Town and Country Planning articles from February 2002

Town and Country Planning archives from February 2002

Insights into master planning practice; `development frameworks: master planning for mixed-use development'. TCPA Conference, Birmingham, 10 December 2001.
February 1, 2002... This conference was designed to set the story straight about `master planning' in a context of mixed-use development and partnership working. There were some telling insights into the nature of master planning and many acute observations about...

The frictionless world of the Planning Green Paper; `The Planning Green Paper: People, Power and Participation'. TCPA Conference, London, 24 January 2002.
February 1, 2002... At the end of January, more than 100 delegates attended the TCPA conference on `The Planning Green Paper', billed as an opportunity to consider `people, power and participation'. In the event, discussion ranged widely over most aspects of the...

Sir Colin Buchanan.
February 1, 2002... Sir Colin Buchanan, who died in December at the age of 94, was one of the great figures of 20th century British planning. And one can say that like another hero, Ebenezer Howard, his towering reputation was based on just one book. Traffic in...

Brian Parker.
February 1, 2002... It is with great sadness that the TCPA learnt of the death of Brian Parker at the relatively early age of 67. Just over a year ago he had been diagnosed as having myeloid leukaemia, and although chemotherapy treatment raised hopes that he would...

Squaring the circle?
February 1, 2002... Anyone who wants to see real improvements in society -- to see more sustainable and sociable communities -- should not underestimate the importance of the planning process in effecting change. But undoubtedly the planning system is in need of...

The community of scholars. (People & Ideas).
February 1, 2002... There's a media image of researchers as manic characters hiding their current results from enquirers, in case some rival should get there first. My own experience has been the opposite. With a propagandist agenda of my own, I seek out the...

Protecting the brand. (Off the Fence).
February 1, 2002... The Prince's Foundation is now fully operational from its base in a splendid converted warehouse in the eastern fringe of the City of London. The presence of the organisation in the area has helped stimulate local regeneration, the narrow...

Learning from Dutch pragmatists. (Planning World).
February 1, 2002... A Dutch planner came to talk the other day, and as I prepared the ritual giant pot of coffee -- an essential preliminary for any serious Anglo-Dutch encounter -- he caused it almost to slip out of my hands. For he suddenly told me that our...

Cutting traffic -- possibilities and opportunities. (Getting Somewhere).
February 1, 2002... Car use for school travel has just fallen for the first time in over 25 years. In 1975/76, 16 per cent of children aged 5-10 and 7 per cent of children aged 11-15 arrived at school by car, according to the National Travel Survey. By 1997/99,...

Talking about places; Dennis Hardy introduces a new series looking at particular places in Britain -- what it's like to live in these places, how people feel about them, and the contribution, for good or ill, of the planning system in creating them. (feature).
February 1, 2002... We all talk about the places where we live. Usually, it's a bit of a moan -- about traffic jams, the closure of high street shops, the threat of new development on a greenfield site, or the constant sight of litter and graffiti in the streets....

Reality check required; ministers need help if the Planning Green Paper is to `deliver a fundamental change'. (feature: planning green paper).
February 1, 2002... It is better to plan the use of land rather fight over it, and it is better to make arrangements for the future rather than drift unprepared. The publication of the Green Paper Planning: Delivering a Fundamental Change (1) is a great chance to...

A short history of reform; John Delafons outlines the successive attempts to reform or tinker with the planning system since the first Act of 1909. (feature: planning green paper).
February 1, 2002... At his speech to the Annual Conference of the Confederation of British Industry in Birmingham in November, the Prime Minister conducted a very rapid tour d'horizon of his empire and proposed reforming everything in sight (including Whitehall...

A fundamental change for plans? Stephen Crow examines the Planning Green Paper's proposals for development plans (feature: planning green paper).
February 1, 2002... The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) tells us in its Green Paper Planning: Delivering a Fundamental Change that it proposes to abolish structure plans, local plans, and unitary development plans and replace them...

Ups and downs for development control; Bob Bennett, of the Planning Officers Society, looks at how the development control proposals measure up.
February 1, 2002... The Planning Officers Society (POS) has always taken the view that development control is not just a regulatory `sausage machine' churning out decisions in eight weeks. Its purpose is to add to the overall quality of our environment, while at...

Major infrastructure, fundamental change ... but for better or worse? William Walton looks at the Major Infrastructure Projects consultation paper and finds cause for unease over the suitability and integrity of the proposed parliamentary procedures. (feature: planning green paper).
February 1, 2002... The nine-year delay in the determination of the proposals for Heathrow Terminal 5, occasioned as a result of the lengthy public inquiry and ministerial indecision, has, not surprisingly, provided a catalyst for a fundamental overhaul of...

Blowing up bridges: streamlining major infrastructure project procedures is one thing, but whether the proposals would result in a Britain that anyone wants to live in is another.
February 1, 2002... The major infrastructure project problem has come to obsess planners rather as the Konigsberg bridge problem once tantalised mathematicians, even though the place is now called Kaliningrad. The city's best brains worried over whether it were...

Wrong questions, wrong answers: Raquelle Lancaster and Richard Adam suggest that the planning Green Paper's pre-occupation with speed wastes an opportunity to re-design the planning system for a 21st century democracy. (feature: planning green paper).
February 1, 2002... Is it really 20 years since Michael Heseltine invented new methods of speeding up planning -- after which Mrs Thatcher's government eventually had to re-invent the plan-led system because of the unpopularity of many of the developments...

Rural pub futures: John Pratten looks at the future of the rural pub and at licensees' attempts to reverse declining trade; and, below, John Pratten and Chris Lovatt report on the history of one particular hamlet, its pub, and the planning decisions that now blight the building. (feature).
February 1, 2002... Pubs are closing at the rate of about one a day, with rural pubs particularly vulnerable. Many reasons can be advanced, such as changes in leisure expenditure, low prices at off-licences and supermarkets, the increasing impact of drink-driving...

Swallowing a dose of ESPON. (The Euro-Files).
February 1, 2002... On 1 February 2002, the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions launched the UK component of ESPON 2006, the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network research programme. ESPON is an European Commission funded...

Meanwhile, out on the edge. (Inside America).
February 1, 2002... My previous column dealt with the problems of a decaying industrial city -- Cleveland -- that is fighting for its life. Meanwhile, a very different struggle is being fought out on the far edges of America's metropolitan areas. Huge areas of...

What's on.
February 1, 2002... March 19 Showcasing Good Practice in Local Transport. DTLR/Robert Gordon University Centre for Transport Policy Conference, London. Details: Centre for Transport Policy, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. Tel. 01224 263134 21 Making...

Connections: Paul Burall on the end of the oil era, wind power potential, and advance route-finding systems.
February 1, 2002... The end of oil Environmentalists have long been forecasting that oil will run out within a decade or two. But the discovery of new reserves has always made such forecasts look foolish. However, a book published earlier this year suggests...