The Planner October 2016

OCTOBER 2016 SHARING: THE COMMONS PURSUIT// p.22 • RESILIENT BELFAST CHAMPIONS SOCIAL DIVERSITY // p.26 • WHAT MAKES A HEALTHY CITY? // p.30 • RTPI AWARDS 2016: ROCH RESURRECTION // p.38 • CAN ANYONE HELP WITH CIL? // p.41

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

SHAPING FUTURES 2016 YOUNG PLANNERS SPECIAL: THE PROSPECTS FOR MORE TOLERANT, HEALTHIER CITIES

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CONTENTS

PLANNER 11 26

THE

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“BELFAST, FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS AT LEAST, HAS BEEN AN EXTRAORDINARILY DIVIDED CITY”

NEWS

6 Transport planning is failing to address air pollution peril

7 Wales updates advice on climate change risks 8 Urban planners must embrace the night

9 Masterplan submitted for new Edinburgh neighbourhood 10 Brownfield, greenfield – and an NSIP alternative 11 Khan orders inquiry into Garden Bridge

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OPINION 14 Chris Shepley: Metropolitans & accomplices in the last chance saloon 16 Charlotte Irwin: Smart cities need smart approaches by planners 16 Linda Fox-Rogers and Enda Murphy: Is planning gain the new brown envelope?

17 Michael Tomlinson : Are conversions really preserving heritage?

17 Julie Clark and Ade Kearns: Challenges for event-led regeneration

22 A new ‘commons’ economy is emerging, says Kate Hogarth 26 Mura Quigley considers the role planners can play in uniting communities

38 Case study: Revealing the Roch

“WE NOW HAVE A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO DEVELOP A SET OF POLICIES TAILORED TO THE NEEDS OF THE UK, OUR SPECIES AND OUR HABITATS” ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY ANDREA LEADSOM AT THE LAUNCH OF THE RSPB’S 2016 STATE OF NATURE REPORT

COV E R I M AG E | A I DA N MONAG H A N

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

18 The incoming and outgoing Young Planners of the Year swap notes

30 How do we create healthy cities? asks Erin Donaldson

QUOTE UNQUOTE

INSIGHT

FEATURES

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41 Legal landscape: Opinion, blogs, and news from the legal side of planning 42 Plan Ahead – our pick of upcoming events for the planning profession and beyond 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: Would banning golf solve the housing crisis?

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PLAN UPFRONT

Leaderr Young visionaries st assemble in Belfast to shape future – The change of season to autumn means that it’s time me for the annual RTPI Young Planners’ Conference.

This year, delegates will travel to Belfast to explore how the Northern Ireland planning system has evolved ed and reformed against a challenging backdrop.

We will look at how the overall planning profession is responding to future trends and challenges throughout the UK and beyond. It is an exciting forum for engagement where we, as young planners, have the opportunity to change and shape the future of our profession as well as the environment in which we live, work and socialise.

For this edition, the editorial team at The Planner has sought the views and opinions of visionary Northern Ireland young planners to reflect the key conference

Kim Boal themes. For example, those attending the conference will witness how Belfast is undergoing substantial transformation, with the city redefining itself as a tourist destination based on its heritage. With social and political issues still playing a role in defining Belfast’s urban landscape, we explore how social cohesion and fragmented societies can be shaped through the urban design process.

Although Belfast has faced change and challenges, it

has proudly established itself as a World Health Organisation ‘Healthy City’. In light of this, we’ve featured the views of young planners in how they envisage the Healthy City of Belfast in 2050.

A survey shows a snapshot of what the profession views as the key elements of the future healthy city. Though it may appear futuristic, it’s a realistic consideration of the trends we will face as a society together with the role smart technology will play in shaping and managing the environment in which we live.

Elsewhere this month you’ll also find an interview with the new Young Planner of the Year and a feature

“THOSE ATTENDING THE CONFERENCE WILL WITNESS HOW BELFAST IS UNDERGOING SUBSTANTIAL TRANSFORMATION”

investigating the concept of ‘The City as Commons’.

In Northern Ireland, planning reform has witnessed the transfer of planning powers and functions from central government to local authorities. This marked a momentous occasion when democracy, decisionmaking and accountability returned to the heart of local communities.

A new statutory link between the local development and community plan provides a further opportunity to realise the needs and aspirations of communities.

It provides a new avenue of change, which both the conference and this edition explore.

I encourage all young planners to join their local network to network and express your views to the institute. And I hope you enjoy this special edition.

Kim Boal is chair of the Northern Ireland Young Planners Committee and a planner with Mid and East Antrim Borough Council

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Production manager Jane Easterman Senior production executive Aysha Miah-Edwards PUBLISHING Publishing director Joanna Marsh

Average net circulation 19,072 (January-December 2014) © The Planner is published on behalf of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) by Redactive Publishing Ltd (RPL), 17 Britton St, London EC1M 5TP. This magazine aims to include a broad range of opinion about planning issues and articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the RTPI nor should such opinions be relied upon as statements of fact.

All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any print or electronic format, including but not limited to any online service, any database or any part of the internet, or in any other format in whole or in partww in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission of the publisher. While all due care is taken in writing and producing this magazine, neither RTPI nor RPL accept any liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein. Printed by Southernprint

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NEWS

Analysis { TRANSPORT PLANNING

Transport planning is failing to address air pollution peril

By Laura Edgar Transport planning in the UK is not sufficiently taking into account the environmental impacts of transport choices. That was the conclusion drawn from recent research and presented at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference.

Road transport is the main cause of air pollution in more than 95 per cent of legally designated Air Quality Management Areas in the UK, the study claims.

Estimates suggest that at least 50,000 deaths a year can be attributed to air pollution across the nation. Despite considerable policy and practice activities at various levels of government since the Environment Act 1995 committed the UK to improve air quality to internationally accepted standards, measurements in the real environment show little improvement.

The Department for Transport (DfT)

needs a clear strategy to increase the use of ultra-low emission vehicles and reduce air pollution, said the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) following the conference.

In its latest report, Sustainability In The Department For Transport, the committee says such a strategy would enable the DfT to meet decarbonisation and air quality targets.

EAC chair Mary Creagh said the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles such as electric cars is too low to meet the UK’s climate change targets at the lowest cost to the public. “Air quality targets that were supposed to be met in 2010 won’t be hit until 2020 at the earliest,” she said.

Shared priority does not mean equal priority Authors of the research presented at the conference, Dr Tim Chatterton and Professor Graham Parkhurst, both from

Reduce car use with ‘carrots and sticks’ Speaking about UWE research, Hannah Budnitz, chair of the RTPI-TPS Transport Planning Network, said: “We support this renewed call for air pollution and public health to be given much greater priority in government transport policy and funding. A combination of carrots (improved public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure) and sticks (parking restrictions, charging schemes, filtered permeability) at the local level is needed to reduce car use.”

But, said Budnitz, national policy and funding is focused on major transport projects, including innovation in vehicle technology, at the expense of investment on local transport.

“It is therefore unsurprising that cheaper schemes like voluntary travel behaviour change programmes are being overused by local councils, but they are not necessarily effective.”

She said it must be ensured that accessibility remains a key criterion for new development, and that the drive for more housing does not come at the expense of greater car use.

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the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, reviewed the findings of a number of projects they had worked on to identify why air pollution from road transport in the UK had not reduced.

“Air pollution is perhaps the grossest manifestation of a general failure of UK transport planning to take the environmental impacts of transport choices sufficiently into account.

Currently, air pollution is a shared priority between Department for Environment, Food and Rural (Defra) and DfT, but shared priority does not mean equal priority,” said Pankhurst.

“Environmental managers only identify and monitor the problems. Insufficient relevant priority has been given within the sector responsible for most relevant emissions – transport policy and planning – which has instead prioritised safety and economic growth.”

The authors say UK transport planners are not taking the environmental impacts of transport “sufficiently into account”.

Chatterton and Parkhurst contend that although pollution contributes between 15 and 30 times the annual number of deaths associated with road traffic collisions, accidents “remain the primary concern” of transport planners.

No confidence target will be met In addition, the EAC said the government’s projections suggest that they will miss the target for ultra-low commission vehicles by half to make up 9 per cent of all new car and van sales by 2020 – something deemed necessary by the Committee on Climate Change if the UK is to meet its climate change targets in the most cost-effective way.

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PLAN UPFRONT

The failure to meet this target risks making it “more expensive to meet our long-term carbon reduction target”, said Creagh.

The DfT should aim for almost twothirds of new cars and vans to be ultra-low emission vehicles by 2030.

But “with no strategy, we have no confidence that the DfT will meet this target”, she added.

Cars promoted as central to transport policy Local authorities and the car industry told the committee about ways the DfT could increase electric vehicle use over the next 10 years, including supporting the take-up of electric and low-emission fleet procurement by underwriting risk or guaranteeing buy-back.

But Chatterton and Parkhurst said the study identified a “strategic policy tone” that promotes the car as central to national transport policy while financial support for alternative modes of transport and to local authorities seeking to introduce potential effective air improvement measures is limited.

The study puts forward the recommendation that key government departments take a look at the relationship between environmental management and transport management at national and local levels.

Transport agencies and local authorities should be required to give higher priority to air quality management.

“A local authority grant funding line is needed to tackle air quality problems through local transport policy measures.

This would help ensure that poor air quality receives sufficient priority,” said Parkhurst.

Ministers, said Creagh, should think about changes to vehicle taxation, including company cars, to make electric vehicles more attractive.

“The government needs to give manufacturers such as Nissan, Honda, LTC, and Toyota a reason to choose their UK car factories – in places like Sunderland, Swindon, Coventry, and Derby – to manufacture the next generation of low-emission vehicles.

“This would encourage Nissan to manufacture the next generation of their electric car, the Leaf, in Sunderland, from 2018.”

Wales updates advice on climate change risks Welsh chief planner Neil Hemington has written to planning authorities to highlight the latest guidance on climate change allowances in areas at risk of flooding.

This is to ensure that development does not take place where the risk of flooding is unacceptable – now or in future. It also aims to ensure that development permitted is designed to withstand increasing flood risk caused by climate change.

The letter states: “The risk of flooding is expected to increase as a result of climate change and it is important for consideration to be given to this increased risk when considering planning applications and preparing and reviewing local development plans.”

The advice sets out how projected increases to peak river flows and sea levels, resulting from climate change, should be incorporated into flood consequence assessments (FCAs), for individual planning applications and for the purpose of development planning, in areas where there

is a risk of flooding.

These climate projections should be incorporated into FCAs accompanying planning applications submitted from 1st December 2016.

The guidance will be updated when the next climate projections are produced. Any queries on the climate projections or how to incorporate them within an FCA should be raised with Natural Resources Wales. n The letter and guidance can be found here tinyurl.com/planner1016-climatechange

Council wins battle over ‘drastic’ listed building changes Three defendants must pay over £93,000 following prosecution by Westminster City Council, after they removed the roof, walls, floors and chimney breasts from a grade II listed 1830s Georgian building without consent.

The court threw out the claim that Mohammed Owadally and Seema Khan did not know that the building was listed after it emerged that David Williams, their chartered structural engineer, had informed them.

Owadally and Khan bought 99 Star Street, which is in the Bayswater Conservation Area, for £1.5 million in August 2013, and carried out most of the works in November.

Despite a number of warnings issued by Westminster City Council in November and December 2013, the defendants continued to work on the property.

District Judge Coleman said that the “drastic” operation had destroyed the “historic fabric” of the building, affecting its physical stability.

Coleman added: “These are works that should not have been carried out at all without permission. They were undertaken in spite of a clear order from Westminster that all building work should stop.

“That was a clear instruction, given verbally and in writing, which these defendants deliberately flouted. I do not believe that they misunderstood or misinterpreted the words used.”

Owadally and Khan were found guilty on all four matters against them relating to specific works carried out on the building.

Williams was found not guilty on the first three (the District Judge saying he has sufficient doubt), but guilty on the fourth.

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NEWS

Analysis { NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING

Urban planners must embrace the night

Louise Brooke-Smith, founder of Brooke Smith Planning

SIMON WICKS REVIEWS SOUND DEVELOPMENT, A CONFERENCE CALLED TO HALT THE DECLINE IN SMALL VENUES IN TOWNS AND CITIES The closure of night-time venues is, it seems, becoming a national pandemic.

In London alone, says the Greater London Authority (GLA), 50 per cent of nightclubs and 40 per cent of music venues have been lost in the past 10 years.

There have been high-profile victims – most recently the Fabric nightclub, closed at the behest of the local licensing committee following two drug-related deaths. And there are multiple threats, most notably permitted development, but also regeneration schemes which have seen entertainment venues shut down in favour of more lucrative residential or retail property.

Could the planning and property industries do anything to stem the tide?

September’s Sound Development conference brought together the various players in the narrative. Despite Fabric’s closure, there is cause for optimism.

Several developers explained how they are arranging schemes around nighttime venues and creative spaces, having recognised that these increase character, improve diversity and stimulate commercial activity.

Richard Upton of U+I talked about the Old Vinyl Factory development in Hayes, West London, which is building on the location’s music heritage as the home of HMV and EMI. Paul Callaghan, chair of the Leighton Group, spoke about reviving historic venues in a derelict quarter of Sunderland city centre. John McRae of Orms, responsible for the redesign of London’s Denmark Street, spoke about the great lengths they were going to in

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recasting the historic Tin Pan Alley as a modern, commercially viable, venue with round-the-clock uses.

“We see ourselves as repairing a part of the community in an area that has gone through major change every 50-60 years,” McRae said. “Technology was changing music in a big way and making it very difficult on Denmark Street… Our role is to create an infrastructure that means music venues can be used throughout the day.”

‘Traditional’ venues have to adapt to thrive amid new trends in night-time socialising (not least the decline in drinking by young people). But, various speakers observed, they also need a policy framework that values the nighttime economy and supports venues to deal with anti-social behaviour.

(L-r) Andrew Tuck of Monocle, Cllr Clare Coghill of Waltham Forest, Nick Keynes of Tileyard Studios, John McRae or Orms, Cllr Sue Vincent of Camden

Philip Kolvin QC, head of Cornerstone Barristers and author of The Night Time Manifesto (second from right)

“HOW DO WE DEMONSTRATE AND PROVE WITH EVIDENCE THAT PLACEMAKING WORKS FOR EVERYBODY?” DOMINIC NUTT The challenge, said GLA planner Andrew Russell, is that our approach to managing urban centres is “fragmented”, a situation not helped by the separation of local authority planning and licensing functions. “Often the value of the nighttime economy isn’t recognised by either of those two policy frameworks,” he said.

“The London Plan has a broad approach to culture but doesn’t explicitly mention music venues. We conducted a survey of boroughs and were quite shocked by the very small number that had strong

Shain Shapiro of Sound Diplomacy

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PLAN UPFRONT

policies on music venues and positive policies on the night-time economy.”

Philip Kolvin QC, head of Cornerstone Barristers and author of The Night Time Manifesto, said: “The big problem is that the entire Licensing Act is framed negatively. What we don’t have is the means to balance out the desire to prevent crime against the economic benefits. We have got to find a better way of achieving that balance.”

Economic arguments in favour of healthy creative and night-time economies needed to be framed and won. Developers and investors instinctively recognise their ‘pull’ as a stimulus for regeneration, but they have a habit of killing the goose that lays the golden egg by creating developments that price out creatives.

