The Planner August 2014

AUGUST 2014 ‘IN PRAISE OF LOCAL PLANNING’S YOUNG FIREBRANDS’ // p.12 • PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS: HAS SCRAPPING THE PLANNING RULES BACKFIRED? // p.22 • OLYMPIC PARK’S LEGACY AS A CITY ANNEXE // p.26 • RUNNING A CONSULTATION // p.40

T H E B U S I N ES S M O N T H LY FO R P L A N N I N G P R O F ES S IO N A LS

PLANNER

THE

IN THE

RING How Birmingham’s planning director is making the city a contender

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Celebrate with the RTPI in 2014 To mark the occasion of our Centenary a number of projects and events are taking place throughout the year.

Check out the RTPI Centenary 2014 page on our ZHEVLWH WR À QG RXW ZKDW \RXU UHJLRQ LV GRLQJ DQG KRZ \RX FDQ JHW LQYROYHG 2XU &HQWHQDU\ LV D WUHPHQGRXV RSSRUWXQLW\ WR UDLVH WKH SUR¿ OH RI SODQQLQJ the Institute and its membership and the profession as a whole. It gives us a unique chance to look forward to the future of planning whilst at the same time celebrating our rich history and past experience.

rtpi.org.uk

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CONTENTS

PLANNER P 10 18

THE

AU GU ST

20 14

“PEOPLE FEEL THEY ARE WORKING IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT. IT ISN’T ALL DONE YET, BUT WE HAVE MADE HUGE PROGRESS”

NEWS

6 Rebuilding at the DCLG – but is it a winning team?

7 Rail freight terminal gets first development consent order

8 Freedom of the city?

9 HS2 HQ to boost Birmingham regeneration masterplan

OPINION

10 Planning the future

12 Chris Shepley: In praise of local planning’s young firebrands

11 ICE sounds warning over NI infrastructure plan

16 Zoe Green: Unlocking the potential of the UK’s big cities 16 Steve Kemp: Urbanisation is a global issue

30

17 Carole-Anne Davies: A crucible of challenge and opportunity 17 Robin Hutchinson: Suburbs in the spotlight

NICK BOLES, FORMER PLANNING MINISTER, SAYS HE, TOO, IS PROUD OF PLANNING

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FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 Waheed Nazir’s belief in partnerships is paramount, says David Callaghan

34 Decisions in focus: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

30 For years a byword for deprivation and poverty, Govan is seeing a renaissance. Mark Smulian reports

12

38 Legal landscape: Opinion, blogs, and news from the legal side of planning

22 Will permitted development rights rob the provinces of office space as the economy picks up? Mark Smulian reports 26 Olympic Park’s future is as a London annexe with green spaces, says Mark Smulian

QUOTE UNQUOTE

“WHEN I WAS GIVEN THIS JOB I WASN’T REALLY IN LOVE WITH THE PLANNING SYSTEM, TO BE HONEST… TWO YEARS LATER I’M A CONVERT”

COV E R I M AG E | PE T E R S E A R L E

40 Career development: Running a consultation

26

42 Plan Ahead – our pick of upcoming events for the planning profession and beyond 44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 Plan B: New planning minister Brandon Lewis’s torturous tweeting

22

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Help to shape the next generation of planners Would you like to contribute to the Royal Town Planning Institute’s work of accrediting university courses in planning, and help shape the next generation of planners?

The RTPI is looking for members – preferably Chartered – with an interest in planning education to volunteer for roles in this vital area of the Institute’s work.

We need to build up a pool of members with relevant interest and experience to ¿ll future vacancies. These will include guiding universities in the initial stages of accreditation, through to Chairs and RTPI representatives on RTPIuniversity Partnership Boards.

Please contact stephen.court@rtpi.org.uk for further details and an application form if you are interested, or see ‘Education and careers’ on the RTPI website.

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J U NE 2 01 4 / THE PLA NNER

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PLAN UPFRONT

Leaderr Lewis on a sticky wicket, Nick Boles out So it's congratulations and welcome aboard to Brandon Lewis in the newly created role of housing and planning minister.

Let’s take the positive spin first; there must surely be some good news in renewing the logical link between housing and planning in a single brief. Can't argue with that. And now, let’s take the alternative view – that because Lewis’s role is automatically timelimited to a maximum of 10 months, it can be little more than a short term appointment that allows the new minister little time to effect any of the meaningful change we'd all like to see.

Ten months? Yes, because he took over in July and next May it’s the 2015 general election – with all the reshuffling that political mileston will inevitably entail. (Coincidentally,

Martin Read outgoing housing minister Kris Hopkins only had 10 months himself in which to make his mark. It’s as if built-in obsolescence is as rife among housing ministers as it is mobile phones.)

A legitimate concern is that the prime minister – in prettying up his team for what is likely to be the UK’s longest-ever general election campaign – has made little more than a crowd-pleasing move here.

The electorate remains

increasingly concerned about the cost of housing and there’s no sign that such concerns won’t be just as important when the ballot boxes are opened for business come 7 May 2015.

Combining the planning and housing briefs may look good from an external perspective, but while on the surface the move suggests an enlightened approach from the coalition, on the other hand 10 months is, what, 50 too few for Mr Lewis to make an impact?

And if we're talking incoming Brandon Lewis, we should also mention outgoing minister Nick Boles. Your correspondent

“ANYONE WHO ATTENDED THE RTPI CONVENTION IN JUNE – WHATEVER THEIR POLITICS – WILL AGREE THAT BOLES WAS AN IMPRESSIVE PERFORMER”

has seen many a junior minister attempt to master their portfolios over the years. Mark Prisk, in particular, was a consummate act in opposition long before he took ministerial office. But anyone who attended the RTPI convention in June – whatever their politics – will agree that Boles was an impressive performer, and clearly on top of his brief.

Boles did not shy away from confronting the concerns of many with the National Planning Policy Framework, concerns which he himself came to accept. He earned respect, and David Cameron has clearly noticed. No names, no pack drill, but I’ve seen others who’ve since been appointed to more senior positions than Boles whose inadequacies have left me open-mouthed.

Boles seems set for greater things. It remains to be seen whether Lewis will get the necessary time to develop his own political legacy as planning minister.

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NEWS

Analysis { R E S HU F F LE

Rebuilding at the DCLG – but is it a winning team?

By Simon Wicks

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step up for Brandon Lewis, but also a promotion for planning and housing – that’s been the general view of the shake-up at the Department of Communities and local government in July’s government reshuffle.

As of mid-July, Eric Pickles’ team said farewell to star player Nick Boles, brought in bright young talent Penny Mordaunt and saw long-term stalwart Brandon Lewis given leadership of both planning and housing.

It’s the first time for five years that the two briefs have been held by a single office-holder, raising the prospect among pundits of a more fluid and coordinated attack on the housing shortage.

“I welcome the restoration of the link between housing and planning, and recognition of the importance of planning to delivering sustainable growth,” said RTPI president Cath Ranson, adding her approval of their elevation to minister of state level.

“Although partly symbolic, this matters within Whitehall, affirming the government’s commitment to delivering the homes the country needs.”

The shift of planning minister Nick Boles out of the DCLG (he becomes minister of state for skills and equalities elsewhere within government) may yet backfire. Boles has impressed many in planning in his two years in the role.

Indeed, one pundit – Ian Tant, senior partner at Barton Willmore – described him as “the best planning minister in a generation”. He’s received high praise for his willingness to ignore Tory shibboleths in the drive to create a fit-for-purpose planning system that will speed up house building.

But this may be what sealed his move away as the government looks to play it safe with shire support-

ers in the build-up to the next election. Out goes Boles, in comes Daily Mail-friendly Penny Mordaunt as junior minister whose responsibilities include coastal communities and planning casework – but not planning in the full.

This goes to Lewis, alongside housing, as he makes the move from junior minister for local government to minister of state with two significant portfolios.

An old ally of Pickles, he could probably be seen as a trusty pair of hands in the run-up to the 2015 election. Their connection goes back to Lewis’s days as council leader in Pickles’ Brentwood constituency – and he is unlikely to drop the ball in the year to the election.

He is also unlikely to have time to make a significant impact on housing numbers, a complaint voiced by several commentators.

As Geeta Nanda, chief executive at Thames Valley Housing, told Inside Housing: “We need someone who understands housing strategy, takes a long time and who is going to be there to deliver it.”

Whether Pickles has picked a team that will do the job depends on what ‘the job’ is – to solve the UK’s housing shortage, or to help marshal the Tories through the next election without upsetting core support? The indications are that flair has been largely abandoned in favour of safe strategy. This is apparent even in the delegation of planning responsibilities for wind farms to former housing minister Kris Hopkins. Famously, Hopkins hates wind farms.

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PLAN UPFRONT The proposed development is on the site of the old Rugby Radio Station and seeks to extend the existing terminal

Glasgow derelict land initiative to be rolled out across Scotland Rail freight terminal gets first DCO A rail freight interchange in Daventry is the first in the country to secure a Development Consent Order (DCO) under the new procedure for infrastructure projects of national significance.

The Department of Transport approved the full development consent for Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT) on 4 July following a six-month examination that began in July 2013.

Known as DIRFT III, the 345-hectare (850-acre) expansion will be the third phase of the Northamptonshire transport hub’s development since it was first built in 1997.

The expansion involves the construction and operation of a new rail link from the existing DIRFT warehousing to a replacement rail interchange, with sidings, container storage, HGV reception area, and 730,000 square metres of rail-served storage.

Among other things, the DCO enables the compulsory acquisition of rights over land and alterations to the highway network.

Developer Prologis UK said the project would create about 9,000 jobs and, once completed, the hub will be capable of accommodating 32 trains a day. The development will also create eight million square feet of distribution space.

“Due to the process being new, there was no precedent to follow and so it required original thought and an innovative approach,” said Morag Thomson, partner at Marrons Shakespeares, the firm that helped secure the DCO. “In that sense the application was a trailblazer which others are likely to follow.”

