The Planner December 2017 by The Planner

DECEMBER 2017 CHINESE WHISPERS: TAILORING THE NEW SILK ROAD // p.18 • CITIZENS IN PLANNING THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT // p.30 • NATIONS & REGIONS FOCUS EAST MIDLANDS // p.32 • CAREER DEVELOPMENT: BUILDING A CRACK TEAM // p.40 •

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Last chance to enter Recognising outstanding projects, plans and people in these categories:

People

Projects

– Associate Member Excellence Award

– Excellence in Plan Making Practice

– Young Planner of the Year

– Excellence in Planning for Heritage and Culture

Teams

– Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment

– Small Planning Consultancy of the Year – Planning Consultancy of the Year – Local Authority Planning Team of the Year – In-house Planning Team of the Year

– Excellence in Planning for Health and Wellbeing – Excellence in Planning to Deliver Homes - large schemes (20 or more homes) – Excellence in Planning to Deliver Homes - small schemes (up to 20 homes) – Excellence in Planning for a Successful Economy

Highlighting exceptional examples of planning and celebrating the contribution that planners and planning make to society Headline sponsors:

– International Award for Planning Excellence

Enter by 8 December rtpi.org.uk/excellence #RTPIAwards awards@rtpi.org.uk Category sponsors:

border archaeology archaeology & built heritage

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CONTENTS

THE

D ECEMBER

20 17

NEWS

4 Beyond the border: Brexit scenarios 6 Planning for an ecological age

7 Derry/Londonderry’s historic centre crowned NI’s Best Place 8 Is planning fit for the 21st century? 9 Glasgow sets sights on nearly 10,000 new affordable homes

10 National park asks builders to consider site for new homes

OPINION

14 Chris Shepley: Making the duty to cooperate work? Good luck with that, Mr Javid 16 Anna Sabine Newlyn: What listening to the radio can tell us about supporters of housebuilding

FEATURES

16 Victoria Bankes Price: How can we better serve ancient woodland? 17 Richard Blyth: Why we need to know what’s going on in economics 17 Roisin Willmott: No resting on laurels for planners in NI’s Best Place

30 Tech landscape: Apps have huge potential to engage citizens in planning processes

22 Anna Rose, the new head of the Planning Advisory Service, tells Huw Morris how she aims to challenge local government thinking

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

25 The RTPI’s 2017 Member Survey findings

“WE DESPERATELY NEED, AS A COUNTRY, A BETTER BALANCE OF GROWTH ACROSS THE COUNTRY THAT PROPERLY ADDRESSES SOCIAL INCLUSION” ALISON NIMMO, CHAIR AT THE RTPI NATHANIEL LICHFIELD LECTURE FACILITIES IN GREEN BELT

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INSIGHT

18 Does China’s Belt and Road initiative offer opportunities to UK planners? asks Mark Smulian

32 Nations & Regions: East Midlands

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“WE HAVE SOME AMAZING PEOPLE WHO ARE INNOVATORS AND DISRUPTORS, DOING EXCITING THINGS WITHIN THE RESOURCES AVAILABLE AND DOING IT WITH ZEST”

40 Career development: Building a strong team 42 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: It’s our 50th issue! Thanks to readers for your contributions, comments, and support over the past four years

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NEWS

Report { RTPI CONFERENCE: PLANNING ACROSS BOUNDARIES IN A CHANGING CONTEXT

Beyond the border: Brexit scenarios SIMON WICKS REPORTS ON AN RTPI CONFERENCE TO LOOK AT THE CHALLENGES OF PLANNING ACROSS A POSTBREXIT BORDER BETWEEN NORTHERN IRELAND AND THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND The island of Ireland may well present the biggest challenge to the workability of any Brexit agreements. As the location of the UK’s only land border with the EU, it presents a particular conundrum to policymakers – should we have a ‘hard’ border, with constraints and controls? Or a ‘soft’ border, seamless and invisible? What are the mechanics and the implications of either? Checkpoints, division and conﬂict linger in the minds of many residents of Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI), particularly in border regions. But over the past 20 years this border has all but vanished. As delegates at ‘Planning Across Boundaries in a Changing Context’ heard in November, the communities around Derry (NI) and Donegal (RoI) are so interlinked that any discernible border arrangements will be extremely disruptive to people’s lives. “People are very, very scared about this,” said Michael Gallagher, senior economist at Derry and Strabane Council. “Livelihoods are at great risk.” The one-day conference, jointly organised by RTPI Ireland and RTPI Northern Ireland, painted a picture of communities either side of the border enmeshed socially, environmentally and economically. Administratively, too – Colm MCoy of Ireland’s department of housing, planning, community and local government, along with his counterpart from NI’s department for infrastructure, Catherine McEvoy MRTPI, spoke about how the planning systems north and south of the border were moving closer together. There is already cooperation in spatial planning, particularly in transport

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The Northern Ireland Executive might have collapsed, but planners at the cross-border summit dedicated themselves to solving the challenges ahead

projects but also in environment and health (a bilateral agreement allows RoI residents to access cancer services at hospitals in NI). Indeed, the two nations signed a Framework for Cooperation in 2013 acknowledging that certain issues transcended the border. Commonality extends, too, to the spatial challenges within both NI and RoI. Population growth, for example, is placing a stress on housing and infrastructure. McCoy in particular talked about the coming growth of second-tier cities such as Cork, Limerick and Galway and the need to manage a more rational distribution of people and resources across RoI.

Executive stress In NI, spatial challenges in the build-up to Brexit are complicated by political paralysis. “The diﬃculty we have in the North at the moment is we have no executive,” said MacEvoy. “We cannot bring forward any of those things that require a ministerial decision.” Yet life carries on. As conference co-chair John Downey

MRTPI, chair of RTPI Ireland, put it: “There’s a huge flow of people. I’m not sure where I’m going to do my Christmas shopping this year, but it might be Newry. It depends on the price of sterling. If there’s a hard border it will have massive implications for both [NI & RoI].” This flow is considerable. Gallagher, describing the border region of Derry/ Donegal as a ‘functional economic market area’ (FEMA) noted that its population of 350,000 made 326,5777 border crossings each week. NI residents had moved over the border in numbers when house prices were cheaper in the Republic, extending communities. In places like Kilderry and Killdane, up to 50 per cent of workers commute across the border. It’s common for people to live, shop and access kids’ sports clubs in the RoI, but to work, socialise and obtain healthcare in NI. Even in Derry Council, Gallagher pointed out, a third of staff cross the border to work each day. Some businesses, too, have relocated from NI to RoI for economic reasons and are now considering moving once again I M AG E S | I STO C K

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PLAN UPFRONT

to the North because of the uncertainty about border arrangements. “What are the implications of something down the road becoming an international frontier?” he asked. “There will be opportunities for some people in Brexit. There always are.” But, Gallagher continued: “The diﬃculty for us is that the impacts are disproportionately felt in certain areas – for example, ﬁnancial services. They’re worried about infrastructure and housing for potential employees.”

contention will be over environmental law in particular. But, as the British and EU legal systems diverge, transboundary projects such as electricity interconnectors will have to negotiate separate and diverging regulatory regimes.

People and place

So much of the Brexit debate is framed in economic and legal terms that it can be easy to forget that the decision to leave the EU has as much to do with our relationship with place as our economic status. The manner in which Border solutions the referendum was conducted is also an So what are the potential solutions? indication of the health – or otherwise – Ironically, there are European of our democracy. precedents, as Cliff Hague MRTPI, Place, said Gavan Rafferty MRTPI, former RTPI president and planning lecturer in spatial planning at Ulster professor at Heriot-Watt University, University, contains within it “a sense observed. Several mechanisms have of identity, collective and individual. been created within continental Europe Memories. History. Social and cultural to resolve difficulties around the shared activities. Place movement of people and has a social meaning. We goods, and the application have to introduce some of of tariffs. “WILL BREXIT Workable border CHANGE WHAT THE that to the negotiations on Brexit.” arrangements between NI BORDER IS, OR The EU had been an and RoI may already exist, WILL THE BORDER important stabilising said Hague. These include: CHANGE WHAT influence since the Good • An Irish Sea ‘macroBREXIT IS?” Friday Agreement, he said. regional strategy’ put JOHN DOWNEY together by the British MRTPI, CHAIR OF The intimation was that on the island of Ireland, Irish Council; RTPI IRELAND the still quite fragile • A ‘European grouping of relationship between territorial cooperation’ to people and place is threatened by Brexit. prepare a shared spatial vision for the Planning, being concerned with the borderlands; and interface between people and place, has • An ‘urban partnership’ based on key an opportunity – perhaps even a duty shared issues such as health and well– to lead “place-shaping” and “placebeing. making” in post-Brexit Ireland. Any solution would, said Hague, require Political devolution of powers, said political will, a sound legal framework Rafferty, allows for “evolution” and and a common vision. However, the “diversification” in managing place. favoured legal solution, involving the There are “emerging opportunities for wholesale transfer of EU law into British convergence” between NI and RoI. But law and thus British legal jurisdiction, may the extent to which Brexit could benefit be a good deal more complicated than the island of Ireland is likely to hinge on some politicians are letting on. the democratic force that underpins any “It’s not as simple as it sounds,” said discussion and decision-making. Andrew Ryan, head of planning for TLT “I think we have representative Solicitors, not least because there is democracy in crisis to an extent,” considerable room for manoeuvre around said Rafferty. “How do we get to more the extent to which the European Court participatory democracy?” of Justice can maintain decision-making The event ended with an agreement powers over certain areas of law. When that RTPI members from NI and and where does its jurisdiction end? “This RoI would work together to develop isn’t a complete red line,” Ryan stressed. scenarios for a hard and soft Brexit In planning terms, likely areas of

IN NUMBERS

Borderlands: Facts and figures

Population of Ireland – RoI 4.77m; NI 1.85m

Border crossings on public roads between Derry and Donegal

Border crossings per week between Derry and Donegal

Distance of Derry centre from border

Percentage of working population of Kilderry (RoI) commuting over the border to work each day

Voters in Foyle, which includes Derry, who voted remain in the EU Referendum, the second highest percentage in the UK

so that planners can work with policymakers to solve the challenges outlined. Ultimately, though, uncertainty remains. As Downey observed: “Will Brexit change what the border is, or will the border change what Brexit is?”

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NEWS

Analysis { RTPI NATHANIEL LICHFIELD LECTURE

Planning for an ecological age By Laura Edgar Humans can live in harmony with nature, Professor Peter Head told the audience at the 2017 RTPI Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture. But for this to happen there must be a reduction in pollution and resource consumption. This has to be done from an integrated planning point of view, he said. We have to move to performance-based procurement of everything. And we need some sustainability goals to aim for. “We have to stop destroying ecological systems and stop polluting… We’ve got to reverse forest loss, we’ve got to deal with water, and stop ocean acidification and warming.” Active travel, air pollution reduction, more green spaces and biodiversity, watershed conservation and increased resilience to floods and droughts are other things that need to be either put in train or improved. “We all know we need to do this,” he said. Head’s charity, The Ecological Sequestration Trust, was established in April 2011 to demonstrate at city-region scale how to create a step change in improving things like energy and water in the face of climate and demography changes. The independent non-profit organisation developed Roadmap 2030, a step-by-step action plan to deliver a range of sustainable outcomes. It brings together municipal and national governments, academia, the private sector and faith communities to deliver 16 cross-cutting themes including infrastructure, economics, ecology, land use planning and cultural heritage. Additionally, there is a lot in the roadmap that is consistent with the New Urban Agenda, a document agreed at the Habitat III cities conference in Quito, Ecuador, in October 2016. Head spoke about urban collaborative governance and the redistribution of decision-making and power away from

It was a capacity crowd for Professor Peter Head

planning, design, development and the centre towards the public, “something procurement tool. It aims to provide an the planning system aims to do”. integrated systems view of a city-region. He explained that Roadmap 2030 Once complete and properly tested, the contains detailed analysis from experts platform will be free and open-source. across the world on how much it will cost The satellite data could be used to inform to implement such a step change. the planning process, said Head. At 2014 prices, infrastructure spend, including social, environmental, economic – excluding housing – is Money for planners around 4.8 per cent of GDP a year. This is Using an integrated platform such as this, 40 per cent less than it would be had Head told the audience, can reduce design integrated planning not been taken into costs of infrastructure by 50 per cent. consideration. “Fifty per cent of design costs is 50 per “So what does that mean? The UK GDP cent of about 4 per cent of what it costs to is around £1.9 trillion. The spending in the deliver an infrastructure project. That’s 2 infrastructure pipeline is £420 billion in per cent. So what I’m proposing is that the the period up to and beyond 2020. It is 2 per cent saving in total costs goes back not very speciﬁc about what happens in into the planning process.” what year after that, but it is an average of The UK Government, he said, should be £50 billion a year, I reckon. So at a 40 per persuaded that these savings can be cent saving, the spend is about 2.6 per invested in the planning system to pay for cent of GDP rather than my 4.8 [per the value that planning creates. cent]. The saving is £20 “This is how I think billion a year.” it should go ahead to The Ecological enable local planning “THERE IS A LOT IN Sequestration Trust has departments to move THE ROADMAP THAT IS also created a platform forward,” said Head. CONSISTENT WITH THE – resilience.io – that is a NEW URBAN AGENDA”

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PLAN UPFRONT

Derry/Londonderry’s historic centre crowned NI’s Best Place The public has voted Derry/Londonderry’s historic centre as the winner of the RTPI’s Northern Ireland's Best Places competition. The nationwide competition celebrates the places protected, carefully planned or improved by town planners for communities. Nearly 4,000 people voted for their favourite from a shortlist of 10. Derry/Londonderry’s chequered and violent history – the 16th century plantation, the 1920s partition and the Troubles that started in the 1960s – shaped the city’s physical and social form. The city’s prospects changed following the 1998 Good Friday

Agreement, as planners worked with other organisations and professions across the city to regenerate it. In the lead-up to the city’s year as the inaugural UK City of Culture in 2013, the Peace Bridge was unveiled creating not just a pedestrian and cycle link between the Protestant and Nationalist communities on either side of the Foyle River, but a symbol of unification. Planners used the Peace Bridge as a catalyst to regenerate languishing parts of the city. It links the once run-down Ebrington area, now a regenerated square with new shops, restaurants and cultural spaces, to the redeveloped waterfront and Guildhall area on the opposite side. John Boyle, deputy mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, said: “This award reflects the positive impact the Peace Bridge and Ebrington regeneration projects have had on both the local community and visitors. Symbols of the city’s positivity and aspirations for the future, they have contributed to our local economy and tourism offering, as well as our overall health and well-being.” Beverley Clyde MRTPI, chair of RTPI Northern Ireland, said: “Planning has long left a mark on our only remaining walled city, laid out in the 17th century. The recent regeneration of Ebrington Barracks, the construction of the pedestrian Peace Bridge and the continued conservation of the City Walls and Guildhall demonstrate how the planners have successfully protected the built environment and improved connectivity between the Cityside and Waterside. Planners have also been central to the maintenance of the city’s Renaissance layout, along with the fine examples of Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian buildings.”

Green light for three major Cardiff schemes Three major developments have been approved in the Welsh capital – a new museum, a 248-bedroom hotel, and one of the biggest student accommodation schemes yet proposed for the city. Each project is subject to conditions and legal agreements, the council confirmed to The Planner. The proposed Military Medicine Museum will occupy a site in Cardiff Bay. A council report said: “The proposed building is an acceptable and appropriate development for the site and would bring about a positive economic, tourism and cultural benefit to the area.”

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The same report said the H-shaped student scheme in Butetown, providing accommodation for 711 people, would “enhance the appearance and amenity of the area”. The hotel scheme will involve the redevelopment of the grade II listed Custom House building in the city centre street of the same name, retaining its façade, while the adjoining former York Hotel will be demolished and replaced. A planning committee meeting was told in November: “The proposals bring back into beneﬁcial community use the grade II listed Custom House and do not adversely impact on the listed building or its setting.”

