The Planner March 2018

MARCH 2018 TRUDI ELLIOTT: DEPARTING RTPI CEO LOOKS TO THE FUTURE // p.8 • NO ADVERSITY IN DIVERSITY // p.22 • PLANNING CHILD FRIENDLY CITIES // p.26 • A NEW VISION FOR SYRIA // p.32 • NATIONS & REGIONS FOCUS LONDON // p.34 •

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

TONIGHT I’M YOURS: LONDON’S NIGHT CZAR ON PLANNING THE 24 HOUR CITY

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CONTENTS

THE

MARCH

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NEWS

4 Wales’s chief planner weighs up new PPW 6 Beating down social barriers

7 Javid looks upwards for homes in cities

8 Trudi Elliott: Achievements, challenges and the future 9 RTPI celebrates reaching 25,000 members 10 Murphy unveils plans for up to 10,000 affordable homes 11 The journey to diversity

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OPINION

14 Chris Shepley: Planners get blamed for housing shortfall: The song remains the same 16 Nick Wright: Trust is the foundation of an effective planning system 16 Vicky Payne: Why planning needs to improve its 'UX’ 17 Rob Krzyszowski: Diversity? It’s good business sense and good planning 17 Freddie Bell: Planning ahead: The next generation

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“THE SPATIAL NEEDS OF STUDENTS AND HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE LITTLE DIFFERENT TO THOSE OF ANYONE ELSE” INSPECTOR JOANNA REID, IN REFUSING A STUDIO FLAT THAT WOULD BE 20 PER CENT OF ACCEPTED SPACE STANDARDS

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“I’VE LIVED MY ENTIRE LIFE IN THIS CITY AT NIGHT”

FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 Amy Lamé, London’s ‘night czar’ talks about life on the front line of night-time industry

30 Tech landscape: Planning made more accessible using Minecraft, and building the Syria of tomorrow

22 The planning profession is shaking off its ‘pale and male’ image, says Serena Ralston

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

26 If planners use a child-friendly approach to urban challenges we will all benefit, says Hannah Wright 34 Nations & Regions: London

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42 Legal Landscape: Opinions, blogs and news from the legal side of planning 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: Following the Baftas and Oscars, we present #ADateWithPlanning at the movies

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NEWS

Report { PLANNING IN WALES

Wales’s chief planner weighs up new PPW

The refreshed PPW will promote a new way of thinking among those working in the planning system

By Laura Edgar

Q: Why is PPW being updated?

NH: In 2015 the National Assembly for Wales passed the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. This places a

5 Key Planning Principles

statutory duty on public bodies in Wales (including the Welsh Government) to consider sustainable development in their decision-making. In doing this, public bodies should set out plans as to how they will take decisions in order to meet ON seven well-being goals that are set out in law.

The act also outlines five ways of working which authorities should embrace in order to help achieve fulfilment of the goals.

The Welsh Government gave a commitment in 2015 to review PPW in order to assist in the delivery of this new act through the planning system.

NEIL HEMIN GT

Planning Policy Wales (PPW), the national land use planning policy document of the Welsh Government, was first published in 2002 and has since been updated nine times.

It is the single source of planning policy in Wales and is supplemented with Technical Advice Notes (TANs), circulars and ministerial letters.

Now, the Welsh Government is consulting on the next iteration of the plan, so The Planner caught up with its chief planner, Neil Hemington MRTPI (NH), to find out all about it.

Q: What does PPW aim to achieve?

NH: The new version of PPW seeks to promote a new way of thinking among those operating within the planning system in Wales to consider places and placemaking in proposals coming forward through local policy formulation and development management decisions.

Placemaking complements well-being: by taking a holistic approach early on in the development process, planners can help shape good-quality places that are attractive, sociable and ultimately, successful developments.

Q: What is being introduced in this iteration of PPW and why?

What has changed?

NH: The structure of PPW has been revised around Placemaking and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act. We have introduced 5 Key Planning Principles, which we see as the drivers for planning and answer the question: why do we plan? PPW also contains our new National Placemaking Outcomes, which describes what good places should be like and what constitutes the planning goal of sustainable places.

Policy topics are clustered around themes to enable linkages between policy areas to be identified. For example, the Active and Social Places chapter brings together policy statements on housing, retailing, community facilities, open

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PLAN UPFRONT

Q: How does PPW seek to ensure that planning in Wales is inclusive for old and young, disabled, different ethnicities and cultures, the Welsh and English languages?

Test users say PPW is easier to navigate

space and active travel – the essential ingredients for cohesive communities.

Q: What remains and why?

NH: A survey of users revealed that the current PPW was easy to navigate as it focused on policy topic areas.

This is retained for the new version of PPW, albeit structured around the four themes. Repetition and procedural elements have been removed from the document. This has the benefits of shortening the text and allowing PPW to be read as a whole.

Q: What should planners look out for?

What are the key policies?

NH: As well as the new ways of approaching development proposals through Placemaking, the Welsh Government has also used this opportunity to update planning policy in a number of key areas, including: n New settlements/urban extensions should be promoted through the National Development Framework (NDF), Strategic Development Plans (SDP) and joint Local Development Plans (LDP). n A stronger emphasis of previously developed land. n Green belts should only be proposed as part of a joint LDP or an SDP.

“PPW REMAINS A MATERIAL CONSIDERATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT PROCESS”

n New policy statements on housing for older people and custom and self-build housing. n Promotion of the transport hierarchy and active travel. n Thresholds for the provision of electric vehicle-charging infrastructure. n Revised policies on coal and onshore oil and gas. n Natural environment updates to reflect Environment (Wales) Act. n ‘Agent of Change’ principle introduced.

Q: How will the revised PPW dovetail with developing local development plans? How should those policies under development be handled following the publication of the new PPW? And similarly for adopted – or submitted – LDPs, which policies will take precedence? Will PPW have primacy?

NH: PPW remains a material consideration in the development management process and adopted development plans continue to have their primacy set out in law. LDPs going through the formulation process should seek to align themselves with the policy statements in the new LDP. Where LDPs are out of date or silent on a particular issue, PPW gives policy guidance to decision-makers at all levels.

The forthcoming National Development Framework, having development plan status, will also give a national spatial perspective to policy and will work alongside PPW to provide Welsh Government policy.

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NH: Three of the statutory ‘ways of working’ in the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act refer to integration, collaboration and involvement. The ways in which planning can operate in these ways are highlighted throughout the text.

The concept of placemaking is about inclusivity and our definition of a sustainable place is one that is “attractive, sociable, positive, secure, welcoming, healthy and friendly. Development proposals should bring people together and make us want to live, work and play in areas with an unmistakeable sense of place and well-being creating prosperity for all”.

PPW states that, through placemaking and careful design, proposals should have equality of access, consider the Welsh language and are safe and inclusive.

Q: How is PPW set out – is it different from previous iterations and easily accessible?

NH: It has been completely reworked from the bottom up.

We are currently considering how to make PPW more accessible than its current pdf version. This may result in a completely online version that can easily be viewed on a mobile or tablet device.

We would be interested to find out from stakeholders how they will use PPW in the future and how to make it more convenient to use both by professionals and the public.

Q: Where can the consultation be found and what is the deadline?

And where should responses be submitted?

NH: The easiest way to access our consultation is through the Welsh Government website. Full details on how to respond by Friday 18 May 2018 can also be found there. We are interested to hear what you think about our new approach to planning policy in Wales. n For details on how to respond see: bit.ly/planner0318-ppw

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NEWS

Analysis {

“THE RTPI PASSIONATELY CHAMPIONS THE ISSUE OF DIVERSITY IN THE WORK THAT IT DOES” – ROSSLYN STUART

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY

By Laura Edgar Last year, the RTPI published the results of its 2017 Member Survey, which featured in the December issue of The Planner.

It suggested that the demographic profile of the 4,225 people who responded was in line with the membership as a whole.

Here, The Planner has taken a closer look at the profession’s diversity, as well as the institute itself and the parity policy for the magazine.

Diversity in the RTPI’s 2017 Member Survey

Demographic Age

Prefer not to say 2%

Under 25 2%

Pay Men: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Women: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

White: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Mixed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Asian/Asian British: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Black/Black British: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Arab: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

N et sa tis fie N d et di ss at is fie d

Beating down social barriers

Are you satisfied with...?

72%; 65%; 71%; 65%; 58%; 45%; 80%;

25% 30% 27% 32% 38% 48% 20%

Career progression & opportunities Men: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61%; 30% Women: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55%; 38% White: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59%; 33% Mixed: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59%; 35% Asian/Asian British: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54%; 40% Black/Black British: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35%; 55% Arab: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80%; 20%

25­34 16%

65 or over 16%

What are the barriers to professional advancement?

Gender: 24 per cent of women said gender was a barrier, but just 2 per cent of men cited it as a reason.

Ethnicity: 29 per cent of Asian/Asian

55­64 18% 35­44 23%

British people, and 48 per cent of black/ black British people said ethnicity was a barrier to career progression.

Disability: 26 per cent of disabled respondents cited their disability as a barrier to professional advancement.

45­54 22%

50 per cent of respondents report no barriers to progression.

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Gender

Ethnic group

Sexual Identity

Male . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62% Female . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37% Non­binary/ third gender . . . . . . . 4 people Prefer to self­describe . . . . . . 1 person Prefer not to say . . 1%

White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91% Mixed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% Asian/ Asian British . . . . . . . 3% Black/ Black British . . . . . . . 1% Arab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 people Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% Prefer not to say . . 4%

Heterosexual or straight . . . . . . . . . 84% Gay or lesbian . . . . . 3% Bisexual . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 people Don’t know . . . . . . . . . 18 people Prefer not to say . . 12%

Overall, 11 per cent said age was a barrier, 2 per cent ethnicity and 11 per cent said gender were barriers, and 11 per cent said there is a lack of role models.

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5%

of staff disclosed a disability

Diversity at the RTPI

Gender 28% of staff at the RTPI are male 72% are female Age 14 members of staff are aged between 20-29

19 are aged between 30-39 23 are aged between 40-49 23 are aged 50+ 2 members of staff have not disclosed their age

Ethnicity 64.5% are from white backgrounds (i.e. not necessarily British nationals, all white backgrounds)

10.2% of staff have BAME backgrounds 25.3% have not disclosed their ethnicity Senior positions 75% of the executive team is female 60% of head of service/national director

Speaking to The Planner, Rosslyn Stuart MRTPI, director of professional standards and development, said the institute has a long and ongoing commitment to equal opportunity and anti-discrimination for its employees and those engaging with the organisation.

Through its Code of Conduct, it requires that members “in their role as professional planners do not discriminate on the grounds of race, sex, sexual orientation, creed, religion, disability or age and shall seek to eliminate such discrimination by others and to promote equality of opportunity”.

Stuart said that following publication of the Office for National Statistic’s figures on pay, highlighting a pay gap between genders in the profession, the RTPI ensured that its survey asked questions about progression in the profession and the gender, sexual orientation and black, Asian and ethnic minority membership and participation balance.

The findings have been discussed at the General Assembly and at the Standing Committees to find ways in which the RTPI can help employers to support planners with disabilities, women, professionals from BAME backgrounds and those who identify as not heterosexual to progress in the profession in representative numbers.

positions are held by women Managerial roles are split 50/50 for gender

n Read the RTPI’s blog on championing diversity here: bit.ly/planner0318-champion

THE PLANNER’S PARITY POLICY

Since 2016, The Planner has reported to the RTPI on the gender and ethnicity balance in these pages.

In 2017, the percentage of male to female involvement was 63 per cent to 37 per cent – remarkably close to the gender make-up identified in the RTPI members’ survey (see left).

We break the numbers down into six forms of involvement: opinion, quotation, authorship, event

participation, portrayal in images and portrayal in advertising. This has helped us identify the need for more female feature writers in particular.

The aim of this policy is to identify any imbalance and rectify it by showcasing the most diverse possible range of voices. To that end, we’re always looking to introduce new names and faces, whatever their background. And that’s over to you…

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Javid looks upwards for homes in cities Housing secretary Sajid Javid has confirmed that the government supports the creation of a new generation of town houses in cities in a bid to ease pressure on ‘valuable’ open spaces and to help growing families.

The changes are expected to make it easier to build upwards on existing blocks of flats and houses, as well as shops and offices.

Javid said: “The answer to building new homes isn’t always an empty plot, or developing on a derelict site.

“We need to be more creative and make more effective use of the space we already have available.

“That’s why we are looking to strengthen planning rules to encourage developers to be more innovative and look at opportunities to build upwards where possible when delivering the homes the country needs.”

Two levels could be added to a property, providing it was in keeping with the roofline of other buildings in the area.

The government said the measure would help councils to protect “valuable open space” in inner-city areas, maintain the character of residential areas, safeguard people’s privacy and stop unwanted garden grabbing. Any changes must be in keeping with character of the local area.

This policy will be included in the revised draft of the National Planning Policy Framework, which the government has said will be published “before Easter”.

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NEWS

Analysis { “THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE IS ALWAYS ARGUING THE VALUE OF PLANNING AND COUNTERACTING NEGATIVE ARGUMENTS OR VIEWPOINTS” clim climate change and rapid urbanisation; the lack of planning capacity and professionals in some places is a real pro constraint. Even in the UK we as a con society are not encouraging enough soc people as are needed to study and peo qualify as planners. qua

Q: Do you think the perception of planning has changed, whether for the pla better or not, in seven years? bet TRUDI ELLIOTT INTERVIEW

Achievements, challenges and the future

By Laura Edgar In July last year, the RTPI’s chief executive Trudi Elliott announced that she would stand down from the position.

She has led the institute since 2011.

Before Elliott’s last day, which is 29 March, The Planner caught up with her to find out what she thinks about her achievements, the perception of planning and plans for the future.

Q: What do you consider to be your greatest/proudest achievement?

TE: I am very proud of the body of research, policy and practice work we have produced over the past seven years, which is the result of talented staff and the breadth and range of member knowledge. I am proud of the range of

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organisations who have or who want to collaborate with us and that we have effective working relationships with governments across the UK.

Q: What is/what are the biggest challenges you have faced while at the institute?

TE: The biggest challenge is always arguing the value of planning and counteracting negative arguments or viewpoints – a constant task. The global challenges we face are enormous, from

“WE HAVE CREATED A NARRATIVE THAT PLANNING IS VITAL ACROSS SO MANY AREAS OF SOCIETY, FROM HEALTH THROUGH TO ECONOMY”

TE The perception of planning has TE: improved. We have created a narrative im that planning is vital across so many tha areas of society, from health through to are economy. Our pan-UK Awards for Planning Excellence programme, which has grown year on year, now includes an International Award – we are promoting the power of planning as an agent of positive benefit to society on, not only a UK front in all regions and nations, but internationally too.

Q: What do you think are the key challenges for your successor?

TE: A key challenge for the RTPI will remain how to manage more great ideas than there is resource to action – not a bad position to be in. In 2018 we are consulting members on our new research strategy and it will soon be time to start work on the next corporate strategy to shape the next phase of the institute!

Q: What are your plans for the future?

TE: My objective is moving back to live full-time in the West Midlands, although I have been telling everyone I am having my gap year! I have been asked to be the first Patron of the Commonwealth Association of Planners, which I am very excited about. n This is an abridged version of the interview for print. The full version can be found on The Planner website: bit.ly/planner0318-elliott

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PLAN UPFRONT

RTPI celebrates reaching 25,000 members

Views sought on Scotland’s landscapes bill The Scottish Parliament has begun canvassing views on the government’s recently introduced Crown Estate Bill.

Holyrood’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee wants to know if the legislation can be improved and whether the measures will allow for the best management of Scotland’s diverse landscapes and assets.

The bill sets out the proposed long-term management arrangements for Crown Estate assets including Scotland’s seabed, coastlines and rural estates. Crown Estate Scotland is responsible for managing 37,000 hectares of rural land.

Committee convener Graeme Dey MSP said: “The bill is hugely significant for Scotland, and it will help to oversee the management of more than £275 million worth of assets across the country.

“Our committee now wants to hear from the public and stakeholder groups on their thoughts on the proposed bill. For example, should any additional power or function be included?

