Town and Country Planning articles from November 2003

Town and Country Planning archives from November 2003

T&CP back bites.
November 1, 2003... 25 years ago HOW DO organized interest groups manage, or fail to manage, to get their own way? How is it that the closer a politician gets to wielding actual power, the greater are the constraints on him actually doing anything? What are...

News digest, October 2003.(Context)
November 1, 2003... * 1.10 Local government: London Mayor Ken Livingstone calls for London's 32 boroughs to be slimmed down into five super-districts. * 1.10 Energy: A new study carried out by the University of Uppsala in Sweden warns that oil and gas reserves...

Extending sustainably.
November 1, 2003... * 'Creating Sustainable Communities: Urban Extensions--Practical Solutions' TCPA conference, 30 October 2003, Swindon SWINDON WAS AN an ideal venue for a conference on urban extensions, having been subject to town expansion historically...

Urban renaissance policy statement.
November 1, 2003... THE TCPA HAS SET OUT in a new policy statement a 14-point plan for widening the effects of the urban renaissance in England. 'Successful urban renaissance has too long been confined to the core areas of our cities,' said TCPA Director...

Development control--Russian style.(People & Ideas)
November 1, 2003... FOR MANY OF US, the most interesting aspect of house and home in pre-Soviet, as well as Soviet, and especially post-Soviet Russia, has been the dacha. Stephen Lovell, the author of a handsomely illustrated new book, remarks that the word is...

The coming challenge of the four-garage family and the starter castle.(Planning World)
November 1, 2003... READING Dolores Hayden's brilliant new book on the history of housing in America, I was struck by two casual remarks towards the end. The first is that the average American house now under construction has more garage space than the total space...

Awkward information.(Off the Fence)
November 1, 2003... THE GOVERNMENT is excited at the idea of converting even more office blocks in city centres to create more flats. The market likes the idea, too: there is a shortage of homes and a surfeit of ugly old office blocks. However, we learn from...

Modernising environmental justice: Richard Macrory and Michael Woods, authors of a recent research report on Modernising Environmental Justice, explain why they believe that the time has come for political action to implement the concept of an Environmental Tribunal.(environmental justice)
November 1, 2003... THE BENEFITS OF setting up an Environmental Court or Tribunal in the UK have been the subject of ongoing debate over the last decade or so. It has been argued that, without a specialised and dedicated appeal body, decisions are taken which can...

The rise and fall of human rights in planning: recent decisions have demonstrated the difficulties that individuals face in persuading the courts that their rights should outweigh the public interest which the planning system is intended to protect--even when the European Convention on Human Rights is brought into play.(environmental justice)
November 1, 2003... DURING THE WINTER OF 2000/01 there appeared to be a distinct possibility that by enacting the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), Parliament had unwittingly sounded the death knell for a planning system based on political decision-making. This was a...

Putting environment into planning: the need for a fundamental review of the place and purpose of planning in an era of growing environmental crisis appears to have been dismissed by the Government.(environmental planning)
November 1, 2003... IN ITS 23RD REPORT, on Environmental Planning, (1) the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) presented a broad ranging perspective on what needs to be done to ensure that environmental matters are fully incorporated into the...

Guide to SEA navigation: Riki Therivel outlines the approach taken in the newly issued ODPM guidance on strategic environmental assessment of plans and programmes.(strategic environmental assessment)
November 1, 2003... A YEAR AFTER it published consultation guidance on strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for local and regional land use plans in England, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has published its final guidance. SEA is required...

Traffic in Towns revisited: November 1963 saw the publication of the influential Buchanan Report. Forty years on, Stephen Marshall revisits Traffic in Towns and suggests lessons for today's streets-oriented urban design agenda.(traffic and urban design)
November 1, 2003... THE 1960S BRISTLED WITH IDEAS for futuristic cities of capsules, containers, and conveyors. hr ml era of experimentation and innovation, the time seemed ripe for re-inventing the city, using the motor car as a 'machine for planning with'. (1)...

Bikes and trams--integrating the benefits: Hugh McClintock and Dave Morris look at how potential problems raised by attempts to integrate cycling and light rapid transit might be overcome.(transport integration)
November 1, 2003... THE PROMOTION of sustainable transport in cities includes active encouragement of cycling and walking for shorter trips. It also involves facilitating various better combinations of these most sustainable modes with public transport to help...

A dragon in sheep's clothing?(Wales Spatial Plan)
November 1, 2003... The recently issued draft Wales Spatial Plan may appear to be an instrument lacking in ambition and content, but widespread support for the principle of a spatial planning framework for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government's genuine...

Planning for renewable energy in Wales: Phil Ward and Trevor Price look at some of the problems raised in the use of the planning system to support or oppose renewable energy developments.(renewable energy)
November 1, 2003... IF THE GOAL of sustainable development, as outlined by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, (1) is to be realised, then those of us that are rich, in terms of meeting our basic needs, must prune our profligate and unsustainable lifestyles, so as...

Can I have it in cash? Colin C. Williams investigates the implications of targeting deprived populations when seeking to eradicate the cash-in-hand economy.(social capital)
November 1, 2003... THE ERADICATION of 'cash-in-hand' work is now high up the policy agenda. The European Council meeting in the spring of 2003 made its eradication one of the top ten priorities for action in the European Union. The UK Government, reflecting this,...

The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate? Peter Jones, David Hillier, and Daphne Comfort outline the origins and characteristics of gated communities and discuss some of the issues they raise.(gated communities)
November 1, 2003... THE DEVELOPMENT of 'sustainable communities' is an important part of the UK Government's wider commitment to sustainable development. The Government's concept of sustainable communities embraces, among other elements, a flourishing local...

Remaining aspirational?(North & West of Watford)
November 1, 2003... THE CURRENT Planning Bill will, we are told, herald a new era in planning; it will be speedier, provide more certainty for prospective developers, and be more firmly embedded in the community. You need to remember this, because the belated...

Exposing the state of play space.
November 1, 2003... No Particular Place to Go By Ken Worpole Groundwork UK, Birmingham, 2003, PB T: 0121-236 8565. W: http://www.groundwork.org.uk DESPITE THE EFFORTS of thousands of designers, architects, and play-workers over the last four or...

What's on.(Calendar)
November 1, 2003... December 2 Planning Reform: The Next Steps. RICS/BURA/RTPI/TCPA/ODPM Seminar, Birmingham. 70 [pounds sterling]-160 [pounds sterling] + VAT. Details: RICS, London. T: 020-7695 1600. E: events@rics.org 2 Property Development Appraisals....

California nightmare.(Inside America)
November 1, 2003... RIGHT NOW IN THE US, it's hard to write about anything other than Iraq, the great electrical power blackout, or California politics. The first two are beyond this column, but California politics affect planning a lot. California's reputation...