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NEWS

Analysis { YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE

Is planning ﬁt for the 21st century?

happen at the same time.” For Simin Davoudi FRTPI, planning professor at Newcastle University, a “democratic deficit” at the heart of planning alienated the "silent majority". The wealthy were more likely to be rewarded by planning decisions; the poor to bear the brunt of poor development. “Planning and the public sector in SIMON WICKS REPORTS FROM NOVEMBER’S 2017 YOUNG general has been stripped of power and PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE IN MANCHESTER resources and therefore its ability to be a positive force in creating inclusive outcomes,” she said. Barrister Killian Garvey of Kings Chambers located planning’s problems in the system itself. The NPPF had been created to simplify planning, yet it had taken five years to reach a settled definition of its presumption in favour of sustainable development. “One of the challenges is to have planning policy we can apply with transparency and objectivity,” he said. Urbed founder David Rudlin condemned the huge increase in land price that accompanied development designation, noting that this took cash away from quality. He lamented the loss of the “master developer” who had traditionally planned and built British cities. “We need to create a system by which we link ownership to planning.” Yet the conference was far from depressing. The speakers offered solutions, too: incorporating well-being into development at the outset; focusing investment on smaller cities; greater Larger cities are “dynamic and creative" ‘Well-being’ may be a buzzword, but it’s powers for devolved administrations; but "don’t score highly in terms of health also embodied in the concept of improved consultation; incentives to and happiness”. Besides, she said, growth sustainable development at the heart of landowners to promote generous itself brings fresh problems in the form of the NPPF, as well as the international development at scale. unaffordability, congestion and Sustainable Development Goals. Yet each Luke Coffey, current RTPI Young infrastructure challenges. day seems to bring more news of the ways Planner of the Year, hinted at a diagnosis Paul Anstee, leader of Trafford Council, in which cities harm our health. Can and prescription for a society failing its argued that the remoteness of central planning stem this harm? citizens. He recalled reading Doughnut government undermined local faith in Such was the inquiry that underpinned Economics by Kate Raworth, in which she planning. “Most people are not against this year’s Young Planners’ Conference: argues the futility of teaching 21st century development or new homes, providing ‘Healthy, Happy Places and People: students to tackle contemporary problems the assurances we give them about what Planning for Well-being’. Throughout, with 19th century economic concepts. mitigates that development are actually speakers young and old identified The same could be said of planning, said delivered,” he said. “One of the ways to symptoms of cultural failure: social and Coffey. “Is what we are teaching fit for the overcome that is by having powers over economic inequality; lopsided growth; challenges of the 21st transport and economy prioritised over well-being; century? Are we still infrastructure funds to degraded environments; civic alienation. “GROWTH HAS BECOME innovating as a give people the “Growth has become a proxy for A PROXY FOR HUMAN profession?” His confidence that those human welfare,” observed Sarah WELFARE” questions await answers. two things are going to Longlands, senior research for IPPR North.

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PLAN UPFRONT

Glasgow sets sights on nearly 10,000 new affordable homes Glasgow councillors have signed off on proposals to spend more than £1 billion on nearly 10,000 new affordable homes during the next five years. Under this scheme, Glasgow City Council plans to contribute £600 million, with a similar amount coming from private investors. According to the council’s draft Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP), this latest programme should deliver 9,975 affordable homes and will target brownfield sites. “The new housing delivered via the SHIP will contribute to the continuing regeneration of Glasgow’s neighbourhoods. It will provide opportunities for people to access much-needed high-quality homes across a range of tenures, helping to promote sustainable mixed tenure neighbourhoods”, stressed the document. The plan “will facilitate significant investment in the construction

industry with additional associated benefits in the form of jobs and training opportunities and benefits to small and medium enterprises”, members were told at a committee meeting on 2 November. The SHIP will require Scottish Government approval. The City of Edinburgh Council has outlined a detailed plan to deliver the first phase of the Capital Coalition’s commitment to build 20,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years. Over the next five years, the programme is expected to deliver nearly 8,000 affordable homes with more than 5,000 of those homes forming part of the Scottish Government funded Affordable Housing Supply Programme. About 70 per cent of those homes are for social rent, with the remainder being for mid-market rent and low-cost home ownership.

Fast-track planning for housing in Ireland makes waves Three housing and student accommodation schemes offering a combined total of just over 1,000 new homes and flats and more than 3,000 student bed spaces have made it to the application stage of the new fasttrack planning regime in Ireland. The schemes, two in Dublin and one in Galway, are revealed in An Bord Pleanála’s just-published first progress report on the measures. It also showed that 22 valid preapplication consultation requests were received by the planning agency between July and October, for a total of 5,948 houses and flats, and nearly 5,000 student bed spaces. The Bord has set up a unit to deal with these so-called strategic housing developments of more than 100 residential units and 200-plus student bed spaces and has published detailed guidance on the new regime. n The update is on An Bord Pleanála’s website: bit.ly/planner1217-housing

New online tool judges sustainability of proposals A ‘scorecard’ enabling planners to assess the sustainability of proposed developments has been launched by the Sustainable Development Commission and Iceni Projects. The Sustainable Development Scorecard is a free online resource that judges a proposal by how well it meets the NPPF’s deﬁnition of sustainable development. Its aim is to guide planners and developers I M AG E S | I STO C K

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towards creating schemes that both score highly in terms of the three pillars of sustainability – social, environmental and economic – and balance these pillars against each other. The easy-to-use tool has been devised by a panel of industry professionals chaired by former planning minister Nick Raynsford. It is aimed at anyone with a vested interest in development, including community groups and neighbourhood planners. “Although the NPPF has a presumption in favour of sustainable development at its heart, assessing the degree to which a project complies with the NPPF’s guidance is highly subjective,” said Dan Jestico, director of sustainable development for Iceni Projects. “Thanks to the Sustainable Development Scorecard, everyone from architects to developers to local residents will be able to easily assess how sustainable a proposal really is.” He added: “For the ﬁrst time, it will be possible to see to what extent a scheme really has a ‘golden thread of sustainability running through it’.” n Access the Sustainable Development Scorecard at www.thescorecard.org.uk

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NEWS

News { National park asks builders to consider site for new homes

Newcastleunder-Lyme to be revamped Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council has granted planning permission for a £40 million redevelopment of a former Sainsbury’s site and the adjoining Civic Offices in Ryecroft. The HDD Newcastle-underLyme scheme is a joint venture between Henry Davidson Developments (HDD) and property regeneration specialist U+I. Planning consultancy Lichfield’s Manchester office delivered the application on behalf of the developers. The plans are expected to deliver an improved retail offer, additional parking for the town and 500 student beds to support the growth plans of Keele University, further integrating the university campus with the heart of the town. It has been estimated that the development will create 500 new onsite full-time equivalent jobs, an additional 500 construction jobs and 220 jobs locally, owing to the new student residents. Simon Hesketh, director of regeneration at U+I, said: “Our investment will complement existing facilities and provide a catalyst for the town centre to attract more big-name retailers, so local people can enjoy better shopping facilities closer to home. He added:“The proposals will provide a welcome boost to the local economy and that means local people will benefit from attractive new job opportunities in the town.” Work on the scheme is expected to start next year.

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The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) has urged landowners, developers, builders, planning agents and housing to consider building new homes in the park. In an email, the national park explained that its planning polices have changed recently. One of the main objectives is to increase housing supply. A new local plan has set out a target of building 55 new homes built in the park each year. Last year, said the park, 39 homes were built. It is thought that a lack of aﬀordable housing in the Dales is hindering the ability of local communities to retain and attract young people and families. Carl Lis, chairman at the park, said: “We want to nudge builders into action. “New build housing is now permitted in

Orkney tops this year’s national planning awards Orkney Islands Council has scooped the top award at the Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning. It was named the overall winner across all four categories (partnership, place, plans and process) for its Team Stromness project. Cairngorms National Park Authority was the People’s Choice Winner for its Snow Roads Scenic Route Initiative. Orkney’s winning entry featured a council-wide task force that coordinated several distinct regeneration projects within the historic core of the town, including: • Repaving the main street in Stromness in local stone;

more towns and villages across the national park than ever before. “We have put together a long list of sites that have the beneﬁt of an existing planning permission or housing allocation. Our message is simple: if you bring forward high-quality schemes for these sites, we will approve them.” He said the authority would negotiate on the mix of housing provided on development sites.” A guide to the new policies can be found on the YDNPA website: bit.ly/planner1217-dales

• Construction of a landmark warehouse building; Paving and redevelopment of the wider pierhead area; • Grants for private householders and businesses to help traditional repairs and refurbishment; and • The redevelopment by the council of the Commercial Hotel. Much of the work was carried out under the aegis of the Stromness Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI). The feedback from the judging panel said: “(Team Stromness) was an exemplary urban design framework delivering on the ground. The council’s passion to see Stromness modernise whilst maintaining its historical elegance was to be congratulated.” Leader of Orkney Islands Council James Stockan, said: “This accolade is just reward for the huge coordinated eﬀort that went into rejuvenating and regenerating our much-loved town – in a way which built on the history and spirit of Stromness as a thriving economic and cultural hub.” A total of 14 other schemes won awards, including two from West Dunbartonshire. Details of award winners can be found on the Scottish Government website: bit.ly/ planner1217-winners

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LEADER COMMENT

Opinionn To stick or to twist – the trouble with transport tech – It’s entirely understandable that the focus for debate about planning as we enter the new year surrounds the chancellor’s big-money, bigask Budget announcements in the housing arena. Naturally, we look forward to reﬂecting in these pages the debate you’ll ﬁnd raging on our digital channels. But in the week prior to the Budget statement and this magazine’s print deadline I was lucky enough to attend the Bristol Planning Law conference where another intractable issue got some welcome attention. An illustration of a 1950s image of “the automobile of 1975” stood out. This, the caption told us, was an autonomous vehicle that would allow ‘drivers’ to read a newspaper while at the wheel. Sounds familiar, right? Indeed. But of course, what we actually got in 1975 was the Austin Allegro. Historically, predictions for

Martin Read traﬃc volume increases have proved reasonably accurate. But the impact of this latest slew of new transport technologies is proving less easy to predict. The potential to make bad bets on the infrastructure supporting our four-wheeled futures has grown enormously. The mega-trends associated with autonomous vehicles are amazing, but will wereally accept such vehicles? And if so, when do we need to be planning for them? As Jonathan Riggall

of PBA pointed out, those electricity sub-stations you think essential now may be entirely superﬂuous as a result of future transport infrastructure needs - or perhaps more important than ever. It’s a complex issue, with regulations often obliging the introduction of infrastructure that may well quickly become redundant. Chris Shepley, Planner columnist and a former chief planning inspector for England and Wales, points out how predictions for the number of cars on our future roads varies wildly, from a reduction of 80 per cent as a result of users switching to a ‘cars as a service’ proposition,

"IT'S A COMPLEX ISSUE, WITH REGULATIONS OFTEN OBLIGING THE INTRODUCTION OF INFRASTRUCTURE THAT MAY WELL QUICKLY BECOME REDUNDANT."

to a 20 per cent increase because of users’ likely enthusiasm for more adhoc car use. Same catalyst, dramatically contrasting predictions. Which is right? The scale of impact that smart technology and automation is going to bring will undoubtedly be unsettling. Planning can prove its worth by leading debates on how policy needs to catch up with reality. Finally this month, we have two items of housekeeping. Firstly, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (We know, we know, earlier every year, etc.) Secondly, those who access our online content will note that, for the moment, we are asking you to register prior to accessing all of our stories. Please be advised that this is being done to enhance our service to you, the RTPI member. Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions about this policy – it’s all about tailoring our content, and we value any feedback you can give.

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£120 – UK £175 – Overseas Average net circulation 18,373 (January-December 2016) (A further 5,700 members receive the magazine in digital form) © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 17 Britton St, London EC1M 5TP. 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 partww 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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CORRESPONDENCE

Inbox

YOUR NEWS, VIEWS AND QUESTIONS F E E D B A C K

Bern Hellier — Dear Plan B, re: ‘Spot the difference’ on page 50 of your November edition. It was difficult to identify any visual clue to distinguish between Picture A (affordable provision) and Picture B (no affordable provision). However, close inspection reveals what is presumably an urban fox in the garden of the property to the left of the road in Picture B. It looks to be a very healthy fox, so I can only conclude that the occupiers of affordable housing throw out less food waste. Bern Hellier MRTPI (Retired)

M McCloughlin — The articles on land in October’s edition of The Planner were informative and thought-provoking. But what is the ‘lay’ of the land? I’ve heard of the ‘lie’ of the land… M McLoughlin

We used ‘lay of the land’ in the context of ‘the current state of aﬀairs’, but we accept that the phrase ‘lie of the land’ has been more commonly used to mean ‘the arrangement of features upon the land’, particularly in the UK – Ed

Tony Duggan — The role of a parish council in the planning process is advisory, but one issue that crops up is a lack of technical expertise provided by oﬃcers in the district and county council on unadopted land and highways. Where I worked, within a two-tier local government system, both county council

Daniel Scharf All parties with an interest in how the planning system works should look for equitable ways of sharing out the housing ‘commons’. Until ways to redistribute this scarce resource have been fully explored, the need for new housing cannot be objectively assessed. Registers are kept under the Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act 2015, but providing serviced plots to those expressing an interest will be challenging. The National Custom & Self Build Association estimates that half the households in the UK are interested in self-building and the government would like to see the current level of 7.7% of about 150,000 (11,550) grow ﬁve-fold to about 20% of 250,000 plus (50,000). Under-occupation of existing housing stock is at unsustainable levels and most homes are EPC D and below. Enter the idea of ‘custom splitting’ (or ‘cusping’) that is designed to complement the government’s enthusiasm for

and district council used transport engineers. So when the county council, as strategic highway authority, commented on adopted highways the district council would deal with highway issues concerning unadopted land (which in most cases were a legacy of development issues dating back some years). More recently, as developers opt to form management companies rather than have areas adopted, the amount of unadopted land has been increasing. I have observed a number of applications where the county council, as a statutory

self / custom building, and the apparent lack of serviced plots to meet the expectations of both the government and the possible exponents. Cusping is a way for households to occupy less space. Those with space they would be happy to share are matched with those willing to help subdivide a house and garden rather than wait to be offered a bare plot. Households looking to downsize could do so without moving. Cusping partners could match financial needs (buying or renting), and other resources and skills to contribute to the subdivision, employing local builders as needed. Cusping would also enable ageing households to maintain a larger garden than is normally available with smaller properties, while equity could be released without remortgaging. Population density could be increased without building on open land or gardens. Subdividing properties represents an efficient use of materials and labour that

consultee on planning applications submitted to the district council, has commented on the implications of a development insofar as it impacts upon the adopted highway, but failed to comment on the impact on the unadopted highway or provided a disclaimer to say this is beyond its jurisdiction. I understand the county council stance, but in the area where I live the district council seeks no other advice. The knowledge of local residents who identify challenging traﬃc and safety issues related to unadopted

are increasingly scarce and expensive. Buying part of an existing property would be more expensive, but cheaper to divide than starting with a bare site. LPAs could help by making grants or loans available through supportive development plan policies and local development orders. When planners have paved the way, designers will be challenged to find efficient ways to meet the access and space requirements of the original and prospective households, to specify the energy efficiency and noise insulation measures, and to separate the services (plumbing, drainage and electrics). Divisions might be horizontal (into flats) or vertical (into semis/terraces). Small extensions might be required for additional hallways, stairs/lifts or bathrooms and kitchens. Lawyers and lenders will need to tailor legal documents and financial arrangements to the needs of the parties. Daniel Scharf

highways are ignored, and no professional advice is provided because the district council has no in-house highway oﬃcers and employs no external advice. The consequence of this position is that planning oﬃcers are making decisions without relevant technical input; it’s obvious that the risks of accidents and fatalities in these areas is high. It is a problem that may be worth raising with the wider planning community. Tony Duggan BA Planning, Bachelor of Planning, MA Urban Design, MRTPI (Retired)