And are the powers to allow the transfer of the management function appropriate?” n The call for views, which closes on the 23 March, is available on the Scottish Parliament website: bit.ly/planner0318-crown I M AG E S | I STO C K / S H U T T E RSTO C K

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The RTPI has announced that it has welcomed its 25,000th member, a major milestone for the institute.

Holly Hobbs has developed her career at Powys County Council and became a principal planning officer in 2015.

She has experience in dealing with major rural schemes, including intensive livestock units and wind turbine developments.

Hobbs said: “Joining my professional body was important to me, not only for the career and personal development opportunities it offers, but the role the institute plays in championing the work I do every day – using planning to transform places and create vibrant communities.

“Over the next couple of years I’ll be working towards chartered status – taking advantage of the networking, mentoring and resources available through the RTPI

– to ensure the people I work with, and for, know I have the highest professional standards and expertise.”

Over the past year the institute has focused on growth among student members and planners at an early stage in their career – like Holly, a licentiate – to grow the pipeline of planners and ensure a sustainable future for the institute.

The RTPI has also implemented streamlined routes to membership to ensure greater consistency and transparency, making it simpler to join.

Brent uses POCA against slum landlords Brent Council has used the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) against slum landlords for breaches of licensing conditions.

Mum Harsha, 53, daughter Chandni, 27, and brother-in-law Sanjay Shah, 54, rented out a four-bedroom property through agent Jaydipkumar Valand, 42, who managed up to 40 people living there.

Tenants paid between £40 and £75 a week for five years to live in the semidetached house, which was divided into seven bedrooms.

Officers at the council also found a woman living next to the property in a shack with no lighting or heating.

At Harrow Crown Court, Recorder

Stephen Rubin QC ordered that POCA could be used to recover criminal assets that the Shah family obtained from cramming tenants into filthy and dangerous living conditions.

Shah and her family have to pay a confiscation order for financial benefit gained or saved as a result of contraventions of the Management of HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) Regulations 2006 and breaches of licensing conditions. It could amount to “hundreds of thousands of pounds,” said the council.

Sanjay Shah lost his appeal against the charge of aiding and abetting breaches of a term of selective licence attached to the property in Napier Road, Wembley, early in January. He also lost an appeal against his conviction for contravening the Management of HMO Regulations 2006.

Valand, who took £112,000 in rent from the tenants for the family in 2015 to 2016, may be ordered to repay any financial benefit gained under this POCA ruling.

Councillor Harbi Farah said: “We will use all the powers we have to put an end to tenants living in misery, and this includes the Proceeds of Crime Act.”

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NEWS

News { Murphy unveils plans for up to 10,000 affordable homes Irish housing and planning minister Eoghan Murphy has announced further initiatives to boost housing supply, including a scheme designed to liberate state-owned land and encourage private developers to build social and affordable housing.

The initiative was highlighted when the minister summoned all the country’s local authority chief executives to a housing summit in Dublin.

He explained: “The purpose of this scheme is to enable people to get a home of their own, supported by and in partnership with the state.

With local authorities providing the land at reduced or no cost to facilitate affordable homes, the price of the affordable house will be discounted and the state will retain an equity share in the house, relative to the discount from the full price.

“So, for example, a house that costs €250,000 may be made available to purchase at €200,000. The equity share can be paid off, interest-free, by the purchaser at a later date. Or if the owner wants to sell early, the state can take that portion back at the time of sale.”

Initial sites and finance have already been provided for affordable housing through the €25 million serviced sites fund and the €200 million LIHAF infrastructural investment fund.

Some state land has already been earmarked for affordable housing.

Murphy said there were “four major ready-to-go sites in Dublin” where construction could begin in 2018.

Currently, it was anticipated that this initiative would deliver 3,000 new homes.

“Our ambition is for at least 10,000,” he insisted.

Vacant land tax proposed in Wales The Welsh Government has announced that it will proceed with plans to impose a tax on landowners who fail to develop sites that are ripe for development.

Mark Drakeford, cabinet secretary for finance, said ministers would take forward a vacant land tax to test taxation powers conferred by the Wales Act 2014.

The measure could work in a similar way to a vacant site levy in the Irish Republic. Local authorities would draw up a list of vacant land suitable to be developed.

Since announcing a shortlist of new tax ideas alongside the draft Budget in October, the administration has been examining the case for a social care levy, a vacant land tax, a disposable plastics tax and a tourism tax.

Although the vacant land tax idea will be used to test the Wales Act powers, work will continue on each of the other three options.

Drakeford said: “Housing is a priority for the government.

A tax on vacant land could prevent the practice of land banking and land not being developed within the expected timescales. The Republic of Ireland vacant sites levy provides a useful starting point for how a vacant land tax could work in Wales.”

Go-ahead for key power line in Northern Ireland Officials at Northern Ireland’s Department for Infrastructure have cleared the way for a major all-Ireland infrastructure project – the North-South Interconnector – to start climbing off the drawing board with the approval of the Northern half.

It will link the electricity grids of the Irish Republic and the province with a 138-kilometre-long, 400-kilovolt overhead line between Meath and Tyrone.

Approval was in line with the recommendations and report of the NI Planning Appeals Commission (PAC), which reviewed the planning applications and held a public inquiry into the project last year.

An Bord Pleanála granted planning permission for the southern section of the £200 million project in December 2016. That decision has been upheld by the

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courts despite a number of legal challenges.

The PAC report included full consideration of the planning issues and recommended that the scheme should go ahead, in the process endorsing its significant strategic importance.

The department agreed with PAC that there was an “urgent and compelling need for the development”. In a statement the department insisted that it was in the public interest “to take this decision without further delay, given the strategic importance of the project for the region”.

Normally the determination of this sort of key project would have been down to ministers, however, there are none at present following the collapse of the powersharing administration early in 2017.

The scheme was proposed by electricity system operator System Operator Northern Ireland and its owner EirGrid in the Republic.

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LEADER COMMENT

Opinionn The journey to diversity – Like any profession, we need to ensure that planners comprise the best from the widest pool of talent, from all backgrounds. But because of the nature of what we do, it is particularly important that the planning profession should represent the communities it serves.

This issue of The Planner finds that the profession is aware of the need to increase diversity in its own ranks and in terms of the places it shapes. After all, if we don’t know the challenges, we can’t address them.

At the RTPI we were concerned by an Office for National Statistics report last year that revealed a significant gender pay gap in the sector. We also knew that we needed more robust data on protected characteristics within the profession. So we used our 2017 membership survey to explore these issues.; The Planner's employer survey also considers diversity.

Trudi Elliott We have already identified that routes to membership, apprenticeships, bursaries and promotion of planning are key to increasing the pool of planning talent.

We’re also sure that our pressure to properly resource planning functions is vital, as local authority opportunities can be a route into planning.

We know that our members take diversity seriously. It’s not simply that our code of conduct requires it; there’s been significant interest in our

papers Poverty, Place and Inequality, and Dementia and Town Planning.

Moreover, we’re seeing growth in groups such as Planning Out (for LGBT+ planners) and Women in Planning, both driven by committed volunteers.

Good work is also going on with employers and universities, and at General Assembly and Board level we’re discussing practical actions to increase diversity.

Beyond the profession itself, our annual awards submissions show planners working on better ways to reach all sectors of their communities. You’ll see some in this issue – not least in bringing young people into the planning consultation process.

“DURING MY SEVEN YEARS AS RTPI CHIEF EXECUTIVE I’VE SEEN THE PROPORTION OF WOMEN ENTERING THE PROFESSION REACH 50 PER CENT”

You’ll also find an analysis of diversity within the profession, along with the views of a range of planners; you’ll read how London’s ‘Night Czar’ is fighting for diversity in the city, and how planning urban spaces for children creates better environments for all.

If we’re not perfect, we’re making progress. I’m proud that in my seven years as RTPI chief executive I’ve seen the proportion of women entering the profession reach 50 per cent, and that membership of RTPI committees has become more inclusive. I am also proud to lead an organisation that has equal opportunities at its heart – 75 per cent of our directors are women and 60 per cent of senior management is currently female.

The best way to meet the challenges of the 21st century is from a platform of fair, equal and resilient democracies. Planning has a critical role to play.

Trudi Elliott is the outgoing chief executive of the RTPI

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14/02/2018 17:22

CORRESPONDENCE

Inbox

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

Paul Ainsworth Anyone who has heard of CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, will know that a primary campaign objective for us is to slow the rate of pub closures throughout the country.

Until recently, fighting pub closures was made much harder by the permitted development (PD) rights regime by which planning permission was not required to convert a pub (A4) to a restaurant (A3), offices for financial and professional services (A2) or a shop (A1). Nor was it needed to demolish a pub unless it was a listed building or in a conservation area.

In 2015 we had our first campaigning success when an exemption from PD rights was agreed for pubs that were nominated as Assets of Community Value (ACV) and in 2017 PD rights were removed for all pubs across the country regardless of ACV status. Local people now have the opportunity to object to a planning application that seeks to change the use of a pub or demolish it.

Yet despite this victory we know that not all LPAs are aware of the legislative changes. Two instances have arisen where prior approval for demolition was granted but the requirement for planning permission was not understood and so not communicated to the applicant.

Fortunately, in one of these cases demolition had not yet taken place so the LPA was able to advise the applicant that permission was needed. In the other, the pub had already been torn I M AG E | I STO C K

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What do you want to see in the revised NPPF? – The government is currently reviewing the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). According to a letter from chief planner Steve Quartermain to all chief planning officers in local planning authorities, the government intends to publish its proposed changes “before Easter”.

The NPPF is being revised to include planning reforms announced in the housing white paper published last February; the Planning for the Right Homes in the

down and the site cleared.

The LPA had informed the applicant that proposals for the redevelopment will have to demonstrate that the Local Plan requirements around marketing, viability and value to the community of the (now vanished) facility have been met. Whether that will result in reinstatement of the facility is another matter.

CAMRA has little doubt that in the vast majority of LPAs the relevant officers are fully conversant with the May 2017 changes and are implementing them accordingly. But the two cases mentioned have set alarm bells ringing; we want to do our best to ensure as many local authorities are aware of the changes that are in place.

Paul Ainsworth, Chair, Campaign for Real Ale Pubs Campaign Committee

Right Places consultation published in September; and announcements in the Autumn Budget.

“We will consult on both new policies from the Budget, and the text of the framework, to make sure the wording is clear, consistent and well understood. Our ambition is to publish a final revised framework in the summer,” wrote

Stephen Williams I am a house builder/ developer, also a town planner (retired RTPI member) and a former chartered surveyor (again retired).

From my experience which although limited is not, I believe, untypical – the costs of preparing and submitting a planning application for residential development is currently running at about £5,000 per unit.

If house building is currently running at about 150,000 starts per annum then the cost to applicants of obtaining planning permission for residential development is approximately £750,000,000.

That figure excludes administrative costs in the

Quartermain. Accordingly, we're asking for your views: ■ How should the current NPPF change?

■ What will make the framework more accessible?

■ What is missing from the current NPPF? Email editorial@theplanner.co.uk to let us know what you think, and for the opportunity to have your views published on The Planner website

public sector; councillor expenses and the alike.

Let us add a third to reflect those costs and so the total cost to the economy is in the order of £1 billion pounds. All that just for the administrative process of obtaining a single slip of paper.

Not all of that money could be diverted but what if 50 per cent could?

In which case the opportunity cost of obtaining just that slip of paper is equivalent to something like 100,000 NHS hip or 60,000 heart bypass operations. I claim no great accuracy for my calculations.

What does more for the well-being of the nation; slips of paper or better healthcare?

I hope it makes you think.

Stephen Williams (retired)

MAR C H 2 0 18 / THE PLA NNER

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19/02/2018 14:07

CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Planners get blamed for housing shortfall: The song remains the same Developers are having it all their own way, the planners are far too soft, the system is rigged against ordinary people.

Those are frequent responses from members of the public to the consultation on the Raynsford Review of planning (I’m on his team).

Meanwhile, developers argue the opposite, and foremost among these are the major housebuilders. I have endured their complaints throughout my professional life, but I’m not cowed.

They have recently been taking careful aim and shooting themselves in the foot – an enterprise that is proving effective and, I would venture, renders them substantially less popular than we are.

Persimmon’s contribution is to give its chief executive a reported bonus of £110 million (with half a billion going to senior staff). [Sorry - have I entered a parallel universe? Ed.] This rather puts into the shade a number of well-publicised government initiatives, such as the Estate Regeneration Fund (£60 million in 2018/19), the Planning Delivery Fund (£25 million) or the ‘Northern Forest’ (£5.7 million).

It is also, I would have thought, going to make it tricky for Persimmon to argue that it can’t afford the odd affordable house on its developments. Something already looking shaky, as reported in this journal, in view of the substantial profits all the housebuilders have been making. (‘Through the loophole’, The Planner, January 2018).

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More unpopularity has ensued following the creation of various imaginative schemes involving leaseholds, ground rents and management contributions.

This has generated widespread complaints from surprised owners of new homes, who find themselves having to pay increasingly large sums to obscure companies for little or no apparent benefit – sometimes to the extent of rendering their houses unsaleable.

And then there is the question of land hoarding.

Heads are ducked in housebuilding bunkers as incoming flak, from the government downwards, threatens serious damage.

Planning permission has been granted for an alleged 600,000-plus homes, but these are not being built. It’s not a good look.

“PLANNING PERMISSION HAS BEEN GRANTED FOR AN ALLEGED 600,000+ HOMES, BUT THESE ARE NOT BEING BUILT” This has, of course, not prevented them from having a go at us again. A veritable whingeing festival continues over matters such as allegedly onerous conditions, or whatever other excuses can be invented.

All this makes me irritable, as the burden of this piece so far will have made plain.

You can’t spend decades attacking the planner without provoking some kind of response. But because I’m a kind and generous person, I will accept that the failure to develop sites that have

permission is not entirely the fault of the housebuilders.

For example, consider the role of strategic land traders, tardy infrastructure providers, shortages of planners, surveyors and other professionals, and a shortage of skilled construction workers (even without Brexit).

And of course the market requires a dribble rather than a torrent of housing releases.

But nonetheless the problem is such that the government itself, which has been generous to housebuilders in providing the planning changes they sought, is now putting them under the microscope.

I don’t have space to mention design quality, build quality, or space standards, all of which leave a lot to be desired. Or at least I thought I didn’t. But I do conclude that, while we need these companies to succeed, they’re having a bad patch. And even with a following wind, they will never build the 300,000 homes a year the government wants.

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

19/02/2018 09:41

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“What good are brownfield registers if councils are not using them to inform local plans?”

CPRE HAMPSHIRE VICE CHAIRMAN CAROLINE DIBDEN SAYS MERELY COMPILING REGISTERS IS NOT ENOUGH

“One size does not fit all; we need fixed approaches and open minds” FIFE COUNCIL’S HAZEL CROSS RESPONDS TO THE ARGUMENT THAT ONLY LARGE SCHEMES ARE SEEN AS A SOLUTION TO THE HOUSING SHORTAGE OUR MOST RESPONDED TO TWEET IN JANUARY…

“The spatial needs of students and homeless people are little different to those of anyone else” INSPECTOR JOANNA REID, IN REFUSING A STUDIO FLAT THAT WOULD BE 20 PER CENT OF ACCEPTED SPACE STANDARDS

“The appellant’s reliance on virtually the same evidence in support of a directly contrary argument is untenable” INSPECTOR JOHN BRAITHWAITE TELLS IT AS IT SURELY SHOULD ALWAYS BE

“One warned me I would be a different person.

Another said I should just be myself.”

RTPI PRESIDENT JOHN ACRES ON CONFLICTING ADVICE FROM HIS PREDECESSORS ABOUT THE ROLE

“Lost count of the councils who say limited weight should be given to contribution of one or two homes. Thirty sites a year of one or two homes starts making a significant contribution.”

CONSULTANT BEN REDSELL SUGGESTS COUNTING THE PENNIES SO THAT THE POUNDS LOOK AFTER THEMSELVES. ESSENTIALLY

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

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MAR C H 2 0 18 / THE PLA NNER

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

O Opinion

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Nick Wright is founder of Nick Wright Planning and a specialist in community engagement

Trust is the foundation of an effective planning system

It’s offici cial: the biggest barriers to public engagement in planning are a lack of trust, respect and confidence in the system. Most planners, if we’re honest, would agree with that. Maybe it’s symptomatic of the wider malaise afflicting governance and politics in these days of Brexit and Trump.