Nick Keynes, founder of Tileyard Studios in King’s Cross, and Dr Jaanus Juss, founder of Telliskivi Creative City in Estonia, both shared successful models for using commercially rented parts of their property portfolio to subsidise affordable rents for creatives elsewhere within the portfolio.

Dr Julia Jones of Found in Music, who is helping shape the campaign to renovate the historic Folkestone Leas Pavilion, said funding could come from other sources, too, such as crowdfunding and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

What’s needed is systematically collected and presented evidence of the social and economic benefits of a well-planned and maintained night-time economy, speakers agreed. Dominic Nutt, communications director of the British Property Federation, said the data was there, but hard to find.

“How do we demonstrate and prove with evidence that placemaking works for everybody?” he asked.

Louise Brooke-Smith, founder of Brooke Smith Planning, agreed. “If it’s presented in a tangible, realistic and professional way to the placemakers then the policy will change. [But] we have such a conglomeration of policy around the country.” Much of this was “old-fashioned” and “very bad”.

The challenge is clear; the means to meet it less so. But, as conference organiser Shain Shapiro of Sound Diplomacy said in closing, the discussion has begun in earnest.

I M AG E S | E D I G RO U P / S H U T T E R S TO C K

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Masterplan submitted for new Edinburgh neighbourhood The EDI Group, the arm’s-length council development company, has submitted a masterplan for a new neighbourhood of up to 1,330 new homes at a 48-hectare site on the south-eastern flank of Edinburgh.

The New Brunstane scheme has been worked up for one of the key strategic sites earmarked by both the council and the government to play a key role in meeting the capital’s housing needs.

As well as family housing, the proposals include a new school, and leisure

and community facilities.

In a statement EDI Group insisted: “As a key strategic site contained in the local development plan, New Brunstane affords close links to Edinburgh’s major areas of employment and nearby settlements, with new housing in the heart of a parkland setting incorporating a network of clear physical and visual linkages with its surrounding areas”.

The site is in a green belt location that currently separates Edinburgh from Musselburgh.

New homes supply ramps up in Ireland The number of new houses constructed in the Republic rose by 17 per cent to 3,498 in the second quarter of 2016, compared with the same period last year, according to the latest analysis from sector body Property Industry Ireland.

The figures released in early September showed that housing starts were up 33 per cent year on year, with a forecast of 14,000 completions for the current year.

Tom Phillips, chairman of PII, said: “Leading indicators in the housing sector look positive, with housing completions finally materialising, and many more houses and apartment developments moving slowly through the planning system. Yet, the supply of new housing is only at half the level needed to meet demand and keep prices and rents under control.”

Annette Hughes, director of DKM Economic Consultants, who prepared the report said: “Activity in the property market continues to ramp up as housing supply

edges upwards and expectations about the likely success of the recent policy, set out in the Housing Action Plan, appear to be higher than they have ever been”.

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NEWS

Analysis { TCPA SUMMER CONFERENCE

Pros and cons of green belt development debated

By Martin Read “Where will we build the homes we need?”

That was the rallying cry in the title of the Town & Country Planning Association’s summer conference, fittingly held on an absurdly hot September day.

Include housing in NSIPs Robbie Owen, Pinsent Masons’ head of infrastructure planning and government affairs, floated the idea of approaching the housing crisis from a national infrastructure perspective, suggesting government expand Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) projects to include major housing schemes.

“It’s time for government to take its head out of the sand and acknowledge that locally led planning will not in itself provide the step change we need,” said Owen. “We need a comprehensive review of planning delivery tools to allow us a system that is government enabled but locally delivered.”

Broadening the NSIPs/DCO regime to include big housing schemes seemed to Owen an idea worth pursuing. “We can’t yet have housing-led national infrastructure schemes – but that I think is the direction in which we should go. Infrastructure and housing is integrally linked – it makes no sense to divorce one from the other.”

Using an NSIPs template would also have one great benefit – far more certain time scales, said Owen. “The examining authority must complete its examination in six months and report to the secretary of state within three months. Then, the secretary of state must make his or her decision public within three months. From when the application is submitted, the process takes about 18 months.”

Green belts ‘preserve nothing’ Given his record, it would have been surprising had the London School of Economics’ Paul Cheshire not argued in

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l “EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM IS A SUPPORTER OF GREEN BELT. BUT COULD WE RELEASE ONE OR 2 PER CENT OF IT? I THINK YES” PHILIP BARNES, GROUP LAND & PLANNING DIRECTOR, BARRATTS PLC

“WHAT CAN LOCAL AUTHORITIES DO? THEY CAN TAKE THE INITIATIVE TO DE­RISK BROWNFIELD LAND TO MAKE IT MORE ATTRACTIVE TO THE DEVELOPER / MARKET” ALICE LESTER, MANAGER, PLANNING ADVISORY SERVICE

“THIS AUTUMN, AND THIS NEXT SIX MONTHS, IS CRITICAL. IT'S AN EXCITING TIME FOR PLANNING! WITH THE REAL POSSIBILITY OF SOME GENUINE OUTCOMES” HUGH ELLIS, TCPA HEAD OF POLICY

favour of building on the green belt.

Green belts have redirected the supply of space for housing since 1955, said Cheshire.

Their real effect has been to raise the price of land for housing close to green belt land.

“Research shows that the only beneficiaries in economic terms are those who own houses in the green belt. Land prices become cheap because no one can create value, so you end up with lots of golf courses”.

‘Preserve our natural capital’ Green belts preserve nothing really worth preserving, argued Cheshire.

“It’s a form of exclusionary zoning that keeps ordinary people out of the Home Counties and out of decent housing.”

But University of Oxford professor and economist Dieter Helm. Frustratingly, Helm’s presentation was via recorded video,

denying attendees the chance of seeing his perspective on the green belt challenged face to face by Cheshire and others.

Eschewing the idea that there is any dichotomy between economics and the environment (“utter nonsense”), Helm’s position was that at the core of economics is natural capital; “all those things that nature gives us for free, and keeps on giving us forever, just as long as we don’t over-exploit them. No economy can function without looking after its natural capital. Otherwise there would be no economic growth”.

People argue that we need to build houses, perhaps 200,000 a year. But this is not a straightforward argument. “How many houses we want is a function of how many we can afford, while occupancy rates have been falling”, said Helm.

We need to think about the arguments more constructively: “It’s often argued that the green belt is covered by golf courses, and that it often isn’t actually very green. That's right, but it’s also trivial. Nothing comes of the argument that the green belt is crap.

Because what do you conclude? That simply because it’s crap you should build on it?”

Major change ahead The day saw plenty of argument about access to brownfield land, and more from those in favour of opening up some of the green belt to development. And in his summing up, interim TCPA chief executive Hugh Ellis spoke of major changes ahead.

“I am standing in front of you in the eye of a stormy and peculiar place in terms of planning policy in England. I suspect this is a government that wants to introduce major change,” said Ellis, who expects to see changes to the NPPF floated by Christmas.

“Anyone enthusiastic about another piece of planning reform?” he asked his audience.

“I know – I feel the same way.”

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PLAN UPFRONT

Khan orders inquiry into Garden Bridge The future of the Garden Bridge across the Thames is in doubt after London mayor Sadiq Khan ordered an inquiry into the controversial proposal.

Margaret Hodge, who chaired the Commons Public Accounts Committee, will lead a review into the £185 million bridge from Temple to the South Bank. The inquiry will focus on whether £60 million of public funding pledged to the scheme is value for money.

The Department for Transport has given half this sum. Transport for London (TfL) has offered the same amount, although two-thirds of this through a long-term loan.

Hodge will also consider how the Greater London Authority, TfL and other bodies handled the proposal.

Khan said no new taxpayers money should be committed to the scheme.

“I’m clear that since the beginning of the

Arup is leading the Garden Bridge design team with Heatherwick Studios as lead designer

project there hasn’t been the necessary standard of transparency and openness around the Garden Bridge.

“Nearly £40 million of public money has already been spent on the Garden Bridge project, and Londoners deserve far more information about the decisions that have been made around how their money is being spent.”

The scheme has been plagued by controversy over a lack of transparency in its procurement, project delays and problems raising private finance.

Clark approves ‘world’s largest’ offshore wind farm The way the government measures house building is excluding around a fifth of completions every year – equivalent to a town the size of Stevenage.

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) claims flawed methodology and poor returns from local authorities mean around 30,000 new builds are not counted in official figures.

House building statistics released on a quarterly and annual basis by the Department of Communities and Local Government under-report new build completions in 75 per cent of councils, with an average of 153 homes not counted in each area.

More than half of new-build homes in Birmingham, Liverpool, Leicester, Salford and several London boroughs are not counted in the quarterly series, the HBF I M AG E | A RU P / A L A M Y

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claims. As a result, a town equivalent to the size of Stevenage is “lost” every year – or during the course of a Parliament, in which government is targeting a million homes, a city larger than Nottingham, Coventry or Newcastle.

“House building has increased significantly in recent years but the continual publication and use of inaccurate statistics is painting a negative picture that is undermining the progress being made in tackling the housing shortage,” said executive chairman Stewart Baseley.

“The government’s housing policies and the industry are delivering, and it is incredibly frustrating that official statistics are not reflecting what is happening on the ground but instead presenting an open goal for critics.”

City of Derry Airport gets £7 million cash injection Up to £7 million is to help development and growth around the City of Derry Airport.

The Northern Ireland Executive will provide around £2.5 million in supporting route development with a further £4.5 million capital investment with Derry and Strabane District Council to create jobs and training opportunities.

The moves follow concerns about the airport’s viability after Ryanair dropped some services.

First minister Arlene Foster said the package aims to ensure the airport remains a key gateway. “Our package of support will ultimately allow the airport to plan for the future and remain a key part of the transport infrastructure for Northern Ireland,” she added.

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CORRESPONDENCE

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YOUR NEWS, VIEWS AND QUESTIONS F E E D B ACK

Daniel Scharf — Viral Desai’s plea (The Planner, August) to planners not to forget about climate change would count for more if his fellow planners remembered to take the challenge on board; primarily how to reconcile growth targets of over 3 per cent with reductions of carbon emissions of over 6 per cent a year.

There has been one clearsighted inspector (APP/ N2345/A/12/2169598) who translated the principle of sustainable development into the need for new development to “consume its own smoke”, given the clear implication that anything more than carbon neutrality or the achievement of zero emissions would leave future generations to deal with this additional burden, contrary to the definition adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and Greg Clark MP. The main reason why truly carbon-neutral development is hard for planners to imagine is that there are no examples.

Time to grasp this nettle is running out, but the recently published guide Planning To Reduce Carbon Emissions starts the conversation on how to eliminate the 50 per cent of emissions attributable to the use and development of land and buildings (i.e. the work of planners).

Daniel Scharf www.dantheplan.blogspot.com

Loretta Lees — Recently it was confirmed that campaigners were successful in blocking the Aylesbury Estate plans proposed by Southwark Council.

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Two minutes with Renee Van Baar

RENEE VAN BAAR is a graduate transport planner with WSP in Birmingham. A keen crafter, she’s a member of the Woolverhampton Craft Group and combined her work and hobby by coordinating the creation of a knitted map of Wolverhampton.

Why a map of Wolverhampton?

“We visited the National Wool Museum in Carmarthenshire and on display there was a map of the local village Llandysul, made by local crafters. We thought it would be great to do something similar for Wolverhampton, but the idea didn’t really go anywhere until I met someone who worked for Creative Black Country – and who was looking for projects to fund.”

What’s on the map and how did you decide what to include and what to leave out?

“We asked people at a contemporary arts fair what they thought should be on the map. Then it was up to our team of knitters and crocheters to take that list (and their own suggestions) and create what they wanted. So on the map you can see the ring road, local landmarks and even celebrities, including the writer Caitlin Moran [who wrote the Channel 4 comedy Raised By Wolves about her childhood in the city].”

I hope this sets some precedent in terms of the threats to residents in council estates across London redlined for regeneration – what is really gentrification.

The overwhelming evidence from over 50 years of academic and policy research

How many people worked on it? How long did it take?

“At least 56 pairs of hands worked on the map. We started knitting in March and finished it on International Yarn Bombing Day in June. We organised about 25 hours of workshops – but our stitchers spent many more hours on their contributions.”

What feedback have you had?

“The feedback has been absolutely fantastic! We got an article in the local paper twice, and held a wrap party that was attended by our funders and the Mayor of Wolverhampton. Caitlin Moran was very excited when we tweeted her that she is on the map. It’s really brought a smile to a lot of faces and has instilled a bit of pride of our city. Wolverhampton gets a lot of bad press, so it’s good to show a happier side!”

What will happen to the map now?

“It’s currently on display at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of an exhibition celebrating Craft in the West Midlands. After that, who

on gentrification is that overall, it’s a negative thing.

Council estates are one of the last barriers to the almost complete gentrification of inner London and once they’ve gone, we’ve lost.

When council estates are redeveloped as mixed income

knows – we’d like it to go on display in as many different places as we can find.”

What’s the relationship between crafts and planning, for you?

“You might want to knit a hat for a Christmas present, so you decide on the yarn, the shape of the hat and any patterns you want it to have, and then you put all the elements together to make a finished product.

“Other times, you have a particular yarn and you find a way to use it. It’s that ability to approach things from different starting points that is quite useful in transport planning too.”

Could planners could take a more creative view of their work?

“I’ve found that transport planners can be a mixed bunch – some are very creative and will always come up with new ways of solving problems, while others take fewer risks and stick to proven methods. We need to have both for the profession to work best.” n Find out more about the map on the Woolverhampton blog: tinyurl.com/planner1016Woolverhampton n Twitter: @WoolVerhampton

communities, when the middle classes are about to move in, the lower classes are moved out. So what you get is not social mixing – what you get is social segregation.

Professor Loretta Lees, University of Leicester

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CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion Metropolitans & accomplices in the last chance saloon A group of young planners met in the Arab Boy, a casual but upmarket local pub in Putney. As the subject of a proposed Wandsworth Article 4 Direction, which removed the rights of demolition, change of use, or alteration – and apparently the need to demonstrate any concern in its nomenclature for political correctness – the pub seemed likely to provide a home for such gatherings for years to come.

Madison noted that only 21 pubs a week were now being lost, down from 27 earlier this year (happy face), and bought another Neutron Bomb, with a Strawberry Paradise for Harper and a Sketchy Jimbo for Roger, who was a rather older young planner. Noah argued that ‘Asset of Community Value’ designations were redundant, all pubs being by definition of community value, and raised his glass of Kick in the Ass to Article Four, surely a first for a painfully trendy Putney pub.

Conversation turned, as always, to Brexit. “Did you see Boris after the vote?” asked Noah. “He looked like a man who, stooping to pick a nosegay of wild flowers on a railway line, is unexpectedly struck in the small of the back by the Cornish Express.

As P G Wodehouse might have, indeed did, put it. It feels as though one of his more implausible characters has become foreign secretary.”

The team had little understanding of the impact of Brexit on them. It was probably best to be prepared for almost anything. Roger mentioned a head teacher

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“YOU MIGHT FIND THAT WIND IS ESSENTIAL ONE DAY, OR THAT STRATEGIC PLANNING COMES BACK INTO FASHION” he’d read about who was grimly trying to persuade parents to send their beloved to her school rather than, say, one near where they lived. “She was saying that her school would equip its product (as they call children now) to do any job, even those which did not yet exist or could not even be envisaged.”

