Town and Country Planning articles from December 2003

Town and Country Planning archives from December 2003

25 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
December 1, 2003... THE planning movement lost its momentum when planners became sufficiently confident as technicians to feel that they no longer needed the active support of an interested public. Planners may be no longer interested in planning being anything...

10 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
December 1, 2003... DESPITE the apparent shift in the balance of public spending away from road in favour of rail, there is little ground for optimism. The Government's emphasis is on leaving public transport infrastructure to the vagaries of private finance....

5 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
December 1, 2003... I HOPE planning aiders will ask themselves the question: 'Is my action helping the socially excluded in the competition for land, environment and life chances?' If the answer is 'No', it might be better politely to decline a request for help....

Context: news digest, November 2003.(context)
December 1, 2003... * 3.11 Regional government: Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott launches the 'Your Say' campaign in the North West, North East, and Yorkshire and the Humber to raise awareness of the role of regional government in advance of the three...

Involving stakeholders--a prerequisite to regional planning: the TCPA recently published the results of an 18-month study into stakeholder involvement in regional planning processes. Study co-ordinator Robert Shaw outlines some of its findings.(Inside Stories)
December 1, 2003... OVER THE PAST DECADE, regional planning guidance (RPG) has emerged as a key element in the consideration, articulation, and delivery of major proposals for land use and movement. Regional spatial planning has a vital role to play in creating...

Steppinq backwards into the future?(TCPA)
December 1, 2003... * Influencing the Size, Type and Affordability of Housing. Consultation Paper on a Proposed Change to Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 Housing. ODPM, London, 2003 The TCPA Response Influencing the Size, Type and Affordability of Housing...

Too rushed to be practical ...(TCPA)
December 1, 2003... * Supporting the Delivery of New Housing. Consultation Paper on a Proposed Change to Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 Housing. ODPM, London, 2003 The TCPA Response THE Supporting the Delivery of New Housing consultation paper proposes...

Housing values.(People & Ideas)
December 1, 2003... IN 1914, 90 per cent of British families, rich or poor, rented or leased their homes, and nine per cent were owner-occupiers. By 1980, 55 per cent of households were owner-occupied while at least a third were tenants of local authorities. Since...

Regional government and local authority.(Planning World)
December 1, 2003... ENGLAND is going to get devolved--slowly. The Queen's Speech promised that "legislation will... be introduced to provide for the holding of referendums on the issue of regional governance in England.' So England may eventually vote to break...

A new regional policy.(Talking Houses)
December 1, 2003... OVER THE LAST YEAR there have been a few welcome signs that the Government has recognised the need for stronger regional policies. We are still a long way from a coherent national strategy to reduce the gap between the richer and poorer...

Honey, they've shrunk the RDAs.(Off the Fence)
December 1, 2003... WHEN THE regional development agencies (RDAS) were created in England, we thought we were Witnessing the creation of an executive arm of the emerging layer of regional government. Whether regional governance began as an appointed chamber or was...

Could do better ... focusing on the crucial policy areas of settlement strategy and the rural economy, James Shorten finds little appreciation of rural realities in the new draft rural planning policy for England, PPS7--but also, more positively, sees a hint of what could be its saving grace.(rural planning)
December 1, 2003... PPS7 ADOPTS an ambitious title: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas. Coincidentally, this was often the theme of questions I used to set students when I taught a rural planning course as a lecturer. If the consultation draft of PPS7 were one...

Rural housing realities fail to bite: draft PPS7 fails to deliver joined-up thinking on rural housing policy.(rural planning)
December 1, 2003... IT ISN'T THE SENTIMENTS in these mission statements that worry me; it's the reality checks that no-one seems to apply. By 'reality' I mean the connection between the aims and objects of one set of policy statements and others which ostensibly...

Three into one-joining up the Greater South East: Ion Gordon looks for elements of an effective governance system for the Greater South East super-region--which is currently divided in a problematic way between three sets of institutions, each trying to integrate activities within their own territories around their own sets of strategic goals.(regional policy)
December 1, 2003... THE HEART OF THE modern British economy lies in a super-region, the Greater South East, which operates as one in economic terms, but is now split in three for governance purposes, with London, the South East, and the East all boasting their own...

Five barriers to sustainable brownfield development: Katie Williams and Carol Dair report the findings of case study research on the extent to which sustainability objectives have been incorporated into developments on brownfield sites.(sustainability in development)
December 1, 2003... SUSTAINABLE brownfield development is an important planning issue in the UK, Europe, and the USA. In England, local authorities are urged, through planning policy, to develop previously used land, such as former docklands, factory sites, and...

Taxation for development: opening a short series of articles looking at ways of meeting the public sector costs associated with new development, Richard Butt reviews the range of land and development taxation options open for possible use.(financing development)
December 1, 2003... THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER'S Sustainable Communities statement (1) made early in 2003 has reinforced the need for improvements in the methods of implementing and funding large-scale development. For the past couple of decades the orthodoxy...

A new era for developers and planning authorities? In the first of a short series of articles examining the courts' approach to 'macro-political' decision-making, where the human rights, amenity, and the general environment of the community may be directly affected, Paul Winter looks at the newly increased ease with which claimants may apply for judicial review.(planning and the courts)
December 1, 2003... OVER THE PAST YEAR OR SO, there have been some important decisions in the courts which have raised the degree of legal accountability of public decision-makers for planning decisions and which have taken away some of the defences and 'fixes'...

Japan's rural renaissance: Philip Lowe and Kayo Murakami look at the emerging trend towards endogenous rural development and the renaissance of the country towns in Japan.(rural japan)
December 1, 2003... IN JAPAN there is a growing interest in the future of their smaller towns, and among planners there is a particular interest in learning from the experience of other countries about the revitalisation of smaller towns and their role in rural...

Liveability--Slow Cities and Smart Growth: Peter Jones, David Hillier, and Daphne Comfort look at the concepts of 'Slow Cities' and 'Smart Growth' and, drawing on some illustrative examples of embryonic thinking and practice, ask how applicable they are to development and regeneration in the UK.(urban quality)
December 1, 2003... THE CONCEPT OF LIVEABILITY is now high on the UK Government's urban policy agenda. It can be loosely defined as 'all those aspects of a place which make people happy to live and work there', hut it embraces a complex and inter-related set of...

Farm diversification--who really benefits?(Low-Impact Living)
December 1, 2003... HOW DO YOU explain this? As I write, Stags Agency has two farms for sale at its Launceston office. Farm A has 94 acres of 'highly productive' arable land, and a four-bedroomed house with no agricultural tie: guide price 675,000 [pounds...

What's on.(Calendar)
December 1, 2003... January 13 Community Project Management. Training Course, London. Details: Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation, Telford. T: 0870 770 0339. W: www.nif.co.uk 15 An Introduction to Action Planning. Training Course, Truro. Details:...

Connections.
December 1, 2003... Invisible crisis QUALIFYING the word 'housing' with the word 'affordable' is little more than a sick joke if a recent study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation is to be believed. In 46 local authority areas, key worker households with two...