Prologis UK managing director, Andrew Griffiths, added: “Logistics plays a vital role in the UK economy, underpinning the success of many other sectors, from retail and ecommerce to manufacturing.

“Since it is both more cost-effective and more carbon-efficient to transport freight by rail rather than by road, DIRFT provides the facilities necessary to service and support growth across the economy.”

Towns and cities across Scotland are to benefit from a pioneering Glasgow project that has seen disused spaces in the city brought back to life as community gardens, performance spaces or for art installations.

Architecture and Design Scotland (A+DS) will lead the national roll-out of the Legacy 2014 programme Stalled Spaces Scotland on behalf of the Scottish government.

A+DS will provide support and guidance for local authorities across Scotland to develop their own local Stalled Spaces initiatives. The scheme has so far changed the character of more than 75 spaces in Glasgow.

Karen Anderson, chair of A+DS, said: “With the national Stalled Spaces programme we are looking to support communities to reactivate vacant or derelict spaces within town centres all across Scotland.”

Planning minister Derek Mackay said: “This is an opportunity for communities to work with local authority partners, get creative and come up with quirky ideas to transform derelict land.

“It will not only inject some life into areas that were previously lying empty, but it will give communities a sense of ownership and allow them to show off their local areas in new and imaginative ways.”

The Stalled Spaces Scotland programme forms part of the Legacy 2014 programme aimed at creating a long-term legacy from the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. n Read about other legacy programmes at http://www.legacy2014.co.uk/

Housing fund puts power back into tenants’ hands A £100 million fund to enable council tenants to exert more control over their homes has been announced by DCLG minister Kris Hopkins.

The announcement follows a November 2013 decision to allow council residents the right to request transfer of their home’s management to a housing association. The fund is also available to councils if they wish to transfer their housing stock.

In his last significant announcement before the government reshuffle, the thenhousing minister highlighted that the best way for councils and tenant groups to secure a portion of the fund would be for their transfer plans to include local regeneration projects.

Hopkins said: “As I saw for myself in Bradford, the transfer of housing stock from council to housing association control can unlock millions of pounds

to invest in people’s homes, considerably improving their quality of life.

“Our pledge is that, where tenants agree, we will write off historic housing debt to enable good value deals to take place, with £100 million available next year to do just that.

“But I want to see bids from councils and tenants’ groups alike, which place at their heart the priority of improving the economic as well as physical

state of housing estates, so they can benefit residents for generations to come.”

Transfer deals have already been struck in Gloucester, Salford and Durham, with the government wiping out millions in housing debt in return for the councils relinquishing management to housing associations.

All of the deals will be subject to a residents’ ballot before they can proceed.

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NEWS

Analysis { FINANCIAL DEVOLUTION

Freedom of the city?

By Sam Waddicor

T

he Core Cities Group, which is made up of the eight major English cities outside of London, has launched a new campaign aimed at obtaining greater spending power for cities outside London.

The Local Voices campaign features representatives from each of the eight member cities speaking about how their work has benefited – and would benefit further – from greater financial devolution. The campaign has the support of the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

The Core Cities Group – consisting of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield – claims that giving them greater freedom to raise money locally would add £222 billion to the economy of the United Kingdom by 2030.

They also say that it would add 1.3 million jobs and that in taxes alone the government could make an extra £41.6 billion from these jobs – enough to almost halve the national deficit.

At the heart of the campaign is the idea that around the world it is normal for big cities to outperform their national economies. But this is only the case for London in the UK. By way of illustrating just how centralised the UK is, the group “THE LOCAL cites Birmingham, VOICES CAMPAIGN Alabama, which retains CLEARLY more locally raised DEMONSTRATES taxes than Birming- THE POSITIVE ham, UK. Yet IMPACT Birmingham, UK, has DEVOLUTION almost five times the CAN HAVE ON PEOPLE’S LIVES” population.

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According to the group, 95 per cent of all funds spent locally are controlled by central government.

“The national economy needs our cities to succeed like never before in delivering jobs and growth, and reducing dependency on public services. To do so means going further and faster in devolving resources from the centre,” said Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester City Council and chair of the Core Cities cabinet.

“The Local Voices campaign clearly demonstrates the positive impact devolution can have on people’s lives. Each of the case studies has benefited from decisions being made at a local level, but at the same time has been hindered because the freedoms cities enjoy do not go far enough to enable them to make a real difference. This campaign seeks to highlight the excellent work cities do and how, with more freedoms, we can make our communities better places to live,” he said.

Local Voices ties in with the wider City Centred campaign, which has two objectives – to give greater financial freedom to London and England’s secondtier cities, and to give greater decision-making powers to these cities.

It builds on a growing push for English cities to be given more autonomy.

In July, the Communities and Local Government Select Committee called for ministers to grant greater financial powers to city-regions over money raised in their areas.

At the RTPI conference in June, leading academics Tony Travers of the LSE and Michael Parkinson of Liverpool John Moores University each argued in favour of developing city regions, stressing that nations with strong second cities had healthier economies overall.

The UK is one country with two economies – London and the rest

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PLAN UPFRONT

£1.3bn

Projected spin-off investment into the Birmingham area from construction of the HS2 rail link

HS2 HQ to boost Birmingham regeneration masterplan

Planning bill highlighted in Welsh legislative programme A promised planning bill is one of the highlights of the Welsh government’s latest legislative programme, first minister Carwyn Jones announced in July.

The bill will reform and simplify the current planning system and ensure that planning becomes an enabling tool that is supported by appropriate subordinate legislation, policy and guidance, he stressed.

Also in the programme will be a local government bill.

This will prepare the ground for reforming local authorities in Wales through a series of mergers – a Reforming Local Government white paper, also published in July, has recommended the reduction in the number of Welsh local authorities from 22 to 12.

Although the merger proposals themselves and other reforms will be provided for in a second bill to be introduced after the 2016 Assembly elections, the local government bill will enable mergers to take place in a coherent and planned way.

In addition, the Welsh administration has committed itself to an environment bill that will establish a modern and innovative legislative framework for the sustainable management of the country’s natural resources.

The legislative package will also include a heritage bill that will be designed to ensure the sustainable management of the Welsh historic environment supported by non-legislative policy, advice and guidance.

The construction headquarters for the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail line will be located in Birmingham amid £170 million related investment into the city centre.

The HQ, which will be in the City Centre Enterprise Zone, will create 1,500 jobs in the local area, as well as providing about 100,000 square feet of letting space.

To capitalise on this, the Birmingham Curzon Urban Regeneration Company has been formed to take forward the Curzon masterplan. In order for it to do that, the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership has approved £30 million to deliver infrastructure and support development across the Birmingham Curzon area.

This wider redevelopment is expected to deliver 14,000 new jobs, 600,000 sq m of employment floor space, and 2,000 homes, as well as a £1.3 billion economic boost.

It was also announced that £140 million would be invested to extend the Midland Metro from Snow Hill Station through the new HS2 terminus location at Birmingham and down to Adele Park.

Birmingham City Council’s director of planning and regeneration, Waheed Nazir, said: “The announcements are fantastic news for the city. Birmingham is taking a proactive approach and putting in place the mechanisms to maximise local economic growth off the back of HS2. Setting a clear strategy through the Birmingham Curzon masterplan, and having the right tools, the regeneration company is vital in attracting investment and stimulating growth.

“As a direct result the city has benefited through the decision to locate the HS2 construction HQ in Birmingham and the £170 million funding allocations. The role of the planning profession has been intrinsic in making all this a reality.”

HS2 chair David Higgins added: “The lasting impact of HS2 will, in the end, be determined by how successfully local authorities and regions use it as a catalyst to transform and develop not just their economies, but also the look and feel of the areas it touches.

“The Birmingham Curzon Urban Regeneration Company will therefore be hugely important both for Birmingham and the rest of the West Midlands, and also as an example to the rest of the cities along the route.”

New home builds in Ireland to treble by 2020 The Irish Republic’s deputy prime minister, Jane Burton, has promised to triple the number of new homes built by 2020.

Burton, who retained her position as minister for social protection in July’s Irish cabinet reshuffle, said the government will establish a construction programme to triple the number of houses built to 25,000 by 2020.

“We have moved from a situation of building far too many houses in the wrong areas to building far too few in the right areas, particularly in Dublin,” said Burton.

“It is imperative that we move urgently to improve the supply of housing for both home purchasers and those renting.”

She stressed that housing would be the number one priority of the department of the environment for the remainder of the government’s term.

As a result of the reshuffle the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government now has a new face at the top. Alan Kelly replaces Phil Hogan, who is heading to Brussels as a commissioner. Jan O’Sullivan, formerly housing and planning minister, has taken charge of education.

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NEWS

Analysis { Planning the future PLANNING POLICY

By Simon Wicks

“W

e need to think about the challenges we face as we move forward,” announced chief executive Trudi Elliot at the RTPI’s centenary convention in late June.

In a day of wide-ranging talks and debates, one theme was abundantly clear; planners have the skills, knowledge and commitment to shape the modern world. But do they have the confidence?

Elliot outlined the publications being produced in the RTPI’s Planning Horizons series. Collectively, they argue for planners to reassert their role in an era of climate change, growing (but ageing) populations, technological shift and massive urbanisation.

“We need to draw on broader ideas of social progress,” she insisted. “Engage in the economics debate, the health debate. Track what’s going on in research into behaviour, social interaction, geopolitics. We’ve got to harness network technologies and data.”

It was Cisco’s president of smart and connected communities, Anil Menon, who drove home the impact of technology on the way we live, work and access resources.

Like a smartphone, a modern city can be obsolete in just a few years, he said. So how do we plan for a future that is profoundly networked, where a local business in Mumbai can provide urban services to neighbourhoods around the world?

Where populations are ageing, yet where India currently has four times as many teenagers as there are people in the UK? How do planners address the shifts and contradictions? “Most of our cities,” said Menon, “are designed for the mechanical world, at best the electrical world. Not the digital world.”