The Arab Boy fell silent.

They agreed that that sounded tricky. Yet, argued Harper, this was the sort of thing planners did all the time. There would be those in the outer reaches

of the anti-planning ignorati who thought that our work was done, or at least could be done, merely by robots. But in fact we were a lively breed, especially after an Upside Down Screwdriver, and did scenario planning and option assessment all the time.

“Yes,” said Madison, “but we didn’t expect the Brexit decision.”

“Nobody expects the Brexit decision”, they chanted, and fell to wondering what to do next.

A passing Past President brought a touch of dullness to the proceedings, as is their duty, and told them to do two things.

First, get involved in the RTPI or the TCPA. They are worthy (and needy) of your support and you’ll get a lot from it. There are few experiences to match the giddy excitement, the joyous

delirium, of a meeting of the RTPI’s General Assembly.

And I like to think I’ve done a bit of good, though others will have substantially more objective views on that, which they might care to keep to themselves.

Second, go to conferences and events, even if they don’t seem to be relevant to the fine detail of what you’re doing that day. You might find that wind is essential one day, or that strategic planning comes back into fashion.

He collapsed on the settee and sipped his Redneck Nightmare.

Harper and Noah pointed out that this was awkward these days, what with the fact that they had to work 25/8 (sad face), leaving no time for country dancing or train spotting – which is what older planners used to do. And that the people who gave them jobs thought that was quite enough; turning them into rounded human beings was out of the question.

“Fuzzy Coconuts all round,” said the Past President. “At least, thanks to the planners, we’ll still have the Arab Boy.”

Chris Shepley is the principal of Chris Shepley Planning and former Chief Planning Inspector

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Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB “Following our decision to leave the EU, we now have a unique opportunity to develop a set of policies tailored to the needs of the UK, our species and our habitats” “Golf courses are ecological deserts. There are not so many people playing golf any more” BARRATT HOMES’ PHILLIP BARNES ON THE DISTORTING EFFECT OF GOLF COURSE INCLUSION IN THE GREEN BELT

ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY ANDREA LEADSOM AT THE LAUNCH OF THE RSPB’S 2016 STATE OF NATURE REPORT

“Property is physical in a world that’s increasingly virtual”

“Our wonderful nature is in serious trouble and it needs our help as never before” DAVID ATTENBOROUGH SPEAKING AT THE LAUNCH OF THE RSPB’S 2016 STATE OF NATURE REPORT

NICK KEYNES, FOUNDER OF THE TILEYARD STUDIOS IN LONDON, REFLECTS ON MODERN LIFE AT THE SOUND ND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE CE

“It’s scandalous that Liverpool has half the population it had 80 years ago” TCPA INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE HUGH ELLIS BEMOANS THE LACK OF A NATIONAL PLAN AT THE TCPA CONFERENCE

“It’s time for government to take its head out of the sand and acknowledge that locally led planning will not in itself provide the step change we need” PINSENT MASONS’ ROBBIE OWEN LOOKS TO A WIDER FRAMING OF THE NATIONAL PLANNING DEBATE

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

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

O Opinion

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Charlotte Irwin is a planning consultant with Six-West Ltd in Belfast and a member of the RTPI NI Young Planners Committee

Smart cities need smart approaches by planners

We think of ‘smart cities’ as those that a are using technological advances to improve their habitat, and finding innovative ways to respond to fresh challenges.

But smart cities are swiftly becoming the modern resilient cities, too, with an increasing ability to respond to local and global issues through digital technology.

Advances in data analysis can enable smart cities to take the lead in climate-proofing, disaster planning and social equality.

But the potential benefits of data collection and sharing – the foremost requirement of a smart city – can only be met when inhabitants fully embrace the new systems and incorporate technological changes.

And here lies the barrier to progress.

With public distribution and assimilation of information at the heart of a smart city, it’s understandable that residents will fear the blurring of lines between data collection for the greater good and the emergence of ‘Big Brother’ city and state governance.

With greater adoption of smart city networks, there is also uncertainty about the activities of private sector data collectors who might be exploiting data for financial gain. Already we see data interpreted and smart city policies implemented from the top down with little regard for people’s everyday lives. This leads to a lack of confidence in policy

and place-makers, and provides little incentive to share data.

Is there a solution? Transparency is a must; explaining how information is being used, and when, can build trust with citizens. And supporting the life of the city with meaningful, relatable data can release its most powerful resource – the creativity of communities.

If a smart city is to reach its full potential, communities and businesses must be involved from the outset, to agree how technology can be implemented for the benefit of all.

Belfast, highly ranked for its cluster of creative industries – more than 1,300 businesses employing more than 32,000 people – is developing its own smart city strategy. This is a city that is leaving behind its industrial and troubled past to become a cleaner, brighter space. Policymakers are engaging with local businesses, universities, community organisations, government agencies and the Future Cities Catapult to develop a road map that will make Belfast a high-tech test bed for innovation by 2020.

As skilled planners, we act as drivers for spatial and technological change at a local level. The evolving smart cities agenda is adding a dimension to community planning. It is our role to understand and adopt new technologies. Smart cities start with smart communities.

“TRANSPARENCY IS A MUST: EXPLAINING HOW INFORMATION IS BEING USED, AND WHEN, CAN BUILD TRUST”

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Dr Linda Fox-Rogers of Queen’s University Belfast, and Dr Enda Murphy, of University College Dublin, won the RTPI 2016 Early Career Research award

Is planning gain the new brown envelope?

How the planning system can deliver upon shortfalls in local and national infrastructure (housing, public transport, community services) that are impacting negatively on the quality of life of many citizens continues to lie at the heart of core planning debates.

The pent-up demand for core infrastructure has been aggravated by a sorry series of post-crash austerity measures that have decimated government capital expenditure programmes.

Planning gain agreements, which tap into windfall profits that accrue to developers on the foot of favourable planning decisions (i.e. betterment) have been heralded as a key way in which these challenges can be met.

Not only do the gains compensate for the impacts of a particular scheme (the argument goes), they also have a moral dimension as a share of the developer’s profits is redistributed to the community.

Although planning gain may originally have been a well-intentioned alternative to ‘top-down’ value capture arrangements (e.g. betterment tax), and it has undoubtedly delivered a wide range of benefits to areas in desperate need of investment, our research leads us to scepticism about how these agreements are playing out in practice. Our interviews with community groups, councillors, developers and plan-

ning officials in the Dublin region show planning gain agreements are being redeployed as a lobbying tool to exert influence over councillors in more subtle ways than were previously possible.

The process essentially involves developers seeking political support by offering ‘sweeteners’ (school site, playing pitch) as part of a proposal; councillors then tend to exaggerate the level of effort involved in developer-councillor negotiations to gain kudos from constituents to secure re-election.

The reality is that the talks are rarely as laborious as claimed. And the gains offered tend to be crumbs off the table, but are nevertheless welcomed by communities.

More worrying is that such agreements have made it harder to assess councillor motives because decisions can be justified on the basis that they were merely trying to secure facilities for constituents.

As one stakeholder said, community gain is “the new brown envelope”. Practitioners, academics and the public must play a part in scrutinising how these agreements are negotiated to unearth the power dynamics at play.

Read Linda and Enda’s paper ‘From brown envelopes to community benefits: The co-option of planning gain agreements under deepening neoliberalism’ at: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-sciencedirect

“THE PENT­UP DEMAND FOR CORE INFRASTRUCTURE HAS BEEN AGGRAVATED BY A SORRY SERIES OF POST­CRASH AUSTERITY MEASURES”

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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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Michael Tomlinson is a second-year planning student at Queen’s University Belfast

Julie Clark and Ade Kearns are early career researchers in planning at the University of Glasgow

Think big, act small – challenges for event-led regeneration

Are conversions really preserving heritage?

As urban urba regeneration gains momen momentum in cities across the UK, the act of retrofitting historic buildings to suit new purposes is becoming fashionable.

In Belfast, for example, the Titanic Quarter regeneration has seen a mixture of excellent developments growing out of the surrounding brownfield land and some ‘sympathetic’ uses being dreamed up for the docks’ pre-existing built heritage.

As a key enabler of developments like these, which may have regional importance, planning must ensure such proposals are given due precedence.

Offices, hotels and the like encourage broader investment in cities, as well as offering modern uses, and a new lease of life, for heritage buildings. But if only the shell of the original building is retained, and its inside has been cored and redeveloped, can we really say the ‘heritage’ of that building been preserved?

It is understandably important to find a solution for what to do with derelict buildings. But is stripping them of their historic importance to secure shotgun investment the right solution? Is converting docklands buildings, which were never intended to be apartments or hotels, into apartments and hotels, preserving the heritage of the area?

By stripping out the core and converting them into something else, buildings are stripped of

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their heritage. The importance of areas such as the docks in Belfast lies in more than their marketing value. To historians, families of the original workforce and anyone particularly interested in the preservation of the built heritage, these areas are a tribute to the expansive industry standing strong and proud within the city.

The people of an area are a key asset to any regeneration project.

Family histories and connections are at least as important as the buildings. Through better marriage of planning and development, local people could be better used in creating a deeper, less material outlook to preserve the fabric of these vital areas.

Greater cohesion between planners and developers could help to fulfil more than a minimum of development criteria.

The developers’ concerns with brand and the planners’ concerns with the importance and improvement of place for people can surely be married.

Planners have the power to control the regeneration of built heritage, but in some unfortunate cases planning falls short of an appropriate solution. Offices and hotels are far from unique.

Perhaps more engagement at pre-application level, understanding the wants and needs at the local level before appealing to a global stage may offer a more comprehensive solution to the regeneration of our built heritage.

“IN SOME UNFORTUNATE CASES PLANNING FALLS SHORT OF AN APPROPRIATE SOLUTION”

Tackling the social and economic legacy o of industrial decline is a big challenge facing our more long-established urban areas.

Given competing demands on diminishing public resources, it is not surprising that many cities have looked to mega-events as a means of leveraging funding for masterplan-led redevelopment.

In 2007, Glasgow won the right to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, promising a positive legacy for its deprived East End. By 2016, this eventled regeneration effort would be considered relatively successful, but our in-depth qualitative research with residents in the Dalmarnock area highlights three issues for planners.

First, the spatial scale of eventled regeneration can seem relatively large to those living nearby, and we found a rapid distance-decay in relation to resident identification with the Games. While planners delineate an area for intervention on a map, say, the ‘East End’, for local people this may comprise several distinct communities with different complexions and priorities.

Second, the construction of time for a mega-sports event into three periods – the pre-Games delivery, Games time, and postGames legacy – is insufficient.

Not enough thought is given to the effects on host communities of pre-Games development dis-

ruption, nor of Games-time arrangements (parking, security).

For host communities, the Games is a long and onerous process of change more than an event – that’s something planners should not simply pass over as the responsibility of delivery agencies, as it affects the community’s commitment to change.

For some residents, experiences of urban change and disruption go back further than the defined pre-Games period. A communication strategy with a longer narrative arc is required.

Third, ways must be found to solve the limitations of market-led change, for example, while state-led clearance removed the few remaining shops in the area, planning has failed to ensure their replacement five years later.

Planning for an event-led regeneration programme for any host city or community must be fine in detail, granulated by its elements of time, space and process to ensure that those most affected experience more benefits than disbenefits.

Julie. Ade, and colleague Claire Cleland were highly commended in the RTPI Early Career Research Award 2016. Read their paper, ‘Spatial scale, time and process in mega-events: the complexity of host community perspectives on neighbourhood change’ at: t i n y u rl. co m /p l a n n e r 1 0 1 6 megaevent

“FOR HOST COMMUNITIES, THE GAMES IS A LONG AND ONEROUS PROCESS OF CHANGE MORE THAN AN EVENT”

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A PERF WHAT WOULD THE INCOMING AND OUTGOING YOUNG PLANNERS OF THE YEAR TALK ABOUT IF YOU PUT THEM IN A ROOM TOGETHER? EMMA LANCASTER AND VIRAL DESAI’S CONVERSATION TURNED TO BREXIT, REGIONAL PLANNING AND THE NORTHERN POWERHOUSE

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Emma Lancaster Young Planner of the Year 2016-17 Job title: Associate Employer: Quod Positions held outside of work: RTPI Yorkshire vice-chair, sits on the accreditation board for Leeds Beckett University

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Viral Desai Young Planner of the Year 2015-16 Job title: Senior planner Employer: Barton Willmore Positions held outside of work: Young Planners co-ordinator for the Commonwealth Association of Planners

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Y O U N G P L A N N E R S I N C O N V E R S AT I O N

On becoming Young Planner of the Year Viral: “It’s been a great year for me. A highlight would have to be the opportunity to sit on the judging panel for England’s Great Places. As a native Liverpudlian, seeing the city win was a very proud moment!

“Being Young Planner of the Year is about really getting stuck into what the RTPI are doing, and helping to shape the profession. We as young planners need to be more involved in how the organisation is run, but also think about how we can influence on a policy level. I’d advise Emma to also look at how she can use the role as a platform to promote the profession to other planners – and other professions.”

Emma: “Promoting the profession is a huge priority for me – shouting about why it’s a great profession to be working in, and the role that planners can play in addressing some of the big challenges that we face, not just in terms of the economy, but in delivering housing and infrastructure that meets the requirements of the modern era. We’ve got train systems that are stuck in the mid-19th century!”

On attracting young people to planning Emma: “We need to address the lack of understanding about what planners do, at every level, but especially with young people who are making career choices. I’ve been involved in the RTPI Future Planners initiative in the past and it’s something I’m really passionate about – and it should go beyond schools to engage students who are perhaps doing degrees that overlap with planning, like geography.

“There are so many great aspects of planning which people outside the profession often don’t understand. I use this word placeshaping, which is a really creative part of what we do.

No day is ever the same, and every project presents new challenges and the chance to use your skills in a different way. It’s like a constant learning journey.”

“I think young planners do need to be more progressive, and start having a debate about polit ics within planning”

Viral: “Getting young people involved in planning is not just about education, it’s about having them involved in the planning system itself – through consultation, for example, which should be more targeted to include young people. They will be the ones that have to live with the decisions we make, so they need to be more actively involved.”

On young people’s perception of planning Emma: “There’s a perception that planners are putting obstacles in the way – that they make everything grey and boring because they want things to be simple and uniform.

Planners are almost constrained by this perception. I think there are young planners who don’t realise the potential they have to make a difference to the world we live and work in, which is really sad.”

Viral: “We need to be more progressive as young planners. We need to be saying: ‘This is our profession, let’s make sure we play a part in shaping it’.”

On planning in education Viral: “We need more practitioners teaching us, giving us real insight into what they’ve achieved on a practical level. We need to incorporate more direct work on projects as well as on strategic policy, and put more emphasis on the benefits of a holistic approach to town planning. A module in EIA would be great, to show that planning is not just about one sector, or one element of either social, economic or environmental, but about everything.”

Emma: “I totally agree – having the ability to learn on your planning course through application and work experience placements or projects is absolutely essential. I did my planning course part-time alongside working the other four days of the week, and I felt like I was at an advantage because every week I could apply what I had learnt the day before.”

