Town and Country Planning articles from July 2006

Town and Country Planning archives from July 2006

25 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
July 1, 2006... ARGUABLY, Britain's energy problem is having too much in indigenous fuel reserves, or at least too much diversity. If we took a European view, many of our supposedly uneconomical coal mines would become much more attractive, since Europe as a...

10 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
July 1, 2006... THERE is a fear that crude approaches to urban compaction may threaten the quality of urban life, with higher densities leading to a deteriorating urban environment, both within the home (in the shape of increased noise) and outside it (in the...

5 years ago.(t&cp back bites)
July 1, 2006... IF LOCAL authorities were really in charge of what happened in their areas, their electors might start paying attention to them. Those sufficiently well educated, well housed and well fed to exercise a monopoly of power and influence over new...

Context: news digest, June 2006.
July 1, 2006... * 7.6 Housing: The DCLG issues From Decent Homes to Sustainable Communities, a discussion paper on emerging ideas around social housing and affordable housing and seeking views on how we build from decent homes to sustainable communities....

Regional round-up--different challenges, same problems? TCPA policy officer David Waterhouse outlines the Association's responses to the draft North West and South East RSSs.(TCPA: HOMES & COMMUNITIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE)(Town and Country Planning Association)
July 1, 2006... THE TCPA has recently submitted responses to the draft North West and South East Regional Spatial Strategies. The new wave of regional spatial strategies (RSSs) across England is gathering pace, and the draft South West Plan has also just been...

TCPA calls for further key reforms from the Barker Review.(3TCPA: HOMES & COMMUNITIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE)(Town and Country Planning Association)
July 1, 2006... THE INTERIM report of Kate Barker's Review of Land Use Planning and its strong commitment to community involvement have been welcomed by the TCPA. But the Association also called for further-reaching reform, a national framework for...

Whose system would you rather have?(infrastructure development in Henceforth Catalonia and Madrid)
July 1, 2006... DOWN IN Barcelona and surrounding parts, they've just voted overwhelmingly--75 per cent in favour--to make themselves even more independent of Spain than they were before, which was quite a lot. Henceforth Catalonia will get more tax...

Whose city centre?(Trading Places)(Cardiff, Wales' town planning)
July 1, 2006... TAKE A WALK down Queen Street, Cardiff's main pedestrianised shopping street, on a typical weekday afternoon. You will probably come across two or three Big Issue sellers, one licensed stall (fruit and vegetables) and one ice-cream van in side...

Values that underpin sustainable neighbourhoods.(Talking Houses)
July 1, 2006... 'THIS IS NOT a numbers game... We are about building communities, not just building units.' This was the message of David Miliband, as the Minister for Communities and Local Government in the ODPM prior to the recent re-shuffle. However, the...

Transport serves the town, not vice versa.(Off the Fence)
July 1, 2006... IT IS TIME to slay the dragon which is the assertion that we must build at higher densities and intensify existing urban areas 'to make public transport viable'. It is said so often, and so carelessly, that it is no longer challenged. But it is...

A turning point in planning for climate change policy? Two recent Government policy announcements could signal a significant change for the better in the fight against climate change and its impacts.(climate change)
July 1, 2006... THE PAST 12 MONTHS have seen a remarkable change in attitude from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG)--the department formerly known as ODPM. Climate change appears to have soared up the agenda in a department that could...

On the road to sustainable consumption: Peter Jones, Daphne Comfort and David Hillier look at the issues raised in the recently published final report of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable.(sustainable lifestyles)
July 1, 2006... THE PREFACE to the final report of the Sustainable Consumption Roundtable, published in May 2006 and entitled I Will If You Will: Towards Sustainable Consumption, begins, in almost religious idiom, proclaiming 'the good life that is possible if...

Towards a coastal and marine national park in Scotland? Deborah Peel and Greg Lloyd chart the progress of marine spatial planning in Scotland as the Scottish Executive seeks to designate a third Scottish national park, covering a marine and coastal environment.(marine spatial planning)
July 1, 2006... THE National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 was an early assertion of the Scottish Executive's intent to redress the perceived deficit with respect to the designation of national parks in Scotland. While mooted in Scotland, national parks were not...