If Menon dealt in the broad sweep of ideas, chief planner Steve Quartermain addressed the basics of the planner’s world in his “WE’RE LOOKING traditional Q&A. SPECIFICALLY Under discussion were short-term AT HOUSING lets, the community infrastructure FOR THE AGEING levy, planning enforcement POPULATION procedures, and performance targets.

AND TRYING TO Yet even here, the big themes ENSURE THAT WE emerged. We have an ageing HAVE A STRATEGY population, one local authority THAT CAN PLAY planner pointed out, yet builders are OUT IN LOCAL not building houses tailored to their PLANS” needs. What are you doing about it?

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Anil Menon Carole_Anne-Davies Cath Ranson Steve Quartermain Trudi Elliott

“We’re looking specifically at housing for the ageing population and trying to ensure that we have a strategy that can play out in local plans,” came the response. Touché.

Environment Agency chair Lord Smith talked of the impact of climate change. Carole-Anne Davies, chief executive of the Design Commission for Wales, led a debate about health in modern cities.

Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics at the LSE, was sharp and critical in her assessment of our housing woes.

Tony Travers, a governance expert also at the LSE, argued that population growth heralded the possibility of urban renewal through devolution to city regions.

“The more our cities outside the South-East can be encouraged to develop and their economies become stronger, it should over time reduce the pressure on London and the South-East.”

Prof Michael Parkinson from Liverpool John Moores University provided the statistical back-up. “The countries which are, on the whole, high-performing, have more highperforming second-tier cities,” he noted.

We had come full circle. Urbanisation throws up challenge after challenge to modern planners.

“We may be in different places and in different legal and planning systems, but the challenges we are grappling with are remarkably the same,” Trudi Elliot concluded. “We need to rearticulate the purpose of planning 100 years on.” n Download the Planning Horizons series at http://www.rtpi.org.uk/ knowledge/research/planning-horizons/

I M A G E S | A K I N FA L O P E

28/07/2014 09:12

PLAN UPFRONT

ICE sounds warning over NI infrastructure plan The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has urged the Northern Ireland Executive to publish a regional infrastructure plan.

It has also warned that the forthcoming Planning Reform Bill and next year’s devolution of planning powers to local councils risk having a “negative impact” on what the organisation claimed

was “an already unwieldy planning process”.

The views were highlighted in the organisation’s latest State Of The Nation report, which also voiced concern that the province could face power blackouts if the north-south interconnector project – still in planning – is not accelerated.

The document states: “Care must be taken to ensure that the reformation delivers a process which is appropriate for developers and consultees alike, and results in quicker

Better building will advance health in the UK, says RIBA The next UK government needs to take a fresh looks at city regions, green belt development, school design, energy use and health policy to improve the quality of life in the UK, says a report from RIBA. Building A Better Britain: A Vision For The Next Government sets out a number of recommendations for creating well-designed living and learning environments that can underpin a physically and economically healthy nation.

In particular, RIBA targets four areas where it wants to see firm commitments from the next government: planning, health, schools and green belt land.

On planning, the report calls for a National Spatial Strategy to enable longterm major infrastructure decisions to be made across a political cycle.

The report argues that government needs to go beyond City Deals to create autonomous city-regions that can access large amounts of sustainable funding.

A re-evaluation of green belt land should contribute to the creation of living and working spaces that incorporate high-quality green infrastructure.

decisions bearing in mind that the current PPS1 has a presumption in favour of approval.

“The approach to the appraisal of projects should also be reviewed to ensure that a more complete and consistent system of assessment is adopted across infrastructure sectors.

“The articulation of clear strategic need, together with pipelining and clear sponsorship, would enable increased confidence to grow amongst infrastructure owners, investors and infrastructure finance providers and the wider supply chain.”

As it is, green belt isn’t doing its intended job, say the report’s authors, and pushes developers into jumping over protected land to build in genuine countryside.

The report calls for a governmentled review to compile evidence that can support local authorities in making green belt planning decisions.

In particular, the report says local authorities could unlock difficult brownfield sites with the uplift from development of low-value green belt sites.

RIBA’s report criticises school building programmes, saying that 80 per cent of schools are operating beyond their life cycle and more than 75 per cent contain asbestos. RIBA says the current school building programme is too cheap and baseline designs are too small. To remedy this, the report calls for a 20 per cent increase in spending on each new school.

On health, the RIBA report argues that, with the nation experiencing an increase in obesity and a decrease in physical activity, the next government should commit 10 per cent of the transport budget to promoting “active transport” such as walking and cycling.

This would both reduce congestion and possibly save the NHS upwards of £675 million by improving the nation’s health.

RIBA president Stephen Hodder said: “The next UK government should empower our cities, towns and villages to prosper and provide the homes, education, services and jobs that are vital for the nation; it needs to look at architecture and the built environment as part of the solution.”

A drawn-out process More than 20 planners visited Glenarm village in County Antrim recently to attend The Prince’s Foundation’s Drawing Places workshops. The aim was to reconnect planners with the art of place-making through drawing, giving them the chance to appreciate the impact of the built environment on people’s lives.

Attendees walked the local streets, sketching to improve their understanding of skills such as perspective and scale.

It is hoped they use what they’ve learnt to deal with planning applications, in development management, in preparing development plans and contributing to community planning. To co-ordinate a similar event, call The Prince’s Foundation on 020 7613 850.

2Q 5Q Q Q State of the nation

1.5%

Only 1.5 per cent of GDP spent on infrastructure in the UK compared with 3 per cent in France and America and 6 per cent in Japan

Just 5 per cent of government expenditure on housing spent on building new homes.

95 per cent is housing benefit

Source: Building A Better Britain, RIBA 2014

75%

School buildings in the UK that still contain asbestos, according to RIBA

15%

5%

New school designs are 15 per cent smaller than those built under the previous Building Schools for the Future programme

The number of walking trips has fallen by 27 per cent in the past 15 years

27%

AU G U S T 2 0 14 / THE PLA NNER

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28/07/2014 09:12

CHRIS SHEPLEY

O Opinion In praise of local planning’s young firebrands It is good to see that a group of young (well, under 40) planners have set up Novus – a group dedicated, it is reported, to injecting some radical ideas into debates about planning. It is an offshoot of the Planning Officers Society, works in local authorities, and has lots of good ideas.

There has been a shortage of people (young or old) with the time or the inclination to do out-of-hours things like this. Working – in any sector – seems to have become so all-consuming, so pressured, so 24/7/52/50, so controlled that few have energy left for anything else. I used to make jokes when I was younger (some people will recall the Grotton roadshow), and was encouraged to do this as a rather unconventional form of personal development.

I wouldn’t be where I am today, wherever that is, without it. I doubt if many employers would now be so indulgent, which even if understandable is sad.

Not only does out-ofwork activity help people to expand their horizons, and enable them to do some really valuable Novus-like things; but organisations like the RTPI and TCPA suffer from the shortage of younger people with the time, energy or permission to contribute.

I’m disqualified from Novus, being over 40 and no longer in the public sector.

But there is nothing in its “manifesto from the coal face of planning” that I’d question.

Everybody should read it; like all its effusions (it promises) it is limited to one side of

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“SOME YOUNGER PLANNERS MAY NEED TO LOOK UP THE WORD 'VOCATION', SO ABSENT IS IT FROM PUBLIC DISCOURSE” paper. See why “bureaucracy can be beautiful”, and why “planning is a creative industry”.

These emphasise, unsurprisingly, the importance of public sector planning – bringing to mind ideas such as the public service ethos, and viewing planning as a vocation, which have been widely ignored, forgotten, or even despised.

Some younger planners may need to look up the word “vocation”, so absent is it from public discourse these days. How refreshing, and how important it is even to

those who ply their trade elsewhere.

There are those who spend a lot of energy attacking councils. Maybe even some readers of this organ.

Sometimes – without doubt – justifiably. But those people do need to understand the problems of resources, and often of working in a pretty tricky political situation.

In amongst the targets, threats, and politics most council planners are doing good stuff. And for no thanks or recognition. (I’m currently incandescent, having like many others spent years helping to bring brownfield land into use, to find some twerp of a Chancellor seemingly oblivious to the hard work authorities have been doing on this for a few decades now, and chucking a few more bureaucratic shortcuts at them, hoping for a headline, and a vote or two

from the defenders of the green belt).

Comparisons have been drawn between Novus and the Radical Institute Group (RIG), a 1970s bunch of hairy radical fellows.. As one of its leading lights, Cliff Hague, said, RIG wanted to “take over” the RTPI. I suppose they managed to do so. Partly by provoking significant changes in rules and culture, and partly by becoming so much part of the establishment themselves that several of them were subsequently presidents.

But Novus has “no beef with the RTPI”, setting itself the challenging task of changing the perception of planning and defending us all from “enemies of enterprise” style rubbishing from lazy advocates of what passes as the free market these days.

Even the over-forties can think radical thoughts.

But I overlook the explicit ageism of the organisation and express my admiration.

Good luck to Novus. I hope they all find the time and support to persevere. And that they are blessed over the coming years with ministers with enough brain cells to understand what planning can do.

Chris Shepley is the principal of Chris Shepley Planning and former Chief Planning Inspector

I L L U S T R AT I O N | O I V I N D H O V L A N D

25/07/2014 15:08

Quote unquote FROM THE WEB AND THE RTPI

“Twice as many mobile phones as toothbrushes were sold in the world last year…”

“Nick Boles… was moved for similar reasons to Gove’s ejection: he was good, knowledgeable, but upset core Conservative voters”

ANIL MENON OF CISCO SYSTEMS AT THE RTPI CONVENTION ON UNAVOIDABLE IT TRENDS

ISABEL HARDMAN, ASSISTANT EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR

“THERE’S

20,000 HECTARES OF LAND WITHIN 10 MINUTES’ WALK OF A RAILWAY STATION IN THE LONDON GREEN BELT. SURELY WE SHOULD BE LOOKING AT THAT?”