How is it “official’? To inform the current planning reforms in Scotland, its government researched barriers to engagement in planning. In an online survey with more than 1,600 responses, a massive 86 per cent of community/civil society respondents disagreed with the statement “there is mutual trust, respect and confidence between the players”.

The proportion of professional respondents who disagreed, 83 per cent, was scarcely any lower.

I’d expected the barriers to be things like poor access to information, lack of communications for visually impaired people or non-English speakers, or outmoded communications like statutory notices.

How wrong I was! These concerns, important though they are, are really second-order issues. All the plain English in the world won’t help if people don’t trust us and what we do. There are fundamental questions that we as a profession need to ask ourselves on every project.

Why are we engaging the public? What are we asking them?

Is it to inform about proposals that we as planners want to do anyway?

Is it to ask people for their reactions on what we’d like to do, perhaps modifying our ideas in response to comments? Or do we want to empower communities to decide their future?

Being honest about the purposes of engagement, and then doing that engagement well is what we all need to do if we are to build trust, respect and confidence in the system. If you say you’re consulting but in fact you’ve made your mind up, don’t say you’re consulting; be honest and say you’re informing.

But make sure you inform to the best of your ability.

Planning Aid Scotland’s SP=EED advice on community engagement in planning has some excellent guidance.

It differentiates between informing, consulting and partnership, making the point that each of these will be appropriate on different projects. It also has advice on how to make public engagement inclusive and accessible. That’s not only about being accessible to people who are disabled or from ethnic minorities; it’s about consulting via channels such as Facebook, media that cost us nothing except time and that reach a wide demographic.

“BEING HONEST ABOUT THE PURPOSES OF ENGAGEMENT, AND THEN DOING THAT ENGAGEMENT WELL, ARE WHAT WE ALL NEED TO DO IF WE ARE TO BUILD TRUST, RESPECT AND CONFIDENCE IN THE SYSTEM”

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Vicky Payne is a senior consultant in planning and urban design with Urbed

Why planning needs to improve its user experience

Imagine this: you get home ready to binge bing on a great TV show on Netflix, but someone else has already chosen what you’re going to watch. They always choose what you watch – the people who decide do so at meetings that you are not able to attend.

You can ‘have your say’ but only after reading a 200-page document and navigating a clunky web interface. You’re desperate to tell them that you’d rather watch season 2 of Stranger Things than a documentary film portraying sugar as the physical incarnation of Satan, but they make it so hard.

If the UK planning system was an online streaming service we’d have cancelled our direct debits long ago. We all inhabit this world and should all have equal opportunities to shape it. By being time-consuming, inconvenient and opaque, the planning system is unwittingly undemocratic and unfair.

Localism and neighbourhood planning were ostensibly created to give more people a role in shaping their communities, but it is increasingly evident that these systems are largely perpetuating existing dynamics. The people creating neighbourhood plans at the bottom tend to look a lot like the people creating national planning policy at the top, leaving whole swathes of society without a voice in the system.

We can argue that the barriers to participation are myriad and complex, but the biggest factor is the most precious resource: time.

Is a person working two jobs able to attend meetings in the middle of the day? No. Does someone singlehandedly caring for three children have time to read a long, boring policy document? Unlikely. Even if someone jumps through all the hoops, the system is so opaque they may never know what, if any, impact their participation had.

But we have this great thing now called UX (user experience for those not au fait with marketing jargon). If you log into Netflix everything is laid out before you and the power is in your hands. It’s easy to find the things that interest you and easy to share your opinions; thumbs up for The Crown, thumbs down for A Christmas Horror Story (don’t ask). You see the fruits of your notso-hard labour instantly reflected in ‘Recommended for you’.

Participation in the planning system could be this easy – and even fun. Information could be presented clearly and content could be engaging. Platforms could be dynamic and responsive.

Outcomes could be transparent and easily shared. It would take time and it would take money, but the results could be profound – a world of many shaped by more than just a few.

“IF THE UK PLANNING SYSTEM WAS AN ONLINE STREAMING SERVICE WE’D HAVE CANCELLED OUR DIRECT DEBITS LONG AGO”

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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

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Rob Krzyszowski MRTPI is spatial planning manager for the London Borough of Brent and the RTPI’s representative on the Construction Industry Council Diversity Panel

Diversity? It’s good business sense and good planning

Diversity in planning and business isn’t an optional add-on; busines it’s fundamental to both being a success. Good business surely depends on a diverse and constant flow of ideas and perspectives. If we stick to the same old way of doing things, we’re not challenging ourselves and not spotting opportunities for growth and innovation.

Research published in January

by McKinsey & Company global management consultants showed that firms in the top quartiles for gender diversity and for ethnic diversity are, respectively, 21 per cent and 33 per cent more likely to have higher profits than those in the bottom quartiles.

We shouldn’t want people to just ‘fit in’; we should look for how people can add value. Will your potential new customer, client or employee take your organisation seriously if you do not reflect them or the wider public?

If we are to plan, as in our RTPI Code of Conduct, “for the benefit of the public”, then we must recognise that the public is diverse. As a profession we must reflect that. Will the communities that we plan for (or should it be ‘with’?) take us seriously if we do not reflect them? We talk of ‘hard-to-reach’ communities, but would they be hard to reach if we were reflective of them?

It goes without saying that there is a professional, legal and

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Freddie Bell is the senior consultant leading the planning and architecture team at Mattinson Partnership

Planning ahead: The next generation

moral obligation, too. Our code says we must not discriminate on grounds including but not limited to race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability or age. We must also seek to eliminate discrimination by others and promote equality of opportunity throughout our professional activities – so we should have the professional courage to challenge this where we see it. We all know about the Equality Act 2010, too.

Observing our professional codes, legal obligations and organisational policies should be commended, but this is just the start.

We can have all the policies in the world but it doesn’t make any difference unless we each actually do something. There needs to be strong leadership and role models who visibly champion diversity to push through the changes we need.

That’s why the Construction Industry Council, of which the RTPI is a member, produced a Blueprint for Change in 2015. It sets out baseline data on diversity for the industry and provides case studies of leadership and role models. It’s worth a read if you’re thinking of enhancing the success of your organisation. It’s useful not just in our role as planners but as employers, too.

After all, diversity in planning doesn’t need to just be about the diversity of shopping frontages.

“WE CAN HAVE ALL THE POLICIES IN THE WORLD BUT IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE UNLESS WE EACH ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING”

One of th the things I tell most of the planners I meet is that if I had known about planning when at know school, I would have studied it at university. I doubt I’m alone in this.

When we consider encouraging inclusivity and diversity in planning, we rightly highlight doing more to ensure that women, LGBTQ and people from minority backgrounds are better supported in the industry. But, from my angle, we miss a trick by not fully engaging with the next generation.

Unlike recruitment, you need a degree – often a master’s – to start in planning. Despite this, town planning is simply not a career path being talked about at school level.

Most younger planners I network with often studied geography initially as undergraduates and it’s here they discovered a passion for planning.

Though it’s fantastic to hear that many take this route, it’s not ideal for those, like me, who did a different bachelor’s degree and remained none the wiser to the existence of town planning until beginning my career elsewhere.

How can we address this problem? The obvious change that must happen is making the industry known to children when they’re still at school. Schools are often made up of a variety of people from different ethnicities, with different backgrounds and beliefs – all in one room and equal to one another.

By reaching out at this level we not only address the need to get the planning industry better understood, but we will also naturally reach out to a wide cross-section of society.

The second positive move we can make is better tying in planning with games and virtual reality. Games like SimCity and Run That Town are fantastic tools for getting young minds to consider the built environment and the impact we can make on it. Even the augmented reality in Pokémon GO is an easily accessible way for people to view the architecture, buildings and city around them.

At national level the planning community needs to reinforce this with children by better helping them understand how they can turn their passion into a career. From my experience we’re an engaging industry; it will then be on us to provide time and resources to reach out the next generation.

There is no better time to make changes to this end than right now. The housing crisis is at the forefront in both national and local politics. The planning industry can do more to rise to this challenge; engaging with the next generation will not only aid with this, but will also help to ensure that we have a diverse make-up in the industry to cater for the whole population.

“THE OBVIOUS CHANGE THAT MUST HAPPEN IS MAKING THE INDUSTRY KNOWN TO CHILDREN WHEN THEY’RE STILL AT SCHOOL”

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19/02/2018 11:56

INTERVIEW: AMY LAMÉ

e s u a c e B e night th HOW DOES A GIRL FROM A SMALL, CONSERVATIVE TOWN IN NEW JERSEY BECOME A CELEBRATED LGBTQ CAMPAIGNER AND LONDON’S FIRST NIGHT CZAR? AMY LAMÉ TELLS ALL TO SIMON WICKS

t started with the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (RVT), reputedly London’s oldest continuously used gay venue.

Sold to Austrian developer Immovate in September 2014, it seemed ripe for closure and residential redevelopment.

But the community that had formed around the pub had other ideas. With writer, performer and broadcaster Amy Lamé as chair, they formed campaign group RVT Future and pursued every avenue to protect the venue. First, the 1863 Victorian pub was declared an asset of community value; then, in September 2015, it was given a grade II listing.

Immovate nevertheless marketed the pub for sale. In June 2016 RVT Future applied to Lambeth Council to have its use class reclassified as sui generis. Last February this was granted, meaning the future of RVT must now be as a gay venue.

Immovate is still trying to sell; RVT Future is plotting a community buyout. The battle continues, but the campaign to save the RVT has shown how planning can be used strategically to stem the loss of night-time venues. England’s capital has lost 58 per cent of its gay venues in the past decade, and 35 per cent of its small music venues, mainly to residential and retail development. By any measure, it’s a crisis.

For Lamé, it was a dramatic introduction to

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planning. “All of my knowledge of planning has come from trying to save this building,” she explains. “I learned about how to leverage things like agent of change, assets of community value and section 106. So now in my role as Night Czar, I’ve been able to use that knowledge with other venues.”

She is particularly proud of using a section 106 agreement to have the demolished Joiners Arms in Bethnal Green remain an LGBT venue when rebuilt. But, she stresses, she’s not using her role merely to continue her long-standing activism on behalf of London’s LGBT community.

“We’ve been able to do really interesting work stretching the possibilities of planning permission with other venues that are under similar threat.

We’re looking at different ways of using planning law to help them be more robust.”

The night shift Lamé likes to joke that her original job title was Night Mayor, a title her longstanding partner considered particularly fitting. It’s really ‘Night Czar’ within London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s team, in a nod to the night-time mayors of cities such as Amsterdam. But Lamé points out that her role is rather wider than her counterparts elsewhere.

“It’s really important to know that the night-time economy is not just bars, pubs and clubs,” she stresses. “If you take every deputy mayor, the

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INTERVIEW: AMY LAMÉ

deputy mayor for planning or business or transport, take a slice of everything they do and flip it into the dark – that’s my watching brief.

“We would be doing a big disservice if we only focused on bars, pubs and clubs,” she continues in her homely New Jersey accent. “The largest employers in the night-time are actually logistics, and then the NHS, and then bars, pubs and clubs. It is important to look at every aspect of life at night.”

If London is to meet its aspiration to be a 24-hour city, then Lamé is integral to the endeavour. Her brief puts her at the intersection of the multiple forces that keep a city functioning through the night. There is considerable scope for conflict.

How do you manage deliveries if you’re simultaneously encouraging people to stay out? Where do people go the loo? How do people get home? How do you ensure the city at night is a safe and accommodating place for all?

She seems undaunted. A lifelong political activist on the Left, she’s no stranger to the cut and thrust of debate (and has been criticised on occasion for her sharp political commentary on Twitter). She’s also has a track record of making things happen and keeping many balls in the air.

She strikes me, for all that her act is essentially risqué, as a very sensible person. I can easily imagine her as the responsible student who manages both to go to the party and get her work in on time.

But why should Lamé be given this ‘landmark’ role? “I’ve lived my entire life in this city at night, from the early days of working in a community café bar, through to starting my club, Duckie, at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern,” she explains.

“I’ve worked on the front line of night-time industry for my whole career. It’s in my blood. I felt that I had something unique to deliver.”

Though open, agreeable and funny, she’s also focused.

Mindful of her audience, she steers the conversation towards planning at every opportunity – so we talk about the recently published draft London Plan.

Three policies in particular, HC5, 6 and 7 – ‘Supporting London’s Culture and Creative industries’, ‘Supporting the night-time economy’ and ‘Protecting public houses’ – have obvious resonance with her role. Indeed, HC6 could have been written by Lamé herself.

Lamé on stage at her spiritual home, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Rumour has it that she has asked for her ashes to be buried under the stage.

Economy and diversity HC6 requires boroughs to develop policies to support the night-time economy in their development plans. They are encouraged to take an “integrated approach to planning and licensing, out-of-hours servicing and deliveries, safety and security”.

Boroughs are also encouraged to be more imaginative in finding alternative evening and night-time uses of existing daytime facilities such as shops, cafés, libraries, theatres and museums. There is also a requirement to make London’s nightlife more inclusive, which brings us back to our overarching theme.

The big project of planning is, arguably, to ensure that our towns and cities cater to the entirety of their populations and not just those that are the most visible or wield the most influence. Diversity and inclusivity are at the heart of

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NOT QUITE THE PEARLY KING AND QUEEN Night Czar is not, in fact, Lamé’s first foray into politics or civic management. A Labour Party activist, she was the Mayoress of Camden in 2010-11. Her friend and openly gay Labour councillor Jonathan Simpson found himself with no consort when he was appointed Mayor of Camden in 2010. So he asked Lamé. “He said ‘I’m a gay man, you’re a lesbian, let’s have the first LGBT mayoralty ever’, which is what we did. It’s London, nobody batted an eyelid.”

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FROM KEYPORT TO RVT

ideas about equality, fairness and democracy. The London Plan, for example, mentions accessible toilets, catering to people with disabilities, and to families, and to those who don’t see evening entertainment as going to the pub.

I ask why we should take all these people into account when we think of the night-time city?

Lamé’s answer is a defence of everything the city has come to represent for her and everything that was in her mind when she left small-town New Jersey in 1992 (see right, From Keyport to RVT).

“What’s the other option? Thinking about white heterosexual men all the time? That isn’t the kind of place we live in London. It’s not the kind of society that we have. We want to live in a place that is inclusive and accessible. That is a core belief of this country and of democracy, and to think any other way I find bizarre.”

“I’VE WORKED ON THE It is, she says, FRONT LINE OF NIGHT­ “the most cultural TIME INDUSTRY FOR MY and inclusive WHOLE CAREER. IT’S IN London plan” ever.

MY BLOOD” “It’s a great opportunity for planners to step up their game a bit as well, and think about creative ways to be inclusive.”

No plan survives first contact, however, and Lamé will need her considerable skills of persuasion and persistence to make it work as intended. She’s already drawn flak from campaigners to preserve Denmark Street – London’s Tin Pan Alley – for her pragmatic take on its redevelopment. Lamé argues that Camden Council has done its best to preserve the spirit of place in a changing city.

“When I went to the ground breaking, I was stood on the site where I washed dishes for five years. It was really moving, and I thought ‘How do I feel about this?’. Really sad that the venue was lost, but I also know that London is a place where things change and I also know that the plans for developing new music venues on that site are amazing.

“The council has designated that street a special area so it will remain focused around music. These grassroots music venues are so essential to our community life, but also to the town pipeline of music. If we lose these venues we lose our standing around the world.”

Here, as elsewhere in her career (she once toured a onewoman show called Cum Manifesto about safe sex around gay cruising grounds), she’s walking a tightrope. But it’s taken courage for Lamé to take the steps that have got her where she is – and you sense she’s not about to fall off balance. n Simon Wicks is deputy editor of The Planner

Lamé was born Amy Caddle in Keyport, New Jersey, a “working-class resort town” that’s “kind of like Margate, in that it’s very beautiful, but also there’s some harsh realities there around poverty and exclusion”.

It was a conservative kind of a place. Her parents were Republicans and the family business is plumbing – father, uncle, brother, sister and cousins are all plumbers. But young Amy knew her future was elsewhere.

“The knowledge that I got from growing up in that environment has put me in good stead for the job I'm doing now,” she insists. “I was working as a dispatcher for my dad from 16 and I was in charge of sending guys out on the road to do all sorts of work, from big construction jobs to repairing broken water mains to unplugging toilets. It’s not very glamorous.”