AONB management plans and development control: Alun Morgan Owen and David Alexander explore the contribution importance of management plans in development control decisions within adjoining AONBs in England and Wales.(landscape protection)(areas of outstanding natural beauty)
July 1, 2006... THERE ARE currently 40 designated areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) in England and Wales, covering approximately 14 per cent of the land area and representing some of the finest inland and coastal landscapes. During the summer of 2005...

Harnessing the hidden enterprise culture: Colin Williams reports on an innovative local-level policy measure to bring those working in the informal economy into the legitimate realm.(informal economy)
July 1, 2006... JUSTIN IS PRECISELY the type of person that the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative (LEGI) wants to nurture. Having left school at 16 years of age to set up his own car valet business, three years on, and after much hard work, he is by all...

Enough to send you up the Wal-Mart.(Going Local)('Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price')
July 1, 2006... RECENTLY, I went to see the latest in the American trend of Michael Moore-style committed documentaries as feature films. Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price wasn't quite Fahrenheit 9/11 or Supersize Me, but it carried a pretty powerful...

Planning in the USA--or not.(Design Matters)
July 1, 2006... IN MAY, by chance, I was invited to contribute to two events at opposite ends of the United States, both in the same week. At my first destination, Fort Lauderdale in Florida, the Broward County Cultural Division was celebrating the 30th...

Climate of poverty.(Earth Rights)
July 1, 2006... CHRISTIAN AID'S recently published a report, The Climate of Poverty, (1) argues that the potential impact of climate change on African countries is so drastic that over 180 million people in sub-Saharan Africa could die of diseases directly...

The devil in the detail--environmental impact assessment and barker.(Legal Eye)
July 1, 2006... THE EXPRESSION 'landmark judgement' can be over-used, but when it comes to the recent decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in R (On the application of Barker) v Bromley Borough Council [2006] All ER (D) 63, the description is...

Der ball 1st rund und das spiel dauert neunzig minuten--but balancing spatial Development requires playing the long game ...(The Euro-Files)
July 1, 2006... BY THE TIME this edition of 'The Euro-Files' appears the 2006 World Cup final will have been played, and the level of media attention devoted to the beautiful game will temporarily subside (at least until the domestic football season...

Resurgent suburbs.(Inside America)
July 1, 2006... RECENTLY, I was travelling near Merced, a medium-sized town in the San Joaquin Valley in California, when I turned off the main road to look at a small, recently-constructed housing subdivision. Like most of its neighbours, this development...

Cities and regions of sustainable communities--new strategies.
July 1, 2006... Introduction Housing policies in the developed world over the last 50 years have largely been concerned with balancing supply and demand and addressing issues of public health. Fifty years ago, faced with rapidly expanding populations and...

Rising to the challenge.(urban planning)
July 1, 2006... In the the six months that have passed since the previous newsletter was published, a lot has been happening in the APaNGO project. Among other things, extensive background research covering planning systems and community engagement throughout...

Is community involvement possible at national level?
July 1, 2006... In May the TCPA published Connecting England, the report of the cross-party Hetherington Commission appointed by the TCPA to consider England's development needs and priorities--for homes, transport and other major infrastructure etc.--and to...

Accounting and learning.
July 1, 2006... An INTERREG partnership project is all about learning from each other; and as head of TCPA's accounts and financial reporting and financial manager of the APaNGO project, I am learning a lot as I go. Sometimes with all five partners together,...

SAUL and new urban landscapes.(INTERREG IIIB FEATURED PROJECT)(Sustainable and Accessible Urban Landscapes)
July 1, 2006... SAUL--Sustainable and Accessible Urban Landscapes--is a transnational partnership project part-funded by the European Union's INTERREG IIIB programme for North West Europe. Six metropolitan regions of North West Europe are represented in the...

The APaNGO project.(community planning)(Department for Communities and Local Government and the EU INTERREG IIIB)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... APaNGO--Advocacy, Participation and NGOs in Planning--is an international project, supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the EU INTERREG IIIB funding programme, which aims to establish a North West European...

Skills to engage the community--update from the ASC.(Academy for Sustainable Communities)(Brief article)
July 1, 2006... Better community engagement is vital to the new Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) strategy aiming to put skills and knowledge at the heart of sustainable communities. Professionals, young people and local communities are set to...