Viral: “There needs to be a bigger emphasis on economics and viability, on whether a scheme is deliverable; this is something that is hugely significant in practical work, and needs to be focused on more in education.”

Emma: “It’s been picked up in the new APC Competencies, which is an important move.

I think in the private sector we are more I M A G E S | A K I N FA L O P E

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naturally aware of these issues, but awareness could be improved in the public sector.”

On the Northern Powerhouse (NB: Viral and Emma hail from Liverpool and Hull respectively) Viral: “We need to redress the economic imbalance in this country. We are looking at strategic changes in terms of transport and the Great North Plan, but we need to keep looking at these things. I think regionalism is how you create economic powerhouses, and combined authorities are a real opportunity to bridge that gap between local and national policy.”

Emma: “I hope that we actually start to see action now, especially in this uncertain postBrexit world. And you’re right, it’s about more than just transport. The Great North Plan has great potential to act as a promotional tool to advertise the strengths of the North, and to facilitate the collaboration that’s going to be necessary. Collectively, if we stand together we are stronger in terms of asking government to support what we are trying to do but also to market ourselves to the external world.”

Viral: “What do you think about how we stand post-Brexit?

Do you think there will be an impact, or do you think we just need to stabilise a bit more?”

Emma: “I think the impact hasn’t been as immediate as people were projecting, which is obviously a good thing. Talking to colleagues and clients, there is a sense of cautiousness, but also optimism that there is a way through. Planning is in quite a unique position in terms of future-proofing economic investment; if you have an asset, then one way of maintaining or enhancing its value is to explore what can be delivered through the planning system, and getting that planning permission in place.”

On climate change Viral: “Why are we not doing more to achieve a zero-carbon economy? Why have we turned our back on onshore wind farms for political goals? We should be promoting more renewable energy. Some people are describing sustainability aims as a burden, and sure with building regulations now we have increased that level, but these are still goals that we need to be striving for.”

Emma: “You’re right – when I was at a local planning authority, renewables were a really big part of what we were involved with, and almost overnight there was a scene change and you couldn’t get the planning permission through an inspector for onshore wind. Landscape impact is a key issue, but it needs to be measured against the need to be more sustainable and incorporate renewable energy.”

On changing planning in the UK Viral: “We need so many more resources at local authority level.

We’re seeing a lot of local authorities dwindle and it’s not just

“There are young planners who don’t realise the potential they have to make a difference to the world we live and work in”

affecting ourselves or our clients – it’s impacting our capability to produce sustainable developments. I think young planners do need to be more progressive, and start having a debate about politics within planning.

“One of the most frustrating things for planners is that we are often thwarted by the political process, and this is stopping the country developing economically. I’m not saying we need to get rid of the democratic process – I’m saying that as a country and as a government we need to think about how we manage the two processes together and try and be more innovative about how we deliver town planning.”

Emma: “There’s also the need for a period of sustained stability. We have had lots of rounds of reform in recent years, and now we need the opportunity of a bedding-in period.

“Also, while regional spatial strategies definitely had their pitfalls, the one really great thing about them was that they took all the arguments out of how much development needed to happen and where because it took it out of local government’s hands. In this age of localism that’s probably not a popular opinion, but I think it certainly made the process faster and more straightforward, and it took that element of political will to artificially depress needs. I would actually advocate going back to a system of imposed needs across the country.”

Viral: “I’d second your motion – that’s exactly what we need. I think a popular consensus within planning is that it does do exactly what you said; it’s a strategy that gives you a clear goal and direction for housing and economic growth rather than having this constant debate. That’s what I hope combined authorities and the Northern Powerhouse will do in the future.”

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T H E S H A R I N G EC O N O M Y

Unequal ownership of resources can lead to entrenched inequality, as illustrated by this drone shot of the Kya Sands informal settlement alongside the middle-class Bloubosrand suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa

ON COMMON GROUND A NEW ECONOMY BUILT ON A ‘COMMONS’ FOR THE 21ST CENTURY IS EMERGING AROUND THE WORLD, SAYS KATE HOGARTH, AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PLANNING ARE PROFOUND

Many of the collective uprisings of recent years – including the Arab Spring, the Occupy movements around the world, the Taksim Square Protests, and the anti-austerity movement in Spain – have something in common; people have been gathering in protest, often in public spaces, to claim their ‘right to the city’.

As the influential geographer and social theorist David Harvey put it in his 2008 essay The Right To The City, “The freedom to make and remake ourselves and our cities is… one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights”.

The Brexit vote, too, has been partly attributed to a wide and growing sense of dissatisfaction, disenfranchisement and powerlessness to drive real change.

We intuitively know that we live in a finite world with real limits to growth. Yet our neoliberal economic system based on debt and interest requires endless, exponential growth.

The results? Relentless privatisation and commodification of our natural and social commonwealth and escalating inequality and instability. And, when fuel for growth and capacity for consumption run out – crisis.

The good news is that social and cultural systems are not fixed; they are something we co-create. So,

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we do have the power to change them.

In fact, we are already seeing glimmers of a new story emerging, one that transcends the scarcitydriven extremes of capitalism and socialism, the stale dichotomy of market versus state. This new paradigm has the potential to drive the transition to a vastly more equitable and sustainable society – and planning and planners could play a key role in enabling this.

T H E ‘C O M M O N S T R A N S I T I O N’ There are many examples of openings into this new system: Wikipedia, a collaboratively written and freely available online encyclopedia; community-supported, regenerative agriculture; participatory budgeting mechanisms that allow citizens to allocate public funds; and community currencies (like the Brixton Pound in London), which encourage circulation of goods and services within communities and strengthen local relationships.

These projects are all commons-based.

The idea of ‘the commons’ is nothing new, especially to planners. Our collective wealth includes material things like natural and civic resources, and incorporeal things like cultural traditions and knowledge. The commons includes

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Agricultural and food cooperatives form a significant portion of the global cooperative sector in developed and developing nations

not only these shared resources, but also a defined community (‘commoners’) and the rules it devises to manage its resources for collective benefit (‘commoning’).

Under the capitalist system, much of the commons has been enclosed, replaced with private property, markets and money. Beginning around the 15th century in England, land that was previously considered common land began to come under private ownership, thanks to the Enclosure Acts.

People who had freely lived off the land for generations were now obliged to pay rent to landowners, consolidating economic and political power in the hands of the already powerful. This process continues today, with the proceeds of our labour flowing to the owners of property and money as rent and interest.

The ‘Commons Transition’ involves reorganising society and the economy around the commons, as the core value creation and distribution system. The key to this model lies in a third realm –

“WHAT DOES THE COMMONS TRANSITION MEAN FOR PLANNING AND PLANNERS? IN SHORT, RADICAL DEMOCRATISATION OF THE CITY”

the engaged, commons-producing civil society – with a new market and new state at its service.

Generally, unembodied commons (such as knowledge) should be freely available and globally shared, while material commons should be locally used/produced and require rules to manage for the long-term public benefit, such as contributions back to the commons. Michel Bauwens, the Belgian

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T H E S H A R I N G EC O N O M Y

“THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT SOCIAL AND CULTURAL SYSTEMS ARE NOT FIXED; THEY ARE SOMETHING WE CO­CREATE. SO, WE DO HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE THEM” founder of the P2P Foundation and a leading proponent of the commons movement, explains that the commons model brings together three key principles: sustainability, openness, and solidarity.

THE COMMONS VS THE MARKET

WikiHouse is a democratised open-source project for designing and building sustainable, resource-light dwellings

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The market still has its place, but in forms that align with these principles. One such form, the cooperative, has existed for many years. In fact, according to the United Nations’ first Global Census on Cooperatives, in 2014, 2.6 million cooperatives around the world had more than one billion memberships and clients, employed 12.6 million people, and generated US$3 trillion in annual revenue, by leveraging US$20 trillion in cooperative. This combined value of the global cooperative economy places it right behind Germany, as the fifth largest ‘economy’ in the world (see box, ‘The economic and social impact of cooperatives’).

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Aided by technology and the internet, many so-called ‘sharing economy’ businesses are starting to emerge. But digital platforms like Uber and AirBnB are not commons-based.

These businesses exploit the collaboration of others to capture and extract value, rather than returning value to those that contribute.

Nonetheless, technology is certainly not an enemy of the Commons Transition. Used in the right ways, it can enable civil society to become more connected, self-organised, productive and resilient than ever before. In ‘Transition Towns’, and related movements around the world, engaged communities are fulfilling their needs for food, energy, housing, education, health and childcare, and sharing resources through tool and seed libraries, skill sharing and social lending.

These urban commons often initiate without, but could greatly benefit from, government support. For example, under Seoul and Amsterdam’s Sharing City programmes, new legal frameworks and government resources are encouraging the sharing movement (including support for things like co-working, co-living, bicycle sharing, and data sharing).

But perhaps the most significant experiment in urban commons is the new form of governance being pioneered by the City of Bologna, Italy. Its 2014 Regulation invites ordinary citizens and neighbourhoods to co-create and co-manage their own urban commons, with the government’s active assistance.

To date, the city and citizens have entered into more than 200 ‘pacts of collaboration’.

The projects fall into three categories – living together (collaborative services), growing together (co-ventures) and working together (co-production). Phase I projects included a kindergarten run by parents, a ‘social streets’ initiative to encourage interaction with neighbours in public spaces, and an agricultural cooperative.

Commons principles can be applied to any sector. For example, in the housing sector, WikiHouse (www.wikihouse.cc) uses collaborative open source design and distributed, localised manufacturing (in the form of 3D printing) to make highquality, low-energy, affordable homes more accessible. Thanks to escalating land prices and gentrification, commons-based community land trusts and housing cooperatives, which have existed for decades, are experiencing renewed interest and innovation.

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THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF COOPERATIVES

T H E E M P OW E R E D C I T I Z E N But what does the Commons Transition mean for planning and planners? In short, radical democratisation of the city. Instead of hierarchies of power, and passive voters and consumers, in a commons-led society there will be networks of empowered citizens co-designing and co-implementing planning solutions together with policymakers and local officials.

The system is designed for rapid citizen feedback and constant iteration. The government, or ‘partner state’, plays a crucial role as facilitator, mediator and coordinator, regarding its resources (including the city itself) as flexible, open platforms that welcome citizen innovation, and support widespread participation in decisionmaking and service delivery.

In order to create conditions where commons can flourish, and to generate capacity and willingness for citizens to engage, we will need transitional and long-term tools that may include: debt-free public money creation; universal basic income; real living wages; shorter working hours; tax reforms; participatory mechanisms in legislation and budgeting; and incremental, successive engagements that build trust, knowledge and confidence.

As Sheila Foster, professor of law at New York’s Fordham University School of Law and author of The City As Commons, explains: “The city as a commons is designed to be disruptive – to question who owns and controls the city.”

The technology for collaborative, distributed networks is here – we only need to shift our culture to match. This will require global networks and shared knowledge, combined with local action and experimentation. It means refocusing city governance on the two key elements of placemaking: people and place. In this digital age, we must not forget that public places are the physical platforms for citizens to engage, share, create, build relationships and, when necessary, claim their rights to the city.

Of course, changing the global operating system is not going to be quick or easy. To support the simultaneous transition of civil society, the market and the state, new commons institutions and practices are needed at all levels, from global to local.

Importantly, we cannot wait for a fully formed new system to appear. We need to start creating it today, together, by bringing together the existing and emerging commons practices, prototyping, learning and sharing. Crucially, we need political will aligned with the commons.

Perhaps surprisingly, we are already seeing that

Top 10 countries Cooperative membership and clients/Population

Cooperative employment/ Population

Annual gross revenue/ GDP

1

France

New Zealand

New Zealand

2

Finland

Switzerland

Netherlands

3

Switzerland

Italy

France

4

Austria

France

Finland

5

Dominica

Malta

Luxembourg

6

Netherlands

Finland

Germany

7

Ireland

Germany

Ireland

8

Germany

Netherlands

Italy

9

Cyprus

Spain

Denmark

10

Australia

Norway

Poland

The cooperative economy comprises more than 10 per cent of GDP in four countries: New Zealand (20 per cent), Netherlands (18 per cent), France (18 per cent), and Finland (14 per cent).

The worldwide total gross revenue from cooperatives in 2014 was $2,962,896,113,938.

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this is possible, in Ecuador and parts of Italy and Spain, where politics and governance are being reconfigured around the commons.

Like immature ecosystems, our human economy has gone through a necessary phase of prioritising growth and competition, but we now have the opportunity to transition to a more cooperative, connected, regenerative, resilient, and just society.

The Commons Transition offers a promising avenue for us all to shape this future. Our new story should be one in which we are all free to build and rebuild ourselves, our communities and our cities, and to realise our full, creative potential as human beings.

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S O CI A L C O H E S I O N

RESILIENT CITY

THE GOOD FRIDAY AGREEMENT IN 1998 BROUGHT AN END TO A GENERATION OF INTER­COMMUNAL CONFLICT IN NORTHERN IRELAND AND ITS CAPITAL BELFAST, HOST CITY FOR THE 2016 RTPI YOUNG PLANNERS CONFERENCE. MURA QUIGLEY CONSIDERS THE ROLE THAT PLANNERS CAN PLAY IN BRINGING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER

When we think about the idea of ‘social cohesion’ as planners we may ask ourselves: “How can we plan and design for better integration across divisions in social class, generations, income, culture, religion, sexuality, and so on?”

We recognise that such diversity should be celebrated as something that brings with it social resilience and a greater sense of well-being. That being the case, why do we not all move around – or move people around – to ensure that a healthy blend exists throughout our towns and cities?

Obviously, you can’t ‘programme’ communities

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in real life. But what are the obstacles that stop us achieving a social mix that we consider healthy or representative?

Economic and social inequalities throughout society dictate who lives near the best schools, who has a better chance of getting a job, and who even might have a lower life expectancy because of where they live. We know this, but still we face resistance to the known benefits of embracing diversity.

How can planners work towards the goal of achieving cohesive societies while empathising

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with those that are fearful of the idea of living beside someone who is not a carbon copy of themselves? How do we build wider understanding of the benefits of social diversity and of the opportunities it brings?

It’s a pertinent question for the UK as a whole in the wake of the Brexit vote and the reported incidents of intolerance since. In Belfast, the city I know best, the struggle with diversity across divided communities has been a challenge for generations.

Northern Ireland’s capital city has changed dramatically since I moved here as a student in 2004. The city centre is evolving once again, with new city quarters providing excellent shopping, eating and leisure activities. There is much more to come: a new university campus is moving in; student accommodation is flooding into the city centre; there are new tourism and leisure facilities; and ambitious plans are taking shape for rundown corners of the city centre.

A divided city As a newly arrived student, I rarely ventured ured beyond my comfort zones of South Belfast ast and the city centre. They provided me with all I needed, from my quarterly student loan shopping spree, to the cafés and bars that provided d income and socialising.

I rarely set foot in other parts of the city ty because I didn’t really know much aboutt them.

“HOW DO WE BUILD WIDER UNDERSTANDING OF THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL DIVERSITY AND OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IT BRINGS?”

Belfast is a city of many quarters: the Linen Quarter, the Gaeltacht Quarter, the Titanic Quarter, the Cathedral Quarter, the Queen’s Quarter. There are many self-contained neighbourhoods in the city that have unique identities, cultures and traditions, and a real sense of community.

