Town and Country Planning articles from January 2006

Town and Country Planning archives from January 2006

25 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
January 1, 2006... DISCUSSION of policies for shaping urban Britain can easily become a disconnected list of things to do. At no time since the planning system was introduced in 1947 has there been less clarity of purpose than there is now. There is little...

10 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
January 1, 2006... THE CONCEPT of a polycentric city-region, acting as a northern counter-balance to London, as a big player on the European stage, and as a group of cities committed to co-operation alongside competition, is worthy of future thought. This...

5 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
January 1, 2006... IMPLICIT in these fundamental changes is the hope that, even without specific integrating mechanisms, the agendas of local neighbourhoods, cities and regions can be linked and tied in to national priorities. And that bending mainstream...

Context: news digest, December 2005.(reports)(Report)
January 1, 2006... * 5.12 Planning: The ODPM publishes Consultation Paper on New Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3): Housing. The consultation period closes 27 February 2006. www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1162075 * 5.12 Housing: The Treasury and the ODPM...

TCPA: homes & communities for a sustainable future.(Town and Country Planning Association)
January 1, 2006... The charitable purpose of the Town and Country Planning Association is to improve the art and science of town and country planning. It is the only independent organisation concerned with planning and housing covering the UK and is the longest...

Infrastructure for sustainable growth--the best way forward.(TCPA)
January 1, 2006... Financing the Future--Funding Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities TCPA/Smith Institute Conference, London, 13 December 2005 According to the BPF's Liz Peace, the property industry sees funding major new transport infrastructure as a...

David Hall.(Town and Country Planning Association)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... EVERYONE at the TCPA was deeply saddened to learn of the death on 12 January 2006 of former TCPA Director David Hall, and they wish to express their deepest sympathy to David's wife, Janet, and his family. A full appreciation will appear in the...

What a difference a decade makes--facing up to an 'unsustainable' housing future.(Town and Country Planning Association's conference)
January 1, 2006... More and Better Homes Summit--Where Do You Want to Live? TCPA Conference, London, 26 October 2005 IN FEBRUARY 1996 the TCPA inquiry into the English household projections, 'The People: Where Will They Go?', opened in London on the same...

The tension between two Englands.(Planning World)
January 1, 2006... AS ONE WAY of spending a winter afternoon, there's a lot to commend a journey round England with J.B. Priestley. Not literally, of course: Priestley, who died in 1984 just short of his 90th birthday, isn't around to drive you--and, on his own...

Are you being under-served?(Trading Places)
January 1, 2006... SINCE I last wrote in this journal about 'food deserts', (1) the focus of attention has widened. As well as examining problems in accessing convenience shopping, especially in areas of social deprivation, planners are now being urged to...

A decisive shift in supply policy.(Talking Houses)
January 1, 2006... 'THE GOVERNMENT has accepted the case set out in the Barker Review for a step-change in housing supply.' This is the key sentence in the Government's response to the report of Kate Barker's Review of Housing Supply, (1) and it marks a decisive...

Efficiency and inclusivity--'make it a reality now or give up': Deborah Peel and Greg Lloyd look at the provisions of the Scottish Planning Bill published in December and its bearing on the efficiency-inclusivity challenge.(planning in Scotland)
January 1, 2006... JUST BEFORE the 2005 Christmas recess, the Planning etc. (Scotland) Bill was presented to the Scottish Parliament by the Communities Minister, Malcolm Chisholm, who is responsible, among other things, for land use planning. (1) Echoing the...

Unanswered questions on climate change and flood risk: the new Planning Bill for Scotland could have provided an opportunity to deal sensibly with the planning issues arising from climate change and the need for sustainable development, but instead it leaves several key questions unanswered.(planning in Scotland)
January 1, 2006... UNTIL RECENTLY, the Scottish Executive has produced remarkably sensible policy documents on issues of land use planning and building construction which have set an example to other countries. (1) One of the best is Scottish Planning Policy...

Something missing from the East of England regional radar: the draft East of England Plan falls down on the scale of long-term housing need and how this could be addressed by sustainable new settlements within a balanced portfolio approach to new housing.(regional spatial strategy)
January 1, 2006... THE SMALL cathedral city of Ely has been making its mark on planning history, with the Examination in Public (EIP) of the draft East of England Plan, the first of the new-style regional spatial strategies (RSSs). The EIP opened back in November...

