The Planner July 2017 by The Planner

JULY 2017 THE FMB’S BRIAN BERRY ALL ABOUT SME // p.18 • WINNING FORMULA: RTPI AWARDS 2017 // p.26 • NATIONS & REGIONS FOCUS THE SOUTH EAST // p.34 • CREATING A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN // p.38

T H E B U S I N ES S M O N T H LY FO R P L A N N I N G P R O F ES S IO N A LS

TROUBLED WATERS CAN PLANNING SEE OFF THE THREATS TO THE UK’S MARINE ENVIRONMENTS?

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PLANNER 07 18

CONTENTS

THE

J U LY

20 17

“WE RECOGNISE LOCAL AUTHORITY PLANNING DEPARTMENTS ARE UNDERRESOURCED AND WE'D PAY MORE FOR A BETTER SERVICE”

NEWS

4 Uncertainty casts shadow over major schemes

5 Current Cork boundaries ‘not viable’ 6 Biomedical research lab wins RTPI award 7 Titanic Belfast expansion plans 8 Entering a period of change 9 Significant Renfrew housing scheme approved

OPINION

14 Chris Shepley: Cable car plan for Bath creates a cornucopia of conspiracy theories 16 Ben Kite: The air quality plan – where could it go further?

10 Councils can’t meet affordable housing demand

16 Julia Thrift: Green infrastructure is good for society. So why do we struggle to fund it?

11 S106 agreement for Kent garden suburb signed

17 Emma Pinchbeck: Donald Trump and the tide of history

17 Jonathan Manns: Small government, big priorities

FEATURES 18 FMB chief executive Brian Berry says smaller builders are the answer to the nation’s housebuilding crisis 22 Efforts to protect England’s sensitive marine habitats seem to have stalled, says Huw Morris 26 The 40th RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence saw the profession in robust health

26 34 Nations & Regions: South-East

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“IF WE WANT MORE PEOPLE TO WALK AND TAKE PUBLIC TRANSPORT TO SHOPPING OR TO THE AIRPORT WE NEED DESIGN TO WORK FOR LUGGAGE, SHOPPING TROLLEYS ETC.” FORMER VANCOUVER CHIEF PLANNER BRENT TODERIAN

COV E R I M AG E | PE T E R C ROW T H E R

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INSIGHT 31 Tech landscape: Where do I plug in my mobile? 33 Legal landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning

38 Career development: Writing a personal development plan 40 Decisions in focus: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: Cut out and keep: Dress your own planning minister

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NEWS

Report {

New housing minister Alok Sharma

GENERAL ELECTION 2017

Uncertainty casts shadow over major schemes By Huw Morris

Amid the government’s contortions in the aftermath of the general election, what are the prospects for planning? Several more prominent names were suggested to succeed Gavin Barwell, the planning minister who lost his seat and is now Number 10’s chief of staff, before Alok Sharma was unveiled. Who is he? An accountant with a background in corporate finance, he was Foreign Office minister for Asia and the Pacific and David Cameron’s infrastructure envoy to India. Sharma has pressed for infrastructure investment closer to home, notably improvements at rail stations in his Reading West constituency plus the extension of Crossrail. He has campaigned against “unsustainable development on green spaces” and to scale back housing on one local site. He supports Heathrow’s expansion and HS2 but has several times voted against measures to combat climate change. Sharma will work with reappointed communities secretary Sajid Javid to

implement the housing white paper, which received a lukewarm reception. While this generally aims to boost development, recent appeal decisions, the holding direction on Bradford Council’s local plan and December’s written ministerial statement put housing need behind neighbourhood plans and the green belt. A key point amid Westminster’s agonising over Brexit – and for the built environment sector which sees free movement of labour within the EU as crucial to skills and growth – Sharma voted to remain in last year’s referendum, then supported Theresa May’s leadership bid because of her desire “for the many EU nationals who have chosen to make their home in the UK to have the freedom to remain here”. This is close to his heart as his wife is Swedish. Uncertainty is casting other big shadows. International ﬁnancial markets have been volatile in the absence of the ‘strong and stable’ government promised

Preferred route for the Lower Thames Crossing linking Kent and Essex

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by May, prompting doubts over sources of investment for infrastructure. The most recent survey by the Civil Engineering Contractors Association of its members, which deliver major projects, shows orders dropping for the ﬁrst quarter since 2013. There are considerable grumbles that a lack of clear leadership in Westminster on making vital decisions will entrench the downturn. One major scheme under the spotlight will be the Lower Thames Crossing, which is backed by reappointed transport secretary Chris Grayling and could cost up to £6 billion. While supporting it, Labour has pledged to “ensure the decision-making process has been completely robust and represents the best value for money”. Anti-airport expansion campaigners believe at least 31 of London’s 73 MPs openly oppose Heathrow’s third runway, with a majority of them ultimately voting against the scheme when it goes to Parliament next year. This is an awkward squad for a minority government. This links in with air quality, top of new environment secretary Michael Gove’s in tray. Conservative plans have already been defeated twice in the courts. The government was forced to publish a new draft national air quality plan during the election campaign but environmental lawyers at ClientEarth say this is inadequate and the group is taking ministers back to court for a third time. Gove, who will decide any Development Consent Order applications on wastewater or waste, has called for the Habitat Directive to be scrapped. He is unpopular in some circles for voting against measures to combat climate change and his bid as education secretary to scrap the subject from the curriculum. He too can expect a torrid time at the despatch box. I M A G E S | PA / L O W E R T H A M E S C R O S S I N G / I S T O C K

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PLAN UPFRONT Th an 60 ar

Indoor air quality is ‘a planning issue’ Developers could be required to achieve a certain indoor air quality (IAQ) when trying to get planning permission for new buildings, as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is urged to consider it for his London Plan. The Clean Air London campaign has called on Khan to include IQA levels in his revised London Plan for buildings over a certain size. Simon Birkett, the campaign’s founder, has also called for more measures to turn buildings into ‘safe havens’ in the face of rising outdoor pollution. The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has given its support to the proposal to make achieving a certain

standard of IAQ necessary to gain planning permission. Paul McLaughlin, chief executive at BESA, said focusing on IAQ could make an immediate diﬀerence. “While the lengthy debates and legal challenges over how to address outdoor air pollution rumble on, our industry can make an instant impact by putting measures in place that protect the health of building occupants.” In January 2017, Khan announced £1.4 million worth of funding for six neighbourhoods to tackle London’s air quality at a local level. The funding will be matched by £1.1 million from the London

boroughs involved and Heathrow Airport. Birkett said he thinks Khan would supports an IAQ planning proposal, which would be a “game changer”. Birkett noted that the building regulations already contain requirements for maintaining NO2 at a safe level that should be enforced. “People spend about 90 per cent of their time indoors and the cost of ﬁltration is about 10 per cent of the cost of actually getting air into the building,” said Birkett. “The cost of ﬁlters is tiny compared to salaries and the impact of poor air quality on people’s health and productivity.”

STATS

£1.4 million worth of funding for six neighbourhoods to tackle London’s air quality

90%

People spend about 90 per cent of their time indoors

Report: Current Cork boundaries ‘not viable’ A report considering the local government and doesn’t reflect the pattern of urban arrangements of Cork suggests that development. The boundary is also retaining the city’s current boundaries is deemed to be unhelpful to Cork’s position “not viable”, that the Cork City Council as the driver of economic development. area should be expanded, and that a Cork It says the best option for Cork would Metropolitan Area Plan should be created. be for the city council to focus on the Ireland’s then-housing and planning development of the city and its immediate minister Simon Coveney established hinterland as Ireland’s second city with the the Expert Advisory Group on Local potential to drive the development of the Government Arrangements in Cork in city region. October 2016. He tasked them to make The city council boundary should be proposals and to review a report published extended to increase the population of in 2015, which recommended that the the city council area to 215,000 (based on city and county should merge as well as 2011 census figures) and approximately consider wider options. 225,000 based on 2016 census figures. The advisory group has concluded that The boundary should be based on “retaining the status quo is not a viable physical, social and natural borders option”. reflecting local communities, townlands Its report says the and infrastructure. “This current boundary is “THE CURRENT BOUNDARY would allow the city to “by common consent consolidate its position IS BY COMMON CONSENT hopelessly out of date”, HOPELESSLY OUT OF DATE” and to grow and develop

its potential,” says the report. The city boundary should extend to include Ballincollig, Carrigrohane, Blarney, Glanmire, Carrigtwohill, and Cork Airport. The county council should focus on the needs of county towns and rural parts of Cork as well as the harbour area. The setting up a Cork Economic Development and Planning Board was also suggested. Representatives should come from both the city and county, focused on strategic planning for economic development, housing provision and strategic infrastructure in the wider area by adopting a Cork Metropolitan Area Plan.

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NEWS

Analysis { RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE

Biomedical research lab wins RTPI award

Silver Jubilee Cup winners The Francis Crick Institute

Young Planner of the Year Luke Coﬀey

a Planning Performance Agreement and The Francis Crick Institute has won the strong community engagement from the RTPI’s Silver Jubilee Cup at the institute’s company’s planners. 2017 Awards for Planning Excellence. The Planning Performance Agreement In total, 13 winners were announced at was the ﬁrst of its kind for Camden the awards at London’s Milton Court and Council, setting objectives and standards Concert Hall, including International for the development from good Award for Planning Excellence and architectural design, permeability and Young Planner of the Year. The Silver open space as well as plans to ensure the Jubilee Cup was then awarded to the scheme contributed to tackling social entry considered best overall by the and economic deprivation. judges across all 13 categories. It also allowed planning and urban The Francis Crick Institute, a design oﬃcers from Camden Council pioneering research centre in central and the Greater London Authority to sit London, won in the Excellence in alongside the Crick’s own design team to Planning to Create Economically provide direct advice at every key Successful Places category. Economic technical meeting. contributions are expected to Every local councillor, and include around 700 new jobs, “[PLANNERS'] tenants and residents’ a £16m annual GDP increase UNIQUE SET OF opposed the in the area from the project SKILLS ENABLED associations, scheme when it was and an £8m boost to local THEM TO ENGAGE announced. But in the 18 spending from the 1,500 WITH THE leading up to the additional employees. COMMUNITY AND months planning submission, The building uses solar INCORPORATE held 99 panels and combined heat FEEDBACK” – NICK planners community events to and power plants to provide explain the project and low-carbon power onsite. The RAYNSFORD, CHAIR OF THE JUDGING PANEL obtain community feedback. project faced community Nick Raynsford, chair of opposition and had to the judging panel, called the overcome a number of project an “outstanding planning challenges through

example of the value planners bring to a complex project”. “Their unique set of skills enabled them to engage with the community and incorporate their feedback. This resulted in clear improvements to the project and beneﬁts for the local community, including a community centre, community garden and apprenticeships, as well as building local support for a project that will potentially deliver a hugely positive economic impact for London and the UK.” Other RTPI Awards went to the Hung Shui Kiu new development area plan (HSKNDA), winner of the International Award for Planning Excellence. Hung Shui Kiu is an area in the western part of the new territories of Hong Kong and was designated a potential site for a new town in 2003. The plan proposes homes for about 218,000 residents, including 176,000 in new population. Amongst other winners was Luke Coffey, named Young Planner of the Year. Coffey is a senior planning consultant at engineering firm Mott MacDonald in Birmingham. A full list of winners and details of the winning projects can be found on page 26

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PLAN UPFRONT Plans to expand Belfast's Titanic Quarter have been submitted to the city council

Royal Assent granted for land transaction tax legislation The Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Bill has received Royal Assent, becoming the first act of the current Assembly term. Land transaction tax will replace stamp duty land tax in Wales when it is devolved in April 2018. First Minister Carwyn Jones applied the Welsh Seal to the Letters Patent at the sealing ceremony. He said the act is a “significant step” in the country’s devolution journey. “It will bring additional responsibility as we become responsible for raising a proportion of our own money and an opportunity to make a real difference to public services in Wales.” Mark Drakeford, Welsh finance secretary, who also attended the ceremony, added that it would ensure that public services continue to benefit from the revenues raised by this important tax. It is the first Welsh tax to be enacted in almost 800 years.

Titanic Belfast expansion plans submitted Plans to expand and reconfigure elements of the Titanic Belfast and the Odyssey Pavilion complex in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast have been lodged with the city council. The proposals include a new main entrance to the Odyssey Pavilion, extension/ reconfiguration of adjoining ground and first-floor units and the provision of external seating terraces. The public realm is set to get an upgrade. Also proposed are the extension, integration and alteration of Titanic Pavilions no.3 and no.4 including change of use from

retail to provide additional conferencing facilities for the adjacent Titanic Belfast. Tim Husbands, chief executive of Titanic Belfast, said: “At Titanic Belfast, we do not rest on our laurels and are continuously looking at ways to enhance our ﬁve-star facilities for the thousands of local, national and international tourists we welcome on an annual basis. "We look forward to revealing this development in due course, subject to planning permission." The planning references for the scheme are LA04/2017/0753/F and LA04/2017/0717/F.

Go-ahead for key Swansea city redevelopment altered or demolished – except St Mary’s Church and St David’s Church. The scheme involves nearly 125,000 square metres of new development, most no more than seven storeys high, although there is provision for one 13-storey tower block. The council insists the proposals will act as another catalyst for the regeneration of the city centre. The second phase will mean the demolition of the civic centre and the creation of a city beach, which may also include an aquarium and digital science centre.

The ﬁrst phase of the proposed Swansea Central scheme at the former St David’s site has been given outline planning permission by city councillors. The plans were submitted to the City and County of Swansea Council in March 2017. The 11.5-hectare site north and south of Oystermouth Road will be developed by Rivington Land, the company that successfully bid for the land last year. It is proposing shops, a hotel, an indoor arena, ﬂats, a cinema and associated new public open space. Also planned is a pedestrian bridge link across Oystermouth Road. All existing buildings will be refurbished, I M AG E S | AC M E / A N DR E A PI STOL E S I

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NEWS

Analysis { RTPI CYMRU CONFERENCE

Entering a period of change

Rosemary Thomas (left) and Jason Jordan address the conference

By Laura Edgar

The 10th annual RTPI Cymru Conference considered the past, present and future of planning, as well as energy, housing, leadership, data and policy. So – how has the landscape changed? And what can be done going forward, here and across the pond? Devolution & technological revolution Reflecting on her career in planning, and the changes the profession has undergone, former chief planner at the Welsh Government Rosemary Thomas discussed the job market and the growth of planning consultancies since she began job-hunting in the mid 1970s. Today, technology has given planners previously unimaginable ways of conducting their business Devolution, meanwhile, through the creation of the National Assembly for Wales in July 1999, for Thomas “marked a positive change”. The former chief planner detailed Wales’ subsequent devolution journey, and how the National Assembly for Wales became responsible for land use planning, planning policy and the shaping of secondary legislation before graduating to primary legislation. Thomas went on to speak about the Welsh Government’s commitment to sustainable development and the Paris climate agreement, as well as the likely effect of Brexit including the loss of £300 million from the EU Common Agricultural Policy and its effect on farming and rural communities.