Before she was even old enough to vote, Lamé campaigned for Democrat Michael Dukakis’s doomed presidential bid. She studied modern languages at a liberal arts college in Maryland. As soon as she was able to, in 1992, she left the USA. “I came to London, to be who you really are. It was a much easier place to be LGBT than the States. We still had Section 28, but the atmosphere was different – it was a lot more accepting over here. I got a job at a little LGBT community café just by Centrepoint. I thought ‘I’ll work in a gay place, where I can be myself’.”

Her one-woman show Gay Man Trapped In a Lesbian’s Body, was accepted by the ICA in 1994.

Here, it was seen by a television producer who invited Lamé to try out for TV. She’s hosted Gaytime TV on BBC Two, a Channel 4 panel show and a radio show on Greater London Radio.

She’s co-presented with Danny Baker on BBC Radio London, written two more one-woman shows and a book about the history of the LGBTQ movement, formed an award-winning performance collective, Duckie, and she runs a weekly club night at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

She’s even curated a Tate Britain exhibition on art and faith and recently took on the Sunday afternoon slot on BBC 6 Music. There is more besides, and more still to come; Amy Lamé is a force of nature.

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NO ADVERSITY

IN DIVERSITY PLANNING HAS A DUTY TO PLAN FOR DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES, BUT AS IN MANY OTHER PROFESSIONS, IT NEEDS TO SHAKE UP THE HEGEMONY TO ERADICATE ITS ‘PALE AND MALE’ IMAGE. AND THE PROCESS IS HAPPENING, SAYS SERENA RALSTON

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you don’t reflect the community you are convening with.”

A sea change in society is under way. #MeToo, the Presidents Club scandal and other stories have pushed diversity and inclusion firmly to the top of the public agenda. But is the The power of networking planning profession keeping pace?

New networking groups such as BAME in Property, Planning There is a sense of progress. Last year, 53 per cent of the Out, Women in Planning, and Urbanistas are thriving.

RTPI’s new members were female and the RTPI’s General The LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) Assembly has made diversity one its four focus areas. In planning network Planning Out has grown to nearly 700 April, Victoria Hills becomes the institute’s second successive members since its launch in 2016. Set up to increase female chief executive. acceptance of LGBT planners and boost their self-confidence, There is also a growing awareness that diversity is not just the group now tackles wider campaigns such as protecting good for ticking boxes and earning Brownie points but for LGBT venues. business, too. Clients and the public Simon Brooksbank MRTPI, its co-founder increasingly expect it. and a planning officer at Wandsworth Priya Shah, account manager at Built Borough Council, says: “Planning Out has “THERE IS A Environment Communications Group and made a big difference to understanding and PERCEPTION THAT founder of the recently launched BAME in acceptance of LGBT people in the planning THE PROFESSION Property network, says: “Millennials are sector. There’s still work to do, but I’ve been IS RIGID IN increasingly looking at how diverse a amazed by how much support and goodwill TERMS OF CAREER workforce is when they search for a job. If an there’s been from across the industry.”

PROGRESSION AND organisation appears to be whitewashed, it Women in Planning launched its North GETTING TO THE reflects badly on itself in the eyes of young West branch in January, and plans to open TOP SEEMS LIKE people.” another three branches this year. Its London A DARK ART” Jan Bessell FRTPI, strategic planning branch has about 800 members. The adviser at law firm Pinsent Masons, says: “We organisation is undertaking research on have no doubt that getting the best results for female planners in leadership roles. Womenour clients depends on being able to draw on led network Urbanistas has six chapters in the the ideas, skills and insights of people from UK. BAME in Property, which aims to increase the widest possible range of backgrounds and the number of people from black, Asian and perspectives.” minority ethnic backgrounds in the property and planning Pinsent Masons prides itself on its creative diversity sectors, will launch on 22nd March. policies and work environment, and ranks second out of 100 Yet, based on anecdotal evidence and a look at industry employers in the Stonewall UK Workplace Equality Index. websites, the profession’s upper echelons still appear to be Diversity and planning practice are also inextricably resolutely ‘male and pale’. linked. To achieve inclusive and accessible places, planning Clare Fielding, a founding partner at planning law firm needs to engage with a wide range of voices.

Town Legal LLP and a trans woman, was invited to join a Charlotte Morphet MRTPI, principle policy planner at the focus group for a recent major planning conference.

London Borough of Waltham Forest and co-founder of the “I was going to be the only female at the round table there Women in Planning network, says: “Planners are conveners; and there were no non-white faces either! I said I’ll come this we bring stakeholders together. But you lose that ability if time, but I’ll say that you can’t do this again.”

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response to the findings of the 2017 member Liane Hartley, founder of Urbanistas, says: “PLANNERS ARE survey, the institute is committed to “There is a perception that the profession is CONVENERS; developing a refreshed diversity strategy to rigid in terms of career progression and getting WE BRING further promote diversity within its to the top seems like a dark art. We need to be STAKEHOLDERS membership and the wider planning able to see and hear from more women on a TOGETHER. BUT profession.” regular basis and in multiple channels.”

YOU LOSE THAT The public sector is considered to be more RTPI figures show that only 7.4 per cent of ABILITY IF YOU diverse than the private sector, possibly its membership is from a BAME background.

DON’T REFLECT because of the duty to be so under the Although up a couple of percentage points on THE COMMUNITY” Equality Act 2010. Larger public organisations five years ago, this is still small – roughly half have published pay statistics for some time. the overall figure of 14 per cent for the UK’s But UK private sector companies with 250 or working age population. more employees are legally required to Abraham Laker MRTPI, an associate publish figures on their gender pay gaps by director at RPS Built & Natural Environment April. who is from a Ugandan background, says: Anna Rose, head of the Planning Advisory Service, says: “Planning is not an obvious career choice for BAME people “The public sector is streets ahead, with a wider range of and there are too few BAME planners and role models.” people in top positions. The sector was very quick to offer flexible working, which made it easier for those planners, Barriers to progress predominantly female, who needed to work and balance The RTPI’s 2017 membership survey backs this up, with family commitments.” planners from BAME background more likely than white But, she cautions, as the public sector becomes more like planners to cite a lack of career mentors and role models as the private sector, the same flexibility is less available at more barriers to progression (see page 6). Shah agrees. “BAME senior levels. people are just not seeing professionals like them in the Private sector planners say the lack of fixed pay bands can sector.” lead to negotiating pay and benefits such as flexible working But Martine Koch, the RTPI’s head of membership, says while in post. It’s a bullish style of negotiating that does not planning compares favourably with other built environment suit everyone, and benefits packages vary widely between professions. Only 11.4 per cent of the professional companies. For example, maternity leave can range from the construction workforce, excluding RTPI members, was statutory minimum to six months’ full pay. female in 2015, compared with 35.4 per cent of the RTPI membership in the same year.

Then there is the gender pay gap. The Office of National Increasing diversity Statistics (ONS) revealed a 28.6 per cent pay gap between However, diversity has been found to give employers a male and female ‘planning officers’ last year – a 2.3 per cent competitive edge. Delivering Through Diversity increase on 2016. Koch says the RTPI found these figures (bit.ly/planner0318-diversity), new research by McKinsey & ‘alarming’; they prompted the institute to include more Company that builds on its 2015 research into the workplace, questions on diversity in last year’s membership survey. makes it plain that companies whose workforce reflects the Aside from this survey, commissioned by the RTPI, there is demographic make-up of the community they come from, little evidence on diversity. perform better financially.

Given the ONS figures, it is surprising that the survey found In planning, the bigger companies are picking up on this no real variance between men and women’s views on pay. equation. CBRE has a maternity policy that offers enhanced But more female respondents reported barriers to career payment on six months’ full pay after two years’ service. The progress overall, and 24 per cent said gender was a barrier. package includes a bespoke mentoring programme, keeping The survey found that black and black British planners in touch and return-to-work assistance, and family-friendly were more likely to be dissatisfied with working conditions, policies that support flexible working. In CBRE’s London including pay, than any other group. Moreover, 48 per cent of planning team, 56 per cent of its planners are female, as are black/black British respondents reported that ethnicity was four of its seven senior directors. a barrier to professional advancement, compared with 29 Alison Tero, one of those senior directors, says: “Over a per cent of Asian/Asian British planners, 12 per cent of third of CBRE professional staff are female. The CBRE UK mixed ethnicity planners, and 1 per cent of white planners.

Women’s Network is making the firm a more rewarding Rosslyn Stuart, the RTPI’s director of professional standards place, not just for women, but for everyone.” and development, says: “The institute’s approach has been to Pinsent Masons has introduced a series of LGBT and other mainstream diversity in all our activities (events, awards, measures, including setting up an LGBT Network Group. research) and we already have many initiatives in place. In Chris Jesson MRTPI, who has Asperger Syndrome, is chair

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

of East Midlands Young Planners and an associate town planner with Planning and Design Group. He says planning employers can specifically benefit from the talents of those with disabilities. “The typical characteristics of someone on the autistic spectrum can lend themselves beautifully to planning, namely visual learners who pay close attention to detail and love maps.”

The RTPI has signed up to Disability Confident, a scheme to help employers make the most of the opportunities provided by employing disabled people.

Only 1 per cent of the RTPI membership is registered disabled, according to the 2017 member survey.

Abraham Laker wants to see the profession far more widely promoted. “We have to get the message out there in schools and elsewhere that planning is vital to people’s lives, then it will become an attractive career choice.”

The RTPI says it is working on this. Its Ambassadors scheme sends members into schools and universities, and it has commissioned a podcast, ‘Agent Plan-It,’ aimed at children aged eight to 13, which is broadcast on “PLANNING IS Fun Kids Radio in the UK and NOT AN OBVIOUS Ireland.

CAREER CHOICE Both Morphet and Laker FOR BAME PEOPLE believe that the cost of a fourAND THERE year university course is also ARE TOO FEW a barrier to entering the BAME PLANNERS profession.

AND ROLE To tackle this, the RTPI MODELS” offers annual student bursaries for those with a disability or from a diverse background. It also offers a technical support apprenticeship scheme and is developing an undergraduate apprenticeship.

Other RTPI initiatives include a speaker diversity pledge to make sure speaker panels and judging panels comprise at least 30-50 per cent women at RTPI events. Its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy sets out how the RTPI upholds equality in the workplace and in its services.

But the institute – and its publications like The Planner, which has its own gender parity policy – can only do so much. If the industry is to properly reflect the people and communities it works for, people in leadership roles will need to push open doors that are now half-closed.

Bessell says: “Outward-facing, positive activity means that diversity will become the norm; those that don’t turn up or are left at the starting line will lose out.” n Serena Ralston is a freelance journalist specialising in planning and the built environment

Clare Fielding is a transgender planning lawyer and one of the founding partners of Town Legal LLP I started my career not in planning but in banking, at the Bank of England. I transitioned from male to female in the early 1990s.

The security guards used to call me the ‘New Lady of Threadneedle Street’! In a very British way, the bank was traditional but conservatively tolerant at the same time.

By the time I went into law, I had assumed my new identity. I had my surgery in 2000 while training at Slaughter & May and they were brilliant about it. The first four years of my qualified life at Slaughters was in real estate work. The planning side of this grew much bigger when we got a firm-wide instruction on the Arsenal Stadium. I looked after the planning aspect and found it so interesting that I decided I wanted to do just planning law.

I then went to Herbert Smith as it was known for planning, and made partner there in 2008. I had decided not to tell anyone at Herbert Smith about transitioning and this held me back. If you can’t be yourself, you don’t perform to your best and you don’t make those connections that are so essential for women in business.

Much harder than changing your gender is changing your identity and believing in your own identity. It took me a fair old time to get to be as comfortable in my own skin as I am now. It massively helped deciding to be out – I came out at a Christmas lunch where we played a ‘spin the bottle’ truth game.

But the mistake I made was not talking to anyone about it afterwards. So in my head it became a big thing – ‘Everyone is judging me’ – even though no one else cared one bit!

I left there to go to Lawrence Graham in 2012 – now Gowling WLG. In 2016, Patrick Robinson (who had been a colleague at Herbert Smith), Simon Ricketts, Mary Cook (barrister) and I formed Town Legal LLP. We’re a small firm, only doing planning law, but we are very diverse – four of our six partners are female. One of the nice things about Town is, because we’ve all come in with our own practices from elsewhere, there is a real mix of projects which include Battersea Power Station, 22 Bishopsgate, as well as urban extensions outside London. We can take on the work we want.

My being trans has never been remarked upon by clients or colleagues. I’ve generally had a positive experience.

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YOUNG IN THE

CITY PLANNERS SHOULD TACKLE URBAN CHALLENGES USING A CHILD­FRIENDLY APPROACH TO SUPPORT A HEALTHY LIFE FOR ALL AGES AND ABILITIES, SAYS HANNAH WRIGHT While cities can offer diverse, vibrant and exciting places to live and grow up in, they also come with their particular pressures.

Challenges such as car dependence, air pollution and declining opportunities for play and independent mobility all impact on a child’s, a community’s and a city’s resilience.

There are more people living in cities and more children growing up in cities than ever before. But if cities do not address the needs of children they risk economic and cultural impacts as more mobile families move away.

A child’s living environment is a key aspect influencing their health, behaviour and development, for childhood and the rest of adult life. Adults, and planners, are shaping 26

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these environments. The choices we make will determine the quality of life those children and the wider community experience now and in the future.

By drawing inspiration from projects all over the world, we’ve seen how child-friendly urban planning is essential to a city’s ability to attract and sustain strong, healthy and family-oriented communities – and therefore a city’s economic performance.

Enabling play and independence throughout the city can create safe and enjoyable journeys and spaces for all ages and abilities to spend time together. A place where children enjoy independent mobility will be a place where the elderly feel safe, where public space is inclusive and accessible, where people of different backgrounds feel welcome, and where journeys benefit from balanced sensory stimulation.

Children improve cities In Designing for Urban Childhoods, part of Arup’s Cities Alive research series, we call on planners to expand provision for children beyond playgrounds to an integrated children’s infrastructure network of streets, spaces, nature and interventions that are critical to more inclusive, equitable, healthy and resilient public realm.

There are examples from cities around the globe and although the motivation varies from place to place, steps can be taken whatever a city’s context. A child-friendly approach has shown a good return on investment in the UK – for example, a road closure and pop-up park in Leeds resulted in 85 per cent of families spending more time in the city centre, while a 90 per cent decrease in local antisocial behaviour was achieved through the creation of a play “A PLACE WHERE CHILDREN space in Merseyside.

ENJOY INDEPENDENT MOBILITY King’s Cross WILL BE A PLACE WHERE THE Central, London, is ELDERLY FEEL SAFE” another great

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example of a project that has brought walkability, nature and fun to the redevelopment of the area from an early stage, helping to change perceptions and generate real value for the long term.

Not only can designing with children in mind unify urban agendas such as road safety, air pollution and public heath, but child-friendly planning can be a powerful catalyst to grow small actions into bigger change.

City-driven initiatives such as car-free days, parks and play spaces have been strong perception changers in cities like Bogotá, Columbia, and Tirana, Albania. Meanwhile, community action through initiatives like Play Streets in Bristol, London, Melbourne, New York and Tokyo, creates space and freedom for social interaction while highlighting problem areas for change.

To bring home the power of pilot projects, we can look to examples of results that overcome resistance to change. A month-long trial for a car-free zone in Suwon, South Korea, proved successful when residents voted to impose speed restrictions, parking controls and car-free weekends beyond the trial scheme.

“CHILDREN­ FRIENDLY PLANNING CAN BE A POWERFUL CATALYST TO GROW SMALL ACTIONS INTO BIGGER CHANGE”

Child-friendly urban planning Planning from a child’s perspective requires us to dramatically reimagine how we tackle urban challenges. It helps us to see the integrated nature of both the challenge and the solution. It requires action at all stages of development, from planning to management, and it means sharing responsibilities across planning, public health, transport, environment, sport and leisure, arts and culture. Each will benefit from taking a child-friendly approach, and each should contribute to its delivery.

So what should be done to achieve childfriendly urban planning? Streets and spaces in front of people’s homes are a great place to start.

And there are opportunities for projects with a high impact in places where families spend time, such as transforming school settings into community spaces for everyone to enjoy.