“In 1913 in London, there were 65 utility companies with 49 different standards not talking to each other. We have the same situation in digital infrastructure today” ANIL MENON, PRESIDENT OF SMART AND CONNECTED COMMUNITIES, CISCO

“Conceptions in railway carriages are not necessarily unique, but this one was particularly important” CATH RANSON, PRESIDENT OF THE RTPI, ON THE ORIGINS OF THE TPI

PHILIP BARNES, PLANNING DIRECTOR, BARRATT HOMES

“Read the Tyne and Wear Structure Plan of 1980. It’s a fantastic document and it’s almost 90 per cent happened. That’s strategic planning” CHRISTINE WHITEHEAD, PROFESSOR OF HOUSING ECONOMICS, LSE

“The world is urbanising at the rate of one new London every month” ANIL MENON OF CISCO SYSTEMS AT THE RTPI CONVENTION I M AG E S | S H U T T E RSTO C K

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“When I was given this job I wasn’t really in love with the planning system, to be honest…

Two years later I’m a convert” NICK BOLES, FORMER PLANNING MINISTER, SAYS HE, TOO, IS PROUD OF PLANNING

“Our task as planners is to leave our city better than we found it” TRUDI ELLIOTT, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE RTPI

20 AUGUST 2 NNER ER AU 0 114 / THE TTH E PLAA NN

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25/07/2014 15:09

CORRESPONDENCE

I Inbox

YOUR NEWS, VIEWS AND QUESTIONS F E E D B ACK

David Kaiserman Martin Goodall (June) makes a plea for “common sense” about green belts. Does he mean that the government should clarify their view of what they are actually for? Fat chance. The debate about green belts is as intellectually incoherent as the rest of national planning policy. Whenever the subject comes up, we are presented with another dollop of contradictory sound bites from ministers whose only motivation is to shore up the suburban vote.

Mr Goodall tells us that the green belts take up “too much” land, with the result that they stop us from meeting “the urgent requirement for house building where it is needed”.

This assertion would be shredded in the first five minutes of cross-examination if any planner said it.

Central to this obfuscation is his failure to differentiate between housing need and profit-led demand (a different thing altogether). In doing so, he compounds the confusion caused by the government’s sloppy narrative, to say nothing of the cynical special pleading of the developers.

He also fails – in his account of how we have lost sight of the original intentions of green belt policy – to record that for 30 years or so it has not been solely a mechanism for protecting rural interests, but a tool to support urban regeneration – the only form of “sustainable development” I can really understand.

This important change was a direct result of the pioneering Green Belt Local Plan adopted by the former

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Greater Manchester Council in the early 1980s: its strategic purpose as an essential tool of city-region planning was radical at the time and was set out in the Structure Plan.

But when the then-House Builders’ Federation (HBF) realised that its effect on the ground would be to remove the easy pickings from the rural fringes and force them to focus on messy bits of the conurbation, they came to the public inquiry determined to get the inspector to remove the new policy clause (I know because I led the excellent team that drew up the plan, and was the council’s witness for 50-odd days). Thanks to the clear-sightedness of PINS, they failed. As a result,

national policy was changed, and a fifth purpose of green belts, in paragraph 80 of the National Planning Policy Framework, was added to the original four.

The Greater Manchester Green Belt had teeth. It still has, and it’s now beginning to do its job. Had the HBF succeeded in watering it down, it would have ended up half its present size. Large swathes of it, especially in the zones bordering north Cheshire, would have been built on – but does anyone really think that the house builders would have been satisfied to leave it at that?

They’d still be bleating now that even a much-reduced green belt represented an

unwarranted constraint on their mission to meet the region’s housing needs. As for London, it’s not the green belt that’s too big, it’s the scale of the city itself that’s the problem. But that means acknowledging that we need a spatial vision at the national level, and perhaps some real thinking about the future of the regions – some hopes.

I’ve never believed that green belt should be sacrosanct, and we never argued for that in Manchester.

Like any other policy, they should be subject to monitoring and, if necessary, review – but through a rational process.

David Kaiserman MRTPI

O N THE WEB @ThePlanner_RTPI r_RTPI r_RT _RTP TPI PI The Planner is now online at www.theplanner.co.uk, as is our sister jobs site, jobs.theplanner.co.uk For a limited period, www.theplanner. co.uk is open access with no restrictions on viewing content. This will enable us to build up awareness of the site beyond existing members and to allow everyone to explore the breadth of the content available and share articles without encountering any barriers. Let us know what you think.

Read extra content on The Planner online At www.theplanner.co.uk you can read: • Planning news, updated daily • Features, opinion advice from current and past issues of The Planner • Featured job adverts • A growing selection of additional content that does not feature in the pages of the magazine.

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Finally, do consider following us on Twitter - we're @ThePlanner_RTPI

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28/07/2014 17:12

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23/07/2014 10:00

B E S T O F T H E B LO G S

O Opinion

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Zoe Green is a senior planning consultant for Atkins and the RTPI’s Young Planner of the Year 2014

Unlocking the potential of the UK’s big cities

Dick Wh Whittington was lured to London by rumours that the streets were paved with gold.

Today you’d be forgiven for thinking the same was true as the capital continues to attract talent and investment from both within and beyond Britain’s borders.

But the annual Cities Outlook Report (2014) recently found Bristol to be the only city outside London that consistently performed better than the national average. It says: “Cities such as Birmingham and Manchester should be making a far larger contribution to the national economy than is currently the case”. Other cities require serious attention to ensure a spatially balanced economy.

So it’s unsurprising that this discussion is raging in the corridors of Whitehall, with the government pushing forward a localism agenda that supports large cities through initiatives such as City Deals and Growth Deals.

Labour pledges to go further with a £30 billion cash injection into an “economic devolution” plan to transfer more power and funding to core cities. But the critics remain sceptical about whether real devolutionary powers and investments will be delivered.

Connectivity is a recognised driver of growth and success. We know that it increases property values and extends functional economic areas. Bristol has good links to London and once HS2 is running Birmingham will also

have a lifeline from which to cling on to London’s buoyant economy. This also makes discussions about an HS3 route linking Manchester and Leeds even more important. The Chancellor and Prime Minister have both recognised the need for spatial rebalancing, so perhaps now is the time to discuss London’s future role as opposed to it being an afterthought to the policies that will actually have an impact.

It’s a debate touched on in the acclaimed Kaleidoscope City, published this year to mark the RTPI centenary. Cambridge University professors Peter Tyler et al argue that what is required is a “new spatial grammar” that directs state economic policy and capital spending to give northern urban agglomerations the access to resources from the public and private sectors that London has secured. It’s a message reiterated

by Lord Heseltine in his No Stone Unturned review, and arguably what Lord Adonis says in his Mending The Fractured Economy report.

This is not a question of stunting London’s growth, but about ways to unlock the growth of other big cities. It’s not about post-rationalising consequential and cumulative impacts either, but exploring the ways in which infrastructural and financial improvements (including devolution and centralisation) can support areas outside London through proactive policy interventions.

“CONNECTIVITY IS A RECOGNISED DRIVER OF GROWTH AND SUCCESS“

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Steve Kemp is founder and executive director of Open Plan

Urbanisation is a global issue

“Plannin is not about control “Planning (primari (primarily), and it is not about inhibit inhibiting (primarily),” Nick Boles told this year’s RTPI centenary convention: “It is about enabling; it is about creating; and it is about painting a picture of a future that we will bring about together.” Whatever political motivations may underlie the minister's words, how could anyone who cares about planning and what it can achieve for people argue with the principles?

Balancing control and creativity featured strongly at this year’s Caribbean Urban Forum (CUF) in Barbados, where the theme –Place making – was well towards the ‘creativity’ end of spatial planning’s spectrum.

Working in the Caribbean raises one’s awareness of the impacts of rapid urban development, fragile economies, and uneven wealth distribution.

Towns and cities have hollowed out, poorer communities have become isolated, informal settlements abound, and wealthier people have decanted to sprawling non-places.

The need for creative place making is clear and, in a region with high risks from natural hazards like hurricanes, storms, landslides and earthquakes, this includes managing and reducing the impacts of potentially destructive placeshaking, place-breaking and place-taking forces too.

In the government’s commitment to tipping the balance towards creativity and away from control, localism is seen as an essential component, with planners supporting communities so that they can make creative, vision-based plans.

The Caribbean situation is similar – yet more complicated.

There is a strong desire to move beyond a post-colonial planning heritage, based on the British 1947 Town & Country Planning Act. Theirs was a colonial variation, designed to control rather than to facilitate: an alien import, applied to a highly creative culture for which it was ill suited after i n d e p e n d e n c e.

Caribbean warmth is now starting to thaw the region’s long-frozen legislative and bureaucratic inheritance from Britain. Trinidad and Tobago’s new Planning and Facilitation of Development Bill is, for example, paving the way for a new localism in planning, with an emphasis on creative urbanism.

Urbanisation is a global issue, requiring a global approach.

British planners and the RTPI have much to offer and share and much to learn working with our Commonwealth partners.

More vulnerable parts of the world will lead the way in issues that will eventually affect us all and we must be willing to listen as well as recognise our ability to support and guide.

“THERE IS A STRONG DESIRE TO MOVE BEYOND A POST­COLONIAL PLANNING HERITAGE”

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Have your say Would you like to see yourself in these pages?

Get in touch by email – editorial@theplanner.co.uk Topical, inspirational, angry or amusing – we consider all relevant comment

3

Carole-Anne Davies is chief executive of the Design Commission for Wales

Robin Hutchinson is director of The Community Brain

Suburbs in the spotlight

A crucible of challenge and opportunity

An ambi ambitious opening session at this year year’s RTPI planning convention sa saw Anil Menon, Cisco’s advocate of the digital economy, deliver a wake-up call on the need to address rapid global urbanisation. While the UK planning debate revolves around green belt and nostalgia for garden cities, Brisbane, Mumbai, Lagos and others are digitising their economies for hyper-growth.

