PLAN UPFRONT
Forth Bridge is awarded World Heritage Site status Viral Desai (above), New Young Planner of the Year (left) Staff from Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, winner of Excellence in Planning for the Public Realm
scheme. The project won the award for Excellence In Planning to Deliver Housing. In Planning to Deliver Housing. In Wales, the River Taff Central Link and Penderyn Square Development was praised for its “really interesting approach to community engagement” on winning the Planning and Design for the Public Realm award. Peterborough City Council, winner of the Local Authority Planning Team of the Year, was noted for its neighbourhood planning support, as well as its “far-sighted approach to the process of change”. Place Studio, the Small Planning Consultancy of the Year, had a “strong philosophy with a clear niche in neighbourhood planning and community engagement”; Indigo Planning, the victor in the Planning Consultancy of the Year category, was said to have “an excellent client and stakeholder engagement ethos”. If nothing else, 2014-15 was the year planners discovered and promoted the value of working with communities. But it was also a year of record entries to the RTPI Awards – 50 per cent more than in 2014, with 80 finalists across 14 categories. “Quite frankly, planning has never been so popular,” joked Kevin Murray. RTPI president Janet Askew added: “I think it’s a credit to the very high standards of excellence in this country.” But it fell to former Labour planning minister and chair of judges Nick Raynsford to sum up the mood of the evening. “Planning by its very nature arouses strong feelings and that’s why it’s so important to recognise the achievements of those who have created and facilitated inspirational plans and developments that have truly enhanced the quality of life in Great Britain and Ireland. Good planning is fundamental to the prosperity and health of a society.” The Planner's series of RTPI Awards case studies starts this issue on p.22.
The Forth Bridge is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site – becoming Scotland’s sixth site to be awarded the status. The 125-year-old cantilever rail bridge joins Edinburgh Old and New Towns, the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, New Lanark, the Antonine Wall and St Kilda. Spanning the Firth of Forth on the east coast of Scotland, the bridge opened in 1890 after eight years of construction.
Lough Neagh sand-dredging firms face huge appeal costs The companies appealing against Northern Ireland environment minister Mark H Durkan’s order to stop dredging sand from Lough Neagh face escalating costs estimated at more than a quarter of a million pounds. Five sand companies and the Shaftesbury estate, which owns the bed of the Lough, are challenging a direction to stop extraction. But an appeal also serves as an application for planning permission – and that will cost each of the six parties more than £40,000. The minister intervened over the long-running activities of the companies last month and ordered them to halt dredging operations. Sand has been extracted from the bed of the lough since the 1930s, but the operation has never had planning permission. It is estimated that about 1.7 million tonnes of sand a I M AG E S | A L A M Y /
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It was designed by Sir John Fowler and Benjamin Baker. The award was announced during the 39th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bonn, Germany. The bid for World Heritage Status was taken forward by the Forth Bridges Forum, which was established by the Scottish Government to promote the three Forth Bridges. In a statement on the UNESCO website, the bridge is described as “innovative in style, materials and scale”. It continues: “The Forth Bridge is an important milestone in bridge design and construction during the period when railways came to dominate long-distance land travel.” Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that it is fitting that the Forth Bridge has been recognised as a World Heritage Site as it “is known as one of the industrial wonders of the world”. Sturgeon added: “The Forth Bridge is an outstanding example of Scotland’s built heritage and its endurance is testament not only to the ingenuity of those who designed and built it, but also to the generations of painters, engineers and maintenance crews who have looked after it through the years.”
year are removed using special dredging barges. The sand dredged from the lough supplies around a quarter of Northern Ireland’s construction needs annually. But the Lough is also an important bird habitat, protected by European Union directives. Environmentalists had complained that unregulated sand extraction was threatening the site.
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