There are positives to this, but it also reinforces division as these neighbourhoods are separated from each other and the city centre through the physical design of streets, barriers, and walls.

In many cases these are entirely deliberate.

Belfast, for the past 50 years at least, has been an extraordinarily divided city.

I learned about its development as part of my planning and urban design degree. It’s a colourful history of industry, growth, prosperity, decline and rebirth. Geographical divides – some obvious, some implied – permeated our discussions of Belfast’s evolution.

At the turn of the 20th century, Belfast was an industrial powerhouse, with shipbuilding industries and commercial activity comme centred around the c city docks.

Reclaimed land was wa used to house the workers in this bustling area known bu as Sailortown. Catholics and C Protestants lived live side by side.

Moving inla inland, the River Farset that o once connected the docks to the th Linen Hall gave

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S O CI A L C O H E S I O N

Belfast (Béal Feirste – ‘mouth of the sandbar’) its name, and it still runs under High Street. As a result of the growth in the textile industry, the city’s nucleus shifted south-west to form what we know as the Linen Quarter with its mercantile housing still intact in quiet, intimate streets behind City Hall.

With the decline of these industries and the rise of the Troubles, Belfast entered a new phase of its story and, ironically, the city of quarters become a city quartered. Sailortown was all but demolished to make way for the Westlink in the 1970s and its residents scattered to other parts of the city.

Planning itself reinforced a lot of these divisions. The Westlink is a motorway that circles the western fringe of the city and divides the communities that reside in its shadow.

It, too, is considered a ‘peace wall’, along with up to 99 peace walls in the city (according to the Belfast Interface Project) constructed to deal with security problems at interface areas.

These physical divides are much more permanent than the animosity they were designed to constrain and deter, and they have reinforced division across neighbourhoods, within the city and beyond.

The Troubles have left a legacy of dead space, broken urban structures and a commercial centre that should be performing better for a capital city. Belfast is an example of how intentionally engineered physical design solutions were put in place to deal with an immediate problem – to prevent physical violence – but which have created a different problem of social division and economic stagnation in pockets across the city.

What can we do to fix this?

Steps to togetherness At university, I fully embraced the challenge of ‘designing out division’. I thought about ways to

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create new shared spaces, enliven the city centre, create new connections and routes that would break down some barriers within communities and between them and the city centre.

This couldn’t happen overnight and needed to be underpinned by leadership from politicians, bravery from communities and a huge leap of faith by private businesses and investors. I have always believed in principles of connectivity, permeability and legibility – however, there is an extra layer of complexity to think about when applying these principles in a divided city.

It isn’t just about the physical environment.

The government has set an ambitious target to remove the 99 peace walls by 2023. Before this can happen there is a lot of work to be done by all sectors, including housing, planning, community development, youth services and the police, to gauge whether the communities alongside these walls are ready and willing for them to be taken down. A study by Ulster University in 2012 found that 69 per cent of people living closest to the peace walls want them to remain for now because of the potential for violence and disorder. It is difficult to set a deadline for something so complex.

It takes time to take meaningful steps forward – time for discussion, debate and fall-outs, time for making up and agreeing to meet in the middle. Progress requires us as planners and designers to create the spaces for these discussions to happen as much as it does to think about the solutions for overcoming the physical and environmental challenges.

Belfast has come a long way even in the 12

“PHYSICAL DIVIDES HAVE CREATED A LEGACY OF DEAD SPACE, BROKEN URBAN STRUCTURES AND A COMMERCIAL CENTRE THAT SHOULD BE PERFORMING BETTER FOR A CAPITAL CITY OF ITS SIZE”

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UNITY IN DIVERSITY There are enormous untapped resources available from the creative power of diverse communities.

• Diversity is shown to increase people’s ability to co-operate and work together. This ‘diversity advantage’ is well documented by the business community and creates a variety and richness of skills and aptitudes in an area that often leads to innovation and creativity. This in turn boosts economic growth and prevents stagnation.

• Studies also demonstrate that children benefit from early exposure where socialising across different cultural backgrounds contributes significantly to their academic development and cultural awareness.

By breaking down some of the physical barriers that prevent disparate communities in Belfast from mixing and socialising together, there is huge potential to maximise the talents and skills and develop a more prosperous city once again.

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years that I have been here. I have, too; I now have family and friends right across the city, so I have expanded farther than the comfort zone of my early student years, and I’ve found amazing places to explore in this wonderful, historic place.

The city itself is finally seeing significant investment and regeneration. The docks, now rebranded as Titanic Quarter, are on the way to transformation into a modern mixed-use development. In East Belfast, a £40 million investment will create a 9-kilometre linear park and greenway. The idea is to engage the communities that live alongside it by using the rich natural environment and wildlife corridors to create a new sense of place and to encourage healthier lifestyles. It’s possible that reinforcing connections to physical place could play a role in breaking down some of the social barriers that exist.

It’s even possible that the barriers that have divided communities can be integrated into this ‘place identity’ in a way that brings people together. Many have been in place for more than a generation and they now form part of that place and its identity. In the city centre, for example, a well-loved pub that has kept its security cage outside its front door has rallied thousands of people across the city to petition for the building to be saved in a continuing regeneration battle. Perhaps that’s our approach to social cohesiveness.

My career in planning means I will get to be part of the evolution of a Belfast that is striving for greater integration – but this will need us to take a lot of ‘baby steps’ if it is to work. At the moment, different communities in Belfast are still learning to live side by side. It’s a good starting point.

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H E A LT H Y C I T I E S

HEALTHY CITY 2050

WHAT SHOULD A HEALTHY CITY LOOK LIKE AND WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO CREATE THEM? HERE, ERIN DONALDSON CANVASSES THE VIEWS OF HER FELLOW RTPI NORTHERN IRELAND YOUNG PLANNERS COMMITTEE MEMBERS

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A

healthy city, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is one “that is continually creating and improving those physical and social environments and expanding those community resources which enable people to mutually support each other in performing all the functions of life and developing to their maximum potential”.

It’s a wordy definition and might be better summed up as “a city that aims to create a health supportive environment, catering to basic sanitation needs, offering access to healthcare and providing a good quality of life to citizens”.

But even this leaves lots of room for interpretation of what these aims mean in I L L U S T R AT I O N | S H U T T E R S T O C K

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practice, and prompts plenty of questions about how a city might achieve these aims.

We’ll be asking some of these questions at the Young Planners conference on 14 October, including whether health and well-being should be at the core of how we design cities, and whether planning can enhance mental and physical well-being in “A ‘HEALTHY’ CITY cities.

SHOULD INCLUDE In the meantime, we’ve looked at what ECONOMIC, we think makes Belfast a ‘healthy city’ from ENVIRONMENTAL a planning perspective, and how a healthier AND SOCIAL Belfast might look in 2050. Northern SUCCESS – PERHAPS IT’S JUST Ireland’s capital joined the WHO European Healthy Cities Network in 1998.

ANOTHER WAY OF We also asked other young planners THINKING ABOUT across the UK what they believe constitutes SUSTAINABILITY” a healthy city and what they think will make the biggest contribution to more healthy cities between now and 2050.

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H E A LT H Y C I T I E S

Clare McIlhatton

Kim Boal

Eimear Nelis

A healthy city is a peoplefriendly city. And a peoplefriendly city is one that supports all of its citizens, regardless of their age, background, ability and experience, to make the most of the environments around them.

Everyone experiences and enjoys their city in different ways. For some, it’s the thrill of being part of a busy city that doesn’t sleep. For others, it’s about escape from the bustle and tranquil time spent in a park. A healthy city can cater to each of these extremes – and everything in between – for anyone who wants them.

The Belfast of the future will refuse spatial injustice and open the natural beauty of the city to all members of the community. It will attract families with spaces for children and young people to play; it will provide comfortable space to the elderly and supportive space to the disabled. There will be space to display different cultures and identities, and to appreciate diversity and difference within the city population.

In short, the healthy Belfast of the future will be a city where all groups are valued community members – and all have real opportunities to influence the shaping of their city, its environment and its services.

Clare McIlhatton is a graduate planner

THE CAR­FREE CITY Erin Donaldson

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By 2050, transport and connectivity in Belfast will be radically different. The city centre will become a car-free zone, with access only permitted for public transport and cycling routes.

A large onus will be placed on high-quality greenways and urban corridors, with the regulatory planning authority placing a legislative requirement on the provision

of walking and cycling routes for key site developments such as hospitals and schools.

Reliance on car journeys will be minimal, with people using high-quality active travel routes for both essential travel and pleasure purposes.

Technology will play a key role in transforming future transport and connectivity. Electric robotic cars on de-scaled and traffic light road networks will define car travel on the periphery of the city, with travel routes determined by GPS technology and routing.

Drones will become the new small-scale postal and delivery service, with a marked decrease in short-distance delivery journeys.

Telecommuting (working from home) will be prevalent, with journeys to key employment centres by car, bus and rail almost non-existent.

Active travel, technology advancements in transport and a change in human behaviour will all interlink to significantly reduce congestion and pollution levels, thus providing a cleaner and healthier living environment for those living in the Belfast of the future.

Kim Boal is a planner with Mid and East Antrim Borough Council and chair of the NI Young Planners committee

THE ZERO­CARBON CITY Ever since the infamous Brundtland Report in 1987 (Our Common Future – Report On The World Commission On Environment And Development) there has been a shift towards more sustainable ways of living. All major cities are now trying to ‘go green’ by reducing carbon emissions and making better use of renewable resources to sustain future generations. Belfast is no exception.

So what is the post-industrial city of Belfast doing to transform itself into a 21st-century post-oil economy?

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THE CITY FOR PEOPLE

THE ROLE PLANNING SHOULD PLAY IS HUGE BUT IN REALITY IT IS FAR TOO RESTRICTED BY, E.G. VIABILITY CONCERNS AND THINGS MANY PLANNERS CONSIDER TO BE OUTSIDE THE REMIT IF PLANNING (EVEN THOUGH THEY SHOULD BE INTEGRAL TO IT).

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The city’s developing policy context is certainly providing a platform to spark some form of action.

In 2010, Northern Ireland’s Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment published its Strategic Energy Framework, which contains a target of achieving 40 per cent renewable electricity consumption by 2020.

Greater use of onshore wind energy has resulted in a quarter of Northern Ireland’s electricity being generated from renewables. A proposed low-carbon, energy-efficient power station at Belfast Harbour Estate would, if approved, generate 30-40 per cent of Northern Ireland’s energy needs.

City Hall has fitted an LED lighting system and there has been a general rise in the number of energy-efficient buildings. The city has also introduced a rapid transport system that includes new bus lanes, and a bike share scheme – both part of the ‘Belfast on the move’ programme to reduce car use and move people around the city more efficiently.

Slowly but surely, Belfast is putting in place the mechanisms to achieve its aim of becoming carbon-free by 2050. But, like any other postBrexit city in the UK, it faces the challenge of an unpredictable economic environment and a political climate in which commitment to cleaner, greener cities is less certain.

Only through more stringent policy formulation and the provision of greater opportunities and incentives for investors and developers can Northern Ireland’s capital place itself at the forefront of energy-efficient cities.

Eimear Nelis is an assistant planner at TSA Planning

HOW IMPORTANT IS PLANNING IN CREATING HEALTHY CITIES? We conducted a snap survey to get a picture of what other planners think about how planning can help in creating healthier living environments between now and 2050. Here’s what our 80 respondents from across the UK (more than three-quarters of them young planners!) had to say.

1. What are the top three things that will make the biggest contribution to more healthy cities between now and 2050?

From a list of 12 common measures, our respondents picked:

45% More space for/ emphasis on active travel

42.5% Improved mass transit systems

40% More green space/open space

But they also suggested: • Access to healthy food (including affordable ‘proper food’), learning about nutrition and cooking; • Industry change regarding food content/ingredients; • Investment in mental health services; • Requirement for physical education to be a compulsory part of education to 18.

2. How important is planning in helping to create healthy urban environments?

59% Essential – it’s the most important thing in helping to create healthy urban environments

n Erin Donaldson is an assistant planner at Turley in Belfast and – along with all those quoted here – a member of the RTPI Northern Ireland Young Planners Committee

36% It’s important, but not essential 5% It’s useful but far from the most important thing/ It makes no difference at all

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INSIGHT

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 National Trust property Kedleston Hall in Allestree, Derby, would not be affected by 400 new homes nearby

HOUSING

Homes approved near listed Kedleston Hall ( SUMMARY Catesby Estates Ltd has been permitted to build 400 homes on land near the National Trust’s grade I listed Kedleston Hall in Allestree, Derby, after an inspector ruled that the plan’s impact on the heritage asset would be negligible. ( CASE DETAILS A scheme for 195 homes that would bind the larger scheme to the south was also approved.

Inspector John Gray said the appellant was right to question the landscape quality of the site on purely physical terms separate from its historical significance. He found that the site – largely bounded by housing development on three sides – exhibits no features that could qualify it as a valued landscape in the terms of

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paragraph 109 of the NPPF. He added that the development of a significant number of greenfield sites somewhere in Amber Valley is inevitable, and that there was nothing to suggest that the loss of this site to housing would be noticeably more harmful than any other such site in the borough.

Gray agreed that Kedleston Hall is a “heritage asset of the very greatest importance”, but questioned the importance of the view across the appeal site to the hall. He argued that intervening vegetative screening meant that the development would have “no impact whatsoever on the setting of the hall”, and that there was nothing to suggest this view might be restored. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Gray said there was less than substantial harm to the setting of the historic park and the conservation area.

But against this he weighed the benefits of housing delivery in light of Amber

Valley Borough Council’s inability to prove a five-year housing land supply, and the significant benefit of the affordable housing that would be provided (120 from the 400-home scheme, 58 from the 195-home scheme).

Appeal Ref: APP/ M1005/W/15/3132791

HOUSING

Aberdeen student homes scheme ‘too concentrated’ ( SUMMARY Ardmuir Developments has been refused permission to develop an residential block to accommodate 176 students at King’s Crescent on the edge of the Old Aberdeen Conservation Area (CA) after a reporter ruled that the scheme would detrimentally affect heritage assets in the area and lead to an “overconcentration” of this type of accommodation. ( CASE DETAILS Reporter Richard Hickman said the appeal site constitutes the north-west corner of a large FirstGroup bus depot, and shares a boundary wall with the King’s Crescent,

which lies within the CA. The proposal would involve the demolition of some of the wall and setback reconstruction to allow for pavement widening.

Hickman said the size and positioning of the proposed building, and the fact that it would remove a number of existing trees, would have a “profound impact” on the character of this part of the crescent, creating a “very urban character.” He judged that this would have a seriously adverse effect on this part of the CA and the setting of older buildings opposite the appeal site, also within the CA. Negative impacts were also identified in relation to the setting of a nearby category A chapel and the outlook, privacy, setting and sunlight for residents of a tenement building because of the close spacing of the proposal.

Although Hickman noted that the adequacy of supply of purpose-built student accommodation would not normally be a planning consideration, he agreed with the benefit of having a good supply of such accommodation to ease pressure on the rented flat market and reduce the potential for more flats in multiple occupation “which can be very disruptive”. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Hickman agreed that the proposal was in an ideal

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A plan for accommodation for 176 students in the Old Aberdeen Conservation Area would have amounted to an “over-concentration”

location in terms of access to the university, but he understood concerns about an excessive concentration of student accommodation in the area to the exclusion of other legitimate uses. He judged that as the proposal would be the largest of its kind in the area it would bring an “intense focus” of student-related activity, amounting to an “overconcentration”.