We should think strategically about how those opportunities can be replicated and adapted to different scales and contexts throughout the city.

Planners must champion child-friendly principles to drive change across government departments. We should map children’s journeys and experiences to understand the full extent of their time spent outdoors and what matters to them most in their neighbourhood. We can raise the standard from the outset of a project by asking for child-friendly outcomes as part of the procurement process, and we can look beyond the basic design function to build playfulness and freedom to explore into everyday journeys.

Child-friendly urban planning is an emerging field. There is an opportunity for planning as a profession to lead the way in creating cities that enhance children’s well-being, to the benefit of all city dwellers. n Hannah Wright is an urban planner and coauthor of Designing for Urban Childhoods. The report was co-authored with Sam Williams, landscape architect, and Felicitas zu Dohna, foresight and research analyst. All work with Arup. n Download Cities Alive: Designing for Urban Childhoods from bit.ly/planner0318-child and contact the team at urbanchildhoods@arup.com

UNDERPINNING FAMILY LIFE IN UTRECHT In Utrecht, the Netherlands, a private developer saw planning with children in mind as an innovative way to create a 600-home neighbourhood that appeals to families, as well as their typical market of new starters, empty nesters and young professionals.

The value generated by the presence of children in the public realm was recognised to encourage the whole community to spend time outside. Helping to create an active and healthy urban living area that met, or exceeded, the requirements of the municipality.

In practice, this meant giving parents the comfort that children could reach open space without crossing a trafficked street, providing natural spaces for the old and young to spend time together in areas that catch the sun, encouraging overlooked activities on the door step that spill out into public space, and integrating informal and natural play all through the public realm to encourage

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safe and active family journeys.

Attracting families has been a similar driver for private interests to deliver child-friendly principles such as at King’s Cross Central in London and River District in Vancouver, Canada.

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Children playing in Granary Square, King's Cross, London

60% OF ALL URBAN DWELLERS WILL BE UNDER THE AGE OF 18 BY 2030 (1)

1 BILLION CHILDREN LIVE IN URBAN SETTINGS AROUND THE WORLD (2) 15

1

Recommend evidence-based policies, guidelines and indicators

14 Design walkable and green environments

Appoint a child friendly champion

2 Simplify requirements and regulations

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Actions and opportunities

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Look beyond the basic design function

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Map, monitor and measure everyday freedoms

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Arup’s Cities Alive studies call on planners to rethink provision for children beyond playgrounds

4

5

Adopt inclusive

Incorporate temporary events

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OF THE WORLD’S ADOLESCENT POPULATION IS INSUFFICIENTLY PHYSICALLY ACTIVE AS A RESULT OF URBANISATION (3)

Implement a children’s infrastructure policy

O L IC

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Explore innovative and creative approaches to playable spaces

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Integrate child-friendly criteria into procurement processes

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Transform outdoor institutional settings

FROM 1971 TO 1990, THE NUMBER OF UK CHILDREN WALKING TO SCHOOL UNSUPERVISED DECREASED FROM 80% TO 9% (4)

management strategies Look beyond the development boundary

Enhance construction phases of development

Explore funding through CSR requirements

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RAISING RESILIENCE IN BOGOTÁ AND TIRANA

Political will combined with planning from a child’s perspective can help to improve perceptions of a city. The mayors of Bogotá and Tirana see children as agents of change, enabling them to shape the city through governance mechanisms such as children’s councils. Bold moves have been taken to improve quality of life, including car-free days on major streets and delivering new parks and play

spaces. The initiatives send a positive message to the community and help to progress ambitious goals from reduced car use to sustainable waste management. Not only does this support more resilient children, but also allows children to influence their parents behaviours, asking them to make more sustainable choices such as shifting from car travel to travel by bike.

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EXTERNAL SPACES WITH THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF OUTDOOR PLAY ALSO HAD THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF USE BY ADULTS IN A STUDY OF 10 ENGLISH HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS (5) (1) Source: United Nations. (2) Source: Lindsey, KR (2012). Small Beginnings, (3) Source: World Health Organisation (2017). (4) Source: Spencer, K. and Wright, P. (2014) Quality Outdoor Play Spaces for Young Children. (5) Source: Bornat, D. (2017). Housing Design for Community Life.

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E Beside the sea – Brighton Pier in blocks, Minecraft-style

BLOCK BY BLOCK BRIGHTON START­UP BLOCKBUILDERS IS WORKING TO MAKE PLANNING CONSULTATIONS MORE ACCESSIBLE – USING THE OPEN­WORLD COMPUTER GAME MINECRAFT Despite the best efforts of local authorities, the average planning consultation remains frustratingly insular. Technology is constantly improving our ability to visualise development, but accessibility remains a problem – Blockbuilders is different, says co-founder Joseph Palmer.

“Sometimes these things can end up as just another form of consultation – they’ll create this beautiful model, and then just ask people about its design. At Blockbuilders, we’re asking people to build the model themselves, empowering them to come up with solutions rather than just asking them ‘is this good or bad?’”

“Our approach is different because we can engage people who are often excluded from the consultation process by using such an easy-to-use platform.”

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That platform is Minecraft. Released in 2011 for Windows computers and purchased

by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014, the game now has more than 100 million registered players and is available on several platforms.

At its heart, Minecraft is a block-building game, which has seen it dubbed ‘virtual Lego’. It is set in an infinite game-world, where players can build almost anything they can imagine out of cube-shaped ‘blocks’.

“We were watching Charlie Brooker’s How Videogames Changed the World, and Minecraft came in at number three,” recalls Joseph, remembering his time at Brighton University in 2014, where he met co-founder Megan Leckie. “At the time I was thinking about how to engage young people in

planning using technology, for a university project called ‘Young Digital Citizenship’.”

The idea to bring young people into the planning consultation process by letting them build their ideas in Minecraft developed from there, and Blockbuilders was born. The company works with developers, local authorities, schools and educational trusts – anyone that needs help engaging with young people. Generally, the projects deal with existing problems rather than hypothetical situations, so findings can be put to use in the real world.

Behind the scenes, a powerful, purposebuilt backend process imports map data into the game, creating block-built models of real-world places that can be modified and augmented.

“The process is exciting because we can model the real world not only as it is now, but how it was in the past, and how it might be in the future.”

Brighton has been modelled already, with plans for more UK cities in the pipeline.

Finished projects are then 3D printed, to create a physical model at the end of the process.

“Whether it’s older people who might be less familiar with video games, or those

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King George IV’s pleasure palace, the Brighton Pavilion

working in the construction industry who are used to something tangible that they can pick up and hold – for some people, Minecraft might not be the easiest way to visualise a final design, so that’s why we 3D print,” says Megan.

“You can 3D print straight from the Minecraft software, and the result looks almost identical onscreen and in real life because the game is block-based.”

Their goal is to make the planning process more inclusive, engaging groups of people who are often excluded.

“The problem with the traditional consultation process is it is self-selecting – it’s only accessible to people who firstly are able to show up, and secondly are interested enough to take the time out of their schedules, so young people, elderly people, disabled people are less likely to have their voices heard.

“One advantage of hosting workshops like ours is that the kids can’t bring themselves along, so they come with friends, parents, family members – these are all people that are difficult to reach with traditional public consultations, but once they’ve got a taste for it, they become interested in the process.”

As well as improving the consultation process, the workshops benefit the young people that attend too.

“Children spend most of their lives being talked to and talked at,” says Joseph, “so it’s really empowering for them to take control of the tech. This creates an interesting dynamic between the ‘grown-ups’, who may come with certain preconceptions about planning or the area, and the children, who are less likely to hold political biases and are more open to changing their mind.”

“You see a lot of compromise across the generations,” adds Megan.

“It definitely helps that everyone has to behave themselves because they’re around children!”

“It’s something we didn’t predict when we were starting out, but we’ve noticed the kids develop more of an appreciation for where they live after remodelling it on Minecraft – they’re learning to look at buildings and landscapes in a more critical way,” says Megan.

In turn, this helps the children to realise their creativity in new ways.

“Design, architecture and planning are all fields that lots of children haven’t yet encountered, so haven’t considered as a

future career path. We had a 13-year-old come to one of our workshops, then tell us afterwards that she now wants to be a landscape architect.”

When Blockbuilders began, neither Megan nor Joseph had any background in planning. When the business began to take off, Megan decided to study for a master’s, “to get some academic grounding in the area”, giving her a rare insight into both sides of the struggle to innovate in planning.

“There’s been a huge rise in the use of technology in planning, but it still has a way to go. There’s a worry that some local authorities in particular will get left behind if they can’t find the budget to invest. I think it’s important that we find a way to make sure our technology reaches everyone.

“It’s been interesting to see how local authorities are trying to be creative in engaging people, and how what we offer compares to what’s already out there.

Generally speaking, planners are definitely open to innovation – it’s the lack of resources that presents the real issue”.

As it seeks funding to take its consulting workshops to new places in Britain – and model them in Minecraft – could Blockbuilders be the key to improving inclusivity in planning?

“GENERALLY SPEAKING, PLANNERS ARE DEFINITELY OPEN TO INNOVATION – IT’S THE LACK OF RESOURCES THAT PRESENTS THE REAL ISSUE”

REIMAGINING HOLLOWAY ROAD One of Blockbuilders’ most successful projects focused on Holloway Road, a busy and polluted arterial road running through North London.

Following a community planning day organised by architecture and planning practice JTP and planning research group Create Streets, Blockbuilders ran a Minecraft workshop for pupils of nearby Grafton Primary School in May 2017.

“We were thinking about how London’s arterial roads could be made more attractive and accessible, as part of JTP’s Create Boulevards programme,” I M AG E | B LO C K BU I L DE RS

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recalls Joseph. “Alongside JTP’s already established consultation method, we used Minecraft to help local children produce a collaborative model for their ideas.”

Students were able to explore a rendered model of Holloway Road in Minecraft before being asked what they treasured, what they’d trash, and what ideas they had to improve the area.

Their ideas were presented as part of the London Festival of Architecture 2017.

Some ideas proposed and developed by the children included:

n More space for wheelchair users n More plants and greenery n Smoke-free areas n Solar panels n A refugee shelter and food bank “A lot of the projects we’ve worked on, young people seem very keen on pedestrianising,” says Megan.

“Obviously, they can’t drive themselves at that age... it would be interesting to look at 17 and 18-year-olds and see if their attitudes change as they learn to drive.”

MAR C H 2 0 18 / THE PLA NNER

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TTech { L A N D S C A P E A city of dreams in a better future

Mohammed uses virtual reality technology

‘I am building the Syria of tomorrow’ The use of virtual reality to bring children’s visions to life is at the heart of the Future Aleppo exhibition that ran at FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) in Liverpool until recently.

Here, VR is used to enable visitors to immerse themselves into a papercraft city built by teenager Mohammed Kteish, from Aleppo in Syria.

As bombs wrecked the city around him, the 13-yearold – unable to attend school because it had been destroyed – began rebuilding the city in paper in his father’s workshop.

Over several months he created a model cityscape that remembered and improved upon the city he knew. He was even the subject of a Channel 4 news report in September 2015.

Eventually, in January 2016, Mohammed and his family were forced to flee to Turkey and he had to abandon the model.

Undeterred, he began another, larger and more ambitious. This time he was supported in his endeavour by filmmaker Alex Pearson, who saw the potential for shared 3D visualisations and workshops to encourage other young people to rebuild their city spaces.

With further support from Sheffield Doc Fest and Fact, the project gathered momentum.

The first workshops took place in London in 2016.

By late 2016 Mohammed’s work had become an exhibition where, using virtual reality technology, visitors could immerse themselves in the ‘Future Aleppo’ that he has created.

“When I was very young I had a passion for drawing and my parents helped me develop my passion,” Mohammed, now 15, explains.

“They bought me paints, crayons and card.

I started to learn about 3D modelling.

“Then, amongst the gunfire and bombs

“I DREAMT OF A BETTER FUTURE FOR MY CITY. I STARTED TO VISUALISE THAT DREAM AND CONSTRUCT A CITYSCAPE OF MY OWN”

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of my home city of Aleppo, I dreamt of a better future for my city. I started to visualise that dream and construct a cityscape of my own. I created my city of Aleppo.

“I want the city to be as I imagine here in my model. For example, I made an area for tourists with a lake and I added a restaurant on one side of the lake for lovely views. I made a train line that goes across the city so that it is a modern city. I am building the Syria of tomorrow.

“When I grow up I want to be an architect. I want these paper buildings to become real buildings. My model is not just a beacon of hope, but also as a preservation of the personal history of my beloved city.

“One day I want to return to rebuild Aleppo with the other exiled children of Syria. Everyone has a talent, if we come together tomorrow we can rebuild the country.” n See the virtual reality trailer: bit.ly/planner0318-trailer

War might have destroyed the home Mohammed’s family knew, but he is envisioning Aleppo reborn

I M A G E S | FA C T, A L E X P E A R S O N

19/02/2018 11:57

Visualisations for a positive outcome

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Visuals

Contact Chris Hale to discuss the preparation of high quality visualisations, including YHULͤHG YLHZV DQG SKRWRPRQWDJHV WR VXSSRUW \RXU GHYHORSPHQW SURSRVDOV • Architecture • Landscapes

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npavisuals.co.uk

14/02/2018 17:35

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Nations & Regions focus { LONDON

Capital growth London is an economic, social, and cultural hub on a UK, European and global scale. Following a period of gradual decline during the second half of the 20th century, over the past 30 years London’s population has ballooned by two million people to stand at around 8.6m.

At the same time London has become ever more diverse, attracting migrants from across the globe. The city has been buoyed by increasing economic prosperity and is a global centre of finance and commerce, while the scientific, creative, media and tech sectors also make a significant contribution to its economic dominance.

It is also one of the world’s most visited cities, with 20m visitors annually.

The ‘housing crisis’ extends to all UK regions but none more so than the capital. London property has often been seen as a safe haven for investors, and prospective buyers now face an acute affordability challenge. Property analyst

Hometrack has put the average price of London is the only English region to a home at 14.5 times the average London have retained its regional governance salary. And delivery of homes has lagged following the abolition of regional spatial behind targets so dramatically that the strategies by the coalition government.

Draft London Plan proposes to increase The Greater London Authority recently the housing target to 66,000 a year to published its new Draft London Plan, deal with the backlog. which focuses on the idea Many neighbourhoods of sustainable growth that "THE CITY HAS are changing rapidly, but works for everyone. The plan BEEN BUOYED while there are numerous will undergo examination

BY INCREASING examples of the positive during the summer.

ECONOMIC effects of regeneration upon PROSPERITY" While this will London’s physical fabric, provide the overarching there remains a question framework for boroughover their impact on people level policymaking, there and communities. London’s is increasing recognition growth is also creating significant of the vital day-to-day role for London’s environmental problems; the city’s poor planners in mediating different interests air quality is a big focus of scrutiny. And, and securing the best possible outcomes although the flagship Crossrail project for all parties. In the London context, is scheduled to open this year, there are this will mean that planners will need doubts about the resilience of the city’s to be more creative and progressive transport network to absorb more growth in formulating policy and facilitating while future investment is uncertain. development.

MAJOR PROJECTS 1. Old Oak and Park Royal

1.

Old Oak and Park Royal is located where HS2 will intersect with Crossrail, offering a unique opportunity to create a new area of the city. The project will deliver 65,000 new jobs and 25,500 homes over the next 30-40 years. n bit.ly/planner0318-oak

2. Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea This 227-hectare site on the south bank of the Thames is being turned into a new district of London.

The development will bring the iconic Battersea Power Station back into use, deliver an extension to London Underground’s Northern Line, and create more than 20,000 homes and 25,000 jobs. n bit.ly/planner0318-9elms

3. Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary represents the largest collection of Opportunity Areas in London. With the completion of Crossrail and other transport improvements this area to the east of the city has the potential to deliver at least 250,000 homes and 200,000 jobs. n bit.ly/planner0318-thames

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2.

3.

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London Insight: Going south Sidings no longer sidelined in Peckham, South London Crossrail apart, it’s the south of London that’s benefited most in recent years from transport infrastructure investment with both new and once abandoned rail routes boosting much needed TfL capacity. Meanwhile, with the New York High Line as inspiration, the Peckham Coal Line project is aiming to turn 900 metres of disused rail sidings as the core of an elevated urban park for walking and cycling.

