Town and Country Planning articles from November 2002

Town and Country Planning archives from November 2002

The landlord's return. (People & Ideas).
November 1, 2002... In time for the centenary of Letchworth next year, Dr Mervyn Miller has rewritten and updated his marvellously illustrated history, Letchworth: The First Garden City, in which the saddest page for me is page 199, where the author reveals that:...

Back from the Summit. (Off the Fence).
November 1, 2002... The Urban Summit in Birmingham has closed. I stare at my souvenir tote bag which is stuffed with brochures, booklets, CDs, DVDs, and a nifty spirit-level key-ring fob with `Birmingham City Council' written on the side, and wonder what...

Cutting car use for work travel. (Getting Somewhere).
November 1, 2002... On average, a good travel plan reduces the proportion of staff driving to work by nearly a fifth--and costs considerably less, per employee, than providing parking--according to latest research for the Department for Transport. (1) The research...

Travel plans--a greenwash or an effective planning mechanism? Jean Fraser and Lynda Addison explain how travel plan secured through the planning system could result in reduced congestion, improved accessibility for all, improved public transport, cycling, and walking facilities, and an improved environment. (feature).
November 1, 2002... Some planners and engineers believe that seeking travel plans though the planning system amounts to `letting developers off the hook', and that travel plans are a `greenwash' which achieve little. Recent research (1) contradicts this view and...

Delivering affordable housing through planning policy: Nigel Stuart-Baker outlines the findings of research conducted to determine how effective planning is in the delivery of affordable housing, and to identify examples of better practice that could be widely replicated by local authorities. (feature).
November 1, 2002... Earlier in 2002 the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) published a planning research report on Delivering Affordable Housing through Planning Policy. (1) The objective of the research was to examine how effective...

The big clean-up--public rhetoric and reality: the `interim discussion paper' recently issued by the Strategy Unit as part of its examination and review of the Waste Strategy 2002 suggested that `low public awareness' is still a key barrier to change in household waste management. Stewart Bart presents research on attitudes towards recycling and their relationship to actual behaviour. (feature).
November 1, 2002... The past year has not been a good one for the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Meacher. Sidelined in the post-Byers reshuffle and nearly prevented from attending the World Summit on Environment and Development in Johannesburg,...

Living in the 24-hour city: city centres have been the focus of much leisure and housing development. Using evidence from Bristol and Swansea, where city centre residential development has been a success, Andrew Tallon and Rosemary Bromley look at the problems of living in the 24-hour city and suggest some policy priorities. (feature).
November 1, 2002... The British city centre has undergone widespread change and restructuring over the past 30 years. The dominant commercial status of the city centre has been increasingly challenged by the functional decentralisation of a wide range of...

Realising the `fifth utility'? with a recent Home Office sponsored review of the impact of key crime reduction strategies casting doubt on the effectiveness of high-profile street CCTV schemes, Craig Johnstone looks at the video surveillance of Britain's public spaces and at what the further extension of CCTV coverage is likely to achieve. (feature).
November 1, 2002... Writing in Town & Country Planning in 1999, Stephen Graham (1) argued that closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance was becoming such a common feature of urban public space in Britain that it was gradually emerging as the fifth public...

Le Rheu--Letchworth in Brittany? Steve Musgrave looks at a little known post-war settlement in North West France, planned and developed on principles explicitly acknowledged as owing a debt to Raymond Unwin, and bearing many resemblances to parts of Letchworth, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and New Earswick. (feature).
November 1, 2002... A casual visitor to the small settlement of Le Rheu near Rennes in Northern France might be puzzled to find it proclaimed on the town map as a `Cite Jardin'. While not a city by any stretch of imagination, it is indeed a very late example of...