Town and Country Planning articles from December 2001

Town and Country Planning archives from December 2001

High stakes as the waters rise: `A Flooded Environment'. TCPA conference, London, 8 November 2001.
December 1, 2001... `Floods are fascinating and we all enjoy watching the water rise, just as we enjoy a blizzard or a thunderstorm.' Fred London of John Thompson and Partners qualified his claim by adding `just as long as the water isn't running through your own...

What's it to be? Integrated network or runway three?
December 1, 2001... Now that the long expected go-ahead has been given to Heathrow Terminal 5, it will be difficult to resist further pressure for a third runway at Heathrow -- notwithstanding the inquiry inspector's recommendation to the contrary. But instead of...

Photovoltaics.
December 1, 2001... Photovoltaics Although an annex to PPG22: Renewable Energy on photovoltaics is welcome, did the consultation paper have to take such a negative stance? Given that Energy Minister Brian Wilson recently said he wanted to see `tens of thousands of...

Home zones.
December 1, 2001... Home Zones A cheer too for the DTLR's proposals to allow local authorities to designate `home zones' and `quiet lanes', and for legislative changes outlined in its recent consultation paper. Sadly, too few have the opportunity of a home zone in...

TCPA Policy Council meeting, 27 November 2001. (In Council).
December 1, 2001... The Policy Council unanimously approved the co-option of Dalia Lichfield and Martin Simmons -- they are due to stand for re-election at the next round of elections in the summer of 2002. The Director reported back on the three successful fringe...

Gideon Amos, TCPA director. (Director's Diary).
December 1, 2001... Towards the end of November I had the good fortune to visit Brussels, the European Parliament. and the European Commission, courtesy of one of my local MEPs. Like any good fund raiser, I was of course most interested in the Commission....

Planning in November's national press ... (Between the Lines).
December 1, 2001... The long-awaited decision on Heathrow's Terminal 5, which finally saw the light of day in November, met with no surprise from anyone, and little dissent from the press. Echoing an argument widely voiced elsewhere, the Independent was in...

Housing failure's heavy price.
December 1, 2001... Anyone listening to Tony Blair's speech at the Labour Party conference back in September would have been forced to admit that it was a veritable world tour of internationalism mixed with a very New Labour commitment to the concept of...

In case you blinked, in November ... (For the Record).
December 1, 2001... Transport Secretary Stephen Byers gave the long-awaited, if far from surprising, go-ahead for Heathrow airport's Terminal 5. * The Commission for Integrated Transport Commission published a report delivering a damning assessment of the UK's...

Looking back on London's docks. (People & Ideas).
December 1, 2001... When my father was born 113 years ago in London's East India Dock Road, he was one of the two youngest of a huge family, chosen to train as teachers, and consequently when he died, nearly 60 years ago, he was the head of a bombed primary school...

Soweto -- taxi suburb. (Planning World).
December 1, 2001... Johannesburg isn't quite like any other city you ever saw. Half of it looks exactly like Surrey -- except for the fabulous jacaranda trees, actually an import from Brazil, in full blossom under the November sunshine. The illusion is almost...

Monopoly money. (Trading Places).
December 1, 2001... At a time when pressures for political and economic integration across the EU are strong, and there is much discussion of spatial planning policy, one might expect increasing consistency in the control of retail development. However, this is...

Don't mess with structure plans (yet). (Off the Fence).
December 1, 2001... The planning system in England has got into a tangle, and the promised green paper on reform has just been published. Parliament forced through a rule that planning applications have first to be assessed against the statutory development plan...

Mediation in the planning process: where do we go from here? As the use of mediation in the planning system continues to draw interest, Paul Winter argues that its most cost-effective contribution to the planning process lies in its use in more complex cases, involving major or controversial forms of development. (topics).
December 1, 2001... Mediation is becoming well established as a means of efficiently and relatively painlessly resolving disputes in the commercial and family law sector, enjoying a high success rate. Its use in the planning system is under active consideration by...