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CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Making the duty to cooperate work? Good luck with that, Mr Javid Sajid Javid introduced a consultation paper called Planning for the Right Homes in the Right Places in the House of Commons on 14 September. As an ambition, this is not entirely novel, and few would argue for the wrong homes in the wrong places; but it is not one that is likely to be realised any time soon. The burden of the paper was to bring into being a new standardised method of assessing housing need in each local authority area, thus reducing the amount of time and argument required to put together a local plan. This also seems like a fair objective, but again it is one that is not easily realisable. The process involved seems tolerably uncomplicated, and a half-decent attempt at an insoluble problem. Others cleverer than me have pointed out various flaws, and when lawyers get their hands on it we can expect that it will be turned into a never-ending nightmare. The point of this column, however, is to reflect on a particularly stupid thing that Mr Javid said in introducing this paper. He observed: “To the frustration of town planners, local communities are much more fluid than local authority boundaries.” I think I speak for all of us when I say that we are not even the teensiest bit frustrated about this. It is simply a fact, and one we have known all about for decades. We know we need to deal with it. It’s the reason why we have been banging on about the need for strategic planning, the value of regional

plans, the possible benefits of joint authorities (if properly constituted and empowered), travel to work areas, housing market areas, and all the other arrangements and techniques that might enable us to do so. But I’ll tell you what we are frustrated about, Mr Javid. We are frustrated by the manifest failure of you and your various predecessors over a long period of time to do anything efficacious about this. Somebody could, during the last half-century, have reorganised local government so that it was based on geography rather than history. Reflecting your apposite observation about the fluidity of local communities. This was brilliantly analysed and potentially solved in 1969 by the Redcliffe Maud report. But that fine template was put aside for political reasons – the greatest tragedy

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“SOMEBODY COULD, DURING THE LAST HALFCENTURY, HAVE REORGANISED LOCAL GOVERNMENT SO THAT IT WAS BASED ON GEOGRAPHY RATHER THAN HISTORY” to afflict planning since the war – and nobody has since had the courage to do the job properly. This renders efficient planning impossible. Even when some useful authorities were invented, like the Metropolitan Counties for example, they were got rid of – essentially for being too effective. A rather braver soul did in fact create regional plans, which in their short lives started to deal with this issue quite well; but some

thoughtless fool got rid of them. They were, again, too effective to be acceptable. I would argue that none of the current difficulties with housing numbers would have occurred had this not happened – indeed, your latest paper would have been nugatory; and many more homes would have been built. Instead, we’ve all been bothering about the duty to cooperate – surely the leasteffective planning measure ever conceived. Your latest effusion makes an attempt to make this work by inventing a “statement of common ground”. Good luck with that. I think there might be a consensus emerging among planners and developers that regional plans should be reinvented, but it won’t happen of course – or at least not for a while. The planning system has been let down by politicians over a long period of time. We’re frustrated not by the plain realities of geography and social mobility, but by the inability of successive governments to give us the tools to tackle it efficiently.

Chris Shepley is the principal of Chris Shepley Planning and former Chief Planning Inspector I L L U S T R AT I O N | O I V I N D H O V L A N D

17/11/2017 17:12

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“The NPPF is a lawyer’s paradise because it’s not suﬃciently clear” KILLIAN GARVEY, BARRISTER AT KINGS CHAMBERS, SPEAKING AT THE YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE

“We desperately need, as a country, a better balance of growth across the country that properly addresses social inclusion” ALISON NIMMO, CHAIR AT THE RTPI NATHANIEL LICHFIELD LECTURE

Theresa m o r f n b “The £1.5 be spent on hard ld t’s May shou ture. But I think i c e infrastru e sucked into th s.” going to b insatiable procesS an E R IT U vortex oDfAV ID S ON, PARTHNEERRTAPTI’ SEPMLANENING T S H E IL A N S, AT FERENC IE S C O N N IC AT IO C O M M U O S S B O U N DA R R AC

Councils “are having to house the equivalent of an extra secondary school’s worth of homeless children in temporary accommodation every month” MARTIN TETT, LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION HOUSING SPOKESMAN, RESPONDS TO A SHELTER REPORT ON HOMELESSNESS

“Economic growth has become a proxy for human welfare” H FELL OW SAR AH LON GLA NDS, RESE ARC AT THE YOU NG A IPPR NORTH, SPEA KING AT PLAN NER S’ CON FERE NCE

China’s ‘sponge cities’ have ﬂood management systems built in that are linked to green spaces, ecology, walking cycling and health. They’re wonderfully connected. PETER HEAD, IN HIS LICHFIELD LECTURE ADDRESS, POINTS TO CHINA’S FLOOD FRIENDLY CITY SOLUTIONS AS SOMETHING TO ASPIRE TO

I M AG E S | I STO C K

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

O Opinion

Anna Sabine Newlyn is chief executive of Meeting Place Communications

What listening to the radio can tell us about supporters of housebuilding

It comes to us all at some point – the yo youthful exuberance of Radio 1 starts to sound like an insufferable din as the comfort of Radio 2 waits with open arms. But perhaps those robust enough to withstand Radio 1 hold the answer to a problem the housing industry struggles to solve. It turns out that Radio 1 listeners are far more likely to support housebuilding than their counterparts at Radio 2. Over the years studies and polls have confirmed the existence of a ‘silent majority’ in favour of new homes. The issue for developers and councils has always been how to find and engage them. New research provides some clues. Shelter, working with Meeting Point Communications, published a YouGov survey in 2015, showing that not only does this silent majority exist, it exists across every age group. The snag is that opponents of development are twice as likely to do something about their views as supporters. Using the results alongside ACORN demographic data, we developed tools that can plot likely support and opposition to new homes by postcode. You can work out where likely supporters live, and get a good idea of the issues likely to motivate them. These vary hugely from one area to another. Last month Engagement 2017, the first industry conference looking at how to carry out good public engagement, launched a

Victoria Bankes Price MRTPI is a planning adviser to the Woodland Trust

How can planning better serve ancient woodland?

second level of research, sponsored by Redrow & L&Q, which delves into the best way to engage potential supporters. It showed us that supporters of homes are more likely than opponents to consume news through the web than traditional channels such as newspapers or TV. Billboard advertising is more eﬀective at reaching supporters over opponents than newspaper adverts, and the tone of communication is key: messages that seem to be telling people what to do will be less well received by opponents of housebuilding and may well entrench their views. And, yes, if you’re listening to Jeremy Vine at lunchtime on Radio 2, you’re more likely to be a NIMBY than if you’re bopping away to Radio 1. The building industry is in some respects incredibly sophisticated – using complex demographic tools to decide where and what mix of housing to develop, and to help target customers for new homes. But for some reason this sophistication falls away in the run-up to a planning committee; we still carry out lazy planning consultations that enrage opponents while failing to engage the supportive majority. The tools exist for developers and councils to make much better choices about how they engage. The sooner they decide to use those tools to engage the Radio 1 listeners, the better for everyone.

“FOR SOME REASON THIS SOPHISTICATION FALLS AWAY IN THE RUNUP TO A PLANNING COMMITTEE”

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Ancient woodland takes thousands of years to evolve and thousan is the most species-rich land habitat. Yet it is not a formal designation, and the ancient woodland inventory is only provisional. Thus, the sites on the inventory are subject to change as more ancient woodland is identiﬁed and recorded. There is no formal record of ancient woodland sites destroyed, so we know only that less than 3 per cent of the UK is covered with this irreplaceable habitat. It does not always look as we imagine it; what may simply look like a stand of conifers can, on closer inspection, be a plantation on ancient woodland site (PAWS), an old ancient woodland site that was clear felled and replaced with a commercial timber stand. These sites can be restored to their former glory. They enjoy the same level of protection as ancient semi-natural woodland in the NPPF. Likewise, our ancient and veteran trees are valued for everything from their cultural contributions to the landscape to their biodiversity value. Their ancient status is dependent on their species not just their age. This all presents a confusing picture for planners, a view reinforced by a Woodland Trust survey of 500 planners last summer. The feedback was that although planners were aware of ancient woodland (96 per cent

knew the term), they were not using the existing tools available. The biggest concerns emerging were that only 33 per cent of respondents were aware of the Ancient Woodland Inventory (the Natural England held inventory on ancient woodland) and only 21 per cent used the Standing Advice for Ancient Woodland and Aged and Veteran Trees produced by the Forestry Commission and Natural England. In its housing white paper, the government says it wants to improve ancient woodland protection in the NPPF. This is great but we need to take action now. Trust records show there are more than 300 ancient woodlands under threat from development in England and nearly 200 more that are subject to site allocations. The existing provisions are clearly failing ancient woodland and aged and veteran trees. Half of the survey respondents wanted to learn more, so the trust has worked with Mike Oxford of the Association of Local Government Ecologists to produce a Planners’ Manual for Ancient Woodland and Veteran Trees. This details what ancient woodland is, how development affects it and how best to buffer it from development. The manual has been sent to all local planning authorities in England – and if you want a copy you can find it online or you can contact the trust.

“THERE ARE MORE THAN 300 ANCIENT WOODLANDS UNDER THREAT FROM DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND”

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

Richard Blyth FRTPI is RTPI head of policy, practice and research

Why planners need to know what’s going on in economics

I have heard one academic publicly denounce the planning profession for daring to advise on how cities should be developed. Economics must rule, he said (I paraphrase). I seethed under my breath; what kind of response we would get if planners started invading economists’ territory by making statements about interest rates? But very respected and highly placed people can get away with statements like this again and again – and not just about planning. F o r t u n a t e l y, some guys have got together to tell us why economics has its fingers in so many pies. Appropriately, the book is called The Econocracy*, which I think is meant to mean “rule by e c o n o m i s t s” . Classics scholars would probably rephrase that as “rule by housekeepers”. The word ‘economy’ has only grown into frequent use fairly recently. The authors document its rise in the texts of party manifestos: it first appeared in 1950 in the Conservative manifesto (once) and by 2015 it was mentioned 59 times. Now ‘the economy’ is the disembodied prime concern of every politician. (Rather than, say, ‘people’.) So “we must do this for the economy”, “that would be bad for the economy” – as if it was some cantankerous old relative who must be satisfied with their

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Roisin Willmott FRTPI is the RTPI’s director for Wales and Northern Ireland

No resting on laurels for planners in NI’s Best Place

particular whims. This turns many general questions of importance to everyone into purely economic questions, which require experts (guess which ones) to answer them. The public is “never asked what the aims of the economy should be”. If we don’t know what the economy is for, why pay it so much attention? The dominance of economics, and of one kind in particular (neoclassical), has led to there being “a community of think tanks aiming to influence politics with economic logic”. By contrast there are few organisations aiming to influence politics with urban planning logic, but the RTPI works hard to do that as one of them. The Econocracy talks about widening the understanding of government activity in the economy from simply just “correcting market failure”, as the neoclassicists would have it, to include market making. It’s like someone has finally put their finger on what you always kind of knew was wrong with economics but were unable to put into words. And now you don’t need to.

“NOW ‘THE ECONOMY’ IS THE DISEMBODIED PRIME CONCERN OF EVERY POLITICIAN”

*The Econocracy, Joe Earle, Cahal Moran & Zach Ward-Perkins, Penguin 2017 See the original version of this blog at: bit.ly/planner1217-cities

In Novem November, Derry/Londonderry was ann announced as the winner of the RTPI’s RT Best Places competition for Northern Ireland (see page 7). Located in the north-west of the province, on the border with the Republic of Ireland, it’s a city with a chequered past: the 16th century plantation, the 1920s partition and the later Troubles have all shaped its physical and social form. But its prospects changed with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Since then, planners have played their part in reunifying the city through sensitive regeneration that has preserved its historic core while creating new ties between disparate communities. A new Peace Bridge across the River Foyle has led to regeneration of languishing parts of the city, linking the once rundown Ebrington area – once an army barracks, now a regenerated square – to the redeveloped waterfront and Guildhall area. It has also connected Unionist and Nationalist communities on either side of the Foyle. It’s a symbol of unification as well as an example of positive regeneration. The Best Places award expresses the public’s opinion that the city is successfully addressing its needs through good planning. But it needs to continue to find solutions for its future and adapt to change – especially as the North West is likely to be disproportionately affected by the UK leaving the European Union (see pages 4-5). With 46,654 daily traffic

movements between Derry/ Londonderry and the Republic, it’s clear that there is a high degree of social, economic and political interconnectedness across the border. The city is rightly positioned as a driver for regional growth in the city council’s Preferred Options Paper for its Local Development Plan 2032. Moreover, Northern Ireland’s Regional Development Strategy 2035 and the Republic of Ireland’s emerging National Planning Framework both identify Derry-Letterkenny as the regional growth centre. But until there is agreement on what form the border will take, planners face diﬃculties in developing strategies to address the North West’s challenges and opportunities. On both sides of the border, they’re having to make plans without a clear context; work carries on. Many regeneration projects that helped Derry/Londonderry to win the Best Places competition were funded with EU support. A discussion not yet prominent in the debate over leaving the EU is how to support parts of the UK facing structural issues without European Structural Funds. Planners will be challenged to ensure that the city and the wider region continue to deliver for communities. But the role of planners and planning is to deal with change. Winning Northern Ireland’s Best Place will give a positive signal to the teams delivering in the city.

“THE ROLE OF PLANNERS AND PLANNING IS TO DEAL WITH CHANGE”

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CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE IS SET TO REDRAW THE GLOBE’S MAJOR TRADING ROUTES. MARK SMULIAN FINDS OUT WHAT IT OFFERS UK PLANNERS

corridors linking China with Mongolia, Russia, uitcases, clothes and household central and South-East Asia and the Indian goods may not sound like the subcontinent. start of a revolution, but when a Confusingly, the ‘Road’ is a reference to train carrying 44 freight recreating the old maritime Silk Road by which containers of these commodities ships travel from China to Europe via the South rolled into an East London siding China Sea and Indian Ocean, with a series of earlier this year it was the first tangible sign in improved ports. the UK of a plan that seeks to reshape Wei Yang MRTPI, vice-chair of the RTPI international freight. international committee, runs her own The Belt and Road is a Chinese project but planning consultancy in central London and could affect most countries in Europe and has worked in China on projects related to the Central Asia, and those that lie on sea routes Belt and Road. from the Far East to the Mediterranean. In She says the planning system in China, effect, it seeks to recreate the ancient Silk Road Russia and Central Asia is quite different from as a trading route spanning the Eurasian land that in the UK, being “very politically driven” mass. and based on zoning rather than mixed uses. All very interesting, but what has it to do “They do not look in such a cohesive way,” with UK planners? she explains. “We will try to look at the It may be that, if the project succeeds, some environment cohesively but in other countries new freight-handling infrastructure and roads it’s still zoning so I think it is important for UK will need to be planned for here. But experts planners to get more involved in this. think that the training planners “On the one hand I think it helps receive in the UK gives them the people working on those areas to skills needed for the far larger “IT SEEKS TO have the more advanced projects in China and Central RECREATE THE methodology of thinking of UK Asia. ANCIENT SILK planners. But also for young China’s president Xi Jinping ROAD AS A planners, if they only think planning proposed Belt and Road and his TRADING ROUTE is about household extensions this is terminology needs some SPANNING THE very boring for them and we have explanation. EURASIAN difficulties recruiting – but if you can The ‘Belt’ is a Eurasian land LAND MASS” say there is a whole world in which bridge from China’s east coast to they can play a part that is more the Channel Tunnel, together interesting.” with a number of development

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THE ROAD TO EVERYWHERE Belt and Road is not a single project with a start and finish. As Wei Yang says, what has been announced since 2013 probably carries an $8 trillion price tag but there is “no defined timescale – it just keeps going”. A map issued by the China Britain Business Council shows land routes running from Shanghai to Beijing and then a ‘China-MongoliaRussia’ rail corridor to western Kazakhstan. From there it would split with one ‘belt’ running to Moscow, across Poland and Germany to Rotterdam with trains continuing as needed via the Channel Tunnel to London. The other ‘belt’ route shown from Kazakhstan would run down to the Gulf, then via Iraq and Syria – presumably assuming peace is eventually restored to both – then to North Africa. Also from Beijing a mix of land and sea routes would link the ‘China Indochina Peninsula Corridor’, the ‘China Pakistan Corridor’ and a ‘China Myanmar Bangladesh India Corridor’. Purely maritime routes are shown linking China to India and to East Africa and via the Suez Canal to Europe. A Chinese government statement says the Belt and Road initiative “aims to promote orderly and free flow of economic factors, highly efficient allocation of resources and deep integration of markets by enhancing connectivity of Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas. “It is open to all countries and international and regional organisations for engagement and honours mutual respect and market operation to seek common prosperity”.