Where in this brave new world might we find the spirit of Ebenezer Howard? At the centre, perhaps, of the dichotomy that defines our desire for economic growth and its inevitable impact on the very wellbeing we seek.

The speakers outlined the opportunity that lies in the necessity to deal with the persistent undermining of health through poor housing and environmental conditions, and the rise in health problems connected to our lifestyles.

There are key actions that can help maximise quality of life and wellbeing, while reducing the impact on health services, the strain of which places an unsustainable expense on the public purse.

So, is a health wishlist too great a burden on the planning system? Yes, if viewed in isolation rather than as a core objective. As Professor Kevin Fenton said, the things we need for health and wellbeing include

4 BLOG

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good homes and green space, good streets and compact neighbourhoods, good access to public transport and being enabled to walk or cycle. Insufficient attention to thermal performance in our homes is linked to winter deaths. Isolation contributes to poor mental health, and poor access to green space and poor air quality are directly associated with health inequalities.

A well-planned, well-designed sustainable place will support a healthier place. A good place will be efficient in land use, well connected, walkable and compact, with good public transport links and green infrastructure, and will support mixed communities.

Speakers highlighted the need to harness technology, to collaborate on a clearly shared agenda and crack professional silos.

Having worked a decade in the built environment, I see a need to get a grip on educating planning and design professions; to address the way we separate the disciplines, knowing all the while that the built environment is a multi-disciplinary crucible of challenge and opportunity. This is a root cause of the failure to capture the value of common objectives and a fundamental barrier to the collaborative problem-solving needed to secure the societal value of outcomes derived from good place making.

”A WELL­ PLANNED, WELL­DESIGNED SUSTAINABLE PLACE WILL HAVE ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS NEEDED TO SUPPORT A HEALTHIER PLACE“

There was wa much to excite a mind engaged with the challenges facing suburbia s at June’s Imagining The Suburbs conference in Exeter, organised by the Cultures of the Suburbs International Research Network.

From the multinational cast of academics, planners, designers and artists and their heady mix of research and practice presentations, it’s clear there’s much work in this area.

The identity, role and sustainability of the suburbs have long been in the spotlight, with politicians reviving the ‘best’ of a community’s heart with headline-grabbing initiatives and funding. But one thing remains clear – communal spaces are important.

But here’s the crux – while public spaces are in vogue, with planners, architects, designers exercising their professional skills to provide new open areas, questioning ‘space’ versus ‘place’, it’s the people who use them that can be forgotten.

Research reinforces what instinct tells us – people make places. They attach the value to them and provide the narrative.

Spaces are what the word suggests – the gaps between.

But many ‘designed’ spaces work against the sort of activity that creates such place making narrative. By defining space for a certain sort of behaviour, the right of the community to define its use is lost. It’s not done unkindly and is done with the

best possible heart. But I’m reminded of a new theatre’s architect. When asked why there were temporary scaffold bars for stage lamps he replied, “We put the lighting bars in the right places but the lighting designers won’t use them.” He missed the irony of my suggestion they couldn’t have been in the right place then.

If spaces are for the community, create them with the community.

Encouraging creative approaches from the ground up help the community to create its ‘places’ and activity.

Give us canvases to work with, not paintings to frame. Our experience of working to release, strengthen and support community creativity shows not the ‘protective conservatism’ that designers fear, but rather bold ambitions that can truly excite.

If you want to see the difference, come and see us in that part of south-west London where ‘behaviour design’ has snuffed the flame of opportunity in some public spaces.

But once a community is inspired it will find hidden or neglected places to exercise its personality.

It expresses the very character and difference that prevents suburbs and urban villages merging into the grey mass that our shorthand prejudice has attached to the word ‘suburban’.

You can come and see that here, too.

“GIVE US CANVASES TO WORK WITH, NOT PAINTINGS TO FRAME”

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INTERVIEW WAHEED NAZIR

A SECOND CITY

W

aheed Nazir is a man on a mission. A Brummie by birth, he heads the largest planning authority in Europe – as director of planning and regeneration with Birmingham City Council – and oversees some of the most significant developments the city has seen.

He says it’s his dream job. And he’s still only 40.

“I was originally drawn to surveying by a friend,” he recalls. “Weeks into the surveying course I came across planning and realised this was for me and then I never looked back.”

Nazir began his career in the private sector in London with Llewelyn Davies, working on the expansion of Terminal 5 and retail impact assessments.

He was there for about a year, before moving back to Birmingham to get local authority experience, with the intention of returning to the private sector. “But 16 years on, I wonder where the time has gone!”

Like the keen boxer he is, Nazir has kept moving forward. “All my roles have had a positive effect on my skills and although I have been with the council for 16 years I have ensured my remit/roles have changed every 2-3 years, which keeps the momentum going.”

His father was a businessman who ran several independent companies, so maybe it is an innate knack for deal-making that has helped Nazir to set the tone for a healthy dialogue and strong working relationship with developers. He says he knows what they want from a local authority – and what they don’t.

PHOTOGRAPHY | PETER SEARLE

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ST “They base their decisions on how easy the local authority is to work with. They don’t want to go through an appeal process,” he says.

“I see them as part of the same team. I say to them ‘you guys need to make money, but place is important because that drives your returns’,” he adds. “The relationship has matured. We don’t have all the answers, and we have to listen to the development industry. We have used their ideas.

“It is done by respect for each other. If it is a planning application, then it is different,” he says.

“But when talking about driving economic growth they are part of the Birmingham family.”

Links with other agencies are also important in Nazir’s process.

“You can deliver growth at a very strategic level,” he says. “Forming effective partnerships is vital for us.”

For example, on the HS2 project the council is working closely with the Department for Transport.

There is also a quarterly meeting with planning consultancies working in the area.

“We have an open door policy,” he says. {

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Planning oďŹƒcers are working hand in glove with private industry to revitalise Birmingham. It’s not the traditional way, but in Waheed Nazir the council has a planning director who believes that partnerships are paramount, says David Callaghan

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INTERVIEW WAHEED NAZIR

With so much activity going on, it’s a necessity. Central Birmingham is undergoing a transformation on Nazir’s watch. The city plays a pivotal role in the development of the HS2 line and a new station is planned in the “WE HAVE SOME city centre. There is an enterprise zone for OF THE MOST business, redevelopment of New Street railOUTSTANDING way station, extension of the city’s Midland PLANNERS IN THE Metro light rail line, and the Paradise Circus COUNTRY, BUT scheme for new offices, shops, hotel and THEY NEEDED TO civic amenities.

BE LIBERATED” The ‘Big City Plan’ is the 20-year-plus vision or masterplan for the future development of Birmingham city centre. It has no statutory status, which meant the council was able to produce it in 2010 without the constraints of a formal planning document.

Transforming the department The plan provides the fuel for another transformation – of the shape and scope of the planning function itself within the council. Planners in Birmingham should lead the city’s economic growth, Nazir insists, and help to ensure that it punches its weight as England’s second city.

The first decision Nazir faced when he became director in 2010 was whether to outsource the council’s planning function. The decision was taken to keep the service in-house.

“I felt we could restructure the department and get more efficiencies while keeping the control and influence, which is critical with a city the size of Birmingham,” he says. So then the challenge was how to restructure the department to be more effective, but also to save money and reduce the headcount. The new director was also tasked with finding savings of 40 per cent in the departmental budget.

C V

HIG HL IG HT S

WA HE E D NA Z I R Born: Birmingham 1974

Nazir says his 14 years in various roles within the council helped him to recognise where the savings could be made and how things could be reorganised.

There were separate departments for regeneration, economic development, planning control, planning strategy and major projects. “I felt it was all very siloed. What you are trying to achieve is place-making and these services are just a means to delivering this outcome.”

The city was divided into four areas and a multi-disciplinary team created to work in each.

“This enabled us to move away from individual silos and have a more flexible workforce, which can be moved around depending on need.”

Some officers were not interested in developing a multi-disciplinary role and left the authority. Some also left because they were able to take voluntary redundancy. “A lot of people felt there was a conflict of interest [with these new roles], but it is about supporting growth,” says Nazir.

The city’s relationship with developers is integral to this aim, says Nazir, and he works hard to develop strong links and a record of delivery which will convince developers that Birmingham is a place where they can do business.

The quarterly meetings with developers and the main strategic partners helps to build strong relationships with everyone in the ‘Birmingham family,’ as Nazir calls it. It also makes sure that everyone involved is on the same page and has the same aims.

The transformation has been remarkable. The restructuring enabled Nazir and his team to meet their savings targets. The department’s performance in terms of dealing with planning applications in a timely way is the best of the ‘core cities’, he says. Only 3 per cent of planning decisions go to appeal.

Timeline: 1974

2014

1996 1997 1997 1998 2000 2003 2005 2010 Graduated with First Class (Hons) BA Town Planning from University of Westminster

20

Gains postgraduate Diploma in Urban Planning from University of Westminster

Planning assistant at Llewelyn Davies in London

Planning development officer at Birmingham City Council

Moves up to become programme development manager

Becomes CEO of the SRB6 regeneration programme in north-west Birmingham

Assistant director development planning and regeneration

Takes over as director of planning and regeneration

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a lot of time training members,” he explains.

Once members of the council’s planning committee started using iPads, any officers who were resistant came on board with it, he says.

Using Google Earth on iPads has brought some important efficiencies. “It has meant I do fewer site visits, and that’s been very helpful,” he says.

The changes have had an impact. “People feel they are working in a different environment. It isn’t all done yet, but we have made huge progress,” says Nazir.

One really important piece in the jigsaw, says Nazir, fell into place in January 2013 when he took on the council's housing and education infrastructure portfolios. Having these areas under his remit means Nazir is able to ensure that services are more joined up, and that there is less risk of conflict. It was a move council leader Sir Albert Bore was keen to see happen.

“Parts of the council can be doing something different and we said that was bonkers,” says Nazir.