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The next decade that there were a number of plausible Thomas is confident that Wales will explanations for the “rise of populoushave a national development framework oriented politics of dissatisfaction” in the in place with regional strategic plans United States. reflecting the city deal areas of Cardiff Contributing to this, he said, is a crisis and Swansea, as well as north-east of opportunity, a sense that people do Wales, joining Manchester and Liverpool. not have the economic mobility, the Thomas expects there to be fewer social mobility and the opportunities planning authorities, but “better” service they once had. He added that the US delivery. She emphasised the importance suffered from a crisis of community as of maintaining local development plans well as trust. and expects air quality to improve as The US, he said, was “very divided” “robust controls are introduced”. in where growth was happening. Job “With all this, I am confident we creation had grown under Barack Obama will have more creative delivery of – in the West Coast, the North-East affordable homes and sites in accessible quarter, Florida and Texas – but was not locations with good services and green a universally “lived experience”. infrastructure; places where people are For Jordan, the role of place and content to live, and to put down roots. It’s place-making is the “biggest driver of about place-making,” she said. economic development today”. However, Thomas urged her audience Like Wales and the wider UK, the US to embrace the inevitable needs “more and better” structural changes ahead. housing and infrastructure. “The future has to be better Also, he added: “We “I THINK than the past. You have got have to do better at WE HAVE TO the chance to make it better. capturing the value of REPOSITION THIS these investments, and In the face of changes and PROFESSION challenges, don’t panic. Be at assuring that value in [PLANNING] LESS ways that address these brave, have bold visions – AS A PROTECTOR and seize the opportunity.” inequality issues. We have OF PROCESS to be smarter about where AND MORE AS What is happening in we are making these AN ENABLER OF the US? investments.” OUTCOMES” Guest speaker Jason – JASON JORDAN Jordan, director of policy Going forward and government affairs at Planning, said Jordan, is the American Planning essential to meeting social Association, suggested and political challenges. I M A G E S | R T P I / C A L A H O M E S W E S T A N D TAY L O R W I M P E Y W E S T S C O T L A N D

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PLAN UPFRONT

834

new homes at Newton Mearns

209

of the dwellings have been designated as affordable.

Significant Renfrew housing scheme approved East Renfrewshire Council has given the green light to a development of 834 new homes at Newton Mearns on the south-western flank of the Glasgow conurbation. The scheme at Maidenhill, eight miles from the city centre, will be built by CALA Homes and Taylor Wimpey. More than 209 of the homes have been designated as affordable. The developers are allocating land and funding for a new primary school as well as sports facilities and 135-145 square metres of communal green space.

A linear green corridor running the full length of the site is proposed as well as several ‘pocket parks’. Willie Burns, director of Taylor Wimpey West Scotland, said: “Our ﬁrst on-site priority will be to build roads and the framework to enable delivery of the new school located at the heart of the development, which is targeted to open in two years’ time.” n More details can be found on the Maidenhill website: tinyurl.com/planner0717-maidenhill

But in orfer to fulﬁl this promise, planners must speak up. They have to ﬁnd their voice, not just as professionals but as advocates, and as “people willing to front political truths”. Planners have to be better at engaging people, at pulling people into the local decision-making process and at using technology to allow people to feel ownership of the plans created. They have to embrace the idea that, at least for the short term, leadership is going to happen on the local level.

England’s floodplains no longer working, says study A study has suggested that 90 per cent of floodplains in England have changed so much that they no longer work properly. Conducted by the University of Salford and published by Co-op Insurance, Changing Face of Floodplains notes that semi-natural woodland and rough grassland together now only occupy 6 per cent of all floodplain areas. Wetland communities – fen, marsh and swamp – have been reduced to less than half of the country’s total floodplain area. This means that water flows across floodplains with increased speed, flooding towns and villages more quickly.

Speaking to The Guardian , the University of Salford’s George Heritage, co-author of the study, said that floodplains have been ignored. More than five million people in the UK are at risk of flooding, with at least 6,000 homes affected by the flooding caused by Storm Desmond in 2015. Citing the River Eden, in Cumbria, the study states that while in 1890 the length of the river was 2270.3 kilometres, by 2016 it was 3439.71km – an increase of 1169.41km. Report authors said that this has resulted in

floodwater moving downstream more rapidly towards towns and villages. Co-op Insurance has launched a tool-kit in response to the university’s findings. It comprises three stages: n Plant smart: This could be new trees, hedges, shrubs and bushes near the riverbank to help intercept and slow the flow of water. n Encourage regrowth: Remove bottom branches from mature trees in winter to encourage new branches to grow, helping to make them thicker and bushier. This will help to intercept and slow the flow of water. n Infiltration stations: Areas where water accumulates should be targeted to encourage infiltration. These could be pits with gravel infill, as they require little to no maintenance.

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NEWS

Analysis { SOCIAL HOUSING

Councils can’t meet aﬀordable housing demand By Laura Edgar

Scotland, they have national planning, Ninety-eight per cent of councils have strategic planning, local planning. In July described their affordable housing need as last year they ended the Right to Buy. either severe or moderate, with just 1 per You go into Wales, we are actually seeing cent rating it as ‘not substantial’. Welsh local authorities ending the Right That’s according to a report published to Buy, they have the Future Generations by the Association for Public Excellence of Wales Act where (APSE), researched and they think about future written by the Town population needs, what the and Country Planning “[IN ENGLAND] next generation might want Association (TCPA). WE NOW PLAN or need.” Building Homes, Creating AT THE LOCAL In England, Henderson Communities looks at how AUTHORITY continued, “we now plan at the cumulative impact LEVEL, IF WE the local authority level, if we of existing housing and PLAN AT ALL” plan at all”. planning policies in England – KATE HENDERSON She pointed to the housing – such as the “continued white paper, highlighting deregulation and reform how it does not mention of the planning system” – subsidised housing and has reduced the ability of social rent. However, it does councils to secure “genuinely feature “really positive” recognition that affordable homes” for social rent. the planning service needs resources. For It considers survey feedback from 166 Henderson, though, the starting position local authorities in Britain. is pretty challenging, following the 50 per Speaking at the report’s launch, Kate cent cuts to planning service between Henderson, chief executive at the TCPA, 2010 and 2015. noted that the nations of the UK are The study looks at how local in entirely different positions when it authorities are taking a more active comes to housing. She said England is role in housing delivery through “diverging further and further away” from entrepreneurial approaches, such as the approaches in Scotland and Wales. setting up local housing companies. “You go north of the border to

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Paul O’Brien, chief executive of APSE, said more council homes would help to support local economic growth, jobs and skills in the economy. “Housing could be an effective driver for a renewed industrial strategy, but to achieve this we need to place local councils at the heart of delivery on housing need. That means the future government of whatever political make-up must provide the financial freedoms and flexibility for councils to deliver solutions to our chronic housing shortage.” Harry Burchill, England policy officer at the RTPI, said the report is an important reminder that “constant tinkering with the planning system only hampers planners’ ability to play their role in delivering affordable homes in the right places”. “The crisis needs to be tackled in a number of ways, including helping the public sector make the most efficient use of surplus land and exploring more ways of capturing land value that arises from public investments in infrastructure, ” said Burchill. For Henderson, the most important thing is building consensus about the things that really matter – your environment, your access to education and care, a decent place to live, whatever your income and background. It is important there is consensus about getting it done and meeting the needs of everyone in society.

DIRTY WORK In 2014, Labour was re-elected to the council on a pledge to build 1,000 extra homes for council rent, said Matthew Bennett, cabinet member for planning, regeneration and jobs at the London Borough of Lambeth. Bennett told the audience at the APSE and TCPA report launch that Lambeth is already one of the densest boroughs, “building over our planned targets”. The council can’t aﬀord to buy land but it does have a lot of land. But it has been built on, with well established

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

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PLAN UPFRONT

S106 agreement for Kent garden suburb signed Building Homes, Creating Communities recommendations • The new government must invest in building new homes available for social rent to house essential lowpaid workers whose employment underpins an economy on which we all depend. • The new government should continue to support the development of effective strategic planning as part of a clear and logical narrative of local plans in England. • The new government should ensure that the definition of an affordable home set out in the NPPF is based on a measure of income and not pegged to an arbitrary proportion of market price. Building Homes, Creating Communities can be found here (pdf): tinyurl.com/planner0717-tcpa

communities living there. For many, said Bennett, regeneration is a “dirty” word and poor examples are thrown back at public meetings, the atmosphere “hostile and increasingly suspicious”. The council has set up a housing company to deliver the required regeneration and 1,000 extra homes. A pipeline of 4,000 homes has been developed over the past two and a half years, said Bennett. “We are looking at a 90 per cent increase in social housing.”

Work has begun on the Chilmington Green development after Ashford Borough Council and the developers signed a section 106 agreement worth £125 million. In October 2014, Ashford Borough Council approved a hybrid application for a mixed-use scheme after several years of consultation and masterplanning. The plan applies nationally recognised garden city principles adapted for the 21st century. Following consultation, Chilmington Green became established within the council’s adopted Core Strategy in 2008. A government-appointed independent planning inspector supported an Area Action Plan, which took the allocation forward, in 2013. The development, to the southwest of Ashford, will provide around £125 million towards local amenities including ﬁve new schools, shops, healthcare, sports and leisure facilities

and community facilities. About £40 million will also be invested in improving the A28 Chart Road. Chilmington Green will comprise 5,750 homes, a district centre and community infrastructure. It is expected to create about 1,000 jobs over 20 years, as the development is built out. About 60 per cent of the development will be green open space. Hodson Developments is the lead developer, alongside Pentland Homes, Jarvis Homes and BDW (Barratt/Ward Homes).

Ambitious bus strategy unveiled for Dublin Ambitious plans to transform bus public transport in the Dublin region have been published by transport minister Shane Ross and the National Transport Authority (NTA). A network of high-speed bus corridors has been proposed as a key element of a €1 billion strategy to ease the capital’s congestion. The suite of initiatives includes redesigning the existing bus routes, introducing a state-of-the-art cashless ticketing system, a simpler fare structure and new bus stops with better signage and information. In addition, a network of park-and-ride sites close to major roads and transport hubs such, as Luas stops and

Irish Rail stations, is planned, coupled with the introduction of low-emission buses. Of the £1 billion estimated cost, €300 million is already committed under Building on Recovery, the 2015 capital plan. NTA chief executive Anne Graham said: “We believe that there is potential to increase bus passenger numbers by at least 50 per cent over the lifetime of the project, which would represent a signiﬁcant step-change in how people get from place to place.”

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15/06/2017 10:51

LEADER COMMENT

Opinionn Elections have consequences (Remind me, what are they this time?) The UK’s ﬁrst-past-thepost electoral system for Westminster produces results so curious that they appear to make no sense whatsoever when looked back on. For example, more people voted Conservative in 2017 than voted Labour in 1997. While talk then was of Tony Blair “walking on water”, Theresa May is a “dead woman walking” – spot the ridiculous diﬀerence. What’s actually happened is a retreat to the UK’s traditional two-party hegemony, UKIP’s reason for being having died and the Scottish Nationalist Party’s support having dwindled. We’re told that we’ve just experienced a particularly ‘polarising’ election, but, well, was it really? The two main parties took just shy of 83 per cent of the vote. Conservatives 42 per cent, Labour 40 per cent. Take all 20 general elections

Martin Read since the Second World War and look at the average Conservative share of the popular vote compared with that of Labour; since 1945 an average of 80 per cent of the population has voted for one or other of the two main parties, with on average just 1.14 per cent dividing the two parties across the decades. Is there truly a virtue in the either / or approach when our two main protagonists are so evenly matched? Our system provides ‘results’ that the media

conveys through a language steeped in the glories of hunting and war. In a proportional system, talk today would be of a potential ‘grand alliance’ rather than the absence of a ‘landslide’, ‘outright victory’ or a ‘fatally damaged’ administration forced to ‘limp’ from one parliamentary vote to the next. The election’s impact on planning has been predictable, insomuch as planning minister Gavin Barwell’s defeat came as no surprise. Whatever your personal political aﬃliation. Barwell had at least quickly earned himself a reputation for bringing people together. Whether or not you agreed with the government’s

“THE SYSTEM WE USE PROVIDES ‘RESULTS’ THAT CONTINUE TO BE CONVEYED THROUGH A LANGUAGE STEEPED IN THE GLORIES OF HUNTING AND WAR”

approach, there was a sense that, with Barwell, dialogue was ongoing. We hope that Barwell’s replacement, Alok Sharma, shows similar levels of engagement. And it’s notable that Sharma will not, like Barwell, have to share his planning and housing brief with being London minister. Perhaps that is a sign that the importance of housing for this new administration has been kicked up a gear. If there’s a positive to take from our electoral system’s latest disproportionate mess, it’s that government and opposition alike must tread carefully to get things done. Planning, of course, involves assessments of suggested activities against established policy, each decision weighed carefully, and with compromise a frequent requirement. If it survives anything like a full term, it could well be that this ﬂedgling Conservative minority administration will be looked back on for having done exactly that. Interesting times lay ahead.

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Average net circulation 19,072 (January-December 2014) © 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 Southernprint

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19/06/2017 11:56

CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Cable car plan for Bath creates a cornucopia of conspiracy theories This is not the place to discuss the merits or otherwise of a cable car that is proposed in the city of Bath. But I do want to reflect on a community consultation exercise carried out by its promoters, who are (oddly) a housing association. I am not, so far as I can tell, much affected by the scheme. But the community in which I live will be, and it has been interesting to see the exercise from the receiving end. A ‘South Bath Transport Study’ was carried out for the promoters by one of our leading firms of consultants. Alternatives were discarded and the current ‘preferred option’ is to run a cable car from the railway station car park to a housing estate a mile or so away on higher ground, which the housing association is developing. It already has planning permission for it, including a transport plan (sans cable car). It is understood that there would be bus-sized gondolas carrying around 80 people traversing the route every few minutes from early until late, for commuters and tourists. Much of the route is likely to be over a residential area and hundreds of people will live below or close to it. It is in a conservation area and World Heritage Site, largely green belt, and partly in an AONB. The promoters chose to carry out an ‘in principle’ consultation, and they used the services of a public relations consultant to do so. Both of these two decisions were, I think, flawed. The consultation has little information about the structures involved (docking

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“IT IS IN A CONSERVATION AREA AND WORLD HERITAGE SITE, LARGELY GREEN BELT, AND PARTLY IN AN AONB” stations, pylons) or about the eﬀects on traﬃc (good and bad), car parking, usage, viability, and so on. Even its precise route is not known, so many people and bodies have been unable to come to a view – but it has raised all sorts of questions, frustration, and a cornucopia of conspiracy theories among residents. Locals soon discovered that the PR consultants state on their website that they will “actively seek out supporters for a scheme to counteract the traditionally more vocal and

motivated NIMBY groups”. To this end it was discovered that they had held meetings with various local groups and individuals before the consultation, and a video with assorted local worthies praising it was produced. Local people have been stung by this approach, which seems not to relate happily to, for example, the RTPI’s advice on consultation, which says “the basis of trust between the parties is of paramount importance” and that “the ﬁrst principle is integrity and this means ensuring that the consultation has an honest intent”. Even if the promoters intended to comply with these ideals, locals do not believe it. Had the planning consultants led the consultation, I don’t imagine this would have happened. Exhibitions were held all

over the city, with people from the promoters, the PR company, and the planners all present. Only one was held in the area most affected – at the request of the residents’ association – but unlike all the others it was disobligingly unstaffed. Conflicting information was given, for example, that the lower docking station would either only take up four car parking spaces, or would be the size of a fourstorey building. There was a majestic misunderstanding of the term ‘World Heritage City’. A comical questionnaire appeared. (It’s a brave person who says “no” to “Do you consider the objectives of economic growth, environmental benefits, improved access… and quality of life, are right… ?”). The RTPI’s advice says “controversial proposals or a history of poor relationships can result in considerable scepticism and, in extreme cases, a clear lack of confidence in the impartiality of the consulter”. How true. If you’re doing a consultation, do it properly.