Appeal Ref: PPA-100-2072

HOUSING

Bishop Sutton homes ‘would undermine planmaking process’ ( SUMMARY Communities secretary Sajid Javid has backed an inspector’s decision to refuse permission for 32 homes in the village of Bishop Sutton in Somerset, after deciding that the scheme would undermine the principles of sustainable development as set out in the Bath & North East Somerset Core Strategy (CS). ( CASE DETAILS The appeal was recovered because it involves more than 10 units for an area where a neighbourhood plan (NP) has been made.

Javid accepted that the CS includes the opportunity for further development in the villages including Bishop Sutton on sites adjacent to

the Housing Development Boundary (HBD), but only where this has been promoted through a NP. He noted that the appeal site lies outside the HBD for Bishop Sutton as indicated in the Bath & North East Somerset Local Plan and the Stowey Sutton NP and the proposal was therefore contrary to the development plan.

Javid agreed with inspector Geoffrey Hill that it would be reasonable to accept that, while the council cannot convincingly demonstrate a five-year supply across the district as a whole, there is more than a five-year supply of housing land in all policy areas except Bath.

But Javid disagreed with Hill’s interpretation of paragraphs 14 and 49 of the NPPF which had led him to conclude that the CS should not be considered out of date.

Javid said because of the uncertainty about whether there is a five-year supply across all the policy areas and in light of the Court of Appeal rulings on Suffolk District Council v Hopkins Homes Ltd & SSCLG and Richborough Estates Partnership LLP v Cheshire East Borough Council & SSCLG, the relevant policies for the supply of housing should be considered out of date.

Javid did agree that the corollary of allowing a greater proportion of housing development in rural areas solely to make up the possible overall shortfall across the district would undermine the CS strategy directing growth to Bath, and that some degree of restraint

outside Bath would be appropriate for achieving a balanced, sustainable growth strategy. He believed that permitting significant growth in excess of the current land supply situation in policy areas outside Bath would undermine the sustainable growth aims of the CS and thereby would significantly undermine “the confidence of developers and residents in the plan-making process”. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Although Javid noted some benefits of the scheme, including a 35 per cent affordable housing provision and the ability of Bishop Sutton to accommodate additional population in terms of the capacity of facilities, he ruled that the scheme’s conflict with the development plan outweighed this.

Appeal Ref: APP/F0114/A/14/2217216

HOUSING

Javid approves 390 homes and sports facilities in Norfolk ( SUMMARY Communities secretary Sajid Javid has supported an inspector’s decision to approve plans to demolish the existing Wymondham Rugby Club building and build replacement sports facilities, plus up to 390 homes, on three parcels of land in Wymondham, South Norfolk, despite part of the development being located in a defined strategic gap. ( CASE DETAILS Javid agreed with inspector

Zoe Hill’s assessment that South Norfolk Council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of housing land, which therefore rendered relevant housing policies out of date.

He noted that the development of 300 homes on land referred to as ‘parcel B’ would intrude into the strategic gap between Wymondham and Hethersett, and that it would mean the permanent loss of essentially open countryside.

But he argued that placing development here would not have such a significant impact on the separation of the settlements as elsewhere in the gap, and agreed that allowing development here would be easy to define and not set a precedent that would undermine the remaining strategic gap.

Javid agreed that there would be a cumulative impact of light pollution from the proposed rugby/football club facility and the parcel B housing, but asserted that the value of the proposed housing would exist long after the lighting effects would have reduced to a more minor level as the proposed landscaping becomes established.

Hill acknowledged that the club was considered a great community benefit and that the comprehensive redevelopment proposed was “undeniably attractive”. Javid agreed, saying that while it would be unacceptable to lose the benefit of the specific allocation for the club without adequate alternative provision, he did not attach weight to the funding of the relocation via the housing as the council’s CIL provisions prevent this. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Javid judged that, overall, the benefits of the contribution to housing supply in the district

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INSIGHT

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DECISIONS IN FOCUS

outweighed the identified harm to landscape and the strategic gap, and allowed the appeal.

Appeal Ref: APP/ L2630/W/15/3007004

RENEWABLES

Llanidloes turbines allowed despite impact on heritage ( SUMMARY Six wind turbines have been approved for a site north of Llangurig and west of Llanidloes in Powys, after an inspector deemed that the scheme’s contribution to renewable energy aims outweighed its minor impact on heritage assets and residential and landscape amenity. ( CASE DETAILS The site is described as an area of upland pasture in the Environmental Statement, and inspector Aidan McCooey noted that no protected designated landscapes would be adversely affected by the proposal. But he said the introduction of six turbines with a maximum tip height of 100 metres would have a significant adverse impact on the landscape character in the local area. It would also significantly affect views from some key public rights of way, where the sensitivity of the receptor would be higher.

Of the 16 residential properties in the near vicinity, the scheme was judged to present a significant adverse impact on eight. One dwelling would be particularly affected by the proximity of the turbines, but not to a degree

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that would greatly affect the attractiveness of the dwelling as a place to live.

McCooey said the turbines would have a negative impact on the settings of the Church of St Curig and the Domen Giw Cairn scheduled ancient monument, although he noted that the evidential value of the latter would not be affected and there would be some mitigation in terms of investigation and interpretation. The monument is a Bronze Age funerary monument that is barely perceptible in the landscape. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Against these impacts McCooey weighed the “clear need for further wind energy development nationally and in this area”. The plan would have an installed capacity of 15 megawatts (which is 30-32 per cent of the theoretical maximum power output), and would produce enough energy to power more than 8,400 homes.

Appeal Ref: APP/ T6850/A/15/3133966

HOUSING

Javid refuses up to 1,500 homes for Essex ( SUMMARY Communities secretary Sajid Javid has refused permission for two appeals amounting to 1,500 homes in Essex, after agreeing with an inspector that Uttlesford District Council is able to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land.

LS Easton Park Investments Limited included plans for between 600 and 700 homes and up to 19,300 square metres of additional development on land west of Great Dunmow.

Javid found that the council had not fallen significantly below its housing targets over the past 13 years and could demonstrate a five-year housing supply. He added that a shortfall in affordable housing in the district should not mean a substantially higher target should be met for overall housing need, but did consider the 40 per cent affordable housing provision included in the proposal as a “substantial benefit”.

Against this benefit he weighed the loss of best and most versatile land, the harmful effect on landscape as a result of the loss of open fields, the impact on views, and the harm to the character and appearance to the area, which he judged to collectively outweigh the scheme’s benefits.

In a second decision letter, Javid agreed with the same inspector, David Nicholls, that a proposal by Fairfield (Elsenham) including up to 800 homes on land east of Elsenham should be refused.

Javid again agreed that while the provision of affordable housing would be of substantial benefit, the scheme’s contribution

to market housing could not be given great weight given the council’s ability to prove a five-year housing land supply and the fact that only a proportion of the housing would be completed in the first five years. ( CONCLUSION REACHED The secretary of state agreed that the significant volumes of additional traffic that the proposal would introduce were unlikely to be accommodated on the surrounding roads, and would inflict substantial harm on the village of Stansted Mountfitchet. Both proposals were subsequently refused.

Appeal Ref: APP/C1570/A/14/2219018

MIXED­USE DEVELOPMENT

Thanet Wharf mixed-use scheme refused ( SUMMARY Creekside Village Developments and Israel Discount Bank have been refused permission for a mixed-use residential and commercial development at Thanet Wharf in Deptford, London, because of issues with the scheme’s provision

Six wind turbines have been approved near Llangurig in Powys

( CASE DETAILS The proposal submitted by I M AG E S | A L A M Y

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of open land and its failure to consider nearby sites included in the Thanet Wharf Mixed Use Employment Location (MUEL). ( CASE DETAILS The proposal includes plans for 216 homes, floorspace for commercial units and a new public realm.

Inspector Michael Hetherington noted that the appeal site is occupied by several derelict buildings, and lies near an underconstruction scheme for 249 homes and commercial uses.

Lewisham Borough Council had argued that the scheme would fail to constitute high-quality design and would have a detrimental effect on the adjacent Trinity Laban

Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the setting of the Deptford Creek.

But Hetherington found that the tall building suggested within the appeal would be suitable in principle, and that the trapezoidal plan form and angled tops of the two new buildings would create an “interesting and well-proportioned effect”, resulting in a “distinctive local landmark” that would not appear harmful. He also said the suggested glass and metal-panelled design of the buildings would be consistent with the area and with the style of Trinity Laban.

He took issue with the proposed area of open space in the scheme, finding that its position within the layout

DECISIONS IN FOCUS ONLINE VISIT WWW.THEPLANNER.CO.UK FOR NEWS, APPEALS AND MORE

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Our team provides a planning appeals service updated every day with the latest and most important cases, all of which are:

meant that the function of the open space would be “unclear” and cause it to appear as “left-over land”. He also said the spacing of the public realm would cause it to partly appear “cramped”.

As the site lies within strategic site allocation, council policy requires the preparation of a masterplan, but Hetherington found the appellant’s approach to this fell short of requirements. He said the masterplan was not subject to public consultation prior to the submission of the planning application and that it does not show the full level of detail that is envisaged in respect of the MUEL as a whole to demonstrate that it would enable the wider site to be developed comprehensively, allowing

the amenity of future residents to be maintained. ( CONCLUSION REACHED Hetherington said there would be “clear benefits” to the scheme including the redevelopment of part of a vacant site that is allocated within the local plan, but he decided this did not outweigh the aforementioned issues.

Due to the late submission of a supplemental note on servicing and access by the appellant’s transport witness, which unreasonably caused the council to incur costs, the council was awarded a partial cost of appeal proceedings.

Appeal Ref: APP/ C5690/W/15/3132142

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( free to view ( expertly edited ( presented with a direct link to the original appeal decision notice

On your behalf we source our stories from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Here’s a selection of appeals from the last few weeks: ( Neighbourhood plan conflict sees ‘sustainable’ housing development refused ( Biodiversity improvements aid solar farm approval ( Council misapplies retail­related policy ( Dwellings and cemetery allowed despite lack of allocation in Area Action Plan ( Javid blocks 70 homes for East Sussex ( Crumlin allotments would not qualify for farm diversification exception

For all your appeals news, visit:

www.theplanner.co.uk OCTOBER 2016 / THE PLANNER

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CASE STUDY

CASE ST UDY

THE ROCH RESURRECTION AWARDS: EXCELLENCE IN PLANNING FOR THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT PROJECT NAME: REVEALING THE ROCH KEY PLAYERS: ROCHDALE BOROUGH COUNCIL, ENVIRONMENT AGENCY, VOLKER STEVIN, CH2MHIL, DONALD INSALL ASSOCIATES, HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND

BY M A R K S M U L I A N

Water is a bonus for most towns undertaking regeneration since even the most polluted and uninviting river or canal can – with some money spent on it – become an attractive leisure facility with walkways alongside. Very often, too this can lead to a dramatic increase in the appeal to developers of adjacent sites – think London Docklands or Birmingham’s use of its network of city centre canals.

This effect, though, works only if the water can be seen, so Rochdale Borough Council faced a problem in making use of the River Roch in its regeneration plans. The river had long ago been buried in the town centre and no visible sign of it remained above ground.

It is thought that the Roch was first bridged in the 14th century and then as

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The riverside is expected to attract restaurants and cafés

“THE RIVER WAS JUST A DARK CULVERT WITH VERY LITTLE WILDLIFE, BUT WE ARE NOW SEEING FISH AND PLANTS RETURNING”

vehicular traffic – initially horse-drawn carts – became wider and heaver, the bridge had been successively widened until it covered a substantial part of the river.

Rochdale grew rich on its textile mills and when trams came to the town in the early 20th century; the section of the Roch in the town centre was buried completely to accommodate them, with a new surface placed across the bridges and their surroundings. What little of the River Roch that remained visible was now entirely obscured.

DIGGING INTO THE PA S T The council asked planners, in effect, to undo the work of the 20th century so as to display that of the 14th – a delicate task that involved work with ancient structures in the middle of a busy town.

One factor in their favour was that where the river was to be exposed was a large paved area that served no specific purpose in the town centre. This meant that nothing of importance had to be

either demolished or relocated in the process and there was no controversy over the plan.

The £4.9 million project began when planning permission to reopen the river was granted by the council in December 2012, the sections involved were compulsorily purchased, and the adopted highways on top were subjected to closure orders.

Given the unusual nature of the project, the council organised an international design competition, part funded by Historic England.

Architect BDP won this.

When planners and engineers got to work, they found a bridge where five distinct phases of development joined together to make a single structure.

The earliest was thought to be of medieval origin, probably 14th century.

It had then been extended around 1667 on the upstream side and then again on both sides around 1787. The final upstream extension was completed around 1824. These phases were all built using local Millstone Grit.

By 1870, the bridge had been further extended on both sides with cast iron structures and between 1903 and 1924, the rest of the river in the town centre was covered over.

The earlier masonry bridges were heavily modified in 1870 and the works in the early 20th century raised the surrounding levels and flattened off the top of the bridge.

Works in 1996 – when the river briefly reopened to public view – saw the masonry bridge strengthened with concrete to meet modern highway standards, but there was significant loss of stonework on both elevations.

Although the medieval arches were undamaged, the external elevations required extensive repair for the reopening project and replacement parapets had to be installed.

Where possible, reclaimed stone from the remnants of the piers that supported the 1870 cast iron extensions was used for this, with the same masonry techniques employed that would have been used to build the original bridges.

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L O T T E RY F U N D H E L P John Percival, the council’s capital programmes manager, says the idea of reopening the river had been around since the works in 1996 but no funding had previously been available.

“We formed a partnership with the Environment Agency, which had funding to improve watercourses and for de-culverting, and there was money from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

“There is now about 60 metres of the river uncovered and it is 19-21 metres wide, so equivalent to about the size of three swimming pools in the middle of the town.”

One oddity of the original bridge is that it was found to be curved on one side only.

“It’s quite strange,” says Percival. “The only explanation we can think of is that cloth would be brought down by cart from Pennine villages to the fulling mills and the carts took a route that curved off the bridge but returned empty as the processed cloth would have been moved from the mills to markets by water.”

Rochdale’s senior planning officer Paul Ambrose says restoring the river has not only created an attractive feature, but has also “reduced the risk of flooding in the town centre and opened up a highquality public realm. The whole area was just a flat expanse before with no specific use.

“The river was just a dark culvert with very little wildlife, but we are now seeing fish and plants returning.”

Restaurants and cafés are expected

W H AT T H E J U D G E S T H O U G H T The judges felt that this was a strong submission taking the vision through to delivery and with wide-ranging positive outcomes. There was good community involvement, clear short and long-term benefits were identified, and the project has phenomenally captured community interest. They also commended the pragmatism of the planning in terms of reconsidering how rivers were engineered in the past, the ecology, flood risks and urban design.

to open around the exposed river and the council hopes it proves a catalyst for investment in the locality.

Ambrose adds: “The work has revealed the true beauty of the bridges. They are now mainly in pedestrian use, with some delivery vehicles at the start and end of the day only.”