Behind the scheme is a group of committed residents and volunteers including Nick Woodford and Louise Armstrong, who used community project crowdfunding site Spacehive to raise more than £70,000 to help fund a design feasibility study for the project.

A tender process was conducted with help from Southwark and the Greater London Assembly, resulted in architects Adams & Sutherland being chosen to bring the scheme to life.

What’s more, the project is now part of The New Southwark Plan, and thus protected from housing developers who have at stages threatened elements of the proposed route. Support has been forthcoming from Network Rail, while Southwark Council describes it

as “a great example of a community project coming together”.

As the project has developed, ways in which it can be delivered over time have become more pragmatic.

The route has been split into eight different sites so that work can be conducted in stages, with two sites focused on in the first instance – ‘The Stable Yard’, recently saved from housing by the coordinated action of the Coal Line group, and the Queens Road section, to be built around the wall of a dual carriageway that was never built, and which will link up to the nearby Kirkwood nature reserve.

It is clearly a project with significant local support. “At this stage we’re still entirely volunteerrun,” says Armstrong. “We’ve got a fluid core of people who have been involved since the beginning, and then a wider group of volunteers. We have around 50 or so people putting in time and skills in some capacity.”

The project is already proving inspirational to other projects in Barnes, West London, and the Camden Project. For the volunteers, things are very different today from the early meetings, with discussion now about common design languages and protection of diversity of species. Armstrong is enjoying seeing the project to fruition, even if there’s so much to do.

“The ideas and the intent are there, it’s just that sometimes we can’t run as fast as we’d like to.”

Valuable skills The recent increase in planning application fees offers scope for planning authorities to invest in their workforce and bolster capacity through additional recruitment. Some of the skills in demand from the public sector include: Organisation: The ability to manage a varied workload, and adapt to changing policy and legislation. Planners should also be pragmatic in terms of prioritising tasks and balancing competing policies in the public interest.

Communication: High standards of customer service and inter-personal skills, concise report writing and presentations, and the ability to work effectively within a team.

Positive outlook: Planners should adopt a constructive approach, seeking amendments to proposals or responding to pre-application submissions.

Curiosity: Planners should take an interest in enhancing the places they work with, and keep abreast of policy. They should also take an interest in emerging data from other built environment disciplines.

Place-based research in preparation of interview with a local planning authority will give candidates the edge.

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London RECENT SUCCESSES Mapping the Pathway to Equality The organisations London Gypsies and Travellers and Mapping for Change have launched a report on the housing crisis of gypsies and travellers in London. The report forms part of a larger project, which will provide an evidence base to improve the recognition of gypsy and traveller communities in the planning process. n bit.ly/planner0318-travellers

Pathway to Eq

uality

London’s

Markets

Understanding London’s Markets New research was published on the social and economic value of London’s markets. Recognising the integral part that markets play, the Mayor of London has created a London Markets Board and announced a series of measures to protect and grow this important sector. n bit.ly/planner0318-markets

ng

si tive hou Coopera

Sharing Cities The Greater London Authority is in its second year of coordinating the Sharing Cities programme, which supports new smart city technologies. The programme, funded by the European Commission, brings together six European cities with the aim of sharing data and smart solutions in the fields of mobility, housing, energy and economic development. n bit.ly/planner0318-sharing

45 years of cooperative housing Sanford, the UK’s oldest purposebuilt housing cooperative, is celebrating its 45th anniversary.

Opened in 1973 as a pilot project, the co-op currently houses around 125 tenants and has played a pioneering role in inspiring alternative answers to urban living. n bit.ly/planner0318-sanford

Signposts RTPI London n RTPI London web pages: www.rtpi.org.uk/the-rtpi-near-you/rtpi-london/ n Education: RTPI accredited courses at University College London, London South Bank University and University of Westminster. n Events: https://rtpilondoncalling.wordpress.com/about/ n Email: london@rtpi.org.uk n Twitter @RTPI_LONDON

Next month:

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I M AG E S | R E U T E RS / I STO C K / R E X

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Develop your career with a postgraduate Planning degree at UCL The Bartlett School of Planning is a world class centre for learning and research about the form, planning, design and management of cities and places. Our location, history and expertise have made our programmes and research among the most stimulating and sought-after in the field of planning. We are part of The Bartlett: UCL’s global faculty of the built environment.

We offer three undergraduate and ten postgraduate programmes accredited by the RTPI and RICS. Our MSc degrees are available in both full-time and part-time study options and relate to the wide range of staff expertise in the School, with content reflecting the latest research and thinking. Our programmes include the following: MSc Spatial Planning A general introduction to planning theories, systems and cultures with a focus on the importance of taking a spatial perspective and on the UK traditions and practice of culture. Acts as a ‘conversion’ course for graduates of any discipline seeking to become professional planners.

MSc International Planning A general introduction to planning theories, systems and cultures with an international and comparative perspective. Ideal for those likely to work outside the UK or in organisations working internationally after their studies.

MSc Housing and City Planning A ground-breaking interdisciplinary perspective on the developed world’s ‘housing question’, drawing together the planning, design and project management dimensions of development.

MPlan City Planning A two-year programme that offers an in-depth, academically informed introduction to the professional practice of city planning and explores both domestic and international planning practice and culture. This degree includes the option for a reflective work placement or to study abroad.

Scholarships UCL offers a range of financial awards aimed at assisting students with their studies. Further details at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/planning/programmes/funding-and-scholarships Masters Open Day To learn more about our full range of Masters degree programmes, please come to our annual open day on 21 March 2018. Further details at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/planning/events/2018/mar/masters-open-day Expo The Bartlett School of Planning will present the work of all of its students at the BSP Expo 9-13 May 2018. The Expo will showcase the school’s innovative approach to thinking about the future. Further details at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/planning/events/2018/may/bsp-expo-2018

020 3108 9552 www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/planning

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DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

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

Toilet-to-studio flat change flushed away ( SUMMARY An inspector has blocked plans to convert the toilet room of a listed Southampton home into a studio flat. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a 19th century grade II listed house that forms part of a terrace in the Cranbury Place conservation area. The appellant wanted to convert one of the house’s rooms, a “toilet/store at half landing level”, into a studio flat, for let to students or homeless people. It would be formed of a “living and sleeping area with cooking facilities”, with “built-in storage and an ensuite shower room”.

Inspector Joanna Reid noted that under government guidance on technical space standards, the minimum internal floor area for this type of development is 37 square metres. The proposal offered a quarter of that. Southampton City Council said the smallest accommodation it would offer to those on its waiting list would have a floor area of 45 sq m. The proposal would

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be only one-fifth of that size.

Reid noted that the only space in the living area where the occupier could stand up, clear of the entrance door, would be “too constrained for day-to-day activities such as getting dressed”. There would be little space for visitors to stand or sit, and no storage space for “all but the bare essentials”. And the only window in the living area would face north. As a result, the occupier could feel “hemmed in and isolated”.

The appellant referred the inspector to local demand, but Reid said: “The spatial needs of students and homeless people are little different to those of anyone else.” ( CONCLUSION Reid ruled that the studio flat would be “unacceptably small and harmfully cramped”. The

appellant had also failed to make a financial contribution to the Solent disturbance mitigation project, contrary to local policy. For these reasons, she dismissed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/D1780/W/17/3184555

HOUSING

NPPF policy fails to justify ‘floating homes’ plan ( SUMMARY Two ‘flood-resilient’ homes have been refused after an inspector cited conflict with national guidance prohibiting new homes on flood-prone land, despite an intervention from the policy’s author.

A studio flat scheme for a former loo was ruled too small for anyone to live in

( CASE DETAILS The proposal sought permission for two “watercompatible” floating houses using a “flood resilient foundation design” to allow them to rise with floodwater.

The lightweight timberframed houses sit on a concrete pontoon filled with expanded polystyrene: when the site floods, water enters the dry dock below and the house floats.

The scheme was submitted on behalf of the landowners and Floodline Developments, a business that has secured permission for a floating 54-bedroom hotel in Hartlepool. This type of development has precedents in other low-lying countries.

The appeal site, on the River Stour in Christchurch, Dorset, lies within flood zones 2 (medium risk) and 3a (high risk). The NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) says development should be directed to areas with the lowest risk of flooding by way of a sequential test to determine if an alternative site is feasible.

The appellants said there were no other suitable sites because the flood-resilient nature of the homes means they are only appropriate at the edge of flood-risk areas.

They added that the houses I M AG E S | A L A M Y

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Plans for a floating house near the River Stour in Christchurch, Dorset, were ruled out by an inspector

would be subject only to a “philosophical” flood risk, not a tangible one. However, there is no policy requirement for local authorities to distinguish between “normal” and “floodresilient” housing.

The appellants sought support from Peter Bide, author of the relevant NPPF paragraphs. He said that, “if flood-resilient developments on small, non-strategic plots are deemed safe by the Environmental Agency (EA), they are deemed to have passed the sequential test”.

Before the council had determined the plan, the EA said: “Assuming the lifting mechanism of the proposed dwellings works as intended for its lifetime, the properties will remain ‘safe’ for future occupants.” The site itself, however, would still be at risk of flooding.

Independent legal counsel also supported the appellant, stating that because the sequential test is set out “only in policy, not law”, the council is “not obliged to slavishly adhere to it”, and exceptional circumstances might justify departing from it. ( CONCLUSION Inspector David Richards dismissed the appeal, ruling that “recognising the utility in a policy which seeks to direct residential development to areas of low flood risk... is not necessarily to ‘slavishly adhere’ to it”.

The consequences of doing otherwise, he added, are “readily apparent in the regular incidents of flooding in the UK, which the policy is designed to avoid”. The benefits of the scheme could not outweigh its conflict with policy.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/E1210/W/17/3175948

RETAIL

Five Guys’ access plan is a no-go

HOUSING

Local homes for local people ( SUMMARY An inspector has upheld a planning condition restricting the occupation of a newbuild home in Yorkshire, requiring the new owners to rent nearby for three years. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a partially completed newbuild home in the village of Broughton in North Yorkshire. Ryedale District Council approved the plan subject to conditions enforcing its local plan (LP) policies.

The LP aims to distribute development in the area according to a settlement hierarchy, under which Broughton is not identified as a focus for growth.

Development is only allowed in certain circumstances, one of which is a “local needs occupancy”, where limited infill development is allowed if at least one of four requirements is met – LP policy SP21(a). Permission for the new home was approved on this basis.

The appellants, who have already bought the home, had done so “in good faith” on the understanding that they complied with the second requirement of the local needs occupancy – that “people who do not live in the parish but have a longstanding connection to the local community, including

a previous residence of over three years” will meet the requirement.

The appellants argued that they meet the requirement because they have lived in the wider Ryedale district for 10 years, if the definition of “local community” is taken to mean the whole of the district, not the parish alone.

But inspector David Cross stated that “local community” suggests a more limited geographical meaning than the whole district, “i.e. within and near to Broughton”.

This reading of the second requirement of the policy is corroborated by the fourth requirement, he considered, which refers explicitly to the district, suggesting that if “district” was meant in the second paragraph, it would have been written there instead of “local community”. ( CONCLUSION Cross acknowledged that if he upheld the condition, the appellants would need to rent a property in the area for three years to meet the policy requirement. He sympathised with them over the financial costs, but ruled that “such personal circumstances cannot outweigh conflict with planning policy”. Removal of the condition was not justified, he said, and dismissed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/ Y2736/W/17/3185761

( SUMMARY The Kensington High Street branch of US burger chain Five Guys must install a permanent access ramp, an inspector has ruled. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to a unit on the West London site in class A3 (restaurant) use. Five Guys bought it in 2016, and permission was granted by Kensington & Chelsea Borough Council to install a new shopfront, subject to several conditions. One required the appellant to submit details showing that the design would provide “inclusive access for all patrons”.

The shopfront has been installed with a stepped access 15cm from the ground, and a call bell for disabled customers. When the bell is rung, a member of staff would deploy a temporary ramp.

Inspector Grahame Gould called the temporary ramp arrangement “far from ideal” for customers with a disability.

The appellant said installing a permanent ramp would require physical alterations to the floor slab that could compromise the building’s stability and cost “several hundreds of thousands of pounds” in installation costs and lost revenue. The appellant’s structural engineer was quoted as saying “we would recommend against undertaking any works to the existing floor slab if other feasible options exist”.

But Gould was not persuaded, noting that in various other units within the building to each side, all but one have permanent ramped or level access.

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DiF { D ( CONCLUSION Dismissing the appeal, Gould ruled that the temporary ramp did not comply with the local plan.

He rejected the appellant’s cost application against the council, saying it had been right to take a precautionary approach given the lack of evidence submitted.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/K5600/W/17/3183467

HOUSING

Appellant to pay for wilful appeals ( SUMMARY An appellant who pursued four appeals over a rural dwelling dispute using the same evidence he had used at a previous inquiry to argue the opposite case must pay full costs to Forest Heath District Council. ( CASE DETAILS The case relates to the rural Small Fen Farm, near Brandon, Suffolk. The council issued enforcement notices relating to the inappropriate occupation of two buildings there in 2012, and the subsequent appeals to both led to an inquiry held in 2013.

The appeal relating to the

DECISIONS IN FOCUS building on the southern part of the site failed, and a High Court challenge to that decision was also rejected, leading to direct enforcement action. But the appeal over the northern building was successful, after the appellant persuaded that inspector that there had been no change of use from class B8 (storage) to class C3 (residential).

At the present inquiry, inspector John Braithwaite examined four separate appeals submitted by the appellant, each seeking permission to live in the northern building through different legal means.

Appeal A sought a lawful development certificate through the “four-year rule”; appeal B argued that a historic residential unit previously existed on the site; and appeals C and D sought prior approval for the conversion of the building from class B8 to class C3 under permitted development rules.

Under appeal A, the appellant argued that he had lived in the building continuously for four years between 2003 and 2011. But this would mean a change of use had taken place, contradicting his argument at the 2013 inquiry. This position was not reflected in the evidence: in December 2008, the appellant wrote on a

council form that he “moved to France” in October of that year; he told the present inquiry that this was simply “a reference to a thought he had at the time of moving to France”; and in 2010, he told the council that the property was in use for “farming”.

Under appeal B, relating to a historic residential unit on the site, the appellant offered no proof of evidence at the inquiry except friends’ letters, none of which supported the occupation of a building on the site prior to 2003.

Regarding appeals C and D, which sought prior approval for the building’s residential conversion under permitted development rules, Braithwaite noted that the building could not be considered to be wholly class B8 in use – and so eligible for conversion to class C3 – because the appellant had claimed in appeal A that he had been living in it. ( CONCLUSION Dismissing all four appeals, Braithwaite considered an application for costs made by the council against the appellant. Finding that the appellant had failed to properly engage with the inquiry process, and that none of his appeals was likely to succeed, he ordered a full award of costs.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/H3510/X/17/3168031

HOUSING

Aylesbury homes rejected despite shortfall A removable entrance ramp was “far from ideal”

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( SUMMARY An inspector has rejected plans for 90 homes in

Aylesbury despite the council’s housing shortfall, citing a written ministerial statement on neighbourhood plans that contradicts paragraph 49 of the NPPF. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to 3.3 ha of agricultural land to the north of Waddesdon, a village in Buckinghamshire. The site is beyond the settlement boundary of the village as defined in the Waddeston Neighbourhood Plan (NP), adopted in October 2017, after the appeal was submitted. The proposal sought permission to demolish an existing terrace backing onto the site before building 90 homes.

The NP restricts rural development beyond the Waddesdon settlement boundary, except in certain special circumstances, none of which applied here. The site is also a designated local green space under the NP. Inspector S Harley found the space would be “permanently urbanised” by the proposal.

The scheme would result in the demolition of three terraced homes in the Waddesdon Conservation Area (CA) to make way for access to the site. Harley found that although this would leave the historic linear street pattern “rudely interrupted”, it would only affect a small part of the CA, amounting to less than substantial harm.

There was disagreement between the parties regarding Aylesbury Vale District Council’s housing land supply, but in a recent appeal decision an inspector found a “worst-case scenario” of 3.26 years. Harley considered that given even the worst case would represent a supply of I M AG E S | A L A M Y / S H U T T E RSTO C K

19/02/2018 10:17

The old London County Hall was unique because of its “special factors”

over three years, the written ministerial statement (WMS) of December 2016 regarding neighbourhood planning was a material consideration.