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

16/06/2017 16:23

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“It is illiterate to be funding failure on the scale that we do in this country, through housing beneﬁt, while we are failing to fund the creation of social housing”

“Those in the planning industry need to keep abreast of the changes. Change is the only constant” ROSEMARY THOMAS, FORMER CHIEF PLANNER AT THE WELSH GOVERNMENT, SPEAKING AT THE RTPI CYMRU CONFERENCE

PAUL NICHOLS, DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR, REGENERATION ENTERPRISE AND PLANNING, LONDON BOROUGH OF HARROW

“If we want more people to walk and take transit to shopping, to the airport etc, we need design to work for luggage, shopping trolleys, etc” FORMER VANCOUVER CHIEF PLANNER BRENT TODERIAN ON AN EASILY IGNORED ELEMENT OF THE PLANNING EQUATION

There is a community seeking a material, structural and constructional social architecture that is consistently visceral. This is the legacy of The New Brutalism and the Brutalism that it spawned” SIMON HENLEY, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK REDEFINING BRUTALISM, PUTS THE CASE FOR THE BRUTALIST PERIOD OF ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

“Only 11 per cent entt of the country is built uilt up, but to listen to some green campaigners gners you’d think we had no countryside left eft” BRIAN BERRY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE IVE AT THE UILDERS FEDERATION OF MASTER BUILDERS

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

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“Labour, Conservatives and the Lib Dems all want to explore

capturing land value. Needs a sincere movement to understand all the issues/ problems” ECONOMIST AND SELF CONFESSED LAND, HOUSING AND TAX GEEK JOE SARLING

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

O Opinion

Ben Kite is managing director at Ecological Planning and Research

The air quality plan – where could it go further?

ClientEa is taking the DepartClientEarth ment fo for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to court for the third time for “major flaws” in the plan to cut air pollution levels. The purpose behind the air quality consultation was to address Defra’s legal obligations to the UK population. Here was a chance to provide leadership by setting a proactive objective for planners to improve air quality, and to bring recognition of the impact of air pollution. Defra’s primary concern was to tackle areas of high NO2 concentration that affect health. The plan can be praised for setting strategic objectives and introducing methods to reduce air pollution on a national scale, such as tougher emission standards for new vehicles. But the plan lacks innovation in addressing air quality through spatial planning. It could have put the benefits of approaching air quality in a truly spatial sense. It could have referenced the challenges of reconciling humancentric objectives with ecological ones, and been clear that detailed guidance should be forthcoming. But it didn’t. An example is the continued reliance on ‘clean air zones’ as a tool to reduce vehicle emissions in target areas. Doubtless these can deliver results where gross levels of pollution overlap with highly populated areas. But unless planned carefully, they

can displace emissions rather than cut them, having damaging eﬀects in ecosystems elsewhere. But there are other unmentioned measures available to tackle air pollution – in particular, green infrastructure. Some studies suggest that street trees, green walls and shelterbelts of vegetation reduce levels of ambient pollution. Natural England is a noticeable absentee from the list of those responsible for implementing this latest air quality strategy. Without a cohesive approach, we risk dividing professionals into disjointed groups; one focused on improving human health and another on ecological harm, as was seen in the Wealden/Lewes High Court case where part of the local plan was quashed for not fully considering its potential impacts on Ashdown Forest, a special area of conservation. Conferences between the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and the Institute of Air Quality Management have led to a joint bid to begin to ﬁll the gap left by government. There is also draft guidance for practitioners in Environmental Impact Assessment. The response should not be about compromise between achieving human and ecological objectives, but an optimal solution to bring down total pollution levels quickly.

“BUT THERE ARE OTHER UNMENTIONED MEASURES AVAILABLE TO TACKLE AIR POLLUTION”

2 BLOG

BLOG

Julia Thrift is projects director for the Town and Country Planning Association

Green infrastructure is good for society. So why do we struggle to fund it?

This month mo we’ve learned that hedges can be better at trapping air pollution than trees. And that the World Health Organisation has conﬁrmed that “interventions to improve urban green space can deliver positive health, social and environmental outcomes for all population groups, particularly among lower socioeconomic status groups.” Increasing evidence of the value of green infrastructure is welcome, but raises two questions. First, how to keep track of the data? Second, if green infrastructure is so valuable to society, why do we struggle to fund it? Keeping track of the data might sound trivial, but it’s not. Green infrastructure has so many beneﬁts – to health, climate change mitigation, economy, biodiversity, and children’s development – that research is undertaken by a wide range of organisations, funded from all sorts of sources. There is a risk of scarce research funding being used to duplicate work that has already been done. The TCPA can’t solve this problem. But since 2013 we have run the Green Infrastructure Partnership, a network of 2,000 people and organisations that support the development of green infrastructure. On behalf of the partnership, we have taken a step forward by publishing the Green Infrastructure Resource Library on our website. This free

database includes more than 600 publications, presentations and videos. The second question is more intractable. Earlier this year, the Communities and Local Government Select Committee recognised that the traditional model for funding maintenance of local green infrastructure by paying for it from councils’ rapidly shrinking ‘amenity’ budgets is no longer fit for purpose. Its recommendations, although helpful, are unlikely to be transformational. But evidence of the value of green infrastructure is being seen. Water companies realise that street trees can slow the rate of flow of water into drains during rainstorms. Public Health England recognises the mental health benefits that quality green spaces deliver. The Natural Capital Committee spells out the economic value of urban green infrastructure in its reports to government. Slowly, in an uncoordinated way, a new model for funding it might emerge. But key decision-makers must be aware of the strength of the evidence of the value of green infrastructure for their objectives. By connecting people and organisations across sectors and sharing research as it is published, we aim to speed the creation of ways to deliver, fund and maintain green infrastructure. Green Infrastructure Partnership: www.gip-uk.org

“STREET TREES CAN SLOW THE RATE OF FLOW OF WATER INTO DRAINS DURING RAINSTORMS”

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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

Emma Pinchbeck is executive director of RenewableUK

Donald Trump and the tide of history

The Pa Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate interna change, is an extraordinary global achievement. Until President Trump’s decision to withdraw the US, the only nations outside the agreement were Nicaragua (whose government wanted more action) and Syria. The immediate consequences have included a reaffirmation by the major European economies, as well as India and China, of their commitment to the pact. President Macron has even offered American climate scientists generous grants to relocate to France. Trump also faces resistance domestically. City leaders across the US are ignoring federal government and investing in renewables. California, the world’s fifth largest economy, is pressing the US to deliver its decarbonisation commitments. The Governor of Pennsylvania even objected to the reference Trump made to coal jobs in Pittsburgh when announcing the US’s withdrawal from Paris: he believes that the best future for former coal towns and their workers is investment in the energy technologies of the future. The growth of renewables explains why politicians are resisting Trump’s decision. The global renewable energy boom, worth $300 billion a year, will continue with or without Trump. These technologies are bankable options for powering the global

4 BLOG

BLOG

Jonathan Manns is a director of Colliers International

Small government, big priorities

economy, creating regional jobs and stimulating innovation. In the UK we have installed more than 11 gigawatts of wind energy in 10 years – enough to power more than 7.6 million homes. In that time the cost of renewables has fallen at a speed more typical of telecoms and consumer electronics than big infrastructure. Renewables now challenge technologies such as gas and nuclear on costs. The sector has brought new opportunities to places that needed investment: Grimsby and Hull for offshore wind; Cornwall and Orkney for marine energy. The supply chain of British firms stretches across former industrial heartlands. It is important that leadership on renewables is backed up with good energy policy, from planning to strategic and investment support. It is the policy framework, not just the overall targets, that matters if we want to tackle climate change. Our upcoming Industrial Strategy, Emissions Reduction Plan and decisions on future auctions for low carbon capacity are all opportunities to show ambition. We can all benefit from this – British companies exported renewable energy goods and services to 43 countries in 2016, including the US. Far from putting America First, Trump has put it behind the rest of the world.

“THE GLOBAL RENEWABLE ENERGY BOOM WILL CONTINUE WITH OR WITHOUT PRESIDENT TRUMP”

“Just when wh we thought global politics c couldn’t get more weird,” said Rebekah Paczek of communications firm Snapdragon Consulting, the day after the election, “Britain responds – ‘hold my pint’…” That was before Theresa May began exploring a minority government supported by the DUP. The election’s implications remain unclear but will be profound. The prime minister’s majority has vanished. It’s now the 1922 Committee and not Team Theresa in control. Key players such as Damian Green, Graham Brady and Philip Hammond have scope to set the agenda. They’ll be supported by Gavin Barwell at No. 10 who, having lost his ministerial role, has another chance to influence policy. The Conservatives presented themselves as the only ones able to deliver Brexit. Unfortunately, nobody knew what that meant. Brexit is now the pressing task and the defining generational issue. Planners, charged with defining long-term evidencebased visions, may find all assumptions incorrect. It’s reasonable to assume the economy will take centre stage and that some change is inevitable. This will by definition have spatial implications. London will probably remain an important global city but Britain’s relationship with its key trading partner will be permanently

altered. There’s a foreseeable impact on the service sector, as an exporter to the EU accounting for some 12 per cent of GDP. The capital’s over-heated housing market may struggle. Securing investment in UK PLC could require a devaluation of the pound. Interest rates would rise. Mortgages would become more expensive and residential prices would readjust. The Bank of England’s starting point would probably be to keep short-term rates low, even if inflation rises, to avoid risk to the housing market and spending. Extensions of Help to Buy and reductions to stamp duty could avoid a big devaluation, but the capital may no longer accelerate as quickly ahead of other regional cities. A regional revival could be on the cards. The country’s weak manufacturing base and ‘productivity puzzle’ means possible lost economic ground will be hard to make up. Austerity has hit England’s regions hard but May’s previous government was willing to seed local initiatives. New combined authorities, fronted by elected mayors, oﬀer hope. A National Spatial Plan may be oﬀ-key, but self-determining stakeholders taking advantage of borrowing powers introduced in 2016 constitute live opportunities in tune with the times.

“BREXIT IS NOW THE PRESSING TASK AND THE DEFINING GENERATIONAL ISSUE”

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16/06/2017 16:25

INTERVIEW: BRIAN BERRY

ARE SMALLER BUILDERS THE ANSWER TO THE NATION’S HOUSEBUILDING CRISIS? WITHOUT A DOUBT, FMB CHIEF EXECUTIVE BRIAN BERRY TELLS MARK SMULIAN attributed to a blend of industry consolidation ‘FMB’ may be unfamiliar even to planners versed and the costs of land and planning. It occurred in the construction industry’s alphabet soup of simultaneously with the introduction of the planacronyms. It’s fair to say that the Federation of led system in the Planning Act 1990, which took Master Builders has rarely attracted attention in the initiative away from small builders. discussions about building more homes. Yet Berry remains optimistic. “There is a That changed with February’s housing white massive fall-off but no reason why we could not paper, which grasped the idea that the only way get up to building half of all new homes given the to increase output would be to harness the government’s target is 200,000 a year,” he says. resources of small and medium-sized builders. The white paper was what the FMB had been These are the companies the FMB represents – waiting for. “We had been engaging with 8,000 of them, 45 per cent involved in ministers and civil servants about diversifying the housebuilding, 1,500 who are active developers. housing market and seeking recognition that The housing white paper’s logic commanded smaller firms face three main barriers to building. broad support: the eight dominant volume “The first is availability of land, because local housebuilders have finite capacity and build and plans tend to allocate large parcels of land that sell homes at a pace to suit themselves; creating are not attractive to local builders who need small the conditions for smaller firms to claim a plots. The second is finance, because ever since significant share of housebuilding will get more the 2008 financial crisis small builders have homes built and more quickly occupied. struggled to get finance for housebuilding. The The FMB’s chief executive Brian Berry notes third is the complexity of the that in 1988, firms building fewer planning system.” than 500 units a year constructed “LOCAL PLANS Surprisingly, the FMB supports the two-thirds of all new homes. By TEND TO ALLOCATE white paper’s proposed 20 per cent 2014, according to an FMB analysis LARGE PARCELS hike in planning fees. This, says of National House Building Council OF LAND THAT ARE Berry, “shows how desperate the figures, the percentage of SME-built NOT ATTRACTIVE TO situation has become that houses had collapsed to 30 per cent. LOCAL BUILDERS developers are willing to pay more Last year, says Berry, it was an even WHO NEED SMALL to speed up the planning process. more dismal 23 per cent. PLOTS” Because time is money in business”. This dramatic decline is typically

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P H O T O G R A P H Y | PA L H A N S E N

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INTERVIEW: BRIAN BERRY

“We recognise local authority planning departments are underresourced and we’d pay more for a better service.” The cost burden Nevertheless, the FMB argues that the planning system imposes unreasonable costs on smaller firms. Berry notes that a planning application needs attention not only to design but to voluminous policy documents, public consultation and section 106 negotiations. A large firm can afford consultants to deal with these matters, but a small company cannot. Even if it could, it would not risk the money with no certainty of eventually being able to build. “Local authorities find it easier to engage with large housebuilders because they deal with one contractor and not several, which keeps their costs down,” explains Berry. “Also, their allocation of land in local plans tends to be larger plots because earmarking smaller developments takes more time and resources when planning departments are struggling for cash. Larger housebuilders find it easier to navigate the planning system.” One solution would be a ‘red line’ process with permission in principle in an area. “Or else,” says Berry, “small firms will spend a lot of time meeting information requirements with no guarantee that development will be permitted.” Planners and builders both want more homes but have different – sometimes conflicting – interests to juggle. Section 106 and the community infrastructure levy (CIL) are cases in point. “Members view both as a tax on development, which is what it is, expecting builders to pay for services that should be paid for by local government,” Berry says firmly. “It stops development going ahead and explains the decline of SME housebuilders. Government needs to decide whether it wants to tax the building industry to provide certain services, or wants it to build homes.” He concedes that a contribution from developers to infrastructure that facilitates their projects is reasonable, but says: “It would help if S106 were more standardised and builders knew what to expect. It means larger companies are at an advantage as they know how to work the system and have the required expertise. Small builders will not be experienced negotiators able to talk with local authorities.”