Homes and education infrastructure

And, of course, there is that Big City Plan, “I FELT WE COULD which is reshaping the city physically and RESTRUCTURE economically. All of this has been achieved THE DEPARTMENT in the four years since Nazir was appointed AND GET MORE director at 36.

EFFICIENCIES How has all this been possible in just four WHILE KEEPING years when such deep cuts in the budget had THE CONTROL to be made? One advantage of working at a AND INFLUENCE, time of recession or its aftermath was that WHICH IS the number of planning applications the CRITICAL WITH department had to handle was much lower A CITY THE SIZE than it would normally be.

OF BIRMINGHAM” This gave the planning teams the room to develop and take on a role as economic growth champions for the city. The director speaks of being passionate about his job – a mission to ensure that Birmingham has the building blocks to grow and prosper with a high-class infrastructure.

He is pleased with what has been achieved so far, but is also realistic.

“I’m not saying we have done it all,” he stresses.

iPad planning Staff training was an important element of this progression; some officers needed to learn how to conduct financial appraisals, for example. Nazir is keen to emphasise the importance of having a good-quality staff.

“We have some of the most outstanding planners in the country, but they needed to be liberated.

“The Big City Plan demonstrated the quality of the staff and ownership of it by the team. They took pride in driving the Big City Plan forward.”

A change in culture was needed, adds Nazir, and the introduction of iPads for senior staff and councillors was an example of this.

“All the planning community have iPads. I piloted it myself and we spent

Birmingham has a housing target of 80,000 homes by 2031, but only has the space for 43,000, and may actually need 120,000 anyway.

The council established Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust as a vehicle to deliver new homes, and there has been some progress, with starts on 1,000 council homes in the past year.

Work to expand schools can be challenging for planners, and Nazir is pleased that he has been able to oversee this progress.

“We have just adopted a long-term plan for education infrastructure. We have population growth and so we are building education infrastructure,” says Nazir.

A clear collaborative approach underlines the city council’s approach to its plans for the development of Birmingham. A new Local Enterprise Partnership for Greater Birmingham and Solihull in 2010 was a good example of this.

Staff have responded to the challenge of making big changes to the way they work, and helped to make the significant savings needed.

Local authority planning officers working in an environment in which they work closely with private industry represents a major departure from the traditional way in which the profession has operated. Perhaps Birmingham is setting a trail that others will follow, as the need to build on the economic foundations established since the recession grows stronger.

Nazir likes to practice boxing in his spare time and finds a session with the punch bag helps him to relax. Maybe his fighting qualities will help the city he loves to have a competitive edge and continue to play a significant role in the country’s economic recovery.

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O F FI C E T O R E S I D E N T I A L

THE CONVERSI I L L U S T R AT I O N | A DA M Q U E S T

IT WAS HAILED BY MINISTERS AS A SMART WHEEZE TO CREATE NEW HOMES, BUT HAS SCRAPPING PLANNING RULES BACKFIRED? CRITICS SAY PERMITTED DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS WILL ROB THE PROVINCES OF OFFICE SPACE NEEDED TO CREATE JOBS AS THE ECONOMY PICKS UP – AND LONDON BOROUGHS ARE ALREADY REBELLING. MARK SMULIAN REPORTS

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ION KICK

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t is perhaps surprising that when the government introduces a policy for increasing the supply of homes, and admonishes local planning authorities for a lack of enthusiasm in its implementation, that almost a year later ministers have no idea how widely it has been used.

Permitted development rights were introduced in May 2013 to allow the conversion of oďŹƒce premises to residential use without the need for full fresh permission.

The move infuriated many councils, mainly in London, which feared they would lose scarce employment space to burgeoning local private housing markets, and a number unsuccessfully took legal action over the matter.

Ministers exempted 33 areas in 17 local authorities from the policy’s operation, following representations on the impact on employment.

They also created a prior approval process, to allow for conversions to still be refused on

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O F FI C E T O R E S I D E N T I A L

although he added that some conversions would yield more than 100 homes each.

The department also said there had been some 40 planning appeals, in most cases where developers seeking to use the permitted development rights had had schemes rejected on grounds such as impact on highways or arguments about whether buildings had really been in use as offices. Thus, given that even the sponsoring department doesn’t know the extent of the permitted development rights use, it is hard to conclude how effective the policy has been.

“THE CHALLENGE FOR THE PLANNING COMMUNITY REGARDS DRAWING DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD ACCOMMODATION, THOSE STILL VIABLE AS OFFICE ACCOMMODATION AND THOSE THAT ARE NOT”

Changing attitudes

transport, contamination and flooding grounds.

Some councils sought to thwart the policy’s implementation by using Article 4 directions – locally adopted planning powers – to retain office space in employment use.

That led former planning minister Nick Boles to write in February to councils criticising those he considered had tried to obstruct the policy – specifically the London Borough of Islington and Broxbourne Borough Council.

He said: “Ministers are minded to cancel Article 4 directions which seek to re-impose unjustified or blanket regulation, given the clearly stated public policy goal of liberalising the planning rules and helping provide more homes.”

But Boles at that point could cite only figures gathered by a property industry journal for his policy’s success. He noted: “A recent survey by Estates Gazette has found that there were more than 2,250 applications for change of use from office to residential in the first six months since this change was introduced.”

Boles was no better informed by July, when The Planner asked for the Department for Communities and Local Government’s view on how much office space had been – or would be – converted to residential. He said: “We have seen enormous enthusiasm from the housing industry for these new flexibilities that are bringing many underused and empty office buildings back into productive use.”

But Boles cited only the same figures as he had in February,

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One attempt to assess a specific aspect of it has been made by the Urb@ne research group of academics at Northumbria University, who are seeking to map the nature, scale and geography of commercial office vacancy in the UK and have looked first at Leeds and Newcastle.

Researcher Kevin Muldoon-Smith says: “My impression is that the permitted development rights for office to residential conversion has been most important in changing attitudes, rather than in the number of applications actually made.

“It is unclear whether there is a correlation between those properties for which applications have been submitted for office to residential conversion, their relative degree of redundancy and obsolescence, or suitability for adaptive re-use.

“In other words, the number of notifications isn’t necessarily a sign of success, as it doesn’t guarantee that the buildings are even vacant, let alone suitable for conversion. The result is an uncertain detente between regulation and redevelopment potential.”

Muldoon-Smith notes that hostility to the policy in London results largely from it having a different office market from the rest of the country, and so the factors that caused the discontent may not be found elsewhere. Outside London, he says, central business districts are at the greatest ‘risk’ of conversions, and so cause understandable concern among those planners involved.

But he says these districts typically contain both a city’s best and worst-quality space.

“Protecting the central business district safeguards highquality office space, however, it also safeguards low-quality office space that few want to use,” says Muldoon-Smith.

“The challenge for the planning community regards drawing distinctions between good and bad accommodation, those still viable as office accommodation and those that are not.”

Physical feasibility, financial viability The ideal outcome would be that high-quality office space would still be let as offices whereas lower grade offices would be converted to residential use where appropriate, so with little effect on the overall supply of viable office space, he says.

Muldoon-Smith explains: “Developers are more likely to convert 1960s and 70s property in Newcastle and Leeds, a consequence of the available property supply in those locations and its historical development. Elsewhere in the UK this may

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Richmond’s homes vs offices clash be different, depending on the historical development of such locations.

“In all situations the challenge is assessing physical feasibility and financial viability in order to create realistic development scenarios, and planning permission is only one part of this complex equation.”

His study in Leeds and Newcastle has found that ‘acute’ vacancy accounts for only 37 and 24 office buildings respectively, but these buildings equate to about 40 per cent and 50 per cent respectively of all vacant secondary office property in the two cities, corresponding to 78,529 square metres of floor space in Leeds and 60,922 sq m in Newcastle.

Using rateable values, he calculates the value of that space to be £12.6 million in Leeds and £8.8 million in Newcastle.

“Such buildings are also potentially the most viable in terms of adaptive reuse because of their inherent characteristics.

Thus, by focusing attention on buildings identified as ‘acutely vacant’, secondary office vacancy may be reduced by up to 40 per cent in Leeds and halved in Newcastle.”

The London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames has been distinctly unimpressed by Boles’s strictures on office to residential, and having been part of the last year’s successful legal challenge is readying another assault on the policy.

Councillors have voted to consider applications to extend their Article 4 direction, which already removed the permitted development rights in 12 areas.

A council cabinet report noted: “Concerns that local small businesses and voluntary sector organisations are being displaced from their premises.”

It said there had been 215 prior notifications of conversions in the past year, which could result in a loss of more than 50,000 sq m of office floor space – equivalent to 20 per cent of the borough’s office space.

This could lead to the creation of some 500 homes when the borough’s total under the London Plan is only 235 a year.

Susan Chappell, cabinet member for community, planning and the voluntary sector, said: “This council continues to be extremely concerned about the new permitted development rights introduced by the government.

“Without these planning controls we are already losing valuable employment space, and with it, jobs.

“In addition, we cannot ensure that any new housing created without planning permission is of adequate quality, that it includes affordable housing or that it contributes to meeting education and health needs that will be generated.”

Richmond says it would have allowed conversions of offices if they had been marketed and there was no demand but that the space now being converted was not vacant; rather, local firms and jobs are being displaced from it.

Given Boles’s opposition to what he considers “unjustified” Article 4 directions, the minister and Richmond – a council led by Conservative peer Lord True – may be heading for a clash.

Need for infrastructure There remains though some scepticism about the policy.

Joe Kilroy, policy officer at the Royal Town Planning Institute, says: “It’s difficult to generalise but anecdotally from members there does not seem to be a lot of use of these permitted development rights. Some conversions may be in neglected places but even so the loss of employment space is a real issue, and it’s all very well saying its derelict office space, but if that is the case is it really fit for housing?”

Kilroy points out that London and some other cities both here and abroad have developed successful technology industries off the back of what was originally a supply of cheap and otherwise unwanted office space “and if that is not there it is difficult to build that up”.