Demand for planners Yang says UK planners would grasp quickly that the scale of infrastructure envisaged offers social and economic opportunities and “if the infrastructure is provided without local context it could lose those benefits”. “China’s planning system is quite different,” she continues. “I don’t think even a lot of Chinese planners work on these issues, as the main drivers are engineering and investment companies. UK planners have better understanding of the environment and could be a very good fit into that.” She gives the example that China has built 15,000 miles of high-speed rail line, “but a lot of stations are quite far from city centres and there is not enough urban activity around the stations. People use them like airports and travel there from a long distance”.

Yang suggests it would be impractical in most cases for UK planners to apply directly for jobs in China and central Asia, but leading engineering consultancies are likely to need staff to deploy there. Peter Budd, former deputy chairman of China Britain Business Council, is now a consultant to Arup on the Belt and Road. “It is creating development opportunities that need planning expertise,” he says. “If things keep growing at this rate without sustainable planning it will give us a climate change problem that makes the current one look like a picnic. And while we may not always practise it well, sustainability is in the DNA of our planning and the Chinese are open to it. “They know they need expertise from abroad and have a lot to learn, and they never like to reinvent the wheel, so I think there would certainly be opportunities for UK planners along the route.” Budd says China regards the UK as a mature market with the rule of law and political stability “and despite our current challenges a robust economy and so an investment opportunity” as the western terminus of the Belt. “We’ve already seen the train arrive in the UK direct from northern China which knocks two to three weeks off the time taken by shipping. “In the UK we may be at one end but the opportunities do not all flow in one direction. The Chinese are interested in investing here but I always say that anything worth less than £200 million will not be big enough for them.”

“WE HAVE TRADITIONALLY BEEN GOOD AT WORKING WITH OTHER CULTURES AND UNDERSTANDING THEM”

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The China Britain Business Council map shows land routes running from Shanghai to Beijing and then a ‘ChinaMongoliaRussia’ rail corridor to western Kazakhstan

Platform for growth Although not directly comparable with the UK, Budd cites the scale of Chinese investment along the corridor it developed into Pakistan. “In Pakistan GDP has jumped by 5 per cent in a year, which is unheard of,” he says. “Goods are being processed there to go back to China and it’s signiﬁcant that Hyatt has built a chain of 10 hotels along that route.” He adds: “We’ve not traditionally paid much attention to markets in Indonesia, The Philippines and Vietnam but they are all keen to engage with the UK, which they see as professional and reliable. “Those countries and the ’stans may be a bit outside our usual areas of interest but have a lot to oﬀer and I think we have traditionally

been good at working with other cultures and understanding them.” Yang’s experience in China has been with the maritime route. She says for several decades China’s attention has been focused on its mainland with less attention paid to the coast – for example, few cruise ships visit the country. “The marine route is a good opportunity to think about the ocean again and there are lots of opportunities for cultural regeneration and tourism infrastructure,” she says. “In the last 30 years Chinese development has focused on large cities but now new tourism opportunities are more culturally and historically focused.” Her firm worked on two regeneration projects close to a new cruise port. One 1,000-year-old town was hard to reach by land, but easy by sea and “we used the garden city concept to extend it using land value capture, helping to develop a tourist industry based on the history of the place”. As yet, there are few proposals for new UK infrastructure as a consequence of the Belt and Road but Colin Cran, a business consultant with Far East interests who has written widely about the project, says the country is missing a trick. “We are not doing enough with our infrastructure to take advantage of what the Belt and Road will offer with links to expanding economies in Central Asia and China,” he stresses. “China is really planning to be the leading global economic power by 2030 and all roads will lead to China but we do not have the infrastructure to be part of it. Singapore spends 12 per cent on infrastructure and we spend about 3 per cent.” UK planners may not usually look to such an international canvas to further their careers, but the Belt and Road could offer a source of work for many years if their skills are in demand across the Eurasian land mass.

Barking glad At the British end of the route, the trains reach Box Lane, an unprepossessing goods yard in Barking, but one that could have a bright economic future. This terminal is the High Speed 1 freight link and is managed by Deutsche Bahn, which plans a Euro Hub cargo facility. A Barking and Dagenham Council spokesman says: “We regard this terminal as a very important asset of national significance [which] we believe will help bolster trade links with Asia and in

particular China, not only importing Chinese goods but exporting British goods and expertise, and potentially could lead to the establishment of a Anglo/Sino trade hub.” The council is building links with investment partners in China and developing a proposal to ‘sink’ the nearby A13 underground to release the land above for 15,000 homes and 10,000 jobs.

The ﬁrst freig ht at the London train from China arrives Eurohub depo in January, af t ter a 12,000km in Barking journey.

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20/11/2017 16:20

INTERVIEW: ANNA ROSE

ANNA ROSE MRTPI AIMS TO CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT THINKING. THE NEW HEAD OF THE PLANNING ADVISORY SERVICE TELLS HUW MORRIS ABOUT GROWTH, GOOD PERFORMANCE AND FEMALE ROLE MODELS All planners have been there. It could be a party, a dinner An eye on performance She joined PAS in August to drive how it advises, or a casual meeting when the inevitable “so what do you supports and trains local authorities in effective and do?” pops up. up-to-date planning services. This is occasionally accompanied by grumbles about Part of the Local Government Association, one of planning applications, particularly for housing, and then PAS’s major aims is helping councils to “understand how segues into laments over the community’s decline. And to win hearts and minds in driving development and no connection is made between the two. growth”. Anna Rose does not hold back when she hears this Its core role is to deliver improvement and seizes the opportunity to press home in response to legislation, using a ‘sectorthe importance of planning. “SOMETIMES YOU led’ approach whereby authorities help “I hear the tales at dinner parties about HAVE TO TAKE each other to raise their game through people objecting to housing development YOURSELF OUTSIDE experience rather than the box-ticking because of traffic or they don’t want THE PLANNING that bedevils so much of performance housing on open spaces,” says the new SYSTEM TO DO THAT management. Among its suite of services head of the Planning Advisory Service THINKING AND THEN are peer reviews. (PAS). PUT IT BACK INTO “We are finding more and more that “Then you hear complaints about the THE LOCAL PLAN” local government and planning teams schools taking in kids from outside the need more support to change their area, how shops have closed down, how thinking,” she says. the parish council does not have the “Peer reviews are by people across the money to maintain the park or facilities, industry who have experience of that young people are moving out.” delivering planning services. They may be At such times Rose leaps in to point out directors or managers who are able to go in and talk to the damage to communities caused by an antitheir opposite number, share their experience and development and growth bias that is almost a pastime in knowledge, and who know what the pressures are. some quarters. “Quite often with poor performance, you feel it “At some point we all need to help communities see personally if you are managing it. Talking to a peer about how they can work with their councils and developers to how to turn things around is better than somebody understand that development serves them. Communities writing a critical report that becomes public. are for today’s residents, but they are also for future ones.”

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17/11/2017 17:13

P H O T O G R A P H Y | A K I N FA L O P E

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INTERVIEW: ANNA ROSE

“Some of the messages can be hard-hitting, although they are agreed with the host authority, which has to be honest.” Rose continues: “If you are busy and doing something the same way for the past 20 years, it is very difficult to see the wood for the trees. You need friends in local government to clear the air for you, who won’t be coming in slamming a hand on the table and saying this is what should happen. That does not go down well.” In December, the government is expected to put councils on notice for the first time that they will be designated for poor performance and quality of decisions, with a threat of sanctions. Rose admits there are authorities PAS never sees but which may use its online resources. “We hear from them when they start to get into trouble,” she says. “We try to help them to avoid designation.” Local authority planning has taken a huge hammering in recent years, with anecdotal evidence that 15 per cent of jobs have been cut across teams. Morale is shaky in some places. So what does a good planning service look like in such hostile times? “It’s all about leadership,” says Rose. “A good planning service has the support of the leader, the chief executive and a strong head of planning. The performance data does not have to be top of the table or have the newest local plan, yet if the team has support from the top it is amazing what officers can do and how they can thrive. “There is a media impression that local authorities are full of dead ends and book stops but there are no more of them than in any other industry. We have some amazing people who are innovators and disruptors, doing exciting things within the resources available and doing it with zest. We are there to champion those people. “It is far tougher in those organisations that don’t want growth, only want to stand still, don’t have the leadership and don’t see the potential of planning. The councils that don’t have that ambition are going to have bad relationships with partners and developers – they won’t have enough sites to develop, so they suffer more from cuts. “Morale is much better where people are doing things than those places where they are not. The less resources and more resistance to growth, the harder the job becomes.”

C V

HIG HL IG HT S

A NNA R OS E Born: 1977, Nuneaton Education: William Parker School, Daventry and Daventry Tertiary College; BA in planning studies, Sheﬃeld Hallam University 1998; MA in town and country planning, University of the West of England 2002

Timeline:

19992002

2006

and transport, Milton Keynes Council

2017

NFU, legal adviser leading on planning law, transport, housing, environment

Planning policy team leader, Rugby Borough Council

2016

Trustee of the Town and Country Planning Association

2003 Senior policy planner, Rugby Borough Council

2007 Head of planning and culture, Rugby Borough Council

2014 Director of planning

Director of growth, economy and culture, Milton Keynes Council

2016 President of the Planning Oﬃcers Society

2017 Head of the Planning Advisory Service

Shaping places Rose was previously director of growth, economy and culture at Milton Keynes Council. The town is known around the world for its conception in a 1960s masterplan that has stood the test of time and remains untouched in principle. She describes her time there as “about aspiration and ambition” and was instrumental in the Milton Keynes’s Vision 2050. This included moves to adapt its centre, its wider role in the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge corridor, and Milton Keynes’s speciﬁc culture based on its built form. “There is a richness to its cultural assets which the community holds dear, but it is important to enhance those assets in a new town so it is attractive in the future. Culture and planning go very well together. Culture creates the texture and interest that makes places not just somewhere where you live and work but becomes a way of life. “Vision 2050 was about the whole place – planning, educational attainment, technological advance, the role of universities and business and future population – about protecting what is important now and putting in place what will be important in the future,” she adds. “It taught me a lot about changing the status quo of local government thinking.” Indeed, Rose argues that local government often ﬁnds itself curtailed by “the things it has to

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“THERE IS A MEDIA IMPRESSION THAT LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE FULL OF DEAD ENDS AND BOOK STOPS BUT THERE ARE NO MORE OF THEM THAN IN ANY OTHER INDUSTRY” THE RISE OF ROSE

As someone who will be supporting the performance of others, it’s perhaps no surprise that Anna Rose’s own career has been characterised by promotion and development. Hard work, too – she completed her master’s thesis while pregnant with her ﬁrst daughter (she has three, aged seven to 15) and working full-time. Her planning career began at Rugby Borough Council in 2003 where, within four years, she became head of planning and culture. In 2014 she moved to Milton Keynes as director of planning and transport. By 2016 she was director of growth, economy and transport, reﬂecting a growing trend in local government to marry planning with economic development.

do rather than the things it wants to do”. Local plans are now primarily for generating housing while Milton Keynes’s 2050 Vision looked at “all aspects that make a place and what you need to grow a town”. “Sometimes you have to take yourself outside the planning system to do that thinking and then put it back into the local plan,” she says. Yet local government is very much driven by the communities it serves and here Rose notices a major change. “In the past ﬁve to 10 years, there has been a change in thinking among residents that they don’t trust national or local government to serve them through growth and development,” she adds. “We have a huge job to win back that support for what we can do in growing and making places great.” The message about places rather than just housing is one the development industry is now feeding back to the government. Rose has hopes for recent lobbying by the development industry to put more resources into professional planners, urban designers and economic development oﬃcers. This has yet to bear fruit judging by a recent 10 Downing Street summit of the prime minister, politicians and business leaders, which was crammed with housing representatives but nobody else. The battle for hearts and minds is open on all fronts, it seems – but you wouldn’t bet against Rose getting results.

Rose is one of a number of prominent women in senior roles in the public sector. She acknowledges that there is “not the same balance in the private sector” and says that she is keen to encourage more women to apply for senior positions. Female role models are important, she stresses. “The panels at conferences are so heavily skewed to male speakers. That sends all sorts of signals to those up and coming about their chances of getting into those positions. “A lot of it is about having the confidence in your own convictions. Women don’t have the same confidence as men and are not as comfortable at selling themselves at interviews. There are more differences in language with men saying ‘I’ instead of ‘we’ and ‘led’ rather than ‘contributed’, and it is even in the terminology in application forms. Yet it’s not a bad thing to be collaborative.” Rose makes a point of telephoning job applicants to find out more about them before interviews. Such conversations can reveal more than a CV. She remembers one of her bosses taking a decision and showing similar faith in her as she scaled the career ladder. “You need somebody to see the potential, who looks beyond the language and who is willing to take a chance on you.” In her previous job, Rose managed 180 people. At PAS, it’s five. She is quick to see the contrast. “Even though I have had a substantial drop in the number of people reporting to me, it’s now a national and a much bigger agenda,” she adds. “I’ve swapped the people for the agenda.”

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RTPI SURVEY

RTPInsight THE RTPI’S 2017 MEMBER SURVEY GIVES A COMPREHENSIVE INSIGHT INTO THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE ORGANISATION AND THE PLANNING PROFESSION. IT CONTAINS A FEW SURPRISES, TOO. HERE ARE THE HEADLINES

A little about you In all, an impressive 4,225 RTPI members responded to the membership survey between 6 June and 5 July 2017 – equating to 18 per cent of the Institute’s total membership. The demographic profile of respondents was broadly in line with that of the membership as a whole, although there was a higher response rate from those aged 45 and over, and a lower response rate from those aged 35 and under. Just 3 per cent of respondents were students, yet students represent 10 per cent of the overall membership. By far the biggest single group of respondents were local authority planners (49%); thus it’s no surprise that the dominant areas of work were development control, planning permissions and local planning policy. “We’re really pleased first of all that so many members took the time to respond,” says Rebecca Hildreth, the RTPI’s head of communications and marketing. “Overall there was good news on how highly members value their membership. “The other standout result was that 87 per cent of our members would like the RTPI to be a more campaigning organisation on specific issues, even if the member does not personally agree with the RTPI stance on that particular issue.”

Which of the following most closely describes the area or issues with which you work or have done in the past three years? Please select up to ﬁve options below 38% 37% 30% 28% 17% DevelopmentManagement/Control (1,355) Planning Policy – Local (1,325) Planning Permissions (1,091) Housing (988) Urban Planning (609) Heritage & Conservation (541) Working with Communities/Community Engagement (498) Management (463) Regeneration (456) Property Development (430) Masterplanning (425) Rural Planning (408) Infrastructure (404) Enforcement (401)

15% 14% 13% 13% 12% 12% 11% 11% 11% 11%

Environmental Planning (387)

What type of organisation(s) do you work for? Select all that apply

͠Ǯր֍֍֘իիիննն֤֢֯= 10%

49% - Local government / local authority

12%

Demographic headlines - 4,225 respondents - 62% male; 37% female - 45% aged 35-54; 16% over 65 - 62% full-time employed, 11% self-employed - 69% chartered members; 12% retired

Local government/local authority (1,757) Self-employed/freelance (414) National consultancy (345) Regional/local consultancy (264) Development company (235) Central government/administration (198) House builder (192) Architectural/design practice (191)

Other (168) International consultancy (156) Charity/voluntary/social enterprise (136) National agency/body (136) University (120) Professional body (55) Other corporate e.g. energy, waste management etc. (53)

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In your career, have any of the following acted as barriers to professional advancement? Please select all that apply 1%

0.6%

3% 7% 7%

2% 1% 0.4%

50% 11%

11%

20% 19%

None of the above (1780) Lack of management development programme (731) Lack of career mentors (681) Age (394) Lack of role models (390) Gender (386) Lack of family-friendly employer policies (254) Other (253)

Prefer not to say (107) Ethnicity (73) National origin (69) Marital status (47) Disability (44) Sexual orientation (27) Religion (16)

Working conditions The majority of respondents were satisfied with various aspects of their working conditions (pay, workload, resourcing, CPD/training, opportunities, support from management). However, a significant minority in each case were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied – particularly with respect to resourcing. And, in the case of the respect and status accorded to the profession, more were dissatisfied than not (see headlines below). It’s a recurring theme in planning and challenge for the profession. Notable also was variation between members working in local government and the rest of the membership. Local government planners were far more likely to be dissatisfied with working conditions. Additionally, women were more likely than men to indicate that they had experienced many of the barriers to professional advancement listed. Many barriers were also more likely to be experienced by members of Asian British ethnicity. We'll be looking at this in more detail in March 2018. “These results are being taken very seriously with a view to working on ways we can help members to address any issues,” comments Hildreth. “We regard the issues of inclusivity, gender and diversity as of utmost importance – but it’s too early to say what work we’ll be doing on this yet.”