He says the council plans to use the improved space along the Roch for a demountable outdoor market and for events, as well as everyday use as Aside from opening up high-quality public realm, the works should help to reduce the risk of flooding in the town centre

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informal space around an attractive feature. The first such event was a Victorian-themed fair with entertainers and market stalls.

In time, it is hoped that businesses will be attracted to the frontage of the riverside area. Uncovering more of the Roch would add to this effect, but lack of funding means there are no present plans to fulfil this long-term aspiration.

T H E RO C H U N COV E R E D The core of the area around the river reopening had once been described by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “confusing”, with the spaces seemingly accidentally laid out because of the buildings and street orientation relating to the hidden river.

By reopening the river, the historic and contemporary civic focal points of the town have been reconnected and a public realm opened up in which activities and facilities can arise that will assist in the town centre’s regeneration.

It also brought to public view an intact example of medieval engineering, hastened the reintroduction of wildlife, and will help to prevent flooding in central Rochdale by removing the previous culvert.

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INSIGHT

Legal landscape CAN ANYONE SOLVE CIL? When introduced, the community infrastructure levy (CIL) was promoted by government as a way by which local authorities could raise funds from developers to fund new infrastructure projects. It was also promoted as a way that developers could calculate the upfront costs of development.

CIL sought to provide a faster, fairer, more certain and transparent means of collecting developer contributions to infrastructure than Section 106 planning obligations, which can take months to agree. This means that infrastructure funding hasn’t

PROTECTING THE NIGHT­ TIME ECONOMY A nightclub opens in a deprived part of the city. It is the only place to go out in the neighbourhood and hosts largely a local crowd, because outsiders think the area is not safe. After several years, a second nightclub opens, then another.

Within a decade, the area is transformed; middle-class professionals have moved in, property prices have soared.

The nightclub begins to look out of place; its punters are disturbing residents – it occupies a prime location.

The freeholder applies for a change of use proposing that

often been available when it has been needed. CIL essentially bypasses this process and allows councils to set a charge on certain forms of new development.

CIL has been a regular topic for discussion ussion among planners ers and lawyers. Itt would appear to most that they y are hard to navigate. Mostt of us have tried d to translate the e rules into plain n English for our clients, but parts are very vague. This means that we have to hypothesise scenarios to figure out what the outcome may be, often concluding that there is no clear answer. And there is

little yet by way of case law to assist lawyers or planners on points of interpretation.

The online Planning Practice Guidance sets out a useful summary of how the rules operate.

But, as with the National Planning Nat Policy Framework, Po tthe guidance provides limited interpretation to assist us when specific issues arise. This creates iits problems, with our recent experience with CIL covering debates on the formula for calculating CIL liability, considering how the various reliefs can be applied and the effect on CIL liability for a phased development.

Such discussion takes a lot of toing and froing between local authorities, clients and colleagues. Until CIL issues are resolved, we are finding that clients are not prepared to start development (payment of CIL crystallises once development starts).

But last November the government appointed Liz Peace to head an independent review into the extent to which CIL has been effective at funding infrastructure.

The government has yet to publish its report, but it is understood to consider all options, including abolishing CIL. But for the time being, it’s business as usual.

the club will go, in favour of a retail unit and a few flats.

Yet nightclubs and other venues can make a valuable contribution to the cultural and economic life of towns.

Well-managed venues can improve public safety.

They employ young oung people and bring ng people together. r.

So, I would argue, clubs and other late-night venues ought to be protected by local plan policies on town centre uses.

In my client’s case above, an online petition objecting to the application attracted 2,000 signatures. Many comments raised issues

immaterial to planning considerations and were written off as such in the officer’s report.

Nonetheless, I would argue that for controversial applications, such responses should be construed benevolently where benev possible. Authorities pos should bear in sh mind the many m statements in the case law about the importance and materiality of public interest o and participation an iin the planning system (R (Carlton Conway) v Harrow LBC [2002] EWCA Civ 927).

Recently, the High Court affirmed the principle that “promoting social

objectives may be a material consideration in the planning context” and that planning control can legitimately be used to promote social objectives where it relates to land use (see R (Copeland) v Tower Hamlets LBC [2010] EWHC 1845 (Admin), [22]).

The courts also recognise that a landowner may do what she wants with her land if it is acceptable in planning terms (see R (Mount Cook Land Ltd) v Westminster CC [2003] EWCA Civ 1346). However, planning authorities should play their part in supporting the night-time economy.

Daniel Murphy

Matt Lewin

Daniel Murphy is a former town planner turned planning barrister with Shoosmiths in Manchester Read a full version of this article on The Planner website: tinyurl.com/planner1016-cil

Matt Lewin is a barrister at Cornerstone Barristers, specialising in planning and licensing law Read a full version of this article on The Planner website: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-nighteconomy

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INSIGHT

Plan ahead P impressing upon government the importance of town centres for the country.

The STP also helped to organise the inaugural World Towns Leadership Summit 2016, hosted in Edinburgh this June, which saw urban leaders from across the world gather to discuss the evolution of civic governance and the “changing economic drivers for successful place-making”.

Prentice says many towns now face the “perfect storm” of: ●

●

Talk of the town

●

● ●

In these times of increased economic uncertainty, Phil Prentice says that we need to refocus our efforts on our town centres. He tells Martha Harris how Scotland is leading the way “Sixty-nine per cent of [Scotland’s] population live in towns and villages or on islands, so in essence Scotland is a nation of towns,” says Scotland’s Towns Partnership chief officer Phil Prentice.

“It’s what we do with our towns over the next decade that will ultimately determine our economic and social success as a nation.”

It was with this in mind that the Scotland’s Towns Partnership (STP) was formed in 2012. The organisation acts as a hub for “the fragmented landscape of bodies operating in the broad ‘towns space’” across Scotland, and is intent on

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Depopulation and the continued drift of talent and youth to city economies; Structural changes in retail and the ongoing impact of the economic recession; Dysfunctional property and housing markets; Welfare reform; and A fast-shrinking public sector.

●

Scotland, says Prentice, is not unique in this. He explains: “There’s not a lot of difference between the situation in Scotland and towns in the north of England, but the difference is that Scotland has taken a very structured approach to combating town centre decline.”

Consequently, this year’s Scotland’s Towns Conference will focus on practical, community-led solutions for towns that will help get these ‘gutted’ centres back on track.

“It’s about getting local people at a local level taking on things that they are able to tackle themselves, and giving them the confidence to do that,” says Prentice.

What's on the agenda?

Keynote speakers for the day will include Josh Stott of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Angela Constance MSP, and leading urbanist Kelvin

Send feedback to editorial@theplanner.co.uk Tweet us @The Planner_RTPI

Campbell. Campbell will be discussing the ‘Massive Small’ agenda – the idea of moving away from the “rhetoric of plans and policies” towards “harnessing the collective power of many small ideas and actions to make a big difference” within urbanisation.

Breakout workshops will focus on town centre living, with presentations from private sector representatives and local authority practitioners. The workshops will look at case studies from Renfrewshire, Aberdeenshire, Paisley and Fife, and provide platforms for discussion of topics such as how to plan for creative places and how to implement a digital strategy for towns.

Notes to the nation Scotland’s disparate geography means the latter is a key issue for the nation, says Prentice.

“We need to connect our towns, and if we are going to be able to scale up and compete, it is very much around a combination of physical and digital infrastructure

“IT’S ABOUT GETTING LOCAL PEOPLE AT A LOCAL LEVEL TAKING ON THINGS THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO TACKLE THEMSELVES”

investment to make sure that opportunities aren’t missed in island and coastal peripheral communities.”

But why should planners attend the conference? Because “so much of the town centre agenda is in the hands of the planners,” says Prentice. The towns agenda “is allowing planners to get back to the profession that they studied and wanted to be part of – it’s about creating places.”

Prentice praises the efforts of the Scottish Government to embrace localism, citing initiatives such as 2012’s National Review of Town Centres and the resulting Town Centre Action Plan as evidence of the government’s commitment to establishing a framework to allow for better local democracy.

“I think we have really good planners in Scotland. But what has happened over time has come through pressure because, by and large, the whole of the UK is driven by developers rather than democracy – and everyone is responsible for taking their eyes off the town centre, and hollowing them out.

“What we are saying is that if we focus in on our town centres for 10 years, then we can fix them – we can get them up and running again.”

To read more about the World Towns Leadership Summit and the resulting Framework, visit: tinyurl.com/planner1016-SC-0911

A LL C H A N G E What: Scotland’s Towns Conference 2016 Where: Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy, Scotland When: 9 November, 2016 Find out more: www.tinyurl.com/planner1016-stc2016

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DIARY

LISTINGS Talks, conferences, training, masterclasses – everything you need to keep on top of the latest thinking and developments in the planning world.

LONDON 11 October – Leadership for planning professionals This one-day programme will provide ideas to help you develop and sustain a valued reputation as a leader. The trainer is Simon Taylor, senior leadership consultant, Kaplan Leadership and Professional Development.

Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-LO-1110 1 November – Design in the planning system This one-day masterclass will help with dealing effectively with design, the key to planning authorities winning in a large proportion of planning appeals – and to consultants getting the results that clients want.

Venue: The Hatton Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-LO-0111

SOUTH EAST 21 October – Coast, Marine and Planning with the National Trust Organised and hosted by the local National Trust planning advisers, this will outline planning engagement by the trust, bringing out links with stakeholders, with a focus on marine and coastal planning issues.

Venue: Birling Gap National Trust Visitor Centre Learning Room, East Dean, Eastbourne BN20 0ABL Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-SE-2110

SOUTH WEST 11 October – Planning in perspective: National challenge, global context This conference will address the current position of statutory planning in Britain, where it could or should be heading, and what can be learnt from the experience of other countries.

Venue: City Hall, Malthouse Lane, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP2 7TU Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-SW-1110 27 October – NAPE annual conference 2016 Speakers including legal professionals from host Burges Salmon, and from the Chambers of 12 College Place and Francis Taylor Building.

Venue: Bristol BS2 0ZX Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-SW-2710

EAST OF ENGLAND 20 October – Local plans: East of England This one-day conference gathers together insights of leading practitioners.

Whilst it is predominantly aimed at policy-makers, town planners and other built environment professionals will find this event of interest.

Venue: Spirella Building, Bridge Road, Letchworth, Hertfordshire SG6 4ET Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-EE-2010

WEST MIDLANDS 13 October – Energy solutions in a challenging environment A look at emerging energy policies, their impact upon the planning process, and how they can help developers secure both planning consents and more marketable buildings.

Venue: Shakespeare Martineau, No 1 Colmore Square, Birmingham, West Midlands B4 6AA Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-WM-1310 10 November – Planning Law Update WM A seminar led by planning lawyers on topical legal issues, new and emerging legislation and guidance, recent case law and appeal decisions.

Venue: DLA Piper offices, Victoria House, Victoria Square, Birmingham Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-WM-1011

DON’T MISS To 2020 and beyond: A fairer and more affordable city The 2016 London Planning Summit seeks to address the challenges that London’s planners face to deliver a fairer and more affordable city and asks how planners can work creatively to address these challenges.

Through panel debates, presentations and workshops delivered by members of the Greater London Assembly, Transport for London, the Department for Communities and Local Government and other bodies, the 2016 London Planning Summit will outline the priorities for Mayor Sadiq Khan, and discuss how these will work in practice.

Date: Tuesday 27 October Venue: Coin Street neighbourhood centre, 108 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH Details: www.tinyurl.com/Planner1016-LO-2710

RTPI Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture The annual lecture, given in memory of Nat Lichfield and kindly sponsored by his wife Dalia Lichfield, takes place once more at the University College London.

This year’s lecture will be given by the same university’s Bartlett Professor of Planning, Michael Batty. His theme — ‘The Planning Balance Sheet 60 Years On: Evaluating Plans in the Digital Age’.

Price: £10+VAT Date: Tuesday 8th November Venue: University College London Details: www.rtpi.org.uk/nll2016

EAST MIDLANDS 1 November – Planning regulations update for support staff A CPD event providing updates on planning matters relevant to technical and support staff. Topics include registration of applications, compilation and maintenance of registers for brownfield land and self-build.

Venue: New Walk Museum New Walk, Leicester LE1 7EA Details: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-EM-0111

YORKSHIRE 18 October – Thirsk & Sowerby expansion: Rural community erosion or sensitive sustainable settlement?

This year’s RTPI Yorkshire seminar programme examines the work of consultancies and local authorities in some of the county's smaller towns to assess what has happened over the past 50 years.

Venue: Rural Arts Centre, 4 Westgate, Thirsk, North Yorkshire YO7 1QS Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-YO-1810

NORTH EAST 11 October – An introduction to the planning system (Newcastle) Masterclass providing administrators, elected members, and support staff with an understanding of the planning system. The day will include an update on changes proposed to the planning system including those in Fixing The Foundations.

Venue: Life Conference and Banqueting, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4EP Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-NE-1110

NORTH WEST 19 October – Enforcement: the tools required This event will provide delegates with an update on recent cases and appeals, as well as knowledge of the Public Sector Equality Duty and when it needs to be applied, and the Proceeds of Crime Act. Venue: The Cunard Building, Water St, Liverpool L3 1DS Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-NW-1910

10 November – Urban design: Are we all urban designers now?

This day will focus on the latest trends in urban design and the effect the recession has had.

Venue: Hotel Football, Sir Matt Busby Way, Old Trafford, Manchester Details: tinyurl.com/ planner0116-NW-1011

N OR THER N IR EL AND 14 October – Young Planners Conference 2016 Hosted by Northern Ireland Young Planners.

Venue: Belfast BT2 7AP Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-NI-1410

WALES 3 November – Wales enforcement conference Supported by the Planning Officers Society Wales, event looks at enforcement requirements following the Planning (Wales) Act 2015 and a round-up of Welsh planning case law.

Venue: Media Resource Centre, Oxford Road, Llandrindod Wells Details: www.tinyurl.com/ planner1016-WA-0311

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

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

Planning enforcement: much more than a Cinderella service T H E R O LE O F N A P E I N LO C A L P L A N N I N G

Negotiating, Protecting, Advising and Enforcing, abbreviated to NAPE, is the acronym that reflects the role that enforcement officers carry out daily and the name of one of the RTPI’s most active networks, the National Association of Planning Enforcement.

Not only do officers need planning expertise and knowledge, the job requires a unique skill set to ensure the effective and successful resolution of many issues encompassed by planning enforcement.

Officers need to be able to take a case through the courts and deal with a variety of people, often in challenging and hostile situations.

High-profile cases like Mr Fidler, Dale Farm, and the recent demolition of a pub in Westminster may make headlines, but we need to recognise the importance of the day-to-day cases that positively affect the lives of local residents.

Just over 10 years ago a group of enforcement officers met at the RTPI to discuss a successor to the Planning Officers Executive.

“NAPE was formed with the remit of ensuring that the voice of enforcement officers was heard and that the enforcement of planning controls was

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recognised as a statutory part of the planning function.”

Today, with more than 800 members, it responds to consultations from DCLG and other bodies and contributes to enforcement guides. Looking back to 2006, gone are documents like PPG18 and 10/97. Along came the National Planning Policy Framework and guidance, on which NAPE was consulted.