An opportunity for sensible debate on housing supply: Pat Willoughby looks at the principal elements of the draft new PPS3 and at the various policy documents on housing supply recently issued by the Government.(planning for housing)
January 1, 2006... IN DECEMBER 2005 the Government embarked upon a major consultation exercise, producing a number of documents, linked in various ways to its response to the Barker Report. Kate Barker's Review of Housing Supply was commissioned jointly by...

Last-chance saloon for betterment taxation? Richard Butt looks at the proposals in the 'Planning Gain Supplement' consultation paper and finds the PGS right in principle and, subject to effective and workable implementation, an essential practical measure for the delivery of sustainable communities.(planning gain supplement)
January 1, 2006... 'And because our aim is to build not just homes but communities: to fund the new roads, schools, hospitals and infrastructure that convert estates into genuine communities, building on the recommendation of Kate Barker, we are today publishing...

The PGS--questions and options: many of the promises made for PGS are a major step forward and are a tempting prospect; but the loose ends and unknowns left unaddressed by the consultation paper make it difficult to give the PGS proposal wholehearted support, and there ought to be more examination of alternative ways of achieving the same objectives.(planning gain supplement)
January 1, 2006... ROUGHLY 18 MONTHS after the report of Kate Barker's Review of Housing Supply, the Government has published its draft proposals for a 'Planning Gain Supplement' (PGS) as part of Gordon Brown's pre-budget package. (1) There are two basic...

Capital matters: reflecting on a recent meeting of the Capital Alliance network of capital cities, Dennis Hardy looks for lessons for the UK in the function and organisation of capital cities elsewhere in the world.(capital cities)
January 1, 2006... IT'S PROBABLY TRUE to say that most of the world's older capital cities wear their national responsibilities lightly. London, for instance, has been the nation's capital for so long that its role is more or less taken for granted. Paris, Rome...

Messing up centrally.(Going Local)(economic policy)
January 1, 2006... SOME general elections ago, the former Times Editor Simon Jenkins had the temerity to mention one of those things which, he argued, we all know about but don't articulate: the BBC's economic policy. It isn't generally acknowledged that they...

Communication breakdown--mobile phone masts and planning.(Legal Eye)
January 1, 2006... ONE OF THE paradoxes of the planning system is that the ability of the regulatory authorities to control some of the most controversial forms of development can be subject to the most acute constraints. In the case of telecommunications mast...

Antidotes to car use fatalism.
January 1, 2006... Reducing Car-Use: Time to Get Serious Conference, London, 29 November 2005 THE AIM of reducing car use has been on the political agenda for around 15 years but has proven largely unresponsive to policy initiatives. In contrast to other UK...

Not invented here (unfortunately).(writeback)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2006... AS THE ONE who led the UK negotiating team on the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), I am pleased that it is still causing waves. In his article, 'Fundamental questions for the ESDP' (Town & Country Planning, November, 2005),...

Central shopping.(writeback)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2006... CLIFF GUY'S ARTICLE in the November issue of Town & Country Planning ('Stop-go policy') is correct in identifying a lack of clarity in the Government's polices on retail location. Unfortunately, it continues in the same vein as the Government,...

Dimming the lights.(Rome's energy conservation plans)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... THE CITY of Rome is the latest city to dim its lights to prevent light pollution obscuring the night sky, as well to save energy. Rome aims to save 40 per cent of the energy costs of its 1 70,000 street lights and intends to legislate to...

Creative secret.(entrepreneurs)
January 1, 2006... TRADITIONAL DEVELOPMENT models assume that people follow jobs. However, there is increasing evidence that jobs in fact follow people; that entrepreneurs move to places they find attractive and that is then where the jobs go. This new...

Homework.(working at home)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... HOMEWORKING is increasing: the Future Foundation think-tank puts the figure at 2.5 million people working from home either full- or part-time, while the Management Consultancies Association suggests that remote working is now regular practice...

After the storm.(Inside America)
January 1, 2006... MORE THAN four months after Hurricane Katrina and the destruction of New Orleans, things are becoming clear. First, this was not a 'natural disaster'. Leaving aside the question of whether human-induced global warming has been increasing...