How satisﬁed or dissatisﬁed are you with your workload?

Very satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

(428)

(2075)

(760)

Very dissatisfied

Don't know

Prefer not to say

(216)

(22)

(91)

Working conditions headlines - 52% dissatisfied (35%) or very dissatisfied with respect/status of planning; 45% satisfied or very satisfied - 67% satisifed (58%) or very satisfied (9%) with CPD/training; 21% dissatisfied - 70% satisfied (58%) or very satisfied with pay; 27% dissatisfied or very dissastisfied - 71% satisfied (59%) or very satisfied with workload; 30% dissatisfied or very dissatisfied - 53% satisfied (46%) or very satisfied with general level of resourcing; 43% dissatisfied or very dissatisifed - 59% satisifed (49%) or very satisfied with career progression and opportunites; 34% dissatisfied or very dissatisfied - 66% satisfied (50%) or very satisfied (16%) with support from management

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RTPI SURVEY

In which planning-related areas do you feel you most need to develop your skills/knowledge? Please select up to ﬁve from the list below

10%

26%

11% 11%

24%

11% 16%

12% 12%

15%

12% 13%

Development finance/viability (971) Planning law (878) Infrastructure planning and delivery (594) Housing land supply (549) Appeals (524) Environmental Impact Assessment (488) Charging regimes (CIL/S106/S75) (468) IT/digital (BIM, CAD, GIS) (460)

13%

14%

Giving evidence at inquiries, examinations, tribunals (456) Urban design (436) Housing affordability (420) Development management/control (418) Commercial development planning (391) Neighbourhood/community planning (382) Local plan-making (351)

13%

14%

Value added - 85% agree or strongly agree that they value their RTPI membership - 79% agree or strongly agree that they would recommend RTPI membership to a friend or colleague - 83% agree or strongly agree that chartered status conveys high professional standards and ethical behaviour - 68% think their employer regards RTPI membership as essential (33%) or desirable (35%)

17%

22%

23%

26%

32%

50%

Professional recognition (2,320) News and publications (e.g. The Planner magazine) (2,132) Training courses (1,357) Membership conveys professional standards (1,119) Events (local, regional or national) (986) Promotion of the profession to government and relevant stakeholders (942) Policy and research publications (704) Access to job opportunities (603) Networking opportunities (559) Practice advice (388) Being involved with the RTPI in your area (272) Networks (269) Don't know(192) Careers advice and guidance (149) Opportunity to provide Planning Aid advice (131)

55%

Thinking about your membership, which services/beneﬁts do you value most? Please select up to four from the list below

Getting on When asked where they felt their skills gaps were, respondents gave us a snapshot of the primary requirements (housing, infrastructure) and greatest challenges to delivery (finance, legal system) facing contemporary planners. There are no great surprises here, and the results are indicative of where the RTPI would benefit from focusing its CPD efforts. As for whether planners are equipped to deliver their technical planning skills in an effective way, the generic skills part of the survey was equally revealing. From this we learn that project management (19%), mediation and negotiation (19%), financial management (18%), staff management (17%) and IT skills (16%) are the big areas in which members felt they could benefit from improvements. “We’ve launched RTPI Training, a set of courses being held all over the country to give members highquality training on topics designed to complement regional and national CPD events,” says Hildreth. “These will look at issues identified in the survey and through other member feedback.”

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Which issues would you like the RTPI to prioritise over the next couple of years? (e.g. coverage in The Planner magazine, policy and research work, campaigns) Please select up to ﬁve issues from the list below

Top 3

11%

12%

22%

13%

15% 13%

(944)

17%

(1047)

20% 20% 18% 17%

(1270)

22% 21%

Housing affordability

25%

25% Housing land supply

30%

30% Brexit

Brexit (1,270) Housing land supply (1,047) Housing affordability (944) Infrastructure planning and delivery (878) Climate change (851) Development finance/viability (848) Resourcing of public sector planning (775) Planning for an ageing society (734) City-regions/devolution (701) Local plan-making (615) Strategic planning (546) Land value capture (541) Sustainable development (540) Neighbourhood/community planning (499) Local authority planning performance (478)

50 %

37 %

With the understanding that you might not always be in favour of the positions that the RTPI adopts, to what extent do you agree or disagree that the RTPI should be a more campaigning organisation on speciﬁc issues?

Strongly agree

Agree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

Don't know

(1,567)

(2,113)

(202)

(60)

(283)

Looking forward Headline issues – unsurprisingly – dominated the topics you would like to see the RTPI prioritise in the near future. Housing supply, aﬀordability, infrastructure, climate change, viability are all here. But topping the lot is Brexit. This signpost to your biggest concerns has been noted by us at The Planner and by the RTPI (see 'Beyond the border' report on pages 4-5 of this issue). “These are all streams of work we’re currently working on,” notes Hildreth. “We’re publishing policy and research papers on them, and we’re talking to the UK’s national politicians about these issues at assembly, parliament and government levels.” One of the most striking responses of the entire survey was that you overwhelmingly agreed that the RTPI should be a more campaigning organisation on speciﬁc issues – even if you disagree with the particular stance taken. Hildreth agrees that this can be seen as a mandate for the Institute to take a “more forceful and outspoken” stance on the issues that matter to members. “This is being considered by our standing committees, especially the Policy, Research and Practice Committee,” says Hildreth. The overall survey results are currently being discussed through the Institute’s standing committees and the by its Board of Trustees. What the survey has revealed will feed into the RTPI’s business strategy for the future, notes Hildreth. Watch this space.

Final thoughts Of course, this is just a snapshot of an extensive survey that has given the RTPI an extremely detailed picture of its membership. We’ll be taking a closer look at some of the results and the issue they raise in forthcoming publications and issues of the magazine.

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E

7 GREAT APPS FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT APPS HAVE HUGE POTENTIAL TO ENGAGE CITIZENS IN PLANNING PROCESSES. FRANCESCA PERRY SELECTS SOME OF THE BEST FROM AROUND THE WORLD There are plenty of apps that collect data on how people live in and move through cities: think of ride-hailing platform Uber or athletic activity tracking app Strava. This data can then be harnessed to help improve urban or transport planning, as is happening with both those apps in cities around the world. But what about apps that engage the public in planning processes, making them more transparent and participatory? For most of the public, the UK planning system can at the best of times feel opaque. Unless the initiative is taken to trawl through planning applications on a local authority website the only call for participation is usually a ﬂimsy piece of paper attached to a

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lamppost. Surely with advanced technology at our ﬁngertips we can do better than this? This issue doesn’t end with the UK. I scoured the globe for the most interesting examples of apps and digital platforms that are engaging stakeholders and the public in how their cities and local neighbourhoods are developing. Although some were only short-lived, they demonstrated what is possible.

CitySwipe, Santa Monica, US Referred to as 'Tinder for cities', CitySwipe was a visual-led online survey developed by the Downtown Santa Monica Business Improvement District last year. In the platform, users were presented with images

of potential planning developments – from bike lanes to tall buildings – and asked to choose what they liked or didn't like. CitySwipe ran alongside a formal city council online survey as an additional way for people to help inﬂuence the Downtown Community Plan, which was ultimately adopted in summer 2017. n www.dtsmcityswipe.com/

AvaLinn, Tallinn, Estonia Tallinn is working with Baltic Urban Lab – a project aiming to improve planning in Baltic cities – to develop a mobile app that helps to involve the public in urban planning. “AvaLinn means ‘open city’ in Estonian,” explains Anu Leisner of the Tallinn Urban Planning Department. “It stands for transparency and openness between the municipality and people.”

M A I N I M AG E | I STO C K

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LANDSCAPE P30 TECH P32 REGIONAL P36 DECISIONS P50 PLAN B P51 2013 > 2017

The app provides information about current local planning processes, as well as future plans, enabling users to comment and leave their own proposals; the most commented-on locations are then reviewed by the planners and prompt further stakeholder collaboration. Tallinn residents have been involved in the development of the app, which is due to launch this month. n www.balticurbanlab.eu/

time, thus building community engagement in urban improvement and facilitating communication between citizens and local authorities. n raybesiga.com/urb

happening to their local neighbourhood,” says Mike Saunders, Commonplace chief executive. More than 240,000 people have used the platform so far. n www.commonplace.is/

Seattle in Progress, Seattle, US

Streetmix, US

UrbanPlanAR, Edinburgh, UK UrbanPlanAR, a two-year Innovate UK research project with Linknode and Heriot-Watt University, created a mobile augmented reality architectural visualisation platform for planners and communities. The platform used 3D data to enable ‘in-ﬁeld visualisation’: a user could point their phone or tablet at a development site as if taking a picture and see a visualisation of the planned building on their screen. The project completed this year and the outcomes have been incorporated into the services of TrueViewVisuals, a commercial platform for architectural and infrastructural visualisation, which in part hopes to better engage people in planning processes. n urbanplanar.com/

Developed by ‘civic technologist’ Lou Huang with support from Code for America, Streetmix is a tool to help people learn more about urban planning and visualise change. Users design a hypothetical street, mixing and matching elements like bus lanes, bike lanes, parking and trees, to see how much space these features take up and what impact they have on the street. Streetmix can be used to show planning oﬃcials how people want their streets to look. “My hope is to make Streetmix even more useful for planners' workﬂows while keeping it friendly and easy to use for community members to engage in their community design process,” says Huang. n streetmix.net/-/601302

Commonplace, UK

Urb, Kampala, Uganda Developed by digital product designer Ray Besiga and launched in early 2017, Urb is an app for citizens to report and share issues aﬀecting their neighbourhoods, and for city authorities to respond to those issues in real

A responsive web app targeted at developers and local authorities, Commonplace uses technology to simplify the planning consultation process. It invites communities to participate in formal planning applications, using the platform to comment on issues and propose solutions. “We set up Commonplace because we saw that communities were often not being engaged comprehensively on changes

This app enables residents to access data, plans and 3D architectural renderings of any proposed or under-construction projects in Seattle, and learn more about how to shape local development. “We hope that it helps more residents to be informed about development in their neighbourhoods and for more people to engage in the public processes to shape that development,” says Ethan Phelps-Goodman, CEO of Seattle in Progress. “At a higher level, we’d like to see more civic engagement move online, where it can be accessed with lower barriers by a broader audience compared with the traditional in-person community meeting.” n www.seattleinprogress.com/

In the UK, groups like Future Cities Catapult are working to understand how digital tools can improve the planning process, to include enhancing engagement and participation. FCC’s Future of Planning programme aims to “build the partnerships and support experimentation that will help usher in a planning system ﬁt for the 21st century”. Technology, of course, is not the only way to increase participation in planning – not everyone feels comfortable using such platforms – but it is a vital tool in the box, and one that’s being tested and reﬁned. n Francesca Perry is founding editor of Thinking City and writes about cities and urban life

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LANDSCAPE

Nations & Regions focus { EAST MIDLANDS

Strength in diversity The East Midlands has an identity going back more than 1,000 years as the ‘five boroughs of the Danelaw’: Derby, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton and Stamford. The Danish influence lives on in the place names, particularly in the ‘thorpe’, ‘kirk’ and ‘by’ suffixes, which are very common. Watling Street, now the A5, formed the western border with Anglo-Saxon England and still comprises the regional boundary with the West Midlands. Today, the East Midlands is a rapidly growing region of 4.5 million people with a diverse economy. Manufacturing is a key strength – the region has the highest proportion of manufacturing employment in England. This activity takes many forms – ‘planes, trains and automobiles’ in Derby, motorsport in Northamptonshire, space technology in Leicester.

Construction, biomedical sciences, Midlands one of the more rural food processing and tourism are also English regions. Key environmental important sectors. and recreational assets include the Partly as a result of planning policies, Peak District National Park, and the East Midlands has not Lincolnshire Wolds, which “MANUFACTURING is designated as an Area of experienced the kind of IS A KEY urban coalescence seen in Outstanding Natural Beauty. STRENGTH – THE other parts of the county. The East Midlands REGION HAS Most of the region’s cities benefits from good THE HIGHEST and towns are relatively North-South connectivity PROPORTION OF self-contained and vibrant. via the M1, A1, Midland MANUFACTURING Main Line and East Coast However, there remain EMPLOYMENT pockets of deprivation in Main Line. IN ENGLAND” the former coalfield areas East-West links remain of north Derbyshire and a challenge, however, north Nottinghamshire and hence the region’s active on the Lincolnshire Coast, participation in the where flood risk related to climate ‘Midlands Connect’ initiative. change is also a key concern. Over the longer term, phase 2b of HS2 Around 30 per cent of the population will transform rail services between lives in settlements of fewer than Birmingham, the East Midlands and 10,000 people, making the East Leeds.

MAJOR PROJECTS 1. Nottingham Express Transit The second phase of Nottingham’s award-winning tram system is now fully operational, with new lines extending to park and ride facilities at Clifton and Toton Lane – close to the site of the proposed East Midlands HS2 Hub Station. n bit.ly/planner1217-transit

2. Priors Hall urban extension The Priors Hall development spanning Corby and East Northamptonshire district will see more than 5,000 new homes in a parkland setting. Recently acquired by developer Urban&Civic, Priors Hall is one of a number of major urban extensions taken forward through the East Midlands RTPI awardwinning North Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy. n bit.ly/planner1217-priors

3. East Midlands Gateway Freight Interchange A major new rail connected freight handling facility close to East Midlands Airport, which is the biggest UK freight airport outside of London. n bit.ly/planner1217-freight

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East Midlands Insight: Brexit and beyond Steve Ingram MRTPI is strategic director for growth and development at South Kesteven District Council and president of the Planning Officers’ Society. Food production is a major driver of economic growth and employment in our area. We’re looking at Brexit extremely positively because the production of quality food will always have a market. As planners, our role is to consider how Brexit will impact on the ability of our producers to produce. If the supply of workers from Europe is affected,

we’ll need to think about how planning authorities can adapt to the needs of businesses if their production processes become more mechanised. I think it’s a positive challenge for us. The current resources issue is a key matter for every planning authority. The issue is two-sided – it’s not just finding the funding to

properly support planning, but also the ability to retain skilled and knowledgeable planners. I think that message is coming across throughout the development industry: groups like the British Property Federation are recognising that for the system to work well, authorities need resources. As Planning Officers’ Society president, I’ve been working hard to make sure that message reaches the government, and hopefully the imminent 20 per cent increase in planning fees will be the first part of the solution. One of the government’s responses to the need to encourage development has been to free up permitted development rights. I personally feel they’ve got that wrong. Allowing poor-quality development to come forward through permitted development rights undermines public understanding and support for the planning process. In rural areas like ours, it’s been predominantly focused on poor-quality conversions of rural buildings, and there are real issues about the sustainability of these proposals. We’re trying to be proactive and positive about encouraging landowners to do the best things with their buildings. Sometimes the certainty that can be given to a landowner or potential investor through the planning process can be a really positive thing – they feel their plans have been validated, there’s been consultation with the wider community, and they can feel confident about investing their capital.