He is also concerned that even if a redundant office building may be suitable in itself for conversion to residential, its surroundings may not sustain this.

“If space is poorly located or obsolete it is not clear that it is suitable for housing unless there is a plan to put in the infrastructure needed to make it suitable,” says Kilroy.

“This right could help to deliver homes but at the moment it is not clear that it has delivered very many. Housing needs to be in areas with good infrastructure to support it.”

Ghislaine Trehearne, assistant director of the British Property Federation, says it has been “very difficult to tell how important this policy has been, due to the almost total lack of data”.

“I’ve not seen any hard numbers but my impression is that this has caused more hysteria than actual conversions on the ground,” adds Trehearne.

But Trehearne agrees with Muldoon-Smith that the main impact may have been in changing attitudes and “to encourage local authorities to think differently” about redundant office

space and plan proactively for alternative uses.

“The interesting point and potential danger is whether this has cost councils affordable housing,” she says.

“Normally, if someone wished to convert an office to residential they would have to enter into a planning gain agreement and that could involve some provision of affordable housing. Under the permitted development rights they needn’t, so that is lost.”

Academics with the Urb@ne group are continuing to explore the potential to capture all commercial and industrial vacancy against stock at the national level.

It is too early to know whether Boles or his critics (see box) will be proved right on office to residential conversions. But a year’s experience has not dulled anger in London – nor won over the sceptics.

“THIS RIGHT COULD HELP TO DELIVER HOMES BUT AT THE MOMENT IT IS NOT CLEAR THAT IT HAS DELIVERED VERY MANY. HOUSING NEEDS TO BE IN AREAS WITH GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT IT”

n This article is based, in part, on data and analysis generated by a research project, being undertaken by researchers at Northumbria University that seeks to map the nature, scale and geography of commercial office vacancy in the UK. For further information please contact either Kevin Muldoon-Smith or Dr Paul Greenhalgh, URB@NE Research Group, Northumbria University I M AG E | R E X

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Q U E E N E L I Z A B E T H O LY M P I C P A R K

PARK LI F E

THE OLYMPIC PARK LIES IN LEGACY AFTERGLOW, BUT BY 2030 IF ALL GOES TO PLAN IT WILL BE NOT SO MUCH PARKLAND AS A CITY ANNEXE WITH GREEN SPACES, SAYS MARK SMULIAN

A

From fiction to reality: East Village, London's newest neighbourhood, has taken the E20 postcode from BBC TV’s EastEnders

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s cleaning up after the show goes, there are few bigger jobs than the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Two years after the last cheers died away the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is being developed for recreation, residential and employment use.

It’s not a typical park. The southern end around Stratford has large paved areas between the Olympic venues, while farther north one goes into landscaped parkland along the River Lea and its tributaries, accessible for the first time more than 100 years.

This is a park with wide roads and new buildings in and around it, about which opinions will no doubt differ.

What’s more, the park has its own planning authority, the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).

As the government intends to create a development corporation for Ebbsfleet garden city, and others yet to be located, Stratford could be a model.

The LLDC has a massive task over its 10-year scheduled life, complicated by the Games not being the area’s only legacy.

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Victory Park is the heart of East Village

“THE VISION IS TO DRIVE THE LEGACY OF THE GAMES TO TRANSFORM THE LIVES OF EAST LONDONERS”

The Olympic stadium - home to West Ham United Football Club from 2016

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Its area extends beyond the park itself to take in social housing estates, a historic watermill complex and an area of old industrial buildings that has become a burgeoning artists’ colony.

Because much of the development will be based on rising property values, will the LLDC reconcile the conflicting demands of these communities with its own mission of development that recovers some of the Games’ infrastructure costs?

The LLDC area takes in parts of the London boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest, which are represented on its planning committee (see opposite).

Core strategies Planning director Anthony Hollingsworth heads a team of 18 planners, technicians and administrators, drawn originally

Chobham Manor Village

from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the defunct London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, although over time others have joined.

Hollingsworth was the ODA’s head of development management before joining the LLDC, and earlier was a planner in several East London boroughs.

“We’re in the process of creating our local plan and hope to go to consultation in the late summer,” says Hollingsworth.

“At the moment we work to core strategies and planning documents from the host boroughs and rely on these adopted policies including area specific guidance and the mayor’s planning guidance, and we try to incorporate them all to ensure consistency.”

Hollingsworth says the LLDC does not get into conflicts with the boroughs as the duty to co-operate applies.

Although the park is best known for sports venues such as 28

the stadium, velodrome and the now-wingless aquatics centre, much of the expected development will be residential.

The Olympic Village, renamed East Village, already stands as a cluster of tall houses.

Next will come the 800 homes of Chobham Manor village, where developers are starting on 250 homes.

“The second phase of that still has reserved matters to be agreed,” says Hollingsworth. “It will be a change from the East Village, which was built in a very specific context for the Games.

Chobham Manor will be low rise with 25 per cent of the accommodation being houses with three or more bedrooms. Each village will have its design code giving a typology.”

This approach will be used across the park with, for example, all tall buildings clustered by Stratford International station, where Unite Student Housing’s controversial tower block slab looks, as Hollingsworth admits, “a bit stark at present, but it will look less so when there is context of tall buildings there”.

Next will come the villages of East Wick and Sweetwater – between them comprising 1,500 homes, which are expected to be completed by 2023.

The LLDC will retain freeholds and money raised from leasehold developments, “will include a payback to the government for the infrastructure used to deliver the park, with leases sold to create revenue streams back”, he says.

“We will very much use a joint venture approach, but we will have a long-term interest, and not just in the design.”

There is, though, unease in surrounding communities at “THE OLYMPIC what effect any sharp rise in property values might have VILLAGE, RENAMED on them.

EAST VILLAGE, Those who have seen artisALREADY STANDS AS tic communities priced out A CLUSTER OF TALL of areas farther into London HOUSES. NEXT WILL fear this process may yet COME THE 800 force them from their Fish HOMES OF CHOBHAM Island haven.

MANOR VILLAGE” This remote corner of the capital at Hackney Wick faces the park, sandwiched between two canals and a motorway, and was home to an assortment of Victorian industry. The buildings left behind proved ideal living/work units for creative industries.

Can such a place survive once the presence of “creatives”

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The LLDC’s planning task force The Localism Act 2011 gave the London Legacy Development Corporation the full planning powers of a local authority. Its planning decisions committee determines applications, or delegates them to officers.

Its chair is Philip Lewis Chief executive of the property division of the Kirsh Group Other members are:

n

n Lord Mawson Local social entrepreneur n Dru Vesty Chief planner at the former London Docklands Development Corporation n Lynda Addison Planning consultant n Nick Bitel Head of sports law at legal firm Kerman n Joanne Moon Head of site acquisitions, Asda n Piers Gough Architect

has made it fun and fashionable and thus viable for upmarket housing?

Local groups consider the LLDC well intentioned, but fear they are at risk from the jumble of planning policies now in force pending its local plan.

Richard Brown is co-chair of the Hackney Wick ComFish Island munity Interest Company, which meets developers at pre-application stages “to give them the heads-up on what the local community wants”.

He says: “The LLDC regeneration team for Hackney Wick and Fish Island are very supportive and have encouraged us to form this group.

“The issue is that the regeneration team has to work within a planning policy that isn’t there yet.

“The policy they have is based on old area action plans, and until the LLDC can draw up its own local plan developers can generally get away with it.

“LLDC planners have been very helpful but they have to go by the book in everything, and we hope the regeneration team can influence policy.”

Using an existing area action plan for Hackney Wick and Fish Island, the LLDC has re-zoned a lot of industrial space as residential, says Brown, “which means the land values have quadrupled and we’ll get low-quality dense housing that makes the most profit, even though there appears to be a policy of not reducing workspace.

“On one hand it provides homes, but it drives the artistic community out and makes the place sterile and uniform.”

Brown speculates that this is not entirely the LLDC’s fault because its ultimate boss, London mayor Boris Johnson, wants “to boost housing numbers and I think there is a tension over keeping up numbers even if the homes are just going to be sold to foreign investors.”

He points out that the area has “one of the densest concentrations of artists’ studios in the country, possibly in the world, with 700 studios each with up to 20 people.

“A lot of it is unofficially live/work because landlords have allowed it, and it has encouraged a young, creative demo-

graphic of people who could not otherwise both afford to live in London and run a studio anywhere else. That has grown up informally, but needs to be recognised.”

Tori Bravery, owner of warehouses, live/work space and a restaurant in the area, echoes this.

“I think the LLDC is in a difficult position,” she says. “It is clearly under pressure from central and local government to develop the area for growth.

“The people who work there totally get Hackney Wick and Fish Island as an artistic community, and they are open-minded about the area, but they are then tied up by bureaucracy around planning. I really do not envy their position.”

Hollingsworth says the LLDC does recognise the area’s character and has “a very high awareness of a heritage-led regeneration approach. For example, we have extended the conservation area.

“Yes, there is pressure for housing and we need mixed-use development to meet housing obligations, but we are not working against the grain of areas.”

Promoting economic development Negotiations are going on with University College London for a university near the Aquatics Centre.

A similar UCL scheme to build over the adjacent 1960s Carpenters estate came to grief a year ago and residents are now in limbo.

Osita Madu, chair of the Carpenters estate leaseholders subgroup, says: “Ultimately, we want to retain homes, not necessarily at high density as there is a lot of high-density housing around here.

“Nothing is planned at the moment since the collapse of the UCL deal; it’s been very quiet. LLDC now has powers over planning and may be better than Newham was, as the LLDC seems to have some understanding of the community, but it has legacy objectives to promote economic development as well as not jeopardising the community,” she adds.

Hollingsworth says: “Carpenters is owned by Newham and we are waiting for them to come forward with what they want there; we are working with them and want housing there.”

The LLDC says its “vision is to drive the legacy of the Games to transform the lives of East Londoners”. The trouble is that “transform” can mean vastly different things, not all of them positive. Will the LLDC complete its job without alienating those whose lives it seeks to transform?