C V

HIG HL IG HT S

BRIAN BERRY Born: Tiverton, Devon, 1966 Education: Tiverton School, Devon (O and A levels), BA (Hons) History Bangor University, (1988); Law Diploma, College of Law, York (1990), Msc European policy, Bristol University (2000)

Timeline:

19881989

19972000

20042006

20072012

Teacher, Charterhouse Square School 1989 Made Freeman of the City of London

Head of European policy, RICS Europe

Head of land and construction policy, RICS

Director of external aﬀairs, Federation Master Builders (FMB)

19901997

Deputy head, RICS policy unit

20062007

2008

Head of UK public policy, RICS

Fellow, Royal Society of Arts

20002004

Parliamentary oﬃcer, Royal Institution of chartered Surveyors (RICS)

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2012present Chief executive, FMB

A loosening of the belt Green belt, too, is a significant constraint, says Berry. “There needs to be a review of the green belt as it is stifling development and holding back housebuilders in many parts of the country.” He continues: “People think it’s lush land but it can be scrub – not rich in biodiversity – so we ought to have a sensible review of this to see how best we build. Only 11 per cent of the country is built up, but to listen to some green campaigners you’d think we had no countryside left.” Berry’s preferred solution would be to enable the organic growth of settlements through the kind of small sites suited to his members; but not ‘garden villages’. “The perception is they are sweet little developments, but in fact they are quite large and will be going to larger contractors, not local builders. Rather than building brand new settlements, work round existing villages and market towns and let them grow organically, and some could be guaranteed for local builders. I’d love to see that, and small firms would need to train local apprentices, which keeps money in the region concerned.” Training apprentices, or indeed anyone else, is the construction industry’s Achilles’ heel. Except in times of deep recession, it has for decades been unable to recruit enough people in skilled trades such as bricklaying, plastering and carpentry. Even were planning problems solved, the industry could not quickly ramp up output as there are insufficient people trained to build homes. A solution of sorts had been found by I M A G E S | PA L H A N S E N

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importing skilled workers from the rest of the EU. Brexit will close off that route and there is alarm in the industry about its future workforce. “The skills shortage was not caused by Brexit, but has been exacerbated by it,” stresses Berry. “Sixty per cent of FMB members report difficulty recruiting bricklayers, 58 per cent carpenters and all across the board site managers. With Brexit we are not going to be able to rely on [EU labour] and even if we allow a certain amount of skilled labour in, it will not meet our demand.” This will force the industry into yet another attempt to attract homegrown talent, something that has been notably unsuccessful. Berry says better apprenticeships, efforts to attract female applicants, and the changing nature of building will all play a part. “There is an opportunity to restore the credibility of apprenticeships, which over the last 20 to 30 years has declined. We need to develop quality 2-3-year apprenticeships and address the image of the construction industry, which too many people see as a ‘mud and boots’ dead end. “In fact it’s a very attractive career. Bricklayers are earning £60,000 a year in London and many FMB members started in a trade and now they are millionaires because they set up their own company.” New faces, new skills “Unfortunately, the construction industry has not been particularly attractive to women,” Berry admits. “Only 2 per cent of manual trades people

“GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO DECIDE WHETHER IT WANTS TO TAX THE BUILDING INDUSTRY TO PROVIDE CERTAIN SERVICES, OR WANTS IT TO BUILD HOMES”

are women, so obviously there is a problem to reach out and say this is an attractive career. “I suspect there is a problem of stereotyping ‘boys to construction and girls to hair and beauty’ and some old-fashioned views that need to be challenged.” But the construction process is changing. At one end, greater use of computerised design will demand different skills; at the other, the white paper’s endorsement of off-site manufacture also points to a different skills requirement. Assembling houses on site from factorymade components would need a degree of skill, but not that of a traditional trade. Components would be cheaper and factory production would not be weather dependent. In theory this creates a stream of semi-skilled jobs and cheaper houses built more quickly. “Off-site will play an increasing part and does offer a way to build much quicker, but it will not happen overnight and given the scale of the change we need room for everyone,” says Berry. He notes that the growing demand to retrofit an ageing housing stock perpetuates the demand for traditional skills. Besides, quality remains a watchword for the FMB, which, Berry says with pride, has long since ceased to be a trade body that builders could simply pay to join. Applicants’ work is now independently inspected before they join and regularly reassessed to reassure the public and partners such as planners that its firms are reliable professionals. The question remains though: can planners and developers find a way through the tangle of large sites, complex plans and planning gain to enable the nation’s smaller builders to deliver the homes we need?

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M A R I N E C O N S E R V AT I O N

â&#x20AC;&#x153;These special places must be managed and the most damaging activities must be banned straight awayâ&#x20AC;?

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M A R I N E C O N S E R V AT I O N

MARINE DISTRESS SIGNALS EFFORTS TO PROTECT ENGLAND’S SENSITIVE MARINE HABITATS FROM THREATS SUCH AS OVERFISHING AND EXTRACTION HAVE BEEN PIECEMEAL AT BEST. NOW THEY SEEM TO HAVE STALLED COMPLETELY, FINDS HUW MORRIS

Coquet to St Mary’s off the Northumberland coast might not be the first location that springs to mind when thinking about the waters around this sceptred isle. But for aficionados of the marine environment it is an ideal example of an abundant ecosystem. The area is a mosaic of habitats. Clay, mud, peat and sand are present. So are rocky reefs and boulders. Various species of crab and lobster call it home, while sea urchins feed there. It is a magnet for harbour porpoises, seals and whitebeaked dolphins. Thousands of seabirds swoop and plunge into the waves with most of the UK’s roseate terns nesting on Coquet Island.

I L L U S T R AT I O N | P E T E R C ROW T H E R

In January 2016 the area was designated by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) as one of 23 marine conservation zones (MCZs) stretching from Northumberland to Land’s End, joining 27 other sites from the first tranche of designations in 2013. The zones are crucial to creating an ‘ecologically coherent’ network of marine protected areas (MPAs), part of the holy grail of marine planning. Together, the 50 MCZs and other protected areas cover 20,700 square kilometers, or 20 per cent of England’s waters. They are informally known as the ‘blue belt’. But since January 2016 nothing has happened. The 50 MCZs are well short of the 127 sites originally proposed in 2011 following the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. A third tranche was to have been consulted on later this year. This is now delayed and may not be designated until 2019. “These special places must be managed and the most damaging activities must be banned straight away,” says Wildlife Trust’s head of living seas Joan Edwards, pointing to decades of overfishing, dredging, exploitation of resources and habitat damage. She admits to “huge frustration” at the process. “We spent four years working with local authorities, fisheries, ports, aggregates and offshore renewables finding MCZs that are

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Coquet to St Mary’s MCZ, oﬀ the Northumberlan coast, is a mosaic of habitats...

important for conservation but do not create huge problems for industry,” she says. “Then there was a further three years gathering data on what was in these zones, which slowed things down even more. Now the process has stalled.”

‘Paper parks’ Before the last Parliament was dissolved, the lack of progress on MCZs came under the scrutiny of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee. The MPs were unhappy. They agreed with the most serious warning of the past few years – that MPAs are merely “paper parks” with no management or protection. They also accused the government of creating “unachievable and over complicated demands on the management of susceptible areas” and of setting “unreasonably high standards of evidence” for designating MPAs. Observers point to three reasons for the stasis. The government moved the goalposts for evidence from the “best available” used in 2011 to identify the original 127 areas. “This meant some sites have had to be resurveyed and the MCZ process broken into tranches,” says WWF marine governance programme manager Alec Taylor. “Many habitats or species in the 50 sites were also removed for this reason.” A second cause is that easy sites – either with the least opposition or the most evidence for protection – were designated ﬁrst, kicking the more contentious areas down the road. The third is the most controversial: 65 “reference areas” requiring complete protection, proposed on top of the 127 MCZs, were scrapped altogether. Eighty-six leading marine scientists denounced the move as bowing to the ﬁshing industry and condemning the seas to “many more years of overexploitation and degradation”. University College London reader in environ-

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… and is home to various species of crab, lobster and sea urchins as well as larger marine life

mental governance Peter Jones questions the whole approach to MPAs for its “reductive, evidence-hungry focus on specific features, such as particular species, and their vulnerability to specific activities”. Instead, he argues that “no-take zones, where fishing and all other extractive activity is banned, must be implemented for effective ecosystem protection and restoration, covering, at least to start, no less than 10 per cent of the UK’s sea area”. But MPs uncovered another source of alarm – the ability of the regional Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), the relevant quango, to manage and enforce MPAs. Two-thirds of IFCA funding comes from local authorities “NOTAKE ZONES, and a third from the governWHERE FISHING ment. Additional funding was AND ALL OTHER given to local authorities to EXTRACTIVE cover the costs of creating ACTIVITY IS IFCAs, but this was not ringBANNED, MUST BE fenced. Authorities are not

IMPLEMENTED”

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19/06/2017 11:57

M A R I N E C O N S E R V AT I O N

Brexit paralysis Untangling UK and EU law affecting it is a Gordian Knot, only this time there is no Alexander with a sword to cut through it. Many of the UK’s MPAs such as Special Protection Areas (SPAs) and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), were designated under the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. These sites will be transferred into English law under the Great Repeal Bill but no decisions have been taken on how this will happen. SPAs and SACs are collectively known as European Marine Sites (EMS) but are selected according to different criteria from Marine Conservation Zones. They are chosen solely on scientific grounds and do not take into account socio-economic issues. MCZs, which do, are underpinned by UK legislation. One suggestion is to merge European Marine Sites and MCZs, but this may water down key objectives, particularly subjecting plans and projects to Habitats Risks Assessments. The marine environment does not respect national boundaries, leading to the issue of whether sites should protect habitats and species that are important to Europe as well as the UK. Government policies can ultimately be challenged in the European Court of Justice, but there are doubts about what will happen once its authority is revoked. Brexit may make it easier for the government to make management decisions for MPAs beyond six nautical miles – the limit on the UK’s exclusive rights to fish – as they would no longer need to adhere to the Common Fisheries Policy. But this may in turn be hampered by any renegotiation of quota shares under exit arrangements and historic fishing rights,.

obliged to allocate any of the cash. Most have but some have not. The big bone of contention is in the Devon and Severn IFCA where five authorities have withheld £455,200, including the proposed budgets for 2017. This is equivalent to 9.3 per cent of the total budget for IFCAs. The MMO’s budget has been slashed from £32 million in 2010/11 to £17 million in 2015/16, a 46 per cent drop, just as its regulatory role is increasing as more MCZs are designated. The third and final tranche of MCZs will be the largest and will include sites with more complex management needs. The MMO also receives significant funding from the EU of nearly £2.2 million in the past three years. This is at risk post-Brexit. Indeed, the UK’s departure from the EU highlights the phenomenon afflicting all government departments and Defra in particular – Brexit paralysis (see box).

“WE ARE ONLY JUST STARTING TO EXPLORE HOW DEVELOPERS WOULD HAVE TO SHOW WHAT THEY WANT AND HOW THEY WOULD MITIGATE ANY DAMAGE”

species as well as the rare, and operating as more than the sum of its parts,” says Taylor. “At a time when most planning at sea both predicts and is planning for an increase in competition for space at sea, we need this network in place. “Economically, we have sites that were identiﬁed but not yet designated, causing uncertainty to investors and developers in terms of what they can or can’t do in these areas. Socially, the delays have meant a real loss of goodwill among regional stakeholders who spent huge time and eﬀort in agreeing a set of sites, only to see many of them not taken forward.” Where does this leave marine planning? “We are only just starting to explore how developers would have to show what they want and how they would mitigate any damage,” says Edwards. “It’s not been tested and no planning permission has yet been sought for anything in a MCZ.” But planning consultant and ex-RTPI president Jim Claydon is optimistic. “Previously planning in the marine environment has been a sector-by-sector mechanism for managing change,” he says. “Marine planning is now starting to bring that together in an integrated approach in the same way that terrestrial planning did 60 years ago. “Marine protection has tended to be done in isolation. The assessment of whether an area should be highly protected or not has depended more on an assessment of impact rather than a more integrated spatial planning approach. We are now seeing the emergence of a more coordinated approach to marine planning with sectoral decisions made in a comprehensive context.”

COAST TO COAST

Scotland Scotland produced a broad-brush marine plan for the whole country. According to Jim Claydon, the approach was to do a national plan then produce regional plans where terrestrial agencies and local authorities work together with Marine Scotland. This contrasts with England’s region-by-region approach. In 2014, 30 Nature Conservation Marine Protected Areas were designated. A further four are being considered.

Wales The Welsh Government originally planned to designate Highly Protected Marine Conservation Zones, but plans for 10 sites were withdrawn in 2012 after a huge public outcry that these would limit people’s ability to go boating. Skomer, an existing marine nature reserve, was designated the first Welsh MCZ in 2014. Wales is about to restart the process and will publish a draft national plan later this year.

Fresh exploration So what are the consequences of not designating the 127 sites? “We have not yet got a network of sites around the UK that is ecologically coherent, protecting both a full range of habitats and

Northern Ireland Strangford Lough, a marine nature reserve, was designated as Northern Ireland’s first MCZ in 2013. Four other sites – Rathlin, Waterfoot, Outer Belfast Lough and Carlingford Lough – were designated last December.

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19/06/2017 11:58

RTPI AWARDS

IN PRAISE OF PLANNING The Planner rounds up the winners of the 2017 RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence If you’ve been concerned by reports of the demise of planning, this year’s 40th RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence might provide a rebuttal. Entries were up by an impressive 40 per cent for the 40th anniversary event, and a record 90 entries were shortlisted across 13 categories. Collectively, they showcased the breadth of planning’s work in the 21st century: here, a wildlife park doubling as flood defence; there, a fortified police station turned into an arts centre. What trends emerged from the 2017 awards, if any? Category winners tended to reflect an awareness of conservation

and of climate change adaptation in both built and natural environments. The Pilot Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Plan was perhaps the most obvious of these – and deservedly won the Plan Making Practice Award. But the Housing Award winner, too, pinned its colours to the sustainability mast with a woodland development of aﬀordable eco-friendly housing. One entry in particular displayed a deeply considerate approach to building in a sensitive environments. The Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area Plan in Hong Kong is not merely a triumph of derelict land reclamation, it returns

ancestral lands to traditional villagers. Awards host Wayne Hemingway spoke of the need for planning to show “generosity”; the International Award winner exempliﬁed this above all. Hemingway urged planners to be more political, “with a small ‘p’”. Britain is beset by inequalities; by thinking generously, planners can play their part in tackling them. “There are so many things that, at the moment, feel like they need planning to sort out,” he declared. Here’s our round-up of category winners – we’ll be looking at some of these exemplar schemes in greater detail over the coming months.