In England, Planning Enforcement Orders were introduced and across the nations enforcement has been at the forefront of change: from the review in Wales, to new powers in Scotland and the devolution of enforcement from the Department of Environment to councils in Northern Ireland. All against a backdrop of reduced spending in local government.

RTPI North West research found that since 2006 there has been a 46 per cent decline in the number of enforcement staff in local authorities. Despite the challenges, enforcement officers have taken the changes in their stride whilst still providing an effective service.

Despite an uncertain future following the EU referendum result and no sign of increasing local government finances, the role of enforcement within the

Katie Baldwin, NAPE South East England representative’s journey: Since leaving school in 1979, I’ve worked at a local planning authority. Thanks to sponsorship, I obtained a Higher National Certificate in Town and Country Planning. Being a planning technician was varied and enjoyable. I joined the Society of Town Planning Technicians, which was then subsumed by the RTPI. I received TechRTPI status and became a compliance officer. At that point, I discovered NAPE, then an RTPI Association, and quickly saw its benefits – at very least it put me in touch with people doing similar jobs. To me, the work of enforcement/ compliance/investigation officers is vital to the credibility of the planning system, therefore, it was a natural step to both join NAPE and stand for election to the management committee. This way, I promote and represent the enforcement function within the RTPI, nationally and locally. It is rewarding to think that, through NAPE, I play a part in raising the profile of planning enforcement from aged officers sitting at desks covered in dust-laden files to that of a growing group of dynamic officers, many of a young age, who are at the heart of the planning function of local authorities.

planning system is secure and perhaps better recognised and appreciated than it was in 2006. The maxim of Negotiating, Advising, Protecting and Enforcing will have as much resonance as it did 10 years ago. n More information: Join the NAPE network, www.rtpi.org.uk/nape and find out about the NAPE Annual Conference (27 October in Bristol) sponsored by Burges Salmon and Francis Taylor Building

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no.

262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

3 POINT PLAN A planner explains how they would change their nation’s planning system

Muhammad Kadhim, PhD, MRTPI Consultant and professor of spatial planning AMMAN, JORDAN Amman, Jordan’s capital, mushroomed from a small town of 20,000 people to a vast metropolitan conurbation housing over 4 million inhabitants in less than 100 years. Such urban growth generated numerous challenges – some widely recognised such as the severe stresses on infrastructure and transportation – some less so, such as lack of public and more specifically green public space.

While the city has tried to address shortages through a succession of planning ‘recommendations’ in its 1979 Planning Regulations, its 1988 Development Plan and its Metropolitan Growth Strategy (2008), little was achieved. Amman now suffers from one of the lowest known urban green public space provision rates per inhabitant: less than 1 square metre compared to the widely recognised bare minimum of 5. While a few city-level parks have opened in recent years, residential neighbourhoods continue to suffer from acute shortages. These shortages have and will continue to generate negative impacts on quality of life.

1 Greater Amman Municipality to: Produce spatial database highlighting qualitative and quantitative shortage of green public space in the capital

2 Formulate and approve statutory guidelines and requirements for green public space provision, on city and neighbourhood levels, and integrate into existing ‘building and zoning’ legislation

3 Create a high­level entity for green public space provision within its institutional structure to oversee application and enforcement

POSITION POINTS

WORLD CITIES REPORT 2016

YOUR INSTITUTE, YOUR QUESTIONS What is the RTPI doing in the lead up to and following Habitat III? DR RIETTE OOSTHUIZEN, PARTNER, PLANNING, HTA DESIGN LLP

MARION FREDERIKSEN, INTERNATIONAL POLICY AND RESEARCH OFFICER The institute continues to promote how good planning and skilled planners can deliver and implement Habitat III commitments on housing and sustainable development.

In the lead-up to Habitat III the institute has secured a side event on how built environment professionals can help humanitarian agencies pre and post-disasters.

A panel of five, including the International Red Cross, will present their views to a large international audience. We’ve also secured a speaking spot for the RTPI president on post-conflict placemaking as a part of a Global Alliance for Urban Crises side event. The institute will also present at the Global Planners Network booth in the main exhibition hall.

After the conference, we will continue to promote and disseminate the Habitat III outcomes. n Further information: tinyurl.com/planner1016-habitat3

MARION FREDERIKSEN, RTPI INTERNATIONAL POLICY & RESEARCH OFFICER

UN Habitat’s World Cities Report 2016 states that a New Urban Agenda is needed to unlock the transformative power of cities. It warns that unplanned and unmanaged urbanisation can lead to increased inequality, the growth of slums, and disastrous impacts on climate change. The RTPI’s Delivering Better Development report explains what urban and rural planners do and how we can help in planning and quickly adapting to these challenges through better places and developments. Planners, who are skilled in delivering sustainable development, should be at the heart of the solutions required to solve the issues identified in the UN Habitat’s report.

n World Cities Report: tinyurl.com/planner1016worldcities n Delivering Better Development: tinyurl.com/ planner1016-betterdevelopment

THE CITY WE NEED The City We Need is a manifesto suggesting 10 practical ways to achieve sustainable urban development by the partners of the World Urban Campaign. It argues for a ‘New Urban Paradigm’ to create cities that are socially inclusive, affordable, economically vibrant, democratically governed, resilient, walkable, well planned, transit friendly, healthy, safe and innovative. As an associate partner, the RTPI contributed to the manifesto. It has supported and promoted the document and will continue to do so among stakeholders and governments dealing with housing and sustainable development in the lead-up to Habitat III.

n The City We Need: tinyurl.com/planner1016worldurbancampaign

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NEWS

RTPI { INTERNATIONAL IN FOCUS: RTPI MEMBERS WORKING AROUND THE WORLD

Zach Young, principal planner, Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organization DES MOINES, IOWA Following high school, I travelled through Europe. I had great admiration for the compact layout of European cities and the transportation options that afforded.

When I returned home to the United States, I saw the cities I grew up in from a different perspective.

I wanted to understand how to make the places I was living more pedestrian-oriented, which led me to urban planning.

Having studied an RTPI accredited course in Scotland, I now work as the Principal Planner at Des Moines Area Metropolitan Planning Organisation in Iowa.

One of the biggest challenges to creating pedestrian-oriented places in Greater Des Moines is the low-density development patterns that make up most of the region. This makes alternative modes of transportation such as, walking, cycling

and public transport, challenging to cultivate. However, the Greater Des Moines region aspires to address this challenge, having adopted a long-range regional sustainability plan – 2016 RTPI International Planning Excellence Award Finalist, The Tomorrow Plan – that seeks to focus development in more strategic locations and connecting them with a network walkable, transit-oriented corridors.

These challenges are rooted in policies we need changes at the national level that shift resources from roadway expansion to high-speed rail and alternative transportation.

This would help decrease our automobile dependence. I also think we need to make changes to national and state planning legislation to focus more on liveability standards, rather than separation of uses such as current zoning regulations.

Despite living in the United States, I’ve maintained my RTPI membership as it exposes me to a large network of people and ideas.

It also allows me to be part of a highly respected organisation that is recognised globally.

Habitat III and an Urban Agenda for local planning authorities PETER GERAGHTY, CHAIR OF RTPI INTERNATIONAL, EXPLAINS THE IMPACT OF THE HABITAT III CONFERENCE ON LOCAL AUTHORITY PLANNERS Planners working in hard-pressed local authorities might wonder what relevance Habitat III has for them.

I believe that Habitat III has a great resonance for UK planners. The outcome of Habitat III will be the New Urban Agenda. This document, already in draft form, envisages cities and human settlements: b

b

b

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Putting people in the centre, and offering quality of life beyond the mere provision of infrastructure and services; Ensuring equitable access for all to public goods and services, livelihoods, prioritising the collectively defined public interest; Promoting, protecting and ensuring the right to adequate housing;

b

b

b

b

Resilient to natural and man-made hazards; Participatory, and engendering a feeling of belonging among all their inhabitants; Transforming urban economies and creating high productivity and valueadding activities; Promoting investment in sustainable urban mobility linking people, places, and economic opportunities; and

Many local authorities are currently engaged on preparing local plans. Recent catastrophic events resulting from climate change and natural disasters have focused attention on the resilience of cities and their adaptability.

The thinking underpinning Habitat III will be useful to authorities that

Water attenuation measures as a design feature

are preparing local and other plans – particularly around topics such as resilience. For example, the government’s National Flood Resilience Review has been published and flooding is a key issue for many UK authorities, including Southend Borough Council. We are looking to develop policies for sustainable urban drainage and are preparing an asset management plan. It will include measures to optimise resilience of the borough’s transport infrastructure. n Habitat III: Zero Draft Of The New Urban Agenda: tinyurl.com/planner1016-habitat-agenda

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RTPI Y ACTIVIT E PIPELIN Current RTPI work – what the Institute is doing and how you can help us RTPI NATHANIEL LICHFIELD ANNUAL LECTURE This year’s Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture will take place on 8 November in central London. The lecture, generously supported by Dalia Lichfield, is given annually in memory of the renowned British town planner Nathaniel Lichfield. The speaker is Professor Michael Batty, Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London, where he is chair of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). Professor Batty, who is also the winner of the 2016 RTPI Gold Medal, will speak on ‘The Planning Balance Sheet 60 Years On: Evaluating Plans in The Digital Age’.

n For more details and to book, please visit: www.rtpi.org.uk/NLL

THE POLITICIANS IN PLANNING NETWORK The Politicians in Planning network (PIPA) is a network of 600 politicians and councillors whose role includes planning. The network informs members about the work of planners, influence planning policies and press decisionmakers to address current planning-related issues effectively. This year’s PIPA conference will take place on 19 November 2016 at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester. It will explore common themes faced by locally elected decision-makers, to learn from each other and take back with them the tools to help them make the most of their planning decision-making powers.

RTPI SHORTS

CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINE PANEL DECISION One member of the institute has recently been found to be in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct for failing to provide the institute with his CPD and PDP records. Mr Alan James Scholfield was randomly selected by the institute as part of the CPD monitoring exercise in 2013. The Conduct and Discipline Panel agreed to terminate his membership following an earlier period of suspension for failing to comply with the CPD regulations.

One member of the institute was recently found to be in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct for subscribing to a statement that was contrary to his own professional opinion. He failed to ensure that the work of his employee/mentee was conducted in accordance with the code. He failed to properly consider the content of the mentee’s professional competence statement submitted in support of his application for Chartered Membership. The panel reprimanded him.

One member of the institute has recently been found to be in breach of the code for commencing work for a client and incurring fees prior to providing the client with his terms of engagement. The code requires members to ensure that their terms of engagement, which shall include a written fee agreement and clear indication as to the likely costs and a description of the services proposed, have been provided to and accepted by the client before starting work on any planning services. The panel agreed to warn the member.

Members with queries about the Code of Professional Conduct should contact Sandra Whitehead, the institute’s complaints investigator, by email: sandra.whitehead@rtpi.org.uk.

n Places are limited – book now: rtpi.org.uk/pipa2016

RTPI ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2016 You are invited to the RTPI’s AGM at 1.30pm on Wednesday 26 October in the Radisson Blu Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel, 9-13 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QD. Agenda: to receive and approve the minutes of the 2015 AGM; to receive the annual report and accounts for the year ending 31 December 2015, and the Auditor’s report; to appoint the auditors, members’ subscriptions; and question time. If you wish to attend, please RSVP to Susannah.glover@rtpi.org.uk by Monday 10th October 2016.

n Explanatory notes of the AGM and the institute’s annual report are available at: www.rtpi.org.uk/about-the-rtpi/governance/annual-reportand-accounts/ The institute’s annual report is available on the RTPI website at: www.rtpi.org.uk/about-the-rtpi/governance/annual-report-and-accounts/

THE RTPI AWARDS FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE 2017 NOW OPEN FOR ENTRIES The Awards for Planning Excellence have celebrated the very best in planning for over 30 years. They are the most established and respected in our sector and continue to recognise best practice both in the UK and internationally.

Categories focus on projects, teams and individuals, and for the first time ever all categories are free to enter.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony on 15 June 2017, at Milton Court Concert Hall in central London.

n For more information and details on how to enter, please visit www.rtpi.org.uk/excellence

ROUTES TO MEMBERSHIP FROM JANUARY 2017: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS From January 2017 the RTPI will offer three, streamlined routes to chartered membership which are all competency based and follow a consistent structure, while allowing candidates with different educational backgrounds and experience to be eligible.

The guidance for the new routes, as well as the guidance for the existing licentiate route (which is unchanged), is available on the RTPI website.

To support the guidance and other online resources, we have produced a series of frequently asked questions (FAQs) to answer some of the queries existing and potential members may have. These include questions about the new routes: what they are, which route to take, when to apply, what’s involved in applying and how much it will cost.

There are FAQs for existing members, such as associates, who are interested in progressing their membership and becoming chartered town planners.

There are also FAQs for potential members who may have previously considered applying through one of the non-accredited routes that have now closed, to explain what route will apply to them from January 2017.

Finally, the FAQs cover the background to the changes.

n Find out more and read our FAQs: www.rtpi.org.uk/routes-to-membership-faqs/

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O CTO B E R 2 0 16 / THE PLA NNER Oxford City Council QPV.indd 1 PLANNER RECR October16.indd 49

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INSIGHT

Plan B GOLF – THE ALBATROSS AROUND OUR NECK Following certain statements made of late by the Secretary of State for International Trade, Plan B has realised that it’s possible to solve both the post-Brexit export challenge and the ongoing housing crisis in one devastating move. This move can be described in just four letters: G L O and F – but not necessarily in that order. Actually, if we’re being honest, it’ll take more than merely four letters. Four letters was merely an aspiration.

But golf is relevant because, according to Dr Liam Fox, Friday afternoon golf is the very reason that Britain is broken. It’s the pleasant distraction of a few leisurely holes

on a Friday afternoon that’s preventing our thrusting executives from roaring into the world like latter-day merchant adventurers, to hearty cries of “Huzzah!� and extraordinarily generous trading terms wherever they happen to make land.

Clearly, no one told the estimable Dr Fox that golf participation is down by a third since 2008. But in this post-referendum world, facts are merely tries that distract us from the serious work of recreating the imaginary Britain of an imaginary 1950s.

So, golf it is, holding us back from economic dominion over worlds known and unknown. Removing golf from the national picture would thus obliterate the obstacle that prevents us from realising a magniďŹ cent Brexit and a golden en future for this sceptical isle.

Exterminating golf would have the additional, joyous beneďŹ t of solving the UK’s housing crisis for the next 150 years or so (presuming, of course,

that everyone doesn’t skedaddle ďŹ rst).

This is because golf courses occupy vast tracts of perfectly developable land in the very places where people actually want to live (i.e. the south-east of England).

Indeed, in 2012, housing consultant Colin Wiles estimated in Inside Housing that golf courses in England alone occupy 2 per cent of the nation’s 13.4 million hectares – twice as much land as that occupied by housing.

Liberating our green and pleasant land from the indolent tyranny of golf would give us space for an additional eight million homes in England alone! How many more could we cram into Scotland, the home of golf? g go All we need is a politician bold enough A to ssee e it through. Someone like the exemplary Dr Liam Fox, perhaps. Ban e ex x golf. go Completely. For the good of the g nation, do it now. It might be a small nat step backwards for golf, but it would be a giant gian leap of a cli for Brexit Britain.

Let’s Le do this.

L

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