The WMS states that when a neighbourhood plan meets three requirements – it is less than two years old, it allocates sites for housing, and the local authority can prove at least a three-year supply of housing – then housing policies should not be considered out of date under NPPF paragraph 49. Noting that the Waddesdon NP meets these requirements, Harley afforded it full weight, and did not engage the tilted balance of NPPF paragraph 14. ( CONCLUSION Identifying “less than substantial” harm to heritage assets, Harley weighed the scheme’s harm against its public benefits, in line with NPPF paragraph 134. Having decided to afford the NP full weight and not trigger NPPF paragraph 14, he said the benefits of housing provision did not carry enough weight to justify the plan, despite the housing shortfall, and dismissed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/J0405/W/17/3181642

has rejected comparisons to London County Hall – classed as sui generis by the Court of Appeal in 1989 because of its restaurant, library and shooting range. ( CASE DETAILS The appeal relates to offices once occupied by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council on a quayside plot of land in Weymouth, Dorset. The appellant sought approval to turn the building into 56 flats under permitted development rules allowing class B1(a) offices to be converted into class C3 homes.

Using the Court of Appeal’s landmark case ruling, the council refused the scheme, arguing that the building was ineligible for conversion under the General Permitted Development Order because its use class should also be considered sui generis rather than class B1(a) offices.

The court had found that because of the other functions it offered – public library and restaurant, chapel, and firing range, which constituted “special factors” – London County Hall did not fit the usual definition of an office.

The appellant argued that there were no special factors attributed to this site because only 11.56 per cent of its floor space was publicly accessible.

HOUSING

Council offices ‘not sui generis’ ( SUMMARY In granting prior approval for the conversion of council offices to homes, an inspector

( CONCLUSION Allowing the appeal, inspector J P Roberts noted that, “despite the fact that the council has the best knowledge of the use that was made of the building, it provided no evidence about the nature or extent

of this use”. Finding that “the administrative functions carried out within the vast majority of [the building’s] floor space can be characterised as office use”, he decided that it should fall within class B1(a) use.

(4 ANALYSIS [1] CHRIS MIELL of Pure Town Planning, which represented the appellant, said: “The inspector’s decision demonstrates the importance of determining each case on its own merits. Given that many council offices have limited public access and that most administrative duties performed by local authorities are now undertaken through the use of statutory and delegated powers, the inspector’s decision is particularly significant”.

“Based on the decision, many public buildings that are predominately used for office purposes could be converted to residential use through permitted development as they do not exhibit the special features to define them as sui generis”.

CHRIS MIELL is a consultant with Pure Town Planning

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/P1235/W/16/3165092

HOUSING

Deal sheltered homes approved ( SUMMARY An inspector has granted permission for a sheltered housing complex in Deal, Kent, with a reduced affordable housing contribution, saying the

“uncertainty associated with sheltered housing” warrants a higher profit margin. ( CASE DETAILS Developer Churchill Retirement Living sought permission for a three-storey block of 41 one and two-bed apartments on the site of a demolished factory.

Dover District Council’s core strategy says residential developments of 15 units or more must make an affordable housing provision of 30 per cent. The council agreed to accept an offsite financial contribution here, given the service costs associated with sheltered housing. But the parties remained at odds over the size of the contribution – the appellant’s offer of £482,362 falling short of the £719,098 sought by the council.

The appellant said only a reduced contribution would be viable, based on its profit requirement of 20 per cent.

It produced a letter from HSBC stating that the bank would not fund a plan of this kind of development with a profit margin lower than 20 per cent, citing the lack of government finance schemes for sheltered housing. ( CONCLUSION Inspector Lesley Coffey decided that the appellant’s use of a 15-year period for forecasting build costs was reasonable, given that it had applied this approach consistently in other appeals, and ruled that its affordable housing contribution was satisfactory. The building, she added, would “add variety and interest to the townscape”, and allowed the appeal.

V I E W O N LI N E FO R F R E E Appeal Ref: APP/X2220/W/16/3161979

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LLegal landscape DOES THE PLANNING SYSTEM WORK FOR ALL? The NPPF has nothing to say about diversity. Is it possible then for the planning system to work for all? Michael Bedford QC offers some thoughts The NPPF does not mention the words ‘diversity’ or ‘equality’.

In appropriate circumstances, however, whether a development or policy proposal will impact on different members of the community is capable of being a material consideration in the making of planning decisions.

Such was the case in LDRA Ltd v SSCLG [2016] EWHC 950 (Admin), which considered the impact of redeveloping a car park on disabled people’s access to River Mersey, and where planning permission was quashed.

Similarly, R (West Berkshire DC) v SSCLG [2016] EWCA Civ 441 considered the effect of changes to national affordable housing policy thresholds on the provision of affordable housing. In this case the policy was upheld after a retrospective equality assessment.

These two cases specifically considered the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in s.149 of the Equality Act 2010. But diversity is, of course, a wider concept than the statutory notion of equality. For present purposes, this latter is limited to matters relating to interactions between the planning system and those

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Michael Bedford with protected characteristics.1 Socio-economic considerations, unrelated to a protected characteristic, would not be an equality issue but could be a diversity issue. Such matters could have land use implications, as was the case in Horada v SSCLG [2016] EWCA Civ 169, which considered the impact of redevelopment of Shepherd’s Bush Market on low-cost accommodation for small traders, and where the CPO was quashed.

Is it enough for the planning system to recognise that diversity issues are capable of being a material consideration, so that where they are they have to be considered by

“WHERE DIVERSITY ISSUES WERE RELEVANT TO THE DECISION THEY COULD BE EXPECTED TO BE PICKED UP WHEN ADDRESSING OTHER MATERIAL CONSIDERATIONS”

decision-makers on a case-bycase basis? Or should some more specific guidance be given on how this should be done? If so, the imminent consultation on the refreshed NPPF could provide the opportunity to add it.

The former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) certainly took the view that diversity issues should be ‘mainstreamed’ within the planning system.

Under John Prescott, the ODPM took the view that diversity and equality were integral aspects of sustainable development, and that to achieve this outcome would require clear guidance to decision-takers and policymakers to ensure that this was done.

The ODPM commissioned research from Sheffield Hallam University in 2003, leading to Diversity and Equality in Planning: a Good Practice Guide (2004). It contains a wealth of useful information for those who want to address diversity issues as an overt topic when making planning decisions.

The DCLG, under the leadership of Eric Pickles, was less convinced that diversity should be singled out in this way. As noted above, the NPPF does not directly address diversity. In March 2013 Pickles told the Planning Inspectorate not only to stop asking appellants to submit diversity information with appeals, but also to stress that “ministers believe that the planning system should be applicantblind, and focused on the spatial impacts and not the background of the applicant”.

The letter made it clear that where diversity issues were relevant to the decision they could be expected to be picked up when addressing other material considerations – such as where a care home proposal sought to provide accommodation to meet the needs of the elderly.

The MHCLG, under Sajid Javid, has shown no signs of being any more enthusiastic than Pickles about the need for guidance on diversity.

Given that there is nothing to stop decision-makers who do want to recognise diversity issues directly in their decisions from doing so at present where those issues have spatial or land use implications2, it may be thought that the case for bespoke guidance at a national level has not been made out.

Planning is already flexible enough to allow these issues to be addressed where warranted by the circumstances.

Michael Bedford QC is a specialist in planning, local government law, environment and infrastructure with Cornerstone Barristers 1 Age, disability; gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.

2 Examples would include low-cost or other forms of specialised housing, accommodation for gypsies and travellers, the provision of land/premises for business ‘start-ups’, or ensuring that public spaces and transport routes are safe and welcoming to vulnerable groups.

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LLegal landscape LET’S HOPE THE REVISED NPPF CAN PROVIDE MUCH­NEEDED CLARITY A revised National Planning Policy Framework could bring clarity to planning, says Ian Graves, but he fears government will avoid difficult decisions about green belt and neighbourhood planning

Ian Graves

Six years since the introduction of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which saw 1,300 pages of planning regulations condensed into just 65, the government has confirmed its intention to publish a consultation draft of the revised framework this spring.

The review will be welcomed by planners, developers and local authorities.

A lot has changed since 2012 and it’s time for national planning policy to catch up.

The proposals in last year’s white paper Fixing Our Broken Housing Market, the written ministerial statements on small sites and housing land supply, and the growth of neighbourhood planning all need to be integrated into the framework.

The revised NPPF will no doubt also be a key tool in the government’s efforts to fulfil its pledge to deliver a million new homes by 2022. This is the chance for the government to have its say on contentious issues surrounding the interpretation of the current

NPPF. Is the presumption in favour of sustainable development really intended to be a ‘golden thread’ running through the whole of the framework, or just paragraph 14? What are “relevant policies for the supply of housing”?

Interpretation has thus far been left to the courts, but it is now time for the government to let us know its views and intentions. The hope is that doing so will bring muchneeded clarity – although, of course, some may say that a revised document will merely bring another round of arguments about what those new policies really mean.

A major change is likely to be the introduction of a standard methodology for the calculation of objectively assessed housing need, following the government’s consultation late last year. The adoption of a standard method will introduce a new level of predictability, transparency and certainty to the process, which many will see as desirable. Certainly, the current system whereby individual

local authorities can choose how to estimate housing need isn’t working.

However, many commentators have suggested that the method proposed by the government will lead to large regional disparities in objectively assessed need, with big increases in the South East and reductions in some parts of the North. It also doesn’t appear that local authorities will be obliged to plan for the full figure arising from the new methodology, with the indication being that some sort of cap on any increase in housing numbers over that in the current plan is likely.

One issue that seems unlikely to be addressed is the contradiction in policy

“MANY OF THE MOST SUSTAINABLE LOCATIONS FOR NEW HOMES TO BE BUILT ARE IN FACT WITHIN GREEN BELT LAND”

between the focus on increasing the numbers of houses being built and the supposed ‘strong focus’ on maintaining protection for the green belt. There seems little acknowledgement from ministers that a more sensible policy on the green belt is necessary if the housing crisis is to be tackled.

Many of the local authorities experiencing the greatest demand for housing also find themselves constrained by large areas of green belt.

Many of the most sustainable locations for homes to be built are in fact within green belt. The answer should lie in a sensible reappraisal of the function and purpose of the green belt, together with a limited release of suitable land for development. Sadly, politics seems to have trumped economics on this issue.

Similarly, the contradiction between the expansion neighbourhood planning and the imperative to increase housing numbers is also set to deepen. Although the government claims that neighbourhood development plans boost housing supply, many in the development industry are sceptical. Those with direct experience often find that the effect is to stymie rather than encourage the building of homes. Continuing to increase the importance of neighbourhood plans is likely to exacerbate that effect.

We can only hope that the government chooses to take the bull by the horns and address some of these longstanding issues. An update to national policy is sorely needed. The development industry will be watching and waiting with interest.

Ian Graves is a legal director in the planning team at law firm Shakespeare Martineau

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

by Josh Rule at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

2018 Commonwealth Summit: Planning for prosperity, stability and a truly sustainable future ROS WARD MRTPI RTD IS THE RTPI’S REPRESENTATIVE ON THE COMMONWEALTH ASSOCIATION OF PLANNERS Dhaka, Bangladesh

Prosperity, security, fairness and sustainability are some of the challenges faced by members of the Commonwealth and these themes will be the focus of the Commonwealth Summit to be held in London from 16-18 April.

The Commonwealth is home to nearly a third of the world’s population and contains half of the top 20 emerging cities. It is bound together by a common intent in advancing democracy and human rights, addressing climate change and promoting sustainable development.

The summit is being held at a time of unprecedented urbanisation.

Urbanisation is a global phenomenon and although cities today occupy only

2 per cent of the total land area they are responsible for 70 per cent of global GDP, 60 per cent of global energy consumption, 70 per cent of green gas emissions, and 70 per cent of global waste. The world’s urban population is estimated to increase by 2.5 billion by 2050 with nearly 90 per cent of that increase in Asia and Africa.

High rates of urbanisation – over 3 per cent a year compared with 0.5 per cent in the UK – are anticipated in some of the most fragile states of the Commonwealth.

Some of these countries are also the most vulnerable to climate change, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Grenada.

The summit provides a timely

HOW THE RTPI IS CHAMPIONING PLANNING AT THE COMMONWEALTH SUMMIT RTPI Commonwealth Summit Lecture

by Sir Terry Farrell, a planner and architect who has worked all over the world, 16 April: bit.ly/planner0318-farrell RTPI West Midlands ‘Think PlanningThink Global: Planning Challenges in the Commonwealth’, 22 March: bit.ly/ planner0318-WM RTPI West of Scotland Chapter event

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on the legacy of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games RTPI London Drinks Reception at Marlborough House (HQ of the Commonwealth) and walking tours of London for Summit participants More information: RTPI Events Calendar: bit.ly/planner0318-events

opportunity to address these challenges and all aspects of sustainability will be considered alongside four parallel forums: Women, Youth, People and Business.

These groups have a stake in the way their cities are planned.

One issue that must be addressed is how to improve the standing of planning and planners. Although there is a shortage of trained and experienced planners, according to a recent survey by the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP), there are many ways in which British universities are sharing their knowledge with online continuing professional development on subjects related to sustainable urban growth.

The RTPI and the CAP, which represents 28 countries and 40,000 planners, will be engaged across the summit – the agenda aligns with the objectives of planners worldwide.

These two organisations see it as a chance to promote the value of planners and planning to address global issues and to share solutions to the challenges faced

by Commonwealth countries.

The CAP, for example, is working on a project with the Prince’s Trust for Building Communities to create a toolkit for ‘Rapidly Urbanising Cities in Developing Countries’, which will be launched at the summit.

A pilot study in the city of Bo in Sierra Leone in West Africa included workshops with local stakeholders who recognised the need for a planning framework to manage growth in a planned and sustainable way.

In the lead-up, the RTPI International Committee has been encouraging all nations and regions to promote ways to celebrate planning around the dates of the summit.

Our hope is for the summit to address these issues and realise the potential of urbanisation to create prosperity, stability and a truly sustainable future.

I M AG E | A H M E D H A SA N U N S PL A S H

19/02/2018 10:19

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

Maria Dunn MRTPI PLANNING POLICY TEAM LEADER, WORCESTER CITY COUNCIL AND CHAIR, RTPI WEST MIDLANDS A national spatial plan could define the strategic infrastructure priorities and key housing and employment growth points at the national level, promoting balanced regional development.

This would overcome some of the difficulties of establishing housing numbers and locations of new settlements at the local authority level.

The current CIL arrangements are time-consuming and costly to implement and there are often difficult relationships between S106 and CIL. It is difficult to balance the provision of different types of infrastructure and because CIL is non-negotiable it is often affordable housing, secured through S106, which loses out where viability is challenging. Simplifying the approach to developer contributions by introducing the Local Infrastructure Tariff proposed in the Peace Review would level the playing field, reduce delays arising as a result of extensive viability negotiations, and make it easier to developer infrastructure more quickly.

Establishing a national set of principles to guide high-quality design and implementing residential space standards at the national level would ensure a more consistent approach to the quality of development.

COMMITTEE PRIORITIES: RTPI LONDON REGION RTPI London promotes planning as a profession and builds links with other built environment professions and organisations in Greater London. It offers members a programme of affordable seminars and events to assist with their CPD requirements. Max Laverack MRTPI, chair of RTPI London, outlines the region’s current priorities: To shape insightful responses to forthcoming policy through lively discussion and debate, including the Draft London Plan To champion planners as agents of London’s success and celebrate their contributions and achievements To forge closer links, both with other RTPI Regions and with the wider built-environment profession RTPI London delivers a diverse programme of free and affordable events, which are tailored to the needs of the region’s members as well as live issues affecting planning and the wider built-environment sector. In 2018 it is shaping its programme around the simple mantra of ‘Planning for all, for all Planners’.

This reflects the desire to showcase and celebrate the role of planners in shaping development that changes people’s lives for the better, while examining how to make planning work better for all Londoners.