THE WINNERS... 1

Silver Jubilee Cup (for overall winner) and Excellence in Planning to Create Economically Successful Places

Winner: Francis Crick Institute, London Submitted by: Francis Crick Institute A biomedical research centre that aspires to be a world leader, the Francis Crick Institute in Camden, London, is a workplace for 1,250 scientists across a range of disciplines. Aside from its research facilities, however, the building has green roofs, on-site power generation, a community centre and community

gardens. The institute also provides local apprenticeships in an area of economic deprivation, has created 700 jobs and boosted the local economy by an estimated £16 million a year. It was no easy task to achieve this. Initial plans met stiﬀ community opposition, which planners addressed through 99 community events as they shaped the application. A planning performance agreement with Camden Council

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required high standards for both building design and spatial planning, not to mention contribution to the community. Chair of judges and former planning minister Nick Raynsford was eﬀusive about the ﬁnished project. “Both the design of the building and the planning environment presented immense challenges,” he said, citing the project as an “outstanding example” of the “value that planners bring to a complex project”.

19/06/2017 16:51

â&#x20AC;&#x153;THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THAT, AT THE MOMENT, FEEL LIKE THEY NEED PLANNING TO SORT OUT" WAYNE HEMINGWAY

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19/06/2017 16:51

RTPI AWARDS

Excellence in Plan Making Practice

Winner: Pilot Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan Submitted by: Marine Scotland The plan is the ﬁrst of its kind in the UK – a pilot for creating an integrated planning framework to guide marine development and protect the marine environment. Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters was chosen because its substantial wave and tidal resources make it the subject of a variety of marine planning applications. The plan aims to streamline the process of preparing and determining these applications. Commended: Birmingham Development Plan, submitted by Birmingham City Council.

Excellence in Planning for the Natural Environment

Winner: Planning and delivering green roofs in the City of London Submitted by: City of London Corporation The City of London promotes green roofs through planning policy, partnerships and development management negotiations. The aim is to address ﬂood risk and climate change eﬀects, improve biodiversity and provide green space. More than 60 green roofs have been created in the Square Mile, including at the Barbican, the Museum of London and the grade I-listed Guildhall.

Excellence in Planning for the Innovative Delivery of Infrastructure

Excellence in Planning for Built Heritage

Winner: The Seamus Heaney Home place, Bellaghy, Northern Ireland Submitted by: Mid Ulster District Council This new arts centre in the village where poet Seamus Heaney grew up transforms a former police station. The council worked closely with Heaney’s family and the community, and the centre carries a permanent exhibition documenting Heaney’s life and work. Nick Raynsford: “Turning a once heavily fortiﬁed police station - and what to many was a bleak symbol of political division - into a welcoming and inspirational place is no small feat.” Commended: Saltcoats Town Hall, submitted by North Ayrshire Council.

Winner: East Bank, River Arun, Littlehampton, West Sussex Submitted by: LDA Design The transformation of the east bank of the River Arun in Littlehampton has turned a run-down 450-metre stretch of waterfront into an attractive promenade linking riverside and seafront. But the new development conceals the promenade’s primary function, as a tidal ﬂood defence. “It brings together a number of planning objectives – environmental enhancement, economic development, community involvement and a highquality public realm,” said Raynsford.

7 4

Excellence in Planning to Deliver Housing

Winner: Carrowbreck Meadow, Norwich, Norfolk Submitted by: NPS Group A development of 14 Passivhaus homes on publicly owned land in a woodland setting, the scheme sets high benchmarks for sustainable development. Nick Raynsford: “It is a great example of how innovation, quality and aﬀordable housing could be delivered hand in hand.” Commended: Stuck Sites, submitted by Sheﬃeld City Council.

Excellence in Planning for Well-being

Winner: Place Standard (Scotland) Submitted by: Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland, Architecture & Design Scotland A new way to evaluate systematically what a ‘good place’ means, the Place Standard allows users to consider the physical and social aspects of a place, with a focus on promoting positive health outcomes. Commended: American Express Elite Football Performance Centre, Lancing, submitted by DMH Stallard LLP.

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19/06/2017 16:53

International Award for Planning Excellence

Winner: From Brown to Green, Hung Shui Kiu New Development Area Planning and Engineering Study Submitted by: Urbis Limited Hung Shui Kiu is in the western part of the New Territories of Hong Kong. The new town plan proposes homes for 218,000 residents, including 176,000 in new population. Of the 61,000 new flats that will be built, 51 per cent will be public housing. A major part of the project involves turning vast areas of derelict brownfield land to more optimal use, and, significantly, a low-rise ancestral village will be retained. Nick Raynsford described it as “an exemplar of inclusive planning”.

Planning Consultancy

10 of the Year

Winner: Indigo Planning Operating for 30 years, Indigo is one of the UK’s largest independent planning consultancies. The company has secured a ‘ﬁrst-time’ consent for more than 95 per cent of its projects in the past ﬁve years. Nick Raynsford: “Indigo’s enthusiasm and commitment to planning, people and places shines out.”

Local Authority Team

12 of the Year

Winner: North East Lincolnshire Council/Engie Regeneration Partnership North East Lincolnshire Council has been in partnership with Engie Regeneration for six years to provide planning services for Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham and surrounding areas. Nick Raynsford: “This partnership is a high-performing planning team with a ‘can-do’ attitude. Their ‘enabling not controlling’ attitude to development should be held up as an exemplar.

Winners were chosen by a panel of 47 judges led by former housing minister Nick Raynsford. Judges included RTPI regional directors, chief planners, and leading public and private sector planners. Headline sponsors were AECOM and Savills, with the Oyster Partnership sponsoring the drinks reception. Each category had its own sponsor.

Small Planning Consultancy of the Year

Winner: Optimis Consulting Optimis Consulting has been operating in Bedford since 2009 and has extensive experience in residential planning. The consultancy is known for its quality of work and support for the local community. Nick Raynsford: “Their unpaid work with community groups on planning related matters reﬂects their willingness to give back.” Commended: Cundall.

Employer Award

11 of the Year

Winner: Terence O’Rourke Terence O’Rourke is a planning and design company working on projects across a wide range of sectors from oﬃces in London and Bournemouth. Nick Raynsford: “Terence O’Rourke’s learning and development programme stood out because of the way it is incorporated across the whole practice. They have focused on promoting well-being and have a long-term commitment to the initiative.”

13 Young Planner of the Year Winner: Luke Coﬀey, Senior Planning Consultant, Mott MacDonald, Birmingham After graduating in 2012, Luke spent four years at WYG before moving to Mott MacDonald, where he has helped develop the planning team. He is passionate about promoting planning to young people through his work in the RTPI’s local young planners’ branch and guest lecturing at Birmingham City University. Nick Raynsford: “Luke showed a clear understanding of the challenges facing the profession, both in terms of delivery and the need to embed a cultural change for planners to be more pro-active.” Commended: Fran Dance, Arup; Kim Boal, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.

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19/06/2017 16:53

DY5

DUDLEY’S BUSINESS AND I N N O V AT I O N E N T E R P R I S E Z O N E

DUDLEY HAS GREAT NEWS TO SHARE WITH BUSINESSES AS IT LAUNCHES DY5, THE BOROUGH’S BUSINESS AND INNOVATION ENTERPRISE ZONE. DY5, which ofﬁcially launched in early April, offers businesses looking to invest and expand with an exciting opportunity to relocate to an exclusive waterfront location, in the heart of the West Midlands and indeed the UK. Part of the Black Country Enterprise Zone led by the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership on behalf of West Midlands Combined Authority, DY5 joins a portfolio of sites including Darlaston and Wolverhampton North (inc i54), spread over 120 hectares. To date the zone has created 4,000 new jobs in advanced manufacturing including aerospace, automotive and engineering.

A wide range of office accommodation is available from large scale, recently refurbished units to smaller offices. DY5 can fulfil a range of needs and requirements and can do so quickly. As well as offering high quality, low cost office accommodation at The Waterfront, DY5 is also able to offer a range of space at nearby industrial estates, with construction of brand new large scale industrial units already underway.

DY5 is unique in that it is able to offer immediate ofﬁce accommodation, which means that the beneﬁts of relocating to the enterprise zone can be reaped straight away.

class manufacturing and engineering and continue to provide the perfect economic conditions for advanced manufacturing. Dudley in particular has a signiﬁcantly higher proportion of the workforce employed in manufacturing - delivering an unrivalled advantage over anywhere else in the UK. “DY5 will deliver new industrial space for technology and service sectors as well as broaden our digital and professional base.

ALAN LUNT, DUDLEY COUNCIL’S STRATEGIC DIRECTOR FOR PLACE, SAID:

“Dudley is recognised as a great place to do business and the Midlands Engine announcement in the Chancellor’s budget further strengthens our position on a global scale.

“Dudley and the Black Country have a long history of providing world-

“Dudley is looking forward to discussing your requirements and welcoming you to the borough.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE DY5 TEAM ON + 44 (0) 1384 812001, EMAIL INFO@DY5ENTERPRISEZONE.CO.UK OR VISIT WWW.DY5ENTERPRISEZONE.CO.UK

LET DY5 ASSIST YOUR BUSINESS IN GOING FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH. RELOCATE TO DUDLEY’S ENTERPRISE ZONE AND BENEFIT FROM: Up to £55,000 per year business rate discount over a ﬁve year period

Close to Birmingham, an international airport and ideally situated for easy access to the rest of the UK

Low cost, high quality accommodation for ofﬁce and industrial use

One stop shop for business and skills support

Improved infrastructure with a new metro line scheduled to open in 2023

Superfast broadband

Exclusive waterfront location

MADE IN THE BLACK COUNTRY, SOLD AROUND THE WORLD

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LANDSCAPE

Tech { L A N D S C A P E

P31 TECH P33 LEGAL P34 REGIONAL P40 DECISIONS P50 PLAN B P51 ACTIVITY

SO WHERE DO I PLUG IN MY MOBILE?

HEADSHOT

WHAT WOULD CITY INFRASTRUCTURE BE LIKE IF DESIGNED BY MILLENNIALS? STEPHEN HILTON OF BRISTOL FUTURES GLOBAL CONSIDERS HOW THE DIGITAL WORLD MIGHT AFFECT TRADITIONAL MODELS OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT I recently saw a friend’s young child trying to open the pictures in her dad’s newspaper using the pinch gesture she’d mastered on the iPad. “Daddy!” she exclaimed, casting the pages aside, “Your newspaper is broken!” I fear that unless we embrace innovation this is exactly how millennials will come to feel about infrastructure in cities. A month rarely goes by without an update for a phone or tablet’s operating system and apps. Imagine the shock millennials will

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feel on realising that the local bus service still operates “Version 1.0” using routes set in concrete before they were born and nearend-of-life vehicles that receive just enough attention to keep them roadworthy. Contrast this with the hallmark of excellent digital services – the sprint through the design process followed by a rapid launch; improvements made for the weeks, months and years afterwards in response to direct user feedback; and every

new version fixing bugs, updating security or enhancing usability. Excellent digital services exist in a state of ‘permanent beta’ – never finished, continually improving. Smart services By contrast, city infrastructure has historically been fixed in place at launch, then runs in broadly the same way for decades until it becomes obsolete and is scrapped. Cities are far from operating in permanent beta but, luckily for millennials, there are signs that this is starting to change. Smart cities aim to incorporate a ‘digital layer’ into the urban fabric, inviting a dynamic relationship between citizens and the built environment through a focus on networks, connectivity, programmability and innovation. This opens the door to a world where new infrastructure and ‘smart services’ can be agile and citizen-focused. YoBike, for example, launched in Bristol in May. As an app-based city bike scheme, it required no hard infrastructure or planning decisions. Users simply find and leave the bright yellow bicycles in public places using

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E built-in GPS and their smartphones. The ambition is for security to be managed by design rather than compliance. There is, of course, vandalism, so locks and alarms are needed, but the bikes are constructed from custom-built parts that are noninterchangeable with other cycles, rendering them almost valueless to thieves. The same month that YoBike launched, journey-planning app CityMapper announced it would be providing a free-to-use ‘smart bus service’ in London CityMapper has built its oﬀer on integrated, real-time data. It seems entirely plausible that the bus could turn out to be a loss leader – a tool through which city data is collected, reﬁned and tested in situ. Like CityMapper, Bristol small business Esoteric has long championed the potential of demand-responsive bus services. Their Buxi, half bus/half taxi, operates using organic bus routes based on the real-time

See for yourself YoBike: https://yobike.co.uk CityMapper’s smart bus: https:// citymapper.com/smartbus Uber Movements: https://movement.uber. com/cities Esoterix: http://esoterix.co.uk UKCRIC: www.ukcric.com Bristol Futures Global: www.bristolfutures. global

YoBike, an appbased city bike scheme, launched in Bristol in May

journey requirements of passengers. Even Uber has recognised the potential beneﬁts of sharing data with cities. Using Uber Movement, planners to community groups can look at how long it takes to get from one part of the city to another on an exact day and time or make comparisons over time. The virtue of virtual Can these approaches also change the way that ‘heavy’ infrastructure is designed and built? Virtual reality (VR) has obvious potential, and it is hardly groundbreaking to think about creating new developments in the virtual world before the ground is broken for real. This will allow public interaction and feedback before infrastructure is ﬁnalised, but also holds interesting potential to

allow people to experience developments from perspectives other than their own. For example, seeing what it will be like to walk, cycle or skateboard rather than drive, how colour and contrast will work for people who have limited vision or what the experiences will look like from a child’s perspective. Perhaps the opportunity to use VR to step outside the boundaries of our own personal experiences will help build understanding and increase consensus. Time to hit the road For me, the acid test of how far we are prepared to reinvent our city infrastructure to make it dynamic and demandresponsive is the roads. If ever there was an infrastructure that stubbornly refuses to flex to meet real-time demand then it is these ribbons of tarmac, which allocate exactly the same amount of space to cars, taxis, buses, cyclists and pedestrians whatever the time of da or actual demand. Autonomous vehicles give us the chance to reinvent the public realm in our cities. Driverless cars can be programmed to accept that what was a dual carriageway at 8am has turned into a single lane of traffic at 8pm to allow more space for walking and cycling. All we need are dynamic barriers, smart road signage and real-time data to allow changes to be made on the fly – this and the idiom and leadership to try something genuinely new. Rethinking city infrastructure is at the heart of the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities. UKCRIC aims to address the issues of unaffordable and unsustainable infrastructure development. The University of Bristol will focus specifically on the Citizen Collaboratory – a new model of co-creation that places citizens at the heart of infrastructure design. If we get this right, millennials might even thank us for doing something ‘smart’!

n Stephen Hilton is a fellow of the University of Bristol Cabot Institute and founder of Bristol Futures Global, a consultancy that supports cities, businesses and communities to be both smart and citizen-focused. Twitter: @BristolFutures