Valuable skills There are 45 councils (plus the Peak District NPA) with statutory planning powers, which together oﬀer a wide range of urban and rural working experiences. There is a thriving ecosystem of small and medium-sized planning consultancies, architects, urban designers and planning lawyers focused mainly in the cities and larger towns. Managing housing growth is a continuing challenge. The East Midlands has traditionally delivered a high proportion of the nation’s new housing, and major urban extensions are planned or under way in many locations. Northamptonshire, part of the former Milton Keynes South Midlands/Growth Area, remains a particular hotspot. The region’s legacy of historic buildings and key assets like the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site means there is a strong demand for conservation skills. The advent of HS2 and recent projects like the NET extensions in Nottingham mean that rail engineering and transport planning skills generally will remain important to the region.

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East Midlands RECENT SUCCESSES Richard III Visitor Centre, Leicester The East Midlands RTPI award-winning Richard III Visitor Centre, close to the revamped Leicester Cathedral precinct, has been a major success. Blending new development with restoration of a heritage building next to where King Richard III’s remains were found, its design draws on the remains of the Greyfriars Church, which is represented as part of the new structures and protects existing archaeological features.

Belgrave Road Flyover demolition

Richard III Visitor Centre

Belgrave Road Flyover demolition, Leicester The demolition of the Belgrave Road Flyover has improved connections between the famous ‘Golden Mile’ and the city centre, and created a visually attractive area including a pleasant landscaped gateway for cyclists, pedestrians and other road users.

Castleward Residential Development, Derby The £100 million, 12-hectare scheme will fill in a neglected corridor between the Derby Midland Railway Station and the Intu Westfield shopping centre, creating an improved gateway between those two locations. Phase 1 is complete, with 164 new homes, 19,000 square feet of commercial space, and significant new public realm works. The second phase, comprising 108 homes, has been submitted to Derby City Council.

l Develo Castleward Residentia

pment

Signposts RTPI East Midlands is governed by a four-person regional management board currently chaired by Michael Braithwaite. It is supported by 11 regional activities committee members with nominated members taking a lead on Planning Aid, Young Planners and CPD provision. The region runs a number of CPD events each year. n RTPI East Midlands web pages: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-east-midlands/ n Annual reports: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-eastmidlands/annual-report-and-business-plan/ n Quarterly e-bulletins: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-east-midlands/newsletters/ n Young planners: East Midlands young planners will be hosting the 2018 RTPI Young Planners’ Conference: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-nearyou/rtpi-east-midlands/young-planners-in-the-east-midlands/ n Email: eastmidlands@rtpi.org.uk n Twitter: @eastmidsRTPI n Find your RTPI region: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/

Next month:

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ADVERTISER CONTENT

Q&A: Young Planners’ Conference 2018 The East Midlands will be hosting the 2018 Young Planners’ Conference, at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, on 2-3 November. We asked Chris Jesson MRTPI, chair of East Midlands Young Planners, what’s in store What’s your role in East Midlands Young Planners? Chris Jesson (CJ): I am chair of the East Midlands Young Planners and the lead contact on our preparations for next year’s conference, supporting a team of nine planning professionals on the committee.

Do you have a theme for the conference? CJ: ‘Celebrating Planning for the Greater Good’. As planners, that is typically what we do – create and manage spatial solutions for the benefit of a wider audience. Where this has worked well, we should champion it, and where there is potential to be bold, we should shout about it. We want to celebrate just how proud we are of planning and its achievements.

What did you think of this year’s Young Planners Conference (see report, page 8)? CJ: Very good overall. I have spoken with Kim Cooper [chair of North West Young Planners] on how it went. We have a lot of faith in what took place this year for our own understanding. We loved the Planner Soap Box [short presentations by young planners].

How are you going to make your conference distinctive? CJ: In some ways that would be telling! But expect plenty of pizzazz, interaction, and some new topic matters in workshops. The conference retains a national focus for delegates to gain the most out of it, but you’ll see hints of our region throughout in other ways.

Why do the young planners conferences matter? CJ: 2018 will be my eighth Young Planners Conference, so I am a seasoned delegate. It matters significantly, with good networking opportunities and the ability to be invigorated with ideas when you leave. Usually there is a great gala dinner to boot; I always enjoy the experience.

What’s great about the East Midlands? CJ: It is the best combination of the North and the South in one great package. I was born here, tried to get out of here as a student, didn’t get very far (to Sheffield) and have returned here to work. It is underrated, very well connected and has plenty to offer.

@EMYoungPlanners, #YPConf2018

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The future of well-being

t’s inevitable that whenever I use Google, auto-correct recommends adding “jobs” to my search. “Health and Wellbeing” brings up 11,623 roles on indeed.com. I perused this list and found no jobs for planners; yet, it’s clear that planners have a direct impact on the population’s health and wellbeing.. On opening this year’s Young Planners Conference in Manchester, Kim Cooper, chair of the North West Young Planners Committee, highlighted the importance of planners’ role in health and well-being, emphasising that it is “at the core of what they do”. Speakers from across the profession inspired delegates to be creative in the name of not just better planning but better understanding, agreeing that they have a role and responsibility to shape our thinking about how we can mould the built environment, facilities and green space to create happy, healthy spaces. Equally, good planning requires happy and healthy planners. Employers who look after their staff (by encouraging a balanced working life, offering private healthcare and good holiday allowance) will surely produce better results. Well-supported young planners will be better able to deal with the stresses of meeting deadlines, producing quality reports and applications, keeping clients happy and, hopefully, earning the appreciation of society as a whole. Apart from being inspired by speakers at this year’s conference, the most valuable thing that young planners will have gained is the opportunity to build their network. Building a “network of opportunity”, as Stephen Wilkinson pointed out, offers not only the prospect of new business relationships, but also social support. My advice to young planners would be, when you’re struggling with the pressure of deadlines and day to day work stress, use your network – it’s likely that someone you met at the conference knows what you are going through and can offer advice. It was a pleasure to be part of such a fantastic event; thanks must go to the NW Young Planners committee for all of their efforts. I learnt a great deal and met lots of people, which is the best part of my job. I’ve found planners to be a remarkable group of people, who are overlooked by the very population they are striving to help. Luke Coffey, current Young Planner of the Year, said “good planning is invisible”. However, events like this remind us how important planning is. Today’s young planners are the decision-makers of the future, and to be part of their development is a privilege. Oyster Partnership was a headline sponsor of the Young Planners’ Conference 2017 www.oysterpartnership.com

ELEANOR WOOD is a planning consultant with Oyster Partnership

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DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

Decisions in Focus is where we put the spotlight on some of the more signiﬁcant planning appeals and court cases of the last month – alongside your comments. If you’d like to contribute your insights and analyses to future issues of The Planner, email DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk HOUSING

Reading homes not ‘affordable’ ( SUMMARY An inspector has blocked plans to build a pair of semi-detached homes in Reading because the scheme’s affordable housing contribution would be inadequate, citing the Court of Appeal’s ruling on the written ministerial statement (WMS) of 2014 relating to plans of 10 homes or fewer. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a housing estate comprising pairs of cottage-style semi-detached homes. Permission was sought to build an extra pair of houses on a garden behind one of the existing homes. Reading Borough Council wanted a financial

contribution to affordable housing in line with its local plan, which requires a 10 per cent contribution from schemes of up to four houses. But the WMS says developments of 10 homes or fewer are exempt from this. Inspector S J Buckingham referred to the Court of Appeal’s 2016 ruling on the WMS. The secretary of state had accepted that exceptions would be justified in light of local circumstances at the discretion of the decisionmaker. The judge accepted the government’s softening of its position, and the court upheld the WMS on this basis. The council cited the borough’s high levels of affordable housing need, along with a recent appeal decision where the inspector found that the need to avoid “disproportionate burdens on developers” and encourage housebuilding were

An inspector invoked a Court of Appeal ruling to refuse a pair of semi-detached cottage-style homes in Reading

outweighed by that need. This persuaded Buckingham, who ruled that although the WMS carried considerable weight, the circumstances referred to in the Court of Appeal ruling justified a lower affordable housing contribution threshold in this case. He said the scheme would conflict with the local plan in its failure to make adequate provision for affordable homes. Buckingham also thought the position of the homes would disrupt the “regular rhythm” of the estate, and could cause unacceptable overlooking and highway safety problems. ( CONCLUSION Buckingham dismissed the appeal, saying the plan would make good use of underused land in an area with good transport links, but this did not outweigh the harm identified. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/E0345/W/17/3176746

TRAVELLER SITES

Green belt gypsy pitch is justiﬁed ( SUMMARY The ‘urgent and profound’ personal circumstances of a

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Nottingham gypsy traveller family have fulfilled the very special circumstances needed to permit stationing their caravan on green belt. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a green belt site near Cotgrave. It is within open countryside, although there is some development nearby, including a pub and parkand-ride facility. The appellant and his family had been living there since 2014. Their appeals against enforcement notices by Rushcliffe Borough Council were dismissed in 2015. The latest appeal, said the appellant, was made in light of the lack of alternative accommodation in the area, and his family’s circumstances. Inspector David Murray referred to the Rushcliffe Core Strategy, which states that individual proposals for gypsy sites should not be located in green belt. He agreed with the council’s assessment that the proposal would be harmful to the area as it would fail to keep the land permanently open. It would also harm its rural character by encroaching into the countryside. The council argued that its five-year supply of traveller sites would be met by an

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Plans for 46 homes in Pensilva, Cornwall, have been rejected on highway safety grounds

expansion from six to 12 caravans at Cedar Lodge – an existing site where the appellant and his family previously lived. Murray was not persuaded, noting that the council’s traveller accommodation assessment was based on “an arithmetic calculation” rather than an independent assessment of “the real needs on the ground”. Without any lawful alternative the appellant’s family would be forced to live by the roadside, he said. The appellant’s wife was diagnosed with an antenatal illness during her pregnancy, so Murray agreed that having to leave the site would make it diﬃcult to continue her medical care. ( CONCLUSION Murray said the appellant’s personal circumstances were “urgent and profound”, and allowed the appeal. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/P3040/W/17/3167953

HOUSING

Footpath thwarts 61% aﬀordable homes plan ( SUMMARY Permission was refused for 46 homes in Cornwall because the proposed access footpath would be 80cm narrower than the minimum required width. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal site is near Pensilva, a residential area in east Cornwall. The appellant sought permission to build 46 homes – 61 per cent aﬀordable. The scheme also included plans for a new footpath to link the site

with the existing pedestrian access, which currently ends 120 metres to the north-west. The appellant said the footway would be 1.2m wide, achieved by narrowing the road to 5.3m. New traffic management measures would be introduced to improve highway safety, including a 30mph limit. Cornwall Council’s Highways Authority initially opposed the plan on highway safety grounds, but following amendments it deemed the plans satisfactory. Despite this, the council rejected the scheme on highway grounds. Inspector J P Roberts said the footway would be “significantly below the minimum width of 2m recommended for lightly used residential streets”. He decided that it is a “wellused class C road, providing the most direct means to travel from the village into Plymouth”, and the minimum should therefore be greater than 2m. Roberts said a path 1.2m wide would not allow two pedestrians, or a wheelchair and an ambulant person to walk side by side – this would make the footway “feel unsafe, and discourage its use”. ( CONCLUSION Roberts weighed the harm identified against the benefits of providing housing that would be 61 per cent affordable. He decided that the highway shortcomings would be “so severe that they outweigh all other considerations”. The appeal was dismissed. The appellant sought an award of costs against the council for ignoring the highways authority’s advice. Roberts refused this too, saying the council’s case was “supported by objective analysis”.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/D0840/W/17/3171249

HOUSING/COMMERCIAL

Green light for revival of 17th century pub ( SUMMARY An ‘uncompromisingly contemporary’ plan to regenerate an unused and deteriorating 17th century Cornish pub has received permission, despite local opposition from the Butchers Arms Preservation Society (BAPS). ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to the Butchers Arms, a grade II listed pub in St Ive, Cornwall, that closed in 2013. Inspector David L Morgan described the building as a “typical Cornish wayside inn, picturesque and appealingly informal in character”. The building had been altered and extended over time, and some areas had been “conspicuously degraded”. The proposal had three distinct parts. Parts of the building would be demolished as part of an “extensive reordering” of its

interior resulting in some loss of historic fabric. But Morgan considered that this would be “predicated on a detailed analysis” of the building and would not diminish its special historic interest. Externally, the building would be remodelled with additions and extensions. Morgan called these bold and “uncompromisingly contemporary” in their approach, but considered that they would defer to the main body of the existing pub and would complement it. Finally, two new retail units with staﬀ accommodation above would be built next to the pub to secure the viability of repairing and remodelling it. Morgan said these would present “a strident departure from the architecture of the village” if they were to stand alone. However, he noted that at present the eastern end of the village is “dominated by a modern garage facility”, so the retail units would help to mediate between the two. The scheme was opposed by BAPS, who said the development would contravene the pub’s listing as an asset of community value because it would not reﬂect the pub as the community knows it. But Morgan said that although the pub’s character would change, it would remain a

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DiF { D pub. He added: “It must be remembered that the aim of the scheme is to bring the pub back into active use.” ( CONCLUSION Morgan allowed the appeal, saying the scheme would beneﬁt the fabric of the listed building and enable it to sustain its original use. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref:APP/D0840/W/17/3167332

INFRASTRUCTURE

Limestone bridge would enhance Bristol Park ( SUMMARY A classical-style limestone bridge to aid access to Clifton Downs for cyclists and pedestrians is the ﬁrst of its kind to be approved for construction in over a century after an inspector was swayed by the scheme’s sensitive design. ( CASE DETAILS The proposal sought

DECISIONS IN FOCUS permission for a 60-metre limestone bridge to be built over the busy Bridge Valley Road in western Bristol, which would complete a “missing link” in the circular route around Clifton Downs. The plans were conceived and submitted by Dr Adrienn Tomor, an engineer at the University of West England specialising in masonry bridges, who planned to set up an independent charity to fundraise for the project. Inspector Hayley Butcher noted the sensitivity of the Downs area, which has several designations including special area of conservation, important open space, local historic park, and Site of Special Scientiﬁc Interest). She considered that although the sensitive design and use of local materials meant it would be in keeping with its “grand surroundings”, it would necessitate the removal of 38 trees that form part of a “wider green backdrop”. Noting the limited opportunity for replacement planting on the site, she considered this would cause “less than substantial” harm

Bristol’s famed Clifton Suspension Bridge could soon be joined by a limestone footbridge at Clifton Downs

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under paragraph 134 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). ( CONCLUSION Noting the highway safety concerns associated with the existing crossing at Bridge Valley Road, along with public support for the plan, Butcher found “significant public benefit” in its favour. The appeal was allowed, subject to an extended fiveyear time limit owing to the project’s complexity. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/Z0116/W/17/3176180

HOUSING

Inspector rejects 20% profit bid ( SUMMARY An inspector has refused a 97home scheme near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, for its lack of affordable housing, rejecting the developer’s minimum profit margin of 20 per cent and saying an affordable housing contribution would be viable with a margin of 17.5 per cent. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to an undeveloped field near the village of Bolton-uponDearne, east of Barnsley. Inspector Daniel Hartley noted the “very positive contribution” the scheme would make to the supply of housing in the area, as well as its sustainable location and “convenient access to public transport and day-to-day facilities”. Notwithstanding these benefits, Hartley did not approve of the developer’s approach to affordable housing provision. The developer proposed to

offer some of the homes at a “low-cost sale price”, which it argued would be considered “affordable” in light of the recent housing white paper, which mooted changes to how affordable housing is defined. Hartley was not satisfied, noting that the paper is “not national policy”. The parties disagreed over the viability of the scheme. The council suggested that with a profit margin of 17.5 per cent, the scheme could support “at least 5 per cent” affordable housing, as well as all three financial contributions – for education, railway bridge works, and public open space – in full. The developer said it would only work towards a minimum profit margin of 20 per cent, adding that its board of directors “would not accept a profit level of 17.5 per cent”. It said the scheme could not support affordable housing even if the profit requirement was lowered to 17.5 per cent. Hartley sided with the council, considering that “a viable scheme does exist with a profit level of 17.5 per cent”. Finding no evidence of “abnormal risks” associated with the site that could justify a higher profit margin, he ruled that the developer had failed to prove why its minimum profit level of 20 per cent was necessary. The scheme would only be acceptable if the financial contributions were paid in full, in order to mitigate its adverse effects. The inspector also took issue with the proposed loose gravel driveway surfacing. He considered that it could be displaced onto the road, causing “skidding and slipping” that would have a “severe impact” on highway safety. I M AG E S | I STO C K / A L A M Y