Turbulence ahead? With the long expected decision on Heathrow Terminal 5 finally confirmed, Simon Bishop looks for ways forward for post-T5 airports and aviation policy. (topics).
December 1, 2001... Now that Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5) has the go-ahead, you might wonder if British Airways will ever use it. BA recently forecast yearly losses of 775 million [pounds sterling] and a 25 per cent fall in passengers. If the long-term outlook for the...

The Children's EcoCity: Drew Mackie on a project that has been increasing environmental awareness and helping children to plan their own ideal ecologically friendly cities. (topics).
December 1, 2001... The planning and building teams have done their work in deciding what facilities the area should have. Matters of sustainability have been considered together with a comprehensive analysis of what works and what doesn't in the existing city....

Refocusing national targets for accommodating housing on brownfield sites: part 2: bringing in the settlement pattern:.
December 1, 2001... Several local authorities have recently informed the Government that they cannot achieve the 60 per cent `target' for housebuilding on `brownfield' sites. In the second of two articles on the subject, Peter Bibby and John Shepherd argue that...

A regional approach to sustainable urban form? The new-style regional planning guidance process potentially offers a greater say to regional institutions and stakeholders. So is a regionally sensitive approach discernible in how debates about urban form have been resolved in the preparation of RPG? David Counsell looks at what the current round of regional planning guidance has to say on sustainable urban form. (feature).
December 1, 2001... Urban containment has always been an objective of British planning, but there has been an ongoing debate about how much containment is practical and desirable. Supporters of the compact city point to its advantages in terms of energy...

Idealism, realism, and the Dutch compact city: although it is often cited as a model to follow, the Netherlands' pursuit of a policy of `compact city' development has not been an unqualified success, says Marco Bontje, who looks at the Dutch government's recent change in spatial development policy direction. (feature).
December 1, 2001... The recent Urban White Paper and the latest revision of PPG3: Housing clearly indicate that the UK Government retains high hopes of influencing the country's urbanisation patterns by concentrating further housing development within existing...

Streetscape -- a plea for quality: there will be no `urban renaissance' if we fail to improve and maintain environmental quality, and we need to start with a serious concern for streetscape quality and the pubic realm. (Feature).
December 1, 2001... `In most urban settlements, public space, including streets, squares, parks and less well defined `common areas', adds up to more than half the total area of land -- the rest is occupied by buildings and infrastructure. In England, this...

Community participation and affordable rural house-building: Richard Yarwood outlines the main findings of research into some of the issues and obstacles associated with providing affordable housing on rural `exceptions' sites, looking in particular at the role of public participation in the development process. (feature).
December 1, 2001... Recent reports continue to show that homelessness and access to affordable housing are problematic in rural areas. (1) In many localities there have been efforts to build homes for local people on sites outside designated settlement boundaries....

Looking eastward for answers: where are the examples of innovation in city organisation and management that we should be seeking to emulate? In answer, Brian Robson looks to east Manchester. (Live-Wire Cities).
December 1, 2001... It may be a little unfair to look at a programme in prospect rather than retrospect, but the renaissance of east Manchester not only represents the litmus test of the aspiration to create joined-up regeneration, but even in its early years it...

The new North & West. (North -- & West -- of Watford).
December 1, 2001... During the past two years this column has reported and reviewed events outwith the wider London metropolitan region. It now takes on a new format, better to reflect and represent events in the nations and regions of the UK and beyond. It will...

The West Midlands. (North -- & West -- of Watford).
December 1, 2001... One of the most striking things about the English regions is their sheer size. For example, in population terms the West Midlands is the size of Scotland or (a country I know reasonably well) Slovakia. In both these countries the production of...

The North West. (North -- & West -- of Watford).
December 1, 2001... Following the Public Examination into People, Places and Prosperity -- the Draft Regional Planning Guidance for the North West (1) that ended on 2 March 2001, the long-anticipated Report of the Panel (2) was published towards the end of July....

The forgotten face of farming. (Low-Impact Living).
December 1, 2001... Fragmentation on a grand scale is taking place on a former fruit farm near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. In the 1980s the farm was sold off in four lots to different owners. Recently, under the co-ordination of one Mike Keeley, these four...