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Legal landscape MINORITY REPORT: WHAT NEXT FOR PLANNING? The pledges made in the Conservative Party manifesto were heavy on promise but light on detail, and near silent on deliverability. So what happens now? As the dust settles after the shock general election result, I’m sure I am not alone in finding it difficult to be enthusiastic about what lies ahead. From a planning perspective, there was little in the campaign that stood out as new or innovative. It is easy to commit to building 1.5 million homes by 2022 when there is no depth or substance as to how this will be achieved. Supporting “high-quality, high-density housing like mansion blocks, mews houses and terraced streets” while ruling out any reassessment of the green belt leaves me wondering what the government thinks it will be doing in the next Parliament that hasn’t already been proved not to work in the last one. The Conservatives rightly said that “we have not provided the infrastructure, parks, quality of space and design that turns housing into community and makes communities… sustainable”. But do you have any confidence that more public money will be made available to tackle this underinvestment? Proposals to capture the increase in land value created by housing development suggest that lessons have not been learnt from the disastrously over-

Matthew White engineered CIL system. Commitments have been made to some big-ticket infrastructure, including HS2, Heathrow, Northern Powerhouse Rail and improvements to the strategic road network. In the hokeycokey world of projects falling in and out of fashion, there is an ever-present risk of losing political support for major infrastructure schemes; a hung Parliament exacerbates this risk because of the ﬂimsiness of consensus around projects. Fortunately, the regime for nationally signiﬁcant infrastructure projects is

in rude health. Promoters have access to a (relatively) eﬃcient and reliable means of securing planning consents, meaning that getting planning permission for these grands projets is probably the most predictable – and therefore easiest – process to manage through planning. By comparison, delivering smaller developments is harder than ever. The Conservatives have pledged to extend mobile coverage to 95 per cent of the UK, but look at the vehement local resistance a single new mobile phone mast typically generates. They also promised “more and better homes, welcomed by existing communities”,

“TACKLING THIS MEANS ACCEPTING THAT LOCALISM (A WORD THAT USED TO BE UBIQUITOUS IN PLANNING, BUT ONLY APPEARED IN THE UKIP MANIFESTO AT THIS ELECTION) DOESN’T WORK”

but residents up and down the country continue to fight housebuilding at every turn. The difference is that the planning system works at the national level, but is failing locally. Big problems – such as fixing “the dysfunctional housing market” – need national solutions and the political will to deliver them. This means accepting that localism (a word once ubiquitous in planning, but that only appeared in UKIP’s 2017 manifesto) doesn’t work. If the new government understands this, then we can expect more development (including housing) to be brought within the national planning system established by the Planning Act 2008; and fewer schemes needing a planning application at all, with a further expansion of permitted development rights. What else can we expect in the coming months? Not much. Converting a long manifesto full of vague promises into detailed legislation would take considerable time, resources and political capital. A minority government has none of these at its disposal. With Brexit set to dominate life in Westminster and Whitehall, I cannot see planning being anywhere near the top of the legislative agenda for the next five years. That may be no bad thing. When was the last time that planning reform actually improved anything? The Conservative manifesto said that this country boasts the finest architects and planners in the world. Perhaps it is time to give them a chance to deliver the planning that this country deserves. Matthew White is a partner and head of the London planning team at Herbert Smith Freehills

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LANDSCAPE

Nations & Regions focus { THE SOUTHEAST

The challenge of growth Home to close to nine million people, the South-East is the most populous region of the UK and has the largest regional economy outside of London. Forming a large crescent around the capital to the South and West, it consists of eight counties: Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Environmentally, its temperate climate, rolling landscape and proximity to London make it an attractive place to live. The region contains a mix of urban and rural areas, including extensive green belt, seven areas of outstanding natural beauty and two national parks (New Forest and South Downs). But it also contains several airports, including Gatwick, a highly developed road and rail network centred on London and the high-speed rail link between Ashford and Dover. Commercially it bustles, from the busy port city of

Southampton, handling 1.7 million developing their assets and building longpassengers and 820,000 cars annually, to term income. the Bohemian hubbub of Brighton and Planners face the challenge of the growing towns and cities of Reading, safeguarding what is good about the Guildford, Portsmouth, South-East while ensuring it Milton Keynes and more. provide for its growing “THE REGION HAS can There’s even a garden city population now and in the CONSIDERABLE at Ebbsfleet haltingly taking future. The impact of Local VARIATION shape. Enterprise Partnerships in IN ECONOMIC For all its prosperity, the promoting economic growth, PERFORMANCE region has considerable infrastructure provision and AND LIVING variation in economic new housing is beginning STANDARDS” performance and living to shape the planning standards. There is stress landscape. An emerging era on space and services, of devolution and city regions with water and energy could also drive divergence in being particular concerns. planning approaches – many Reduced government grant, increased locations in the region have submitted bids demand for social care and complexity to government. of needs, and the high cost of housing are With Brexit looming, too, and its exerting significant pressure on councils. inevitable impact on employment and A key response of local authorities has investment, the regional landscape is in been to focus on investing in property, flux. Planners have much to consider.

MAJOR PROJECTS

1. HS2 – The planned highspeed railway will link London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds and Manchester. Heading north-west from London, it will travel the length of Buckinghamshire. The project will cause disruption to many communities, but may also boost economic growth. n tinyurl.com/planner0717regions-hs2

2. Oxford-Milton KeynesCambridge corridor – The National Infrastructure Commission is looking into creating stronger links between the three cities across an arc of territory that covers 70 miles and houses 3.3 million people. The

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argument in favour is strong – three key cities with growing populations, high productivity and high skills, but weakly connected. Money has already been set aside to develop rail links; but infrastructure must go hand in hand with housing and jobs. n tinyurl.com/planner0717-regionso2c

3. IFA2 undersea interconnector – IFA2 is a proposed 1,000MW electrical interconnector linking the British and French transmission systems between

Northern France and Hampshire. The scheme was given planning permission by Fareham Borough Council in April and is due to be operational in 2020. n tinyurl.com/planner0717-regions-ifa2

4. London Paramount Resort – Designated a Nationally Signiﬁcant Infrastructure Project, the proposed London Paramount entertainment resort will cover 545 hectares on the Swanscombe Peninsula in north Kent. n tinyurl.com/planner0717-regionsparamount

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

19/06/2017 17:14

The SouthEast Interview: Planning for growth in a national park The South Downs National Park, designated in 2011, is England’s newest, and most populous. The 87 miles from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east cover 628 square miles, and encompass four market towns, 180 parishes and has a population of 112,000. It’s also home to protected landscapes, and its delicate ecology includes rare grass chalk downland, and sensitive coastline. In some ways it’s an idyll, but it’s not immune from the pressures of contemporary life. Its growing population, its popularity as a tourist attraction and the growth of neighbouring conurbations applies constant pressure. Planning in a national park takes clear vision. “It’s about linking the growth with the landscape. And ensuring people can continue to enjoy the landscape,” stresses Tim Slaney, the park’s director of planning. As he points out, planning is one of just two statutory functions of a nation al park. “It’s one of the few places where we’re still planning with the three Es in balance – equity, economy and environment.” Slaney is acutely aware of the need for growth in the market towns and parishes that the park encompasses, to stop them becoming backwaters where local people can no longer live and work. He’s also aware of the need not to upset the delicate balance that has evolved through many centuries of estate ownership, rural economy and landscape management. Slaney argues that a particularly considerate kind of “landscape-led”

planning is needed to preserve what is good about the region while enabling its communities to flourish. “We call it a living working landscape. This national park has been created by people and shaped by quite intensive management,. The key question is allowing growth that enables that land management to continue without destroying it without the ‘wrong’ type of growth.” It’s an approach that’s built on close contact with communities . There are 50 completed neighbourhood plans for the park “delivering growth that is not insignificant”. Moreover, the park’s about-to-be-completed local plan has strong policies for affordable housing – with a target of 50 per cent. “Most of our policies are based on a social ideal to make sure there’s a variety of homes,” says Slaney. “For example, where you want a replacement dwelling, we’ll look very carefully at three for one.” But planning for the national park is not just about the park itself. Slaney argues that Portsmouth and Brighton, for example, owe some of their success to the park. It’s protected boundaries prevent sprawl and focus the cities more strongly on the space they already occupy. The landscape is also a draw for businesses – Slaney cites the relocation of Rolls-Royce to Chichester as an example.. Ultimately, his job is about “stewardship” of a national asset that provides green space to generations of residents in the South-East. "That’s where national parks are very good – they have a very clear vision."

Valuable skills Given the varied character of the region, and the challenges facing its towns and villages, there is considerable opportunity for planners. In particular, planners with skills in the following areas may ﬁnd demand for their skills: n Economic development n Spatial planning n Large-scale residential n Transport infrastructure, especially rail n Environmental impact assessments n Planning for rural environments n Local and neighbourhood planning n Energy infrastructure n Marine spatial planning n Presentation and negotiation n Find planning jobs in the south-east of England on Planner Jobs: http://jobs. theplanner.co.uk

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35 19/06/2017 17:16

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The SouthEast RECENT SUCCESSES

Kingsbrook Aylesbury

1. Meadow Road, Worthing -

Award-winning housing scheme replacing 48 sub-standard flats with 12 family homes for affordable rent. An existing block for vulnerable residents was also refurbished. The project delivered health benefits and reduced antisocial behaviour.

2. Kingsbrook Aylesbury -

An outline planning application for 2,450 homes; two new primary schools and a site reserved for a secondary school; an employment park plus community and road infrastructure in an environmentally sensitive area. The ﬁnal proposal, with 50 per cent of the site dedicated to green infrastructure, creates a considered landscape with nature reserves to be managed by the RSPB, which regards the project as an exemplar.

3. Kent and Medway Growth and Infrastructure Framework

American Express Elite Football Performance Centre, Adur

A countywide view of emerging development and infrastructure requirements to support growth, devised in the absence of structure plans and regional spatial strategies. The framework, developed by AECOM with Kent County Council and Medway Council, includes population and housing projects across Kent and an understanding of economic growth drivers. It’s thought to be the ﬁrst of its type in the UK and has inspired other counties.

4. American Express Elite Football Performance Centre, Adur -

The new Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club training ground places a strong emphasis on community and wellbeing. It also achieves other aspects of environmental and economic sustainability through green credentials and locally focused employment and income generation. The facilities are regularly used by the over-45s, women and girls, low-income groups, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities.

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Signposts The RTPI South East is governed by a six-person regional management board chaired by Gareth Giles of Brighton and Hove City Council. The management board is supported by a 16-person regional activities committee, which includes a young planner representative. Ian Cronin of Adur and Worthing Council and Stephen Harness of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation represented the South-East on the RTPI General Assembly. n RTPI South East web page, with news, newsletters, events, annual report, etc tinyurl.com/planner0717-regions-southeast n Young planners in the South-East: There are active young planners’ networks for Surrey, Thames Valley, South Coast and Kent Universities planner0717regions-yp n Courses: There are RTPI-accredited planning schools at Brighton, Reading and Oxford Brookes Universities n Regional conferences and events: tinyurl.com/planner0717-regions-events Forthcoming events include a planning and infrastructure conference in September and debate on aﬀordable housing at the Labour Party conference in Brighton in late September. n Email: southeast@rtpi.org.uk n Twitter: @RTPISouthEast n Find your RTPI region: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you

Next month:

The West Midlands I M A G E | PA U L H A Z L E W O O D

19/06/2017 17:25

Planning & Sustainability Department Wycombe is half way between London and Oxford, and a great place to work in planning. We have both ends of the planning spectrum: former industrial regeneration projects in High Wycombe town, and the beauty of the Chilterns AONB. We have ambitious plans to transform the centre of High Wycombe. Our local plan allows for more housing growth, including the significant expansion of one of our smaller towns. And we have a growing caseload of large housing and other development proposals. We have member commitment to a high quality service with high quality outcomes on the ground. We have new resources to transform what we do: a service that applicants would choose to take, and in which residents will place their trust.

We need new talent – come and join us! Senior Development Management Officer x 3 Posts Ref No. PDM05T

Senior Urban Designer Ref No. PDM07

Senior Infrastructure Planner Ref No. PCD22

•

Salary from £33,459 to £39,382 with progression based on performance

•

2 year term contracts available for all posts. Senior DM also offers a 1 year fixed term contract.

•

We offer a generous benefits package including flexible working and pension scheme.

For an informal chat phone Alastair Nicholson, Development Manager 01494 421510 or Ian Manktelow, Strategic Planning Manager 01494 421579. For full information & how to apply online please go to www.wycombe.gov.uk/jobs or call our job pack request line 01494 421141 quoting the relevant Job Reference.

Closing date: Midnight on 27th July 2017

As an equal opportunity employer we welcome applications from all sectors of the community.

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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 COMMERCIAL

Special needs ‘glamping’ centre reprieved ( SUMMARY An inspector has approved plans for an autism-friendly ‘glamping’ facility near Exeter, ruling that the local authority’s decision to impose a condition limiting permission to three years was “unfair”. ( CASE DETAILS The proposal seeks a change of use from agricultural land to a camping site with safari tents and shepherd’s huts, a stables and a sensory garden designed for people with autism. Initially, Mid Devon District Council held no objections to the plan, despite concerns raised by local residents, and granted permission subject to 14 conditions.