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The communities secretary has green-lit a controversial plan to redevelop green belt land at Oaklands College in St Albans, adding 348 homes

should be triggered in this case had been superseded by the recent Supreme Court judgment on the NPPF, Javid found that the tilted balance should be engaged. ( CONCLUSION In light of the appellant’s failure to provide aﬀordable housing, the scheme’s adverse matters outweighed its beneﬁts, said Hartley, dismissing the appeal. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/R4408/W/17/3170851

GREEN BELT

Javid allows 348 homes on green belt in St Albans ( SUMMARY Plans for the comprehensive redevelopment of Oaklands College in St Albans, including refurbishment of college buildings and 348 homes, were approved by communities secretary Sajid Javid despite green belt restrictions. ( CASE DETAILS The scheme has seen massive opposition from local residents, echoed by St Albans’ MP Anne Main, who wrote to the secretary of state arguing that major developments of this kind could lead to the “eventual coalescence” of St Albans, Hatfield, and Welwyn Garden City. The plans, originally submitted in 2013, were rejected by St Albans District Council (SADC) because of conflict with its 23-year-old local plan. Javid determined the proposal on this basis, deciding to afford the new emerging local plan little

weight because although it had been submitted in August 2016, the examining inspector found that the council had “not met its duty to cooperate with neighbouring planning authorities”. Javid agreed with inspector Philip G Ware’s finding that the scheme would be inappropriate green belt development. He also concurred that there would be harm to the character of nearby landscape and encroachment into the countryside, although he noted that the landscape was not designated. Against this, Javid weighed the benefits of the scheme. Stating that “the delivery of high-quality education is a local and national priority”, he noted that Oaklands is the main provider of further education in the district, and “the quality of its educational offer is not in dispute”. Despite this status, he noted, many of the existing college buildings are “of very poor quality” and “wholly unsuited to the provision of a high standard of education”, and others are “temporary structures that have outlived their normal life”. He ruled that significant weight should be afforded to the college’s refurbishment. Javid noted that the area’s lack of a five-year housing supply and the benefits arising from the provision of new homes were “largely matters of common ground” between all parties. Although Ward’s judgment on whether paragraph 14 of the NPPF

( CONCLUSION Javid allowed the appeal, ruling that the educational benefits of refurbishing the college, combined with the provision of 348 homes (35 per cent of which would be affordable) “clearly outweighed” the harm identified. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/B1930/W/15/3051164

HOUSING

Big extension to Cheshire village is overruled ( SUMMARY Communities secretary Sajid Javid has rejected a large-scale village extension near Crewe, saying it would undermine the spatial policies of the newly adopted local plan, which has addressed the area’s former housing supply shortfall. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to the former Gorstyhill golf course, near the village of Wychwood. In 2003, permission was granted for 315 homes to be built in addition to the existing 390 homes approved in 1990. As part of the 2003 permission, a section 106 agreement was signed, limiting the total number of homes on the site to 725. In 2011, another 11 homes were approved, bringing the total number to just nine houses short of the S106 limit. In the present appeal, the

developer sought permission to build another 900 homes, as well as 6,700 square metres of employment and retail space, medical facilities, a primary school, and “a range of recreation and leisure uses” including a pub, café, and play area. The nearby country park would also be expanded to three times its current size. Wychwood Community Group, representing local opposition, said 900 more homes would “destroy the area”. The developer disagreed, stating that “it’s time to get building” because “tackling the country’s housing shortfall is a moral duty”. Javid agreed with inspector Claire Sherratt’s findings on character and appearance, calling the scheme “a significant incursion into open countryside” that would be “disproportionate in scale to existing development”. This would be contrary to the local plan, which envisages only small-scale infilling. He noted that the council’s adopted local plan had addressed its housing supply shortfall, and it could prove a 5.3-year supply of sites. Although the scheme would be “numerically large”, over a five-year period it would only contribute 2 per cent towards the area’s five-year housing requirement, he said. ( CONCLUSION Dismissing the appeal, Javid ruled that because the council had now addressed its housing supply shortfall, allowing this proposal would “prejudice and undermine” the local plan’s spatial policies. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/ R0660/W/16/3150968

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Career { D E V E L O P M E N T CAREER DEVELOPMENT: BUILDING A STRONG TEAM

Teamwork is an essential ingredient for success in planning. At this year’s RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence three organisations were recognised for their exemplary team building. Matt Moody asked them how they did it INDIGO PLANNING Founded 30 years ago with a team of just three people, Indigo has grown into one of the UK’s largest independent planning consultancies. It was crowned Planning Consultancy of the Year at the 2017 RTPI Awards. “We aim to keep staff motivated by talking to them – I think by being open with people it’s a lot easier for them to buy into our ethos,” says Phil Villars, Indigo’s managing editor. “We’re very open about our financial performance, almost on a weekly basis. Everyone here owns shares in the business and that’s important for making sure we all feel part of one single entity.” This focus on communication is useful when it comes to clients, too. “To achieve the kind of successful development our clients are looking for, we work with a wide range of people, including local communities, planning authorities, interest groups, and more. Good connections are important, so our training has a real focus on communication skills – face-to-face, as well as online.” As a large-sized consultancy that now operates from four offices across the UK, maintaining cohesiveness has presented a challenge for Indigo. “It’s really important to keep a singular ethos across the business even as it has grown,” says Villars. “We get our staff together as a single business between offices as often as we can, whether it’s for social events or large projects. As the managing director, I try and make sure people at each of the offices know me.” Maintaining that culture requires an organic approach to recruitment, says

OPTIMIS CONSULTING Villars. “We’ve brought in people almost on a one-by-one basis, rather than the ‘bolt-on’ style of recruitment you see sometimes when businesses are trying to meet new demands. We’ve always been ambitious, but we do it in a very purposeful way”.

TIPS

• Make sure staﬀ feel responsible for their work • Be open and inclusive • Make coming to work as enjoyable as possible

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID “Indigo’s enthusiasm and commitment to planning, people and places shines out, especially their innovation in communication and use of social media for community engagement,” said Nick Raynsford, chair of the RTPI Awards judging panel. “Their work builds on and goes beyond the positive contribution that planning makes to communities. We were impressed by their innovative practice and engagement with clients, stakeholders and the community.”

Optimis is a small planning consultancy based in Bedford. Its “highly professional and dynamic” team helped it to victory in the Small Consultancy of the Year category at this year’s RTPI Awards. Cultivating the right company-wide ethos has been the key to success at Optimis, says managing director Justin Wickersham. “We aim for working practices that are flexible, promote professional development and allow staff to celebrate success both individually and as a team. This is a powerful approach, because the team want to come to work and they want to succeed, and I think our clients respect us for that.” Building a close-knit team has benefited both staff and clients, says Wickersham. “We’ve found that if individual experiences are shared and we incorporate a range of unique approaches and skills from across the team, we can provide an improved service to our clients. Moreover, our minimal hierarchy empowers each of us to develop, and this benefits the business as a whole. Working as a compact team is not

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JOBS

without its challenges, however. “As a small team based in Bedford, attracting the right people was difficult at first. We approached this by innovating and offering services that other consultancies do not, and investing time and resources into our staff to help them become better planners. This has helped instil a sense of camaraderie where our staff see the business as an extension of their friendship group, which has really helped the business to thrive.” Finding the funding to expand has been challenging for Optimis, but the consultancy is now in a strong financial position. “We’ve not been afraid to take risks in order to grow and achieve financial stability,” says Wickersham.

TIPS

• Focus on the health, happiness and well-being of your team • Incentivise the team and celebrate success • Provide time, funding and support for CPD

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID “The team at Optimis are dynamic and highly professional, and offer a strong service to clients,” said Raynsford. “Their unpaid work with community groups on planningrelated matters reflects their willingness to give back. We were impressed by their continuing professional development sessions for staff to develop their expertise and provide additional value to clients.”

Make Planner Jobs your ﬁrst port of call for town planning jobs, careers advice and the latest people news from across the sector. Visit jobs.theplanner.co.uk

NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL AND ENGIE In 2010, North East Lincolnshire Council entered into a 10-year regeneration partnership with energy and services provider Engie. Seven years later, the partnership team was recognised for its efforts as the RTPI’s pick for Local Authority Planning Team of the Year. Building a cohesive team out of two organisations with different working cultures required a measured approach, says Cara Portress, partnership communications manager at Engie. “We initiated a transformation project by appointing a business improvement manager from a non-planning background, and a planning manager keen to enable development. As a result, we were more able to cut through professional barriers and foster a new culture, which saw staff from both Engie and the council embrace new ways of working.” The project saw a number of changes, says Portress. “First, we encouraged the idea that each and every team member has an equal responsibility for maintaining the service’s reputation through high performance, which helped develop our ‘one team’ culture. This included celebrating success too – ensuring team members at every level understood the value of their contribution.” Recruiting to the north Lincolnshire area proved a challenge, but this has strengthened the partnership’s commitment to staff development. “It’s important for us to develop young

people and ensure we have a succession plan to develop and retain our future leaders. There’s also a strong desire to create more job opportunities for local people. These factors have encouraged our ‘grow your own’ philosophy, supporting junior staff to progress through our graduate scheme, work placements and apprenticeships.” Strong and effective teamwork in the planning department has had a knockon effect for the organisation as a whole, says Portress. “Not only has it led to the success of the planning department, but also encouraged the wider organisation to embrace our approach in other areas.”

TIPS

• Reward success and share it with every member of the team • Make sure leaders are clear on purpose, outcomes and the role of each team member • Take your team on a transformation journey with you and they will be proud of what is achieved

WHAT THE JUDGES SAID “This partnership is a high-performing planning team with a ‘can-do’ attitude,” observed Raynsford. “Their ‘enabling not controlling’ attitude to development should be held up as an exemplar. Feedback shows their planners are transparent, proactive, pragmatic, objective and professional. They have some great ideas for best practice including paper free planning, commitment to staﬀ development, joined-up working and face-to-face or telephone engagement rather than email.”

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INSIGHT

LLegal landscape DOES AIR QUALITY CONCERN EQUATE TO A MORATORIUM ON DEVELOPMENT? An environmental precedent set in a recent case close to Ashdown Forest has implications for housebuilding across the UK, says Mark Appleton. Legal action taken by Wealden District Council (WDC) on environmental grounds threatens far-reaching consequences in relation to desperately needed housebuilding projects. WDC’s action relates only to the protection of air quality around the Ashdown Forest, but it is already affecting planning decisions in neighbouring authorities in the South East. There is a danger that a legal precedent has been set for the way potential increases in traffic movements caused by building new homes are aggregated over wide areas and deemed detrimental to Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). The issue arose following a case between the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Knight Developments and WDC. Knight Developments’ application was not approved as the judge said fumes from additional cars would have a detrimental effect on nearby Ashdown Forest as there was no agreed heathland

Mark Appleton management scheme in place. The inspector had made mistakes so his decision was flawed. The Design Manual for Roads and Bridges has previously stated that traffic increases along sensitive sections of road below 1,000 annual average daily traffic movements do not need to be taken into consideration. As the joint core strategy in relation to Ashdown Forest Special Area of Conservation anticipated increases in traffic below 1,000 AADT (annual average daily traffic) along the roads adjacent to the SAC, it was thought these could be ignored. In another case, the secretary of state had argued that the 1,000 AADT threshold equated to a 1 per cent change in the critical levels relating to pollutants. If this was not exceeded, then there would be no likely significant effect on the SAC – and development should be assessed case by case. WDC argued otherwise. Mr Justice Jay found that on a proper interpretation, developments could not

be considered in isolation. Indeed, the housing policies of the authority had already breached the threshold quoted for acceptable levels of traffic. All increases in traffic must be considered when considering a development proposal – even though the proposed development itself does not exceed the 1,000 AADT threshold. As such, Lewes District Council and South Downs National Park Authority should, notwithstanding advice from Natural England, take into account the impact of all vehicle emissions on nitrogen deposits in the heathland within the SAC. Though relating specifically to air quality controls along the A22 and A26, the case could

“DEVELOPMENTS WILL ONLY BE PERMITTED WHEN THEY CAN PROVE THAT THEY WILL NOT DAMAGE THE SAC ANY FURTHER”

affect local towns such as Lewes and East Grinstead, and as far afield as Brighton and Hove. This will have disastrous effects on house building. WDC issued a release on 7 March 2017 confirming that taking into account existing traffic and development commitments that are in place there is already an unacceptable level of nitrogen deposits in areas close to forest roads. The district council will not accept planning applications and will not grant any new planning consents that could affect the SAC. The exclusion zone could be up to 25 km. Developments will only be permitted when they can prove that they will not damage the SAC any further. Only some types of development are exempt, such as home extensions, local shops and some brownfield land. Housing quotas cannot be met on this basis. There are 658 designated SACs across the UK. The WDC case could be used by other local authorities or local action or environmental groups to prevent development. The case has already been referred to in the planning inspector’s observations on Leeds City Council’s Sites Allocation Plan. WDC itself is now objecting to applications submitted to neighbouring councils on the grounds of intensification of nitrogen deposition from additional traffic movements. The minister for housing needs to be petitioned immediately to resolve this – by whatever means are necessary to prevent a potentially catastrophic effect on the housing industry. Mark Appleton is partner, commercial property, at Boyes Turner UK

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LATEST POSTS FROM THEPLANNER.CO.UK/BLOGS

B LO G S The CPO model form can speed up applications for compensation but, if not carefully used, it can leave claimants with problems if the claim sparks oﬀ a dispute that ends in court

L E G I S L AT I O N S H O R T S Bid to block Scottish wind farms fails

The CPO model claim form: a double-edged sword? Debbie Reynolds With the law surrounding compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) notoriously difficult to navigate, the government’s updated compensation claim form provides hope that processes will be simplified and modernised. The document delivers positive change for claimants, provided that they make detailed and correct use of the form. The new model form is intended to streamline the process of claiming and assessing compensation due to those affected by CPOs, mainly by helping claimants comply with Section 4 of the Land Compensation Act 1961, which requires claims to be detailed and evidenced. The guidance document warns claimants that failure to provide detailed information to the acquiring authorities (AA) can result in the award of costs against a claimant in the Lands Chamber of the Upper Tribunal. It also advises AAs to send claim forms to potential claimants as early as possible. Given the similarity between the model claim form and the old ‘Form of Claim’, the efficacy of the new form will largely depend on proper utilisation. If it is adequately enforced and used, it could accelerate negotiations. This being said, the form requires significant detail and claimants should seek professional advice to complete it with sufficient information. Indeed, the form favours well-advised claimants, potentially putting those without specialist CPO assistance at an unfair disadvantage. The form is a double-edged sword; it can simplify and speed up compensation claims but, if improperly used, could put claimants in a difficult position, especially if the claim results in a dispute that ends up at tribunal. In addition to the model claim form and its guidance document, the Neighbourhood Planning Act (NPA) 2017 also reforms the compulsory purchase system. The NPA gives powers to AAs to acquire land temporarily, a measure well used in Development Consent Orders. The NPA also repeals Part 4 of the Land Compensation Act 1961, removing the ability for claimants to make additional compensation claims where a planning permission has increased the value of land within 10 years of a CPO. Both of these provisions are yet to take legal effect, however, from 22 September the NPA has enshrined the already existing ‘No-Scheme’ principle into legislation, meaning that increases or decreases in the value of land caused by the scheme, or prospect of it, cannot be taken into account. Claimants should be aware of the evolutions in the law regarding compulsory purchase. The new model claim form could result in improved negotiations, benefiting all parties, but could also be a source of trouble. As ever, the best advice for claimants facing CPO remains to seek professional advice. Debbie Reynolds is a compulsory purchase specialist and planning associate with UK law firm TLT

A judge has refused RSPB Scotland permission to appeal against a ruling that allows an oﬀshore wind farm to go ahead. The charity says the developments in the ﬁrths of Forth and Tay threaten thousands of sea birds. An earlier successful challenge to the projects was overturned after the Scottish Government lodged an appeal. The RSPB wanted to take this decision to the Supreme Court but three judges rejected the bid following a review of the written submissions. Permission was refused on the grounds that the application did not, “raise an arguable point of law of general public importance”. It also highlighted that the case had already been the subject of a judicial decision and reviewed on appeal. The Inch Cape, Neart na Gaoithe and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo projects were approved by Scottish ministers in 2014.

