWGYWW XLI NSF VIUYMVIQIRXW SV ER] SXLIV QEXXIVW MRJSVQEPP] TPIEWI GEPP 0E[VIRGI -WXIH 'LMIJ 3J½GIV 4PERRMRK ERH 6IKYPEXSV] SR SV IQEMP PE[VIRGI MWXIH$[VI\LEQ KSZ YO *SV JYVXLIV HIXEMPW TPIEWI GPMGO SR SYV [IFWMXI [[[ [VI\LEQ KSZ YO NSFW 'PSWMRK (EXI XL 7ITXIQFIV -RXIVZMI[W [MPP FI LIPH SR [IIO FIKMRRMRK XL 7ITXIQFIV 8LI 'SYRGMP [IPGSQIW ETTPMGEXMSRW JVSQ WYMXEFP] UYEPM½IH GERHMHEXIW VIKEVHPIWW SJ VEGI KIRHIV HMWEFMPMX] WI\YEPMX] VIPMKMSYW FIPMIJ SV EKI 8LI 'SYRGMP MW GSQQMXXIH XS HIZIPSTMRK MXW FMPMRKYEP [SVOJSVGI ERH [IPGSQIW ETTPMGEXMSRW JVSQ GERHMHEXIW [LS HIQSRWXVEXI XLIMV GETEFMPMX] XS [SVO MR FSXL )RKPMWL ERH ;IPWL %TTPMGEXMSRW WYFQMXXIH MR ;IPWL [MPP RSX FI XVIEXIH PIWW JEZSYVEFP] XLER ER ETTPMGEXMSR WYFQMXXIH MR )RKPMWL

Reach out to our audience of membership professionals The Planner job board offers you an opportunity to attract the attention of a guaranteed, dedicated audience of membership professionals, and reassure them that you are still looking to recruit. Whether you have vacancies now, or will be looking to recruit at a later time, remind our readers what sets your organisation apart,and let them know your plans. You might also consider advertising in The Planner magazine, and ensure you are seen by the profession’s top-calibre candidates and kept at the forefront of their minds.

Show them that you are here, your brand is strong, and your organisation needs them. For more information and rates, contact us now on: T: 020 7880 6232 E: jobs@theplanner.co.uk S ea rc h t h ep l a nn e r.co .u k / j o b fo r t h e b e s t v a canci e s

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Activities

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CONTENT THAT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT

A digest of planning-related material. Each month our work takes us around the internet and beyond in search of additional detail for our stories, meaning we invariably come across links to items we think you’ll ﬁnd educational, entertaining, useful or simply amusing. Here’s our latest batch.

What’s caught our eye Design and Access Statements Colin Haylock of Haylock Planning and Design and Steve Hudson of Access Consultancy Support discuss how current policy and guidance places emphasis on design within the planning system, making a well-constructed design statement integral to delivering inclusive development. The webinar includes case studies to demonstrate best practice. bit.ly/planner0921-acs yp

President’s visit to Nene Park It’s another year in which the RTPI president’s usual high mileage has been curtailed by Covid-19, so here’s Wei Yang on a virtual visit to Nene Park, near Peterborough. Virtual visitors will learn how Nene Park Trust combines managing wildlife and heritage with providing recreational activities ffor the local community c and the a development d associated a with the recreational use, w detailing the site’s masterplan d and key projects. The trust’s a Andrew MacDermott and A Matthew Bradbury are the M hosts. bit.ly/planner0921-nene h

China’s Road Network (The Grand Tour) Oh for sure, Jeremy Clarkson is a true like-him-orloathe-him presenter. So fortunately, this two-minute promo video for a piece on China’s fast-maturing road network is all you really need, comprising overhead imagery of the country’s simply staggering road construction projects, including one bridge so high that the London Shard could ﬁt beneath it. Twice over. bit.ly/planner0921-china

Stevenage New Town (1959) “Here, then, is a design for living of the future.” Two minutes of heavenly Pathé newsreel, in bold colour, trumpeting the benefits of Stevenage new town. “One of the first things that strikes the visitor is the sense of spaciousness,” the commentator opines. “Notice the refreshing absence of traffic congestion! Wherever one turns, the outlook is gay and eye-catching. The designers and architects have gone all-out for comfort g and simplicity.” a bit.ly/planner0921-newtown b

Urban Planning Trends to Watch in 2020 (5 mins) Interesting American perspective on planning priorities posted weeks before Covid-19 put everything on hold. Planetizen’s managing editor James Brasuell predicted the big issues for US planning, focusing on excessive car use, fare-free public transport, urbanism and homelessness. bit.ly/planner0921-trends

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LANDSCAPE

RTPI Awards for Research Excellence 2021

Book: For the Safety of All The history of Scotland’s lighthouses is revealed through the stories and voices of their keepers in this book by Donald S Murray, published in partnership by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB). It comprises the stories of former keepers and also the historic plans and drawings from NLB which have been published for the ﬁrst time. The book also touches on the construction of Scotland’s ﬁrst lighthouse and the role played by the people stationed at Scotland’s lighthouses during the course of the Second World War. ISBN 978 1 84917 310 0

Paper: The role of planning in delivering low-carbon urban infrastructure This paper by Dr Jo Williams, senior lecturer in Sustainable Urbanism at the Bartlett School of Planning, starts from the premise that cities are the single largest contributor to climate change, and that low-carbon infrastructure should be integrated into cities to reduce CO₂ emissions. International best practice is drawn upon to explore a range of planning approaches. bit.ly/planner0921-lowcarb

The awards ceremony for this annual celebration of planning endeavour will be taking place within days of you receiving this magazine (8th September). RTPI president Wei Yang and Young Planner of the Year Ryan Walker will front the ceremony, held online as part of the Planning Research Conference, hosted by Newcastle University. For details of the shortlisted projects, or to book a place, use this link. bit. ly/planner0921rtpiawards

What we’re planning Connected Place Catapult – Active Travel Summit This hybrid (in person and online) event on 29 September aims to “open a space to explore current blockers and propose new mechanisms to unlock the potential of active travel to power the shift to healthy, low-carbon mobility”. It stars Dame Sarah Storey and Rachel Aldred of the Active Travel Academy. bit.ly/ planner0921-summit

With all eyes turning towards Glasgow, and specifically the COP26 conference in Glasgow from 31 October-12 November, our October edition will see us continuing the environmental theme as we tackle the issue of energy-efficient retrofitting of housing. And we’ll also be assessing the state of active travel in the UK one year on from the government’s groundbreaking Gear Change report.

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The Planner - September 2021

Articles inside

Mixed fortunes for UK heritage sites

Planning and COP26 The planner’s role in delivering COP26 goals

Louise Brooke Smith: Up the Levellers and up yer levelling up!

Good planning is ‘essential’ to children’s recovery after Covid-19