One – requiring that the business must be discontinued and the site returned to its previous state after three years – was not discussed with the appellants, who appealed. As the appeal was submitted less than six months after permission was granted, inspector David Wildsmith considered the proposal’s merits, residents’ concerns and the dispute over conditions in one report. He said the scheme would not harm the area’s character, noting that hedging would screen the tent structures, and pointing out that the landscape has no special designation. He dismissed claims of harm to neighbours’ amenity, as only one cottage was aﬀected. He cited the council’s environmental protection oﬃcer, who stated that noise and odours would be “unlikely to cause disruption”. On highway An autism-friendly ‘glamping’ facility near Exeter has been given the go-ahead

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safety, he acknowledged the “twisting, narrow roads” leading to the site, but found that a “very small increase in traffic flow” would have minimal effect. He then turned to the Mid Devon Local Plan, which requires that a business plan and marketing strategy be submitted with proposals seeking countryside tourism developments. He considered the appellants’ submitted business plan evidence of a “clear opportunity to support the local economy”. The council had imposed a condition requiring the business to cease after three years, ostensibly to “assess its viability”. This condition was not discussed with the appellants, who were given no explanation as to why it had been imposed, or what they could do to avoid having to discontinue their business. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Wildsmith said the local plan does not specifically require a viability assessment and called the condition “unfair and unreasonable”, noting that the appellants would be expected to make a “sizeable investment”, only to be forced to discontinue their business after three years

despite no conﬂict with policy. He removed the oﬀending condition and allowed the appeal. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/Y1138/W/17/3170327

HOUSING

425-bed student block would be ‘oppressive’ ( SUMMARY A reporter refused plans to demolish a BT engineering depot in Aberdeen and replace it with a block of 425 student flats and 80 apartments after finding that the new building would overshadow existing buildings. ( CASE DETAILS The BT depot and its car park occupies a 1.76-hectare site in central Aberdeen. The outline proposal is to demolish this building and replace it with four, fourstorey blocks, containing bed space for 425 students and 80 apartments (25 per cent affordable). The application was originally dismissed mainly because it might harm nearby residents’ living

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

16/06/2017 16:41

An inspector has ordered South Gloucestershire Council to pay costs to an appellant for behaving unreasonably at appeal

conditions. The appellant cited Aberdeen City Council’s Supplementary Guidance document, which states that a distance of 18m between buildings is enough to safeguard privacy. This did not convince reporter Rob Huntley, who noted that this document is “purely advisory”, and only refers to extensions of domestic properties. He noted that the proposed building would need “significant fenestration”, resulting in nearby residents being overlooked. It would also cause overshadowing, leaving the resulting narrow corridor between it and existing buildings “substantially gloomy and overshadowed”, and create “an oppressive and overbearing relationship” with existing buildings. Huntley noted that it would be close to the university it would serve, as well as amenities and public transport. But, he said, “there is no planning mechanism available to me to prevent students bringing cars to the site”, which might cause unacceptable street parking. He dismissed concerns about the concentration of students, observing that despite conflicting evidence on the existing supply and demand for student homes, the Local Development Plan had identified the site for that purpose, so there was no requirement in planning terms for a need to be proved. Huntley noted that though it would increase the student population locally, it would ease pressure on HMOs, and the wider housing stock in the area. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Huntley said he did not oppose more student

accommodation in the area in principle, but the scheme’s size and design would harm neighbours’ living conditions and highway safety. The appeal was dismissed. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: PPA-100-2078

HOUSING

Council to pay costs for being ‘unreasonable’ ( SUMMARY After overturning its decision to block a sheltered housing development, an inspector has ordered South Gloucestershire Council to pay costs to the appellant because it had behaved unreasonably at appeal. ( CASE DETAILS Inspector Jameson Bridgewater penalised the council for introducing fresh evidence at a late stage and making inaccurate claims. The original proposal was for the replacement of former council offices in the Thornbury Conservation Area (TCA) with a sheltered scheme for older people of five cottages and 57 flats. But the council blocked the plan because its design would harm the area’s character. Bridgewater dismissed each of the council’s design concerns. He noted that the building would be set back from the street in the same way as other existing buildings, would be no higher than the existing council offices, and would have a neutral effect on a nearby grade I listed church, which “has always been seen in the context of built

form”. He found that the scheme’s primary use of brick for construction would “not be incongruous”, and its windows would be vertically orientated and so consistent with nearby buildings. After the appeal was under way, the council also said the ﬂats would not meet Housing Technical Standards on ﬂoor space and natural light, presenting new evidence to support its claim that the design was “woefully inadequate”. It was then forced to admit that this evidence was based on its erroneous assumption that bedrooms would be occupied by two people rather than one. ( CONCLUSION REACHED In a separate application for costs, the inspector ruled in favour of the appellant. He said the council had introduced fresh evidence at a late stage and made “vague, generalised and inaccurate assertions” about the proposal, which had caused the appellant to incur unnecessary costs. He allowed the appeal and ordered the council to reimburse the appellant. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/P0119/W/16/3155791

HOUSING

25 homes green lit in ‘sustainable location’ ( SUMMARY Plans for 25 homes near Ilminster, Somerset, have been approved after an inspector decided the scheme’s harm to the area’s character would be limited. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal site is a large field in the village of Broadway, occupied by a pub, The Bell Inn. The field is bordered to the north by the village’s main road, and to the south by the River Ding. South Somerset District Council raised various concerns about the scheme’s impact on the area’s character, none of which persuaded Inspector D Boffin. He dismissed complaints that the land separates a primary school and other development, noting that the plans include retained open space. He rejected concerns that the site is where the village’s original edge and historic linear pattern has been retained, noting no historic maps or plans had been submitted to prove this. Boffin acknowledged that there would be “no

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DiF { D mistaking” the extension of the village into an undeveloped area that the scheme would cause, noting that “the land is clearly valued by the community”. But he ruled that the impact on the area’s character would not be significant. He also considered local housebuilding policy, which states that Broadway is considered a rural settlement, and development should be directed away from it and towards Yeovil and other rural centres with better facilities. Boffin noted that the village has few job opportunities and limited sustainable transport. But he afforded some weight to the facilities it does have, including a primary school, doctor’s surgery and a pub. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Boffin concluded that the village could be considered a “relatively sustainable” location for housing. He ruled that the area’s poor housing supply of 4.2 years added weight to this conclusion. Noting the

DECISIONS IN FOCUS economic beneﬁts of the scheme, he allowed it.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/R3325/W/16/3161355

HOUSING

Affordable homes blocked despite ‘dire need’ ( SUMMARY An inspector has blocked a plan for 22 affordable homes near Turners Hill, Mid Sussex, ruling that even the “dire and acute need” for affordable housing could not justify building homes in an unsustainable location. ( CASE DETAILS The proposal was for a countryside site beyond the settlement boundary of Turners Hill, east of Crawley. Local policy generally prohibits countryside development, however, Mid Sussex District Council’s supply of housing sites is

An inspector has blocked a plan for 22 aﬀordable homes near Turners Hill, Mid Sussex, despite acute need

sufficient to meet less than three years of assessed need so, according to the National Planning Policy Framework, was considered out of date. Permission should therefore be granted unless a scheme’s harm significantly outweighs its benefits. Assessing its impact on the character of the area, inspector S M Holden described the plan as “completely out of character” with its surroundings. Noting its “arbitrary borders” and “extremely limited” space for planting and landscaping, he found it would “urbanise otherwise unspoilt, tranquil and open countryside”. He also disapproved of the plan’s location, finding that the development would be “physically, functionally and visually separate” from Turners Hill village. Although the 700m walk into the village would be of an acceptable distance, the poor-quality unlit path would lead to “a not particularly pleasant experience” for the young, elderly or disabled. He was also dissatisfied with mitigation measures suggested to protect the nearby Ashdown Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest, and unwilling to issue a negatively worded condition on the matter. ( CONCLUSION REACHED The inspector noted the “acute and dire need for affordable homes across the district” and that a section 106 agreement would also retain their affordability in perpetuity. Despite these benefits, the inspector said “the need for housing, even when it is as pressing as it is in Mid Sussex, cannot be a justification for building new homes in the wrong

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place, where they would fail to integrate with existing development, leaving future residents too far from the facilities they need”. Ruling the development unsustainable, he dismissed the appeal. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/D3830/W/16/3165199

RENEWABLE ENERGY

National Grid stability eclipses plan conﬂict ( SUMMARY A battery energy storage facility near Hook in Hampshire has been granted permission after an inspector ruled that stability of the power supply outweighed countryside development policy. ( CASE DETAILS The site is beyond the settlement boundary of Hook where, according to the Hart District Local Plan, development will not be permitted unless provided for by other policies and it will not harm the character of the countryside. Inspector Patrick Whelan said the plan’s renewable energy policy did not speciﬁcally cover the proposal, so the main point of contention was whether the land could be considered previously developed. The appellant described the appeal site as a “vegetable garden”, which should be considered an extension of an adjacent domestic back garden and so previously developed. But Whelan found that the land had more in common I M AG E S | A L A M Y

16/06/2017 16:43

Plans have been approved for three more ﬂats in the grounds of the grade II* listed Bartlet Hospital in Suﬀolk

with the nearby open land than the garden. He said the garden was enclosed and featured a planted border, whereas the appeal site was “open and agricultural”, so he considered the land previously undeveloped, rendering the scheme in conflict with local plan policy. The appellant said energy storage is required to counterbalance the natural fluctuations in energy supply from renewable sources. Whelan was more sympathetic to this argument, acknowledging the benefits the facility would bring to the stability of the National Grid and the provision of renewable energy. He also considered the scheme’s visual impact on the surrounding landscape. Noting its “proportional” height of 4.2m and the appellant’s plan to visually enclose it with an assemblage of containers, the inspector found no harm to the area’s character. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Allowing the appeal, Whelan acknowledged that the scheme’s location would conflict with local plan policy on countryside development, but ruled that the contribution to the stability of the National Grid and lack of harm to the landscape outweighed this. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/N1730/W/17/3167123

HOUSING

Three more flats for hospital conversion ( SUMMARY Three more flats have been allowed in the grounds of grade II* listed Bartlet Hospital in Suffolk, whose recent conversion to flats had been allowed on the basis of “minimal possible development” required to support its optimal viable use. ( CASE DETAILS The hospital, a valued local heritage asset, comprises the remains of a Martello tower coastal artillery fort built in 1810. It occupies a prominent position on the seafront and is a feature of the Felixstowe Conservation Area. It was grade II* listed in 2006, but six years later planning permission was granted to convert it to flats. Permission was granted subject to the advice of English Heritage, which said the “overriding concern” should be to keep the level of new development to the minimum possible while restoring the building. The new plan for three flats to the north of the hospital was blocked by Suffolk Coastal District Council, which cited unacceptable affordable housing provision and harm to the setting of the listed building and conservation area. Inspector Peter Rose acknowledged that the building draws much of

its significance from its open setting, in particular the Martello tower, whose position was intrinsic to its defensive capability. But he noted that tower’s remains are not evident in distant views. He concluded on this issue that the scheme’s sympathetic design and recessed location away from the main building meant it would cause little harm to the conservation area. The council also objected to the appellant’s proposed affordable housing contribution, arguing that it should be calculated based on the total of 39 flats (36 from the original conversion and the three subject to the appeal) that would make up the development. The appellant disagreed, saying the decision should be made based on only the additional three. Rose concluded that because the planning history of the site stretched back more than five years it would be “unfair and unreasonable” to make calculations on a retrospective basis. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Allowing the appeal, Rose decided that the “locally supported and sensitive” development outweighed the limited harm to the setting of the listed building. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/J3530/W/16/3155285

HOUSING

Ministers block green belt homes ( SUMMARY Scottish ministers have upheld a reporter’s decision to block a 140-home scheme

on green belt land in East Dunbartonshire, ruling that the council’s demonstration of a five-year housing supply meant there was no need to harm the green belt. ( CASE DETAILS The plan was for 140 homes on green belt near Torrance, East Dunbartonshire. Scottish ministers called in the appeal after a two-year campaign against the plan by residents. The appellant argued that in light of East Dunbartonshire Council’s failure to prove a five-year housing supply, its spatial strategy policies on housing should be considered out of date. The council disagreed with the appellant’s estimate of housing land supply, presenting an alternative figure of 5.71 years. It said the site had been considered for housing allocation, but was turned down for various reasons, including its “difficult topography”, its distance from the existing settlement, and the infrastructure investment that would be required. It ruled that protecting the green belt should take higher priority. ( CONCLUSION REACHED The reporter said that the green belt underpinned the council’s spatial strategy for the wider area. The scheme’s unsustainable location would mean most occupants would rely on car travel, and it would be “out of scale” with the existing village. He found no reason to release the site for housing. The ministers accepted his conclusions and the appeal was dismissed. V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: PPA-200-2035

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Career { D E V E L O P M E N T C WRITING A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

All routes to RTPI membership require a personal development plan. lan. But what is it, why does it matter and nd how do you ensure that yours is meaningful and not a box-ticking exercise? Matt Moody asks the questions “A PDP is a two-year action plan for your own personal, professional development,” explains Cat Goumal, the RTPI’s senior professional development coordinator. “It’s not about growing your business or making your department more eﬃcient – it’s about you. It gives you an opportunity to think about which direction you want your career to take, and work out what skills and knowledge you’ll need to get there.” PDPs are a central part of a membership application, and applicants pursuing all routes to membership are required to produce one. “[This] means members are thinking about planning and reﬂecting on their learning from the beginning of their membership journey,” says Goumal.

CREATING A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN How can you make sure that your PDP is genuinely useful? One way is to follow the structure of example PDPs that you can download from the Professional Development Plan page on the RTPI website (see end). The template these examples follow will help you produce a plan that is speciﬁc, quantiﬁable and achievable and one that addresses the areas the RTPI expects you to consider. It’s divided into two main sections – SWOT and Goals, objectives and actions. PODCAST: WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN? TINYURL.COM/PLANNER0717PDP

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PART ONE SWOT ANALYSIS A SWOT analysis encourages you to think about your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It’s an eﬀective way to take stock of your personal abilities and the things beyond your immediate control that might help or hinder your development. The strengths and weaknesses boxes are for thinking about what comes naturally to you, and what will require more work; opportunities and threats are environmental and situational factors that could have a bearing on your professional progress. Most of what you write here should be directly related to your knowledge of planning, but soft skills are applicable too. The RTPI’s PDP podcast series sums this point up well. “‘Learning to speak Spanish’ wouldn’t be something to include in your PDP – unless your goal is to work in a Spanish-speaking country.” PODCAST: THE SWOT ANALYSIS: TINYURL.COM/PLANNER0717SWOT

PART TWO GOALS, OBJECTIVES AND ACTIONS Goals are the overarching ‘output’ of your plan, the high-level strategic statements that explain where you’ll be or what you’ll be doing if your PDP is a success. Objectives narrow your goals into focused areas of learning that will help you achieve that overarching aim. Objectives are meaningless without actions – the precise and speciﬁc things

you can do to progress towards your objectives, and, in turn, your goals. Actions are the most tangible elements of a PDP, because they help you test what you’ve gained so far. For that reason, they must be measurable. This is why your actions must conform to the SMART model.

Get SMART SMART stands for Speciﬁc, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based. Sticking to this model ensures that your actions clarify your progress towards objectives and goals. For example, improving your public speaking works well as an objective because it’s a speciﬁc and focused aim that will move you towards your goal if achieved. The actions supporting this objective need to explain how you’ll go about achieving it, so that you can accurately measure your progress. Example: Goal: Become a thought leader in my industry Objective: Improve my public speaking Actions: n Attend public speaking training course by June n Volunteer to speak at company event in September and invite feedback from colleagues n Review progress with comms director and determine next steps.

I M AG E | I STO C K

19/06/2017 16:12

JOBS

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

Q&A: MY FIRST PDP

Katie Baldwin (KB) is planning enforcement team leader at Elmbridge Borough Council Is this the ﬁrst time you’ve completed a PDP? KB: Yes. I am more convinced than ever that a happy worker is a productive worker. For me, happiness comes from a sense of purpose and direction. As I spend a great deal of my time at work, I ﬁnd it important to have a good forward plan under my belt allowing a sense of focus when life gets a bit hectic.

It’s not enough to say you’ll take action by ‘researching courses’ – only attending the course is a tangible learning experience, and only you will know how much you learned from it. Future actions must therefore be agreed or booked at the time of submitting your PDP, with a contingency plan in place if this isn’t possible.