Judge convicted of ‘fake letters’ fraud A solicitor and deputy district judge has been convicted of fraud offences related to subverting planning applications between 2012 and 2015. Keith Shaw, 37 of Sleights, Whitby, pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates Court on 13 November. He was sentenced to 20 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for two years and, ordered to pay £2,747 in compensation and £7,285 in costs. Scarborough Borough Council alerted North Yorkshire Police to its suspicions in November 2015, with a report from the council indicating that Shaw had attempted to subvert a planning process. Shaw had applied for planning permission to develop land at several locations within the Whitby area. It was alleged that he tried to influence the planning office by submitting correspondence purporting to be from members of the general public in support of his applications, using the names and addresses of others without permission. The content of the correspondence was also entirely fictitious, said police. He also falsely claimed a refund of £2,747 in relation to surveyor’s fees.

Builder fined for non compliance Bovis Homes has been fined over £4,000 for failing to comply with planning conditions while building a development in Newport. The builder was granted planning permission to build 85 homes off Edgmond Road in 2013. One condition would see work and deliveries made to the site permitted between 7.30am and 6pm Monday to Friday, and between 8am and 1pm on Saturday. Prosecutor Paul Martin said work began in 2015, but the council received complaints that Bovis was working outside set hours. In March residents reported seeing work during a weekday evening. Martin said the incident in March happened days after Bovis Homes had been fined more than £15,000 after pleading guilty to nine counts of breaching a planning notice and to two counts of failing to comply with a breach of condition notice. Elizabeth Tremayne, acting for Bovis Homes, said the firm regretted its conduct. She said subcontractors had caused the breaches and Bovis had been unaware until it was informed by the council.

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NEWS

NEW MEMBERS

RTPI { RTPI draws on members’ expertise on housing need methodology

“Many congratulations to all of our new Chartered Members. Employers rightly recognise the professional expertise and integrity conferred by chartered status. Being a chartered member of the RTPI makes you part of a large professional team involved in a diversity of work designed to create better places.” – Stephen Wilkinson, RTPI President Melissa Balk

Helen Herriott

Emily Barnard

Alexander Jelley

Victoria Barrett

William Laing

Michael Beale

Jack Lilliott

Nicholas Beddoe

Kathy Hau Yan Lo

Mark Best

James Mann

Neil Best

Thomas Marshall

Emma Betteridge

Rebecca Marwood

Nicholas Billington

Alexander McCombie

Graham Blakey

Simon McKay

Stephen Borrows

Hannah Millman

Brooke Bougnague

Fiona Mitchell

Tim Brennan

Thomas Mitchell

Amanda Brown

Andrew Morrison

Catherine Campbell

Sarah Murray

Susan Chan

Charles Nathan

Oliver Coleman

Garrett Newman

Emer Costello

Omojo Onuh

Emma Cottam

Sheena Pandita

Christopher Crew

James Pattison

Shikha Dasani

Steven Peck

Thomas Davies

Edward Pigott

Jennifer Davies

Lisa Proudfoot

Rory Davis

Neil Quinn

Sarah De La Coze

David Rawlings

Paul Derry

Thomas Rice

Anjan Dey

Emma Runesson

Harry Dodd

Andrew Russell

Kathryn Donnelly

Matthew Seaman

Ramsay Duﬀ

Michael Smith

Stephen Dukes

Donald Sorby

Rochelle Duncan

Timothy Spurway

Karen Dunn

Elliot Stamp

Carolyn Dyal

Dawn Stewart

William Farrar (awarded posthumously)

Carolyn Tait

Fiona Flaherty

Naomi Taylor

Aine Geraghty

Mark Thompson

Lisa Gill

Amy Ward

Michael Gooch

Ian Warren

Adrian Green

Rikki Weir

Emma Groves

Daniel Wheelwright

Sarah-Jayne GrovesPhillips

Leanne Williams

Sarah Haarhoﬀ

Daniel Wilson

n Read the Institute’s full response:

Sarah Hayes

Melissa Wilson

bit.ly/planner1217-oan

Aimee Henderson

Fred Woodrow

HARRY BURCHILL MRTPI, PLANNING POLICY OFFICER

Last year the RTPI agreed with the Local Plan Expert Group that something needed to be done about the long and costly process of debating Objectively Assessed (Housing) Need (OAN) at inspection. For us, the long-awaited Planning for the Right Homes in the Right Places could not come soon enough. However, simplifying a process brings its own challenges. In this case, we have noticed how the proposed market demand-led methodology would lead to significant housing growth in areas that are already “at capacity” and a dramatic decline in areas that have previously harboured strong growth ambitions. Clearly not unnoticed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), the consultation suggests a cap of 40 per cent above existing numbers for authorities who will see theirs increase, and that where authorities wish to plan for a higher number, inspectors would have to come up with compelling reasons not to let

RTPI news pages are edited

by Josh Rule at the RTPI, CHARTERED MEMBERS 41 Botolph Lane, London ELECTED JULYSEPTEMBER 2017 EC3R 8DL

them. As we have been discussing in roundtable meetings with our members in London, Newcastle, Melton Mowbray, and Manchester, one of the big questions is what parameters should be put in place to ensure that the protracted discussions currently experienced over OAN are not simply shifted on to what constitutes a compelling economic growth argument for an uplift to be allowed. Combined with some well-informed responses from RTPI members to questions about strengthening the duty to cooperate, planning fees, viability and neighbourhood planning, we are confident that the government will benefit from the very best advice from the planning profession, thanks in no small part to those members who have engaged with the RTPI policy team.

Florence Taylor

Lauren Williamson

Matthew Heron

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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

3 POINT PLAN A planner explains how they would change the English planning system

Sara Dilmamode MRTPI DIRECTOR OF CITIESMODE URBAN PLANNING RESEARCH AND TRAINING CONSULTANCY Our team’s research is focused on ‘what works’ in development management and plan-making and creating spaces for conversations about how we design processes that deliver better places for people. Planning processes need to be designed to make them easier to navigate for both users and those managing these processes. Reinspired by Citiesmode’s participation in the World Design Summit in Montreal, I believe plan-making and development management systems should be simple and outcome-focused. We need to have processes that are designed to deliver well-designed places, not just to deliver outputs like ‘plans’ or ‘permissions’. Redesigning these systems and enabling delivery needs the collective intellect of planners, developers and communities, but also other professionals in the built environment sector and other ‘users’ of the planning system. Identifying and learning from mistakes of the past is of course necessary. But constructive dialogue that avoids blame and acknowledges how we are already doing things better and how we can do better going forward is essential.

COMMITTEE PRIORITIES: THE RTPI CYMRU MANAGEMENT BOARD RTPI Cymru promotes planning as a profession and builds links with other built environment professions and organisations throughout Wales. Alan Southerby MRTPI, chair of the RTPI Cymru Management Board, gives an update on its current priorities:

To engage with Welsh Government and partners to ensure a positive planning system in Wales To deliver a programme of activities to meet the needs of our members To promote understanding and knowledge of planning to young people in Wales RTPI Cymru tailors services to the needs of our members responding to Wales’s context. Our Policy and Research Forum leads on developing policy and research directed to the planning system in Wales within the context of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. Our events and activities build on this work to deliver continuing professional development opportunities and we work to promote planning to younger audiences.

1 Designing better processes as well as places by making the process fit the plan rather than the other way around

2 Dialogue and sharing knowledge on how to improve processes within and beyond the built environment sector

3 Delivery focused planning processes with a focus on the outcomes for people

POSITION POINTS

SHORT TERM LETTING IN SCOTLAND Research by the Scottish Government into short-term lets suggests an absence of regulation compared to alternatives has increased their availability – the number of properties on platforms like Airbnb has risen exponentially. Negative impacts include residential take-up, community displacement, and health and safety concerns in some areas. There is a need to balance these with the beneﬁts of a strong visitor economy. The report recommends more consideration of amenity and residential housing impacts and a change in the Use Classes Order. RTPI Scotland sees the case for a new class, subject to having well-resourced planning enforcement that can manage seasonal changes in property use, e.g. harnessing the beneﬁts of Edinburgh’s festival economy.

n Full report: bit.ly/planner1217-lets

CLEAN GROWTH STRATEGY This strategy rightly places decarbonisation at the heart of the government’s Industrial Strategy, but lacks suﬃcient policies to meet the 4th and 5th carbon budgets, let alone the Paris agreement ambitions. Spatial planning is also largely absent from the strategy, despite its key role in reducing emissions from transport and building. The RTPI is studying the impact of diﬀerent settlement patterns and urban forms on emissions, and has partnered with the TCPA to produce new guidance.

n The RTPI’s climate change work: bit.ly/planner1217-climate Clean Growth Strategy: bit.ly/planner1217-growth

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NEWS

RTPI { Planning as a force for good – or is it? The latest edition of Planning Theory and Practice (18:3), the Institute’s academic journal, is out and includes a special section on property and planning. It might seem strange to ask, but do planners (and planning academics) focus enough on property? Of course, planning has always been about what gets built where, but in its breadth and diversity planning research frequently reaches out much wider to issues such as participation, democracy, governance and sustainability. Articles in this edition return to the central historical question of how planning relates to property rights:

does it mainly serve to protect existing rights (and so by implication powerful interests), or can planning also promote more progressive understandings of property and the wider public interest? If planning is to be a force for good, the question of property and whose interests are served is inescapable, and in the tradition of the journal, the tensions inherent in contemporary planning are confronted head-on. Three more articles, based on examples from three continents, deal with community engagement –

from neighbourhood planning, to the challenges of building consensus in socalled ‘collaborative planning’ processes, and even how social media can eﬀect planning decisions. Relatedly, the Interface section of the journal focuses on the thorny issue of opposition to development. How can – and should – planning ‘deal with’ community resistance, and is it becoming ever more ‘immovable’? As ever, the journal continues to debate critically the role of planning (and planning research) in contemporary society. n Read the latest edition now! bit.ly/planner1217-ptp

I NT ERNATI ON AL I N FOC US : R T P I MEMBERS W OR KI N G AR OUN D T H E W O R LD Cairo, Egypt

Y DR BASSEM FAHMY MRTPI PRINCIPAL ADVISER, STRATEGIC URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN PROGRAMME MANAGER UNITED NATIONS FOR HUMAN SETTLEMENTS CAIRO EGYPT PROGRAMME

Working in urban development policies and planning programmes is quite challenging after the ‘Arab Spring’, which began in 2010. It questioned the possible elements of change in urban policies, the institutional settings and governance of urban issues. Working in this sector can be perilous as the social and governance transitions are still taking place. Along with the programme staﬀ, I manage more than 60 consulting ﬁrms and 150 experts undertaking the Strategic Planning and Development Program activities. There are a number of ongoing projects including Strategic Urban Development Plan for 70 small cities in Egypt, Metropolitan Development for Greater Cairo, Luxor resilience strategy and AlAlamein New City Development.

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I strongly believe that the team I work with can have significant positive change. My work aims to enhance urban development. I interpret the UN’s priorities and principles and respond to local priorities in an efficient and realistic manner. The programme supports at national, regional and city level, innovative urban development projects. One of the central priorities is to tackle key urban development issues in light of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals based on lessons learned from international experience and deep understanding of the local context. The programme supports improving the urban planning process in Egypt and provides scientific research that supports the development of policy recommendations. Being a member of the RTPI is a privilege. The Institute keeps me updated with the latest planning and development issues, which is extremely important. The RTPI publications are one of my primary technical resources.

I M AG E | I STO C K

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN

Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us MEMBERS’ INFRASTRUCTURE EXPERTISE SOUGHT TO RESPOND TO NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENT The RTPI will be responding to the UK Government’s Interim National Infrastructure Assessment, which sets out the vision and priorities for meeting the UK’s infrastructure needs up to 2050. The Institute seeks the views of members with expertise in this area. Please email james.harris@rtpi.org.uk by 4 January 2018. More information about the National Infrastructure Assessment: bit.ly/planner1217-infrastructure

BOOK NOW ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENTS: BELFAST The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations require certain developments to go through an assessment process. This full-day course on 30 January will support you to identify and assess potentially significant environmental effects of developments. The EIA process is complex, involving screening, scoping, assessment and evaluation. Each stage will help you to identify what measures should be proposed and applied to the final scheme to reduce impacts. Attending this masterclass will help you to understand what Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is, and discern the different stages of the process. This RTPI Training course is also available in London, Leeds, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. For more information and to book, visit: bit.ly/planner1217-eia

RTPI SCOTLAND IS #PLANNINGAHEAD RTPI Scotland will contact all members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) this month to highlight the value that planning can add to housing, healthy lifestyles, local economies, citizenship, and the management of Scotland’s natural resources and most treasured places. Before the Planning Bill is laid in Parliament, we want to make MSPs aware of the breadth of work that planners contribute to, including the Central Scotland Green Network and South East Scotland Transport Partnership’s work with young people. We urge members to share examples of our best practice with councillors and other stakeholders in their areas. Details and materials at: bit.ly/planner1217-planningahead

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER THE 2018 RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE The closing date for the awards is Friday 8 December. The awards recognise best practice both in the UK and internationally, rewarding the brightest talent across 14 categories of projects, teams and individuals. Entry is free and all applicants are encouraged to read the guide on how to write a winning entry. The ﬁnalists will be announced in February and the awards will be presented at a ceremony on 24 May 2018, at Milton Court Concert Hall in central London.

RTPI SHORTS

2018 SUBSCRIPTIONS: MAINTAINING SERVICES FOR MEMBERS Members will now have received their RTPI subscription for 2018. Subscriptions are due for renewal on 1 January annually. The RTPI Board of Trustees has decided to raise subscriptions for the ﬁrst time in three years in 2018 by less than £1 a month to maintain the highest level of service for members. As the largest institute for professional planners in Europe, the RTPI continues to improve and enhance its value for members through a wide array of careers advice and guidance, support in gaining chartered status, events, conferences, awards, networking opportunities and training. You can spread the cost of your subscription by setting up a direct debit for payment in equal quarterly instalments. You also have the option of paying online by credit or debit card. You may qualify for a reduced subscription fee if you are on a low income or if you started parental leave during the calendar year 2017 and 2018. If you have any queries email subscriptions@rtpi.org. uk, or phone +44 (0)20 7929 9463. More information: bit.ly/planner1217-subs

VACANT POSTS FOR THE RTPI’S CONDUCT & DISCIPLINE PANEL An integral part of the work and responsibility of the RTPI involves ensuring that professional ethics are upheld. A key role for the Conduct and Discipline Panel lies in deliberating over complaints brought against planners concerning alleged breaches of the code. Are you committed to the maintenance of high standards of professional conduct? Do you have an appropriate depth of experience to be able to contribute to the Institute’s conduct and discipline activities on a voluntary basis? We are currently looking to recruit one RTPI Member and one other professional to act as a layperson, whose area of expertise has some link to town planning, to join the panel. Members of the panel would serve a minimum of three years with the possibility of extending this further. The panel meets three times a year in London, and all necessary expenses are reimbursed. For an informal discussion about these posts please contact Sandra Whitehead on 02079298194, or email sandra.whitehead@rtpi.org.uk Please visit bit.ly/planner1217-panel to ﬁnd out more and apply. Applications must be received by 5pm on Wednesday 10th January 2018

For category details and how to enter: bit.ly/planner1217-awards

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