1 Prepare a spatial plan for the UK identifying key infrastructure and growth points

2 Replace Community Infrastructure Levy with Local Infrastructure Tariff as proposed in the Peace Review

3 Place a greater emphasis on delivering high­quality development

POSITION POINTS

PRODUCTIVITY, PLACE AND POVERTY The Centre for Social Justice’s report, Productivity, Place and Poverty, says the government must tackle the UK’s regional imbalance in growth by focusing outside of cities and at suburban rural productivity ‘coldspots’. Resources must be devolved to local authorities that are better placed to understand the social and economic barriers facing residents.

The RTPI agrees that an approach that considers place is more likely to succeed. Many national and local policies fail to address poverty because they ignore how well planned local environments with good services and transport can help lift people out of poverty. RTPI studies show people in deprived areas suffer an unfair share of the environmental burden.

n Read the report: bit.ly/planner0318-cities n Read the RTPI’s position: bit.ly/planner0318-poverty

COLLABORATIVE WORKING London and its neighbours should collaborate more to ensure growth and prosperity, says the Centre for London in Next-door Neighbours – Collaborative Working Across the London Boundary. The RTPI is pleased the report reaches similar conclusions to its own; strategic planning based on cooperation can achieve better transport, housing, and environmental gains. However, the RTPI’s studies on the South-East stress the importance of polycentric commuting and jobs patterns across the region, not just to and from London.

It supports the recommendation that national infrastructure and financing should better support strategic goals and the government should provide funding for communities to play their part in supporting sustainable regional growth.

n Read the report: bit.ly/planner0318-collaborate

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NEW MEMBERS

RTPI { PLA RT PINNI INN AC G TH TI EOR ON : YP L&AN N I N G REFORM PRACT I CE A NIDN LEG FOCIUS S L ATI ON

A tribute to the ‘Father of Urban Planning’ – John Friedmann AUDE BICQUELET LOCK, DEPUTY HEAD OF POLICY AND RESEARCH

This edition includes several tributes in memory of John Friedmann – a pioneer in urban theory and planning and a central figure in the founding of what is today the Department of Urban Planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

As noted by the editorial team, Friedmann’s work spoke to “the serious purpose of scholarship in planning” and for him, the advancement of the planning field mattered “not for itself, but because of the potential to inform interventions which could improve the lives of the least advantaged”.

Other key contributions in this issue include a reflection on participatory planning and on the impact of changing structural conditions on Regional Sustainable Mobility in Norway. This is of particular interest to planners dealing with the challenges involved in sustainable transport planning.

This piece of research is to help planners understand how

land use and transport planning can be more effectively organised to deliver more sustainable mobility patterns.

The interface offers a collective critique of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), adopted at the Habitat III conference in Quito in 2016, and raises important issues such as whether the NUA is just a political document, how useful it is proving in practice, and what role planning might play in its implementation.

With the 9th World Urban Forum held only a few weeks ago in Kuala Lumpur – and with the participation of the RTPI in a side event on the Urban Dimension of Climate Change – one cannot overemphasise the importance and the timeliness of these questions.

The latest edition of Planning Theory and Practice (19:1), the RTPI’s academic journal, is out now

CHARTERED MEMBERS ELECTED OCTOBER­DECEMBER 2017 “Many congratulations to all of our new Chartered Members.

Employers rightly recognise the professional expertise and integrity conferred by chartered status. Being a chartered member of the RTPI makes you part of a large professional team involved in a diversity of work designed to create better places.” – John Acres, RTPI President Helen Allan Daniel Peter Ashe Lewis Bankes-Hughes Richard Bergmann Matthew Besant Ryan Blair Zoe Boor Gregg Boyd Kimberley Brown Katie Brown Alasdair Buckle Lucy Buttery Peter Canavan Thomas Cheffers Matthew Colley-Banks Benjamin Cook Kimberley Cooper James Cording Natalie Corless Kimberly Corps Tobias Cowell Matthew Creedy Ellen Creegan James Cross Helen Davies Kate Davies Laura Dixon Jonathan Dodd James Doherty Gareth Draper Louisa Fielden Susan Fogarty Joseph Fowler Sigourney Fox Katherine Fry Anna Gargan Sean Gilbreth Kate Goldie Lewis Goodley Jessica Graham Rebecca Hadley Shaun Harrington Nicholas Heard Jonathan Helmn Poppy Hilton Tim Humphries Kate Ingram Karine Johnson Robin Morris Jones Sinead Joyce Michael Kemp Rachel Kerr Colin King Kim Langford Ashkan Liaghat Eleanor Lomas Fraser Mackenzie

Maria Marks William Marshall Graham Martin Jack Martin-King John Mason Lewis McArthur Carla McWhinnie Sinead Meally Thomas Merry Daniel Metcalfe Rebecca Miller Linzi Milley Charlene Mo Ellen Moore Jenna Murray Laura O’Brien Julie O’Rourke Rachel Osborne Sean Panton Claire Parker Edward Parsons John Pearce Connor Perrott Jessica Powell Lorna Powell-Juarez Charlotte Pugh Majella Quinn John Raine Joney Ramirez Soto Deborah Roberts Isabel Roberts Jane Rodens Sam Salt Matthew Scott Edward Senior Nazia Ali Shah Lisa Shannon Hannah Shine Rebecca Smith Sophie Stocker Samuel Sykes Siu Kiu (Pauline) Suen Oliver Thompson Graeme Thompson Emma Thorpe Jamie Torrance Sophie Trouth Scott Vallance Nicola Waller Charlotte Wheeler Adam Williams Naomi Williamson Graham Wilson Man Ching Woo Gayle Wootton Sam Worden

The Seven Sisters form part of the South Downs Country Park

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN

Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED The shortlist for the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2018 has been announced across 13 categories for projects, teams and individuals. The awards highlight exceptional examples of planning and celebrate the contribution that planners make to society. Tickets are on sale for the ceremony on 24 May at Milton Court Concert Hall in London. Don’t miss the chance to be there when the winners are announced, and if you are a finalist, to receive your award and network with colleagues at the drinks reception.

The Silver Jubilee Cup will also be awarded to the most outstanding entry.

To book, please visit www.rtpi.org.uk/excellence

THE PLANNING CONVENTION 2018: RESILIENT PLANNING TICKETS NOW ON SALE Society faces a range of challenges, from political uncertainty to climate change and uneven economic growth to the provision of affordable housing.

Planning plays a crucial role in the way society responds.

On 21 June delegates and expert speakers from around the world will come together at the Planning Convention in London to address ‘Resilient planning for our future’. Our programme will offer delegates the chance to hear from key industry influencers, network, discuss and take part in our new interactive sessions. Highlights include a session on innovative models of housing delivery, discussions on the latest technology available to planners and a Q&A with the chief planners from the UK and Ireland.

To book, please visit rtpi.org.uk/events/planning-convention-2018

RTPI COMMONWEALTH SUMMIT LECTURE WITH SIR TERRY FARRELL TICKETS AVAILABLE From 16-20 April, world leaders will meet in London for the Commonwealth Summit. Its theme is ‘Towards a common future’, and it focuses on building on the strengths of the Commonwealth to ensure this unique organisation is responsive to global challenges and delivers a more prosperous, secure, sustainable and fair future for all citizens. The RTPI, in association with the Commonwealth Association of Planners, will run a series of events during the summit, highlighting how planning can contribute to the Commonwealth’s strength and help overcome these challenges. On 16 April in central London, RTPI Gold Medal winner Sir Terry Farrell will give the RTPI Commonwealth Lecture on ‘City making: the work of many hands’.

To book, please visit bit.ly/planner0318-farrell

SCOTTISH YOUNG PLANNERS’ CONFERENCE 2018: THE CHANGING FACE OF PLANNING PLANNING AHEAD On 14th March, at the Strathclyde Innovation Centre, Glasgow, the Minister for Local Government and Housing will join Liz Pringle, project manager of the Scottish Government’s ePlanning programme, and Kenny Steele, managing director of virtual reality specialist Pinnacle to lead sessions on the opportunities and challenges for a planning system set to be transformed by technology’s impact on how we plan, and what we plan for. There will be four workshops to choose from, with hands-on chances to explore a future of digital local development planning, and overcoming obstacles to housing delivery.

Tickets here: bit.ly/planner0318-ypscot

RTPI SHORTS

RTPI JOURNAL GETS TOP ACADEMIC LISTING Planning Theory and Practice (PTP), the RTPI’s academic journal published jointly with Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, has been accepted by Clarivate Analytics for inclusion in the Social Sciences Citation Index.

This means the journal is now ranked among the top planning journals in the field and will be included in the next Journal Citation Reports Impact Factor releases.

Trudi Elliott, Chief Executive of the RTPI, which co-owns the journal, said: “The RTPI prides itself on advancing the art and science of spatial planning and the journal does this justice. This recognition would not have happened without the enthusiasm, creativity and dedication of everybody involved.

“PTP is very much the product of a great team: contributors, Editors, our Editorial Board, staff and other supporters of the Institute.”

RTPI members can benefit from a massive discount to a PTP Journal subscription. More information here: bit.ly/planner0318-ptp

MEMBER DEATHS It is with great regret that we announced the deaths of the following members. We offer our condolences to their families and colleagues.

John Anderson Robert Anderson Michael Bailey John Ballantyne Colin Barnard Victor Bartholomew Robin Bishop Stephen Bowley David Clark Christine Clarke Joseph Cunningham Noel Dant Margaret Engering Philip Eyton-Jones William Farrar James Greenfield Trevor Hart Edgar Hindle Graham Hitchen Jennifer Jenkins Vivian Jones Laurence Leech Cyril Mercer David Noakes Jan Paget-Wyndham Ian Purd Wilfred Richardson Elizabeth Shiel James Stewart Robert Stoddart David Walker Margaret Whewell

North West London

East England South East South East East Midlands East Midlands North West Overseas London Wales West Midlands Yorkshire North West London West Midlands South East East Midlands South East London East England South West Scotland South East Wales Yorkshire

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To advertise please email: recruitment@theplanner.co.uk or call 020 7880 7665

Benefits to You: • Free Staff Car Parking • Located close to Codsall and Bilbrook Train Stations and M54/M6 • Essential Car Allowance (currently £963.00 per annum) • One Relevant Professional Fee Paid per annum • Flexible working (the Council Offices for staff are open from 7.30 am to 6.30pm) • 24 Days Annual Leave rising to 28 after 5 years continuous service • 10 Bank Holidays • 15 Flexi Leave Days (once accrued) • Career Average Pension Scheme For further information please contact Sue Frith, Team Manager on 01902 696279 or e-mail s.frith@sstaffs.gov.uk Closing Date for Applications: Wednesday 14 March 2018 at 5.00pm (Please note we reserve the right to close this advert earlier if we receive sufficient applications).

Interview Date: Thursday 22 March 2018 Test - Please note the interview will include a test based on a planning application which will last for 45 minutes before the interview takes place.

To apply visit our website: www.sstaffs.gov.uk/jobs/

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INSIGHT

Plan B

AT THE MOVIES

The RTPI marked Valentine’s Day in February with a Twitter campaign to remind us that planning is also in need of a little love. The institute’s #LovePlanning hashtag was accompanied by a heart-filled gif for planners to share and spread the love.

Plan B figured that if you really want to show planning a good time, you’d take it on a date. So we asked The Planner’s followers on Twitter: ‘If you were to go on #ADateWithPlanning, what film would you go and see?’.

Dear readers, you didn’t entirely disappoint.

Martha Grekos (@ MarthaGrekos) kicked off with Passport to Pimlico, the 1949 Ealing comedy about a London community that declares itself independent in order to escape the privations of post-war rationing. This could be a portentous morality tale for Brexit Britain.

Dr Peter Geraghty (@planitpres) recommended City of Angels, the Los Angeles-set US remake of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, which itself made great use of Berlin as a backdrop. Nice try, Peter, but not a patch on the original, we’re afraid.

Nick Reeves (@NGReeves), meanwhile, recalled the murder of a planner in Hot Fuzz, a film that imagines the consequences of unchecked Nimbyism and which even features a fight in a model village (we love a model village).

Very good call, Nick.

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Benjamin Zac (@benjamin4peace) figured that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest best depicted the lunatic state of modern planning.

Derek Wilson (@DRFW) proved a one-man champion for the Scottish film industry, citing Local Hero, Comfort and Joy, That Sinking Feeling and Ratcatcher. Derek also mentioned Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog’s tale of a man (Klaus Kinski) who hauls a boat over a mountain in the Amazon. It’s not entirely sane.

Sarah Elliott (@aerosmithred) recounted her “plannerish” response to Bladerunner 2049.

“Honestly,” she wrote, “it’s 32 years from now and they haven’t worked out reduce, reuse and recycle or to zone scrapyards more effectively?”

That’s what we’re talking about.

PLAN B'S PERFECT LIST WOULD REFLECT THEMES THAT EMERGE IN THE PLANNER MONTH AFTER MONTH. Here’s our short list of possible movies for #ADateWithPlanning:

UP THE JUNCTION: Doomed love across the class divide as a Chelsea heiress slums it in 1960s Battersea and falls for a young Dennis Waterman. Here we have slum clearance, gentrification, dying communities and the culture clashes that accompany social change.

CHINATOWN: Jack Nicholson’s seedy detective is pulled into a labyrinthine plot that involves incest, bribery and a land baron’s plan to divert LA’s water supply in order to increase the value of cheaply bought land. A noir masterpiece.

THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY: Planning, property, politics, crime and big money in the great British gangster movie. Bob Hoskins is the crime boss who sees the Canary Wharf regeneration as his launch pad to the big time. Unfortunately, he annoys the IRA...

CRASH: J G Ballard’s disconcerting

Environmental planning consultancy LUC (@LUCtweeting) produced an excellent list of movies that included: High-Rise, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, Caché, The Hunger Games, Metropolis and TV’s Parks and Recreation. We thank you.

tale of city dwellers finding sexual gratification in staged automobile accidents is relocated from West London to a nameless Canadian metropolis in David Cronenberg’s glacial study of the alienating effects of the concrete city.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI: The action in this tragic, very black comedy is triggered by the decision to build a highway bypass that rips the heart out of a small town. A scathing n Fancy a d depiction of anger ate?

Tweet us in American @ThePlann er_ society, superbly RTPI performed.

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LANDSCAPE

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

WHAT WE'RE BROWSING...

Habinteg Wheelchair Housing Design Guide This third edition explains how to design and detail a home that is fully manageable by wheelchair users to maximise their independence. Design requirements are discussed, with good practice examples provided. bit.ly/planner0318-A5

Project Ireland 2040 The Irish government’s overarching policy initiative “to make Ireland a better country for all of us, a country that reflects the best of who we are and what we aspire to be” is one that certainly has plenty of depth, focusing on 10 strategic outcomes. This site presents the initiative in an easy-to-digest fashion. bit.ly/planner0318-A4

WHERE WE'RE GOING...

Each month the RTPI runs a range of free or low-cost events up and down the UK. Here’s our pick for the next few weeks. See the full calendar here: www.rtpi.org.uk/events/events-calendar

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING...

The New Builds Are Coming On the iPlayer for another next two weeks or so, this series sees film-maker Richard Macer examine the human dimension behind the 300,000-homes-a-year debate. bit.ly/planner0318-A6

Planning for a cohesive and diverse community 5 April 2018, Leeds This conference will explore the issues of diversity, inequality and community cohesion and reflect on ways to support all communities. bit.ly/planner0318-A1

Trees in the Planning Process – with the Institute of Chartered Foresters 13 April 2018, Oxford This event will highlight the importance of trees and forestry

WHAT WE'RE PLANNING...

April’s issue i looks at the Commonwealth Gold Coast games, and their – the G development, as well as the Commonwealth develop of Government Meeting in London.

Heads o we look at what Brexit will mean for Also, w business, and consider forthcoming changes busines NPPF. editorial@theplanner.co.uk to the N

in the planning world, and vice versa. Experts from a range of backgrounds will present on topics including the importance of effective planning conditions and local planning policy. bit.ly/planner0318-A2

RTPI Commonwealth Summit Lecture: Sir Terry Farrell - City making: the work of many hands 16 April 2016, London Sir Terry Farrell, recent recipient of the RTPI's gold medal in recognition of his achievements, will talk at this event about the huge challenges facing our cities, including population growth and a crisis of affordability. He will also discuss the need for creative and collaborative planning, as well as joint leadership from all sectors. bit.ly/planner0318-A3

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