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CENTRAL GOVAN ACTION PLAN

CASE ST UDY

GOVAN, ON THE BANKS OF THE CLYDE, WAS ONCE THE WORLD CENTRE OF SHIPBUILDING AND A GATEWAY TO THE AMERICAS. POST­WAR DECLINE HAS LEFT THE TOWN A BYWORD FOR DEPRIVATION AND POVERTY. BUT NOW IT’S SEEING A RENAISSANCE, THANKS TO AN RTPI AWARD­WINNING PROJECT. MARK SMULIAN REPORTS

GOVAN 30

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U

ntil recently, not even Govan’s staunchest admirers would have boasted of the area’s appearance, its town centre or economic prospects.

Although near Glasgow’s city centre, Govan’s once thriving shipyards had contracted, there was shabby housing and the town centre was a decaying eyesore.

The Central Govan Action Plan (CGAP) was formed to find solutions and is this year’s winner of the Royal Town Planning Institute Silver Jubilee Cup for planning excellence.

President Cath Ranson called it “a great example of how community-led planning can change the lives of people living in that community”.

The city council, housing associations, the community and other stakeholders devised the plan to improve central Govan’s streets, buildings and public realm.

Govan’s decline had also meant that few people with any significant disposable income lived there to sustain the local economy – or support new businesses that did move in.

Thus a priority was to provide homes and an environment that would attract people from a broad range of social and economic backgrounds.

IMAGE | ANDREW LEE The town centre had undergone an alarming decline as the local economy shrank, so the plan also committed to improve the attractiveness and appeal of the existing shops and streets.

Changes were also needed to make public transport and roads better serve the needs of residents and visitors. More than £88 million has been spent in Govan since the launch of the action plan in 2006. Funding is raised on a project-by-pro“It became a place where after 5pm there were pubs and the odd chip shop open, but otherwise it just looked dead and the ject basis by whichever organisation is the lead partner. houses and shops just looked very run down.”

The CGAP Partnership directly manages £4.2 million and Pat Cassidy, a member of the CGAP steering committee and a the Govan Cross Townscape Heritage Initiative a further long-standing local social entrepreneur, had also seen this long £2.7 million, and the CGAP steering group sets an annual slide into dereliction. work plan for regeneration activity being carried out by all “Govan had been in steady decline for 40 years, and from the partner agencies. community point of view the most important thing has been Glasgow City Council is the largest single funder, although the investment in the town centre, which had been particularly contributions have come from Heritage Lottery, Historic neglected,” he says.

Scotland, Scottish Government and European funds among “I think the CGAP has had a huge impact there and changed others. perceptions among the community and outside people. There used to be a lot of boarded-up shops and derelict ground.”

Changing perceptions CGAP followed earlier initiatives and Cassidy says there was Improvements had become pressing because, as local Labour councillor Fariha Thomas states: “Govan used to look awful.” some scepticism among residents that yet another bout of regenShe explains: “It had some of the highest deprivation in eration was about to be ‘done’ to them.

Scotland. It’s an area of traditional tenement property, which “People are often cynical about regeneration schemes and do not can be OK but which had fallen into disrepair. engage, but this has been done by a lot of small consultation involve“A lot of the area was knocked down in the 1960s and a ment exercises all over the area, which have involved people – not modern shopping centre was built that just tore the heart out by huge public meetings – so it has been meaningful,” he says. of the area.

Cassidy says the town centre’s dramatic improvement has been

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CENTRAL GOVAN ACTION PLAN

Parkview rings the changes The £11.2 million Parkview housing development offers 102 one or two-bedroom flats, developed by Govan Housing Association, as part of the Central Govan Action Plan’s aim to diversify both the nature and tenure of the area’s housing.

Sixty of the flats are for rent, 22 for sale and 20 for ownership through low-cost finance supported by the Scottish Government.

First-time buyers may also access mortgage finance through the association’s partner Cruden Homes.

Parkview won a commendation in the Saltire Society’s housing design awards in 2012 and occupies a prominent site on the main Govan Road.

CGAP’s most notable achievement. “I’d not want to exaggerate it, but that has made a big difference,” he says.

Thomas agrees. He says: “The town centre shop fronts were very shabby, but now one has been turned into a café so you can just get off the subway and there are tables outside and it’s open in the evening so that is restoring social aspects.

“The shopping centre is now bustling when it used to look halfdead, and the market on Saturdays is getting busier.”

Empty shops are now often used by housing associations and charities, providing both useful services and reducing blight.

Thomas says: “The change to the shop fronts has made a huge difference, though people were sceptical and thought they would get trashed by gangs if they weren’t covered by roller blinds.

“It all looks nicer, but it needs investment to renovate some beautiful old buildings to stop them falling down and it also needs some further work to the streetscape.”

Retaining the heritage Shirley McKnight is deputy director of Elderpark Housing Association, one of four main registered social landlords in the area.

She says her association and others renovated Govan’s Victorian tenement buildings in the 1970s and then moved into new-build.

“It has meant that tenements were refurbished in some cases a long time ago, so our next phase will be to go back to those and bring them up to modern standards and invest to retain that heritage.

“Having CGAP has made it easier to get more done because there has been more funding and we’re all playing on one team rather than everyone off doing their own little bit.”

New homes have been built almost entirely on brownfield sites, given Govan’s urban location, and have “brought new people in, and that was a deliberate part of the programme – to build homes for sale and shared equity so it’s attracted people who would not have come

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“IT BECAME A PLACE WHERE AFTER 5PM THERE WERE PUBS AND THE ODD CHIP SHOP OPEN, BUT OTHERWISE IT JUST LOOKED DEAD AND THE HOUSES AND SHOPS JUST LOOKED VERY RUN DOWN”

here and so has boosted the local economy,” adds McKnight.

The nature and location of the new housing was planned carefully with the community.

“At the start people did think ‘these are the usual people involved, hmmm, I wonder if they will really do anything’,” she says. “But a huge part of changing that perception has been the CGAP’s work with them so that community views are reflected and I’d say we pretty much got what the community wanted with the housing.”

Duncan Thomson, group manager for housing and regeneration planning at the city council, says: “Most things for housing were done through the housing associations and the community were involved through them and the public realm stuff was done through CGAP. “There is new-build as well as refurbishment and there has been a deliberate mix of homes and tenures. It is still the inner city so most sites are suited to flatted development, but where there has been an opportunity houses have been built to avoid a mono-tenure pattern and to help local people get on the housing ladder.”

Cassidy notes: “The new people coming in are helping to restore Govan to what it once was, which was a very mixed area of homes and businesses with working-class and middle-class people and that was lost over the past 40 years.”

Despite all this there is some uncertainty about the future. Thomas explains: “There are shipyards still working on defence contracts with three to four years’ guaranteed work – it’s unclear beyond that. But the BBC digital centre is just outside the area, as is the new general hospital, so there are new jobs around.”

Cassidy has a novel suggestion for the local economy.

“I’d like to see more investment in Water Row, which could be a tourist site at the heart of the area,” he says.

“It has Govan Old Church, which is probably the fifth church on that site in 1,500 years and the first Christian settlement on the Clyde. It’s overSir Terry Farrell, chair of looked because of where it is, judges for the RTPI Awards, but it could have huge potential said: “Overcoming tough to bring tourists here.” urban issues typical of our Govan still faces many chalpost-industrial cities, the lenges in its economy and action plan has genuinely regeneration, but the consensus brought together a community is that the CGAP has moved to create, realise and sustain things forward a remarkable many physical, social and distance in a short time. economic projects – bringing

Award winner: the judges’ view

We’ll be looking at a number of RTPI Award-winning projects over the next few months

real and noticeable benefit to Govan. This is true proactive and ‘bottom up’ planning in a robust environment.”

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INSIGHT

DiF {

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

Decisions in Focus is where we put the spotlight on some of the more interesting, offbeat and significant planning appeals of the last month – alongside your comments. If you’d like to contribute your insights and analyses to future issues of The Planner, email DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk The inspector’s ruling that plans for homes and workspace at Long Marston was sustainable was upheld

Pickles approves mixed-use development despite emerging plans (1 Communities secretary Eric Pickles has approved an application for a mixeduse development at Long Marston in Worcestershire comprising up to 380 dwellings, up to 5,000 sq metres of employment (Class B2) floor space, a minimum of 400 sq m of community (Class D2) building(s) and public open space with associated landscaping and infrastructure.

(2 The LPA had originally refused the application on grounds of sustainability, fiveyear housing land supply and prematurity.

But Inspector Jane Stiles’ report was unequivocal in its agreement with the appellant that the site could be made sustainable, that the council could not demonstrate a five-year supply of available housing land, and that little weight could be attached to the emerging local plan.

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(3 Particular reference was made to paragraph 17 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in the inspector’s reasoning for recommendation of approval – ironically, a paragraph used by the LPA to justify its recommendation for refusal.

In particular, the LPA pointed to section 11 of paragraph 17 which states that planning should, “actively manage patterns of growth to make the fullest use of public transport, walking and cycling, and focus significant

development on locations which are or can be made sustainable”.

Sally Tagg of Foxley Tagg Planning, agents for the appeal, argued that the location of the site meant that the proposed development would be sustainable. The inspector noted, however, “first, and fundamentally, this core planning principle does not require that development is only permissible on sites which currently are sustainable. It also embraces development on sites which can be made sustainable”.

The site, therefore, had to be considered in the context of an adjoining site with extant permission for 500 units, which was considered to be sustainable. The inspector contended that, since the adjoining site is sustainable, the appeal site must be too, as residents of the appeal site would be able to make use of the amenities on both the appeal and adjoining site.

Therefore, despite the site’s location in open countryside, well outside a settlement boundary, the site could still be considered sustainable

The communities secretary sided with the campaign against proposals to demolish part of Smithfields’ Victorian market halls

owing to its proximity to an