PDP resources Access the full range of PDP resources on the RTPI’s Professional Development Plan page tinyurl.com/planner0717resources

Keeping in time A successful PDP will have between one and three goals, each supported by two to four objectives, with two or three actions for each objective. Detail is important, but don’t spread yourself too thinly – the most successful plans are clear and focused. It’s important to apply a time dimension to each action, too – when will it start and end? If it’s ongoing, when do you plan to review your progress? Time is a factor in preparing the PDP, too. It’s impossible to write the night before the deadline, because a strong PDP demands proper reﬂection, research and consideration. Allow yourself at least a fortnight to put it together, make the most of the RTPI’s online resources and you’ll be well placed to succeed, in both your personal development plan and your career. PODCAST: G O A L S A N D O B J E C T I V E S TINYURL.COM/PLANNER0717GOALS PODCAST: T H E A C T I O N P L A N TINYURL.COM/PLANNER0717ACTION

What goals did you set in your PDP? KB: I don’t think having a PDP that is a long list of ‘things to do’ is the way forward. As a new team leader, I knew I was going to have plenty on my plate without a lengthy PDP nagging at me. I set myself three goals that I considered achievable. 1. To undertake training to help me deal with elected members more confidently and effectively. 2. To ensure my team leading skills were as good as they could be, through more, varied training. 3. To ensure I provide an effective input into NAPE (National Association of Planning Enforcement). To do this I’ve chosen to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way to promote the importance of technical planning staff, whether in enforcement or other back-office duties. What part of the process did you find the most challenging? KB: Setting my goals was definitely the most challenging part of the process, as I knew this would reflect on my day-to-day and future work life. When I finally settled on my three goals, I had a real sense of “Yep, that’s me” – for a while, anyway! What advice would you give to someone completing their PDP for the first time? KB: Ask yourself three questions: 1. Where am I now? Be honest with yourself. 2. Where do I want to be? Try not to let your dreams run away with you – after all, PDPs can be reviewed. 3. How can I get there? Identify training that may be of use to you. Think out of the box, too – transferable skills can help you achieve your goals in innovative ways. This process should be at work and outside of it – that’s the big difference between a career and a job.

PODCAST: T O P P D P T I P S TINYURL.COM/PLANNER0717TIPS

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited by Josh Rule at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

From ambition to reality: repositioning the Scottish planning system KATE HOUGHTON, POLICY & PRACTICE OFFICER

Planners in Scotland will be well aware of the significant review of the planning system that is under way. Following the wide-ranging inquiry and subsequent report of an independent panel the Scottish Government published a consultation paper, Places, People and Planning, in January 2017. The proposals included vary in their level of detail. Some are clearly outlined and the route to implementation is apparent. Others remain closer to ‘principles’ for change, and it is here in particular that RTPI Scotland has sought to lead the thinking on refining the ideas. To this end, we are publishing a series of ‘think pieces’, the first three are: A statutory chief planning officer in local authorities; Making an ‘infrastructure first’ approach a reality; and Making local place plans work – collaboration rather than conflict. A statutory chief planning officer in local authorities proposes just that. Structural changes in local authorities over the past decade have often meant a lack of the proper consideration of the spatial implications of corporate

investment. Inspired by the precedent of chief social work officers and chief education officers, the chief planning officer post would introduce duties for consultation with the planning service. This could help to integrate corporate strategies, including local outcome improvement plans, with local development plans (LDPs). The duties could be applied to an existing post and need not impose extra costs on local authorities. The post could deliver big benefits by helping to reposition planning from a primarily regulatory function to the powerful visionary and collaborative tool we know it to be. This visionary and collaborative approach is particularly wanting in infrastructure delivery in Scotland. Across the country development is frequently stalled because the infrastructure – transport, education, health – needed to support it is not being delivered. To overcome this challenge the Scottish Government has voiced its support for an infrastructure first approach to development. Making an infrastructure first approach a reality proposes a twopronged process – a national mechanism

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with responsibility for auditing national infrastructure needs, and overseeing the delivery of these needs (including through informing a new enhanced National Planning Framework or National Development Plan) would be established. Additionally, a new nonlocal infrastructure levy is called for. This could fund some national priorities, as well as regional priorities identified by the proposed Regional Planning Partnerships. A major theme of the planning review is more positive engagement of communities in planning. There is a particular focus on how to link up other policy initiatives, including community empowerment and community planning, with spatial planning. Places, People and Planning proposes the introduction of local place plans – spatial plans prepared by local communities – in theory not dissimilar to English neighbourhood plans. But making local place plans work considers how community-led spatial planning could succeed in the very different Scottish context. There is widespread support for greater community involvement in spatial planning, but there are concerns that introducing a new tier of statutory plans will be a resource demand too far on critically stretched planning departments. We propose supporting the preparation of local place plans in ‘priority areas’, defined as those identified through community planning-led local outcome improvement plans, and ‘areas of major change’ as identified in LDPs. At the time of going to press two more think pieces are in the pipeline. The first synthesises an updated planmaking process accounting for the changes to LDPs proposed in Places, People and Planning. The second takes a twin-pronged approach to the housing challenge: regionally defined targets for housing delivery to be included in the NPF, and stronger local delivery programmes to implement those ambitions. n The think pieces, and the rest of RTPI Scotland’s input to the planning review, can be read at: tinyurl.com/planner0717-review Follow us on Twitter, @RTPIScotland, for updates

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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

Dawn Russell PRINCIPAL PLANNING ENFORCEMENT OFFICER SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNCIL We find ourselves defending existing planning conditions against large-scale developers; these investigations are usually high in public and political interest and are an opportunity to show our worth. Issuing breach of condition notices with no delay by appeal to the Planning Inspectorate is entirely useful, however, we find the 28 day + period for compliance is often impractical in the circumstances and the low maximum fine (£2,500), which is rarely achieved, is not sufficient to provoke compliance. Our performance is indicated at national level solely by ‘notices served’; it in no way shows the amount of and diverse nature of work involved in the planning enforcement service. We’re advised to resolve by negotiation and to monitor developments proactively. Collecting this information would provide a more rounded understanding of the service and the resources/skills required to achieve it. Long appeal processes can enable the development to continue to cause harm whilst under consideration. Tighter timescales for enforcement appeals would be preferable for all.

COMMITTEE PRIORITIES: INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE The committee links all areas of Institute activity to promoting planning outside the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. It guides the Institute’s relations with planning organisations in other countries, and develops and strengthens the Institute’s international links and reputation. Chair Dr Peter Geraghty FRTPI, outlines this year’s priorities: Develop the RTPI-wide action plan to promote the international sustainable development agenda and planners’ roles Work with our international partnerships and memberships to promote international commitments, planners and good planning Supporting our international members and World Town Planning Day (8 November) Our aim is to play our part in achieving a more sustainable world through capacity building, policy development and international partnerships. This year, with sister institutes, we’re promoting the United Nation’s New Urban Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals; climate change obligations and humanitarian issues and the role of planners and planning in implementing these. For members, we’ve created an online information hub, published the Guide to Working Internationally, and with RIBA and IstructE we are hosting a UKBEAG event in July. Go to: www.rtpi.org.uk/international

1 Make breach of condition notices more practical

2 Use national statistics to present a more rounded view of planning enforcement

3 Reduce unnecessary delays for planning enforcement appeals

POSITION POINTS

RTPI CALLS FOR CPO POWERS The UK Government’s housing white paper sets out a range of reforms that government plans to introduce to reform the housing market and increase the supply of homes. The RTPI says the government should reform the 1961 Land Compensation Act to allow local authorities to compulsorily purchase land at existing use value and capture the rise in land value following public investment in infrastructure. Making better use of the powers of development corporations in the reformed New Towns Act will help to achieve this.

n Read the RTPI’s full response to the consultation: tinyurl.com/planner0717-cpo

HOW TO FIX THE HOUSING CRISIS: TAKE LAND SERIOUSLY The New Economic Foundation’s report is an analysis of the government’s strategy to sell public sector land to solve the housing crisis. The RTPI thinks public sector land release is one of 16 ways to solve the crisis, but such a strategy must include allowing proactive planning on the part of local authorities and the ability of government departments to dispose of surplus land holdings in a way that takes account of the wider community value rather than maximising capital receipt.

n RTPI’s Delivering Large Scale Housing: tinyurl.com/planner0717-unlock n New Economic Foundation report: tinyurl.com/planner0717-nef

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NEWS

RTPI { Commended Licentiate APC candidates share tips for success

2016 L-APC Commended candidates: (left to right) Sara Cockburn, Elisabeth Glover and Ciaran Hagan

Chartered Planner status, conferred only by the RTPI in the UK, is the highest professional qualiﬁcation sought after by employers in both the private and public sectors. More than 400 Licentiates apply to become a Chartered Planner through the Licentiate Assessment of Professional Competence (L-APC) annually. Each year the L-APC assessors nominate candidates with particularly excellent submissions for commendation. The Institute’s Membership Assessment Advisory Panel then judges the nominations. The accolade highlights their outstanding submission for Chartered status and the positive contribution candidates make to the profession. RTPI President Stephen Wilkinson said: “These planners demonstrated a high standard of critical thinking, selfawareness and aptitude for planning. They represent the future of the profession and promote a positive image of planning to clients, employers and the wider community.” Sara Cockburn, Elisabeth Glover and Ciaran Hagan were awarded an L-APC Commendation for 2016.

Their advice and tips for a successful submission will be invaluable to future candidates working towards Chartered Planner status.

Get organised early on Ciaran recommends that you “familiarise yourself with the L-APC Guidance document so that you know the assessment criteria inside out and always have the guidance open when you are updating your logbook”. Sara found it helpful to “set deadlines for drafting each section of the submission” and shared these with her mentor to ensure that she had time to review her submission before applying.

Gain the right experience to meet requirements The commended candidates also speak about the importance of gaining the right experience to meet the requirements. Elisabeth recommends, “waiting until you are conﬁdent you have enough experience to meet the competencies”. Sara advises Licentiates “not to be afraid to ask for greater responsibility or involvement with diﬀerent types of planning work to widen your experience”.

Select the best case studies to show competence When preparing your submission, Ciaran advises you to “carefully select the best case studies that allow you to demonstrate the competencies”. When writing up your case studies, you should “focus on your role – explaining how your decisions, and subsequent actions, moved the case study forward”. Being thorough and speciﬁc in the submission was another theme of the candidates’ top tips.

Learn from others All of the candidates emphasised the benefits of taking the opportunity to learn from others’ experiences of the L-APC process – including mentors, colleagues and peers. Elisabeth also recommends that you should “ask for feedback from your peers on your submission – everyone has a different perspective and will pick up on different parts of your submission”. n More information on the commended candidates and their tops tips can be found at: tinyurl.com/planner0717-apc

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us DO YOU HAVE THE SKILLS AND VISION TO HELP LEAD OUR INSTITUTE? We want you to get involved in shaping the future of the Institute by putting yourself forward to be a new face on our Board or General Assembly (GA). Elections for a number of posts take place each autumn, presenting all our members with a great opportunity to get more involved in the running of the Institute on many different levels. Being a Trustee or member of our GA is your chance to make a difference and influence the future direction of the RTPI. It is a challenging but richly rewarding experience that will broaden your planning expertise and give you the opportunity to contribute to the big discussions, debates and decisions that impact the profession. For more information, and a list of the places subject to election this year, please visit: tinyurl.com/planner0717-elections

GET YOUR TICKET FOR THIS YEAR’S YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE Tickets for the much-anticipated Young Planners’ Conference are now on sale. This year’s topic will have you learning about ‘Healthy, Happy Places and People: Planning for Well-being’. The RTPI North West Young Planners have chosen the cosmopolitan city of Manchester to host the two-day event from 3-4 November 2017 at the Museum of Science and Industry. We have an exciting line-up of speakers that oﬀers something for everyone no matter where you’re based or in what sector. Don’t forget, it also counts towards your CPD.

RTPI SHORTS

RTPI SHAPES DIGITAL INNOVATION AGENDA WITH FUTURE CITIES CATAPULT For the best part of a year the RTPI has supported the Future Cities Catapult (FCC) to explore how new technology and big data is changing the way we plan. Our profession, as are many others, is being transformed by digital innovation. Further disruptive change is right around the corner, and it’s our responsibility to ensure that our members can actively shape this agenda. As a government-backed centre for the advancement of smart cities, the FCC has been working to identify state-of-art products and services from tech start-ups and local planning authorities. Through its position on the FCC project steering group, the RTPI has helped to organise workshops where members have discussed key challenges facing the system, and developed ways to make planning more transparent, democratic and eﬀective. Many of these solutions have the potential to ease the administrative burden on planners, freeing up valuable time to focus on more complex issues. The RTPI’s involvement with the FCC is also shaping a new project at the Institute that focuses on ‘smart city-regions’ – looking at how new technologies and partnerships are helping to tackle larger-than-local issues in housing, infrastructure and the environment to reinvent strategic planning from the bottom up. More information about the FCC: tinyurl.com/planner0717-fcc Read about the RTPI’s new smart city-regions project: tinyurl.com/planner0717-smart-cities

Book your ticket here: tinyurl.com/planner0717-ypconference

WANT TO HELP CHAMPION PLANNING’S ROLE IN DELIVERY TO POLITICIANS? With the general election now behind us, we are focusing on our engagement with the government at this year’s party conferences. Direct engagement is an important part of our approach, which is why we will again be running our successful lunch-time fringe events at the Labour and Conservative party conferences. Our events with Planning Portal will consider how planning can deliver aﬀordable homes and healthy places for all. We are also teaming up with RIBA, RICS and CIOB to run events at the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrat conferences on shared issues in the built environment. Get involved with us at: tinyurl.com/planner0717-fringe-events

SAVE THE DATE: NORTHERN IRELAND ANNUAL PLANNING CONFERENCE There was fantastic support for the ﬁrst Northern Ireland Planning Conference in 2016, so we’re making it an annual event. Following the unexpected assembly election, RTPI NI is calling for stability in the planning system when the new minister is announced and this will be a theme for the conference – getting on with the delivery of the planning system and the beneﬁts this can deliver for communities across Northern Ireland. The conference will hear key themes and delve into practical delivery topics through the breakout seminar programme. The conference will be held on Tuesday 26th September at the Europa Hotel, Belfast. More information at: tinyurl.com/planner0717-ni

RTPI’S OVERSEAS STUDY BURSARY HAS HELPED LAND ONE YOUNG PLANNER A JOB Isobel Bruun-Kiær explains how the RTPI George Pepler International Award has helped her. “Making a big change in your career, or changing direction can be daunting - especially when you’re a young planner who isn’t 100 per cent sure about which way to go. The award gave me an opportunity to ask – if I could create my next role, what would it be? Where would I go? The answer was Auckland, New Zealand, working to understand planning for climate change in a city where housing growth and infrastructure pressures take priority. “This award has such value to young planners. Not only in giving the opportunity to explore an interesting topic, but also to apply the skills I’d learned as a professional planner in new contexts. Through this award, planners can expand their experience in ways that they might not have considered before. I now work as senior sustainability and resilience specialist for Auckland Council’s chief planning oﬃce, making the Paris Agreement’s carbon reductions a reality, while also linking this to our plan development on adapting to climate change. The research I did as part of the award on building resilience to climate change put me in a perfect position to do this.” More information about the award and Isobel’s ﬁnal report: tinyurl.com/planner0717-pepler

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