At last! A green loyalty currency. (Local Exchange).
December 1, 2001... My last Air Miles statement would have got me half way to Paris, which is hardly Air Miles wealth -- but it did remind me that one of the functions of money is to act as an incentive. That's what loyalty cards and loyalty points are all about....

Designing Sustainable Communities: Learning from Village Homes. (Reviews: alternative technology for planners).
December 1, 2001... Designing Sustainable Communities: Learning from Village Homes By Judy and Michael Corbett Island Press, Washington, DC, USA (www.islandpress.org), 2000, ISBN 1-55963-686-6, PB, 256 ppp., index, $30 This lively and well illustrated book...

Diane Warburton on Our Common Future. (Desert Island Books).
December 1, 2001... I first came across the concept of sustainable (in a very minor way) with the UR response to the World Conservation Strategy in 1983, and was particularly fond of Joan Davidson and Ann MacEwen's wonderful contribution on `Livable Cities' (and...

The Chosen City. (Reviews: seeking better cities).
December 1, 2001... The Chosen City By Nicholas Schoon Spon Press, London, 2001, ISBN 0-415-25802-2, PB, index, 370pp. + xi, 18.99 [pounds sterling] (HB, ISBN 0-415-25801-4) Cities, to get straight to the point, are in a mess. Not that there's anything new in...

What's on.
December 1, 2001... 2002 January 22 Climate Change and Buildings. Lecture by Sue Roaf, Oxford. Details: Beth Hill, University Events Manager, Oxford Brookes University. Tel. 01865 484864 22 Creating Local Distinctiveness and a Sense of Place. Short...

Can industrial cities survive? (Inside America).
December 1, 2001... A recent visit to Cleveland, Ohio, prompts the question: what future is there for older industrial cities in the United States? The 2000 decennial census provides a mixed picture. Some cities, such as New York, seem to have thrived, even...

Second homes. (Write Back).
December 1, 2001... Nick Gallent and Mark Tewdwr-Jones (T&CP, Oct. 2001) sum up most of the arguments for and against using the use Classes Order to control the undoubted damage caused in some areas by second homes. But I wonder if they have missed what I have...

Cambridgeshire links. (Write Back).
December 1, 2001... Wyndham Thomas (T&CP, Oct. 2001) can be counted on to give the Cambridge sub-region its true designation of city-region, and to press its case for a new town. But I'm surprised at his uncritical endorsement of a guided bus as the main form of...

Environmental limits. (Write Back).
December 1, 2001... The TCPA's Programme for a Second Term (T&CP, Jul./Aug. 2001) may contain many laudable objectives, but includes a dangerously misleading definition of sustainable development. `Development' as a human activity clearly embraces the full range...

Back view: you're given the opportunity to change or introduce one piece of policy relating to the built or natural environment. T&CP asked John Perry what he would do ...
December 1, 2001... Given that housing organisations are struggling to meet a demand for more than 80,000 affordable new homes a year, when actual provision is less than half this, an urgent priority for the planning system is that it helps address this need. Of...

Enumerating flood risk. (Back Numbers).
December 1, 2001... * Five million people in England and Wales are at risk from flooding each year, principally during the flood season running from September to April. * Two million homes and 185,000 businesses in England and Wales are at risk of flooding....

Twenty-five years ago. (Back Log).
December 1, 2001... With the repeal of the financial provisions of the 1947 Act there began an emasculation of planning that led directly to the high-rise solution of the housing problem, and this was given respectability on the grounds that it would re-establish...

Connections: Paul Burrall on home zones and understanding climate change.
December 1, 2001... CLA leads the way One of the TCPA's Policy Council members recently lamented the near-disappearance of any genuine LA21 environmental activities among Britain's local authorities. An example is perhaps the biggest environmental challenge...

Erratum.
December 1, 2001... We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused in the mailing of uncompleted copies of the December 2001 issue of TCPA magazine, which you would have recently received. The new copy enclosed is now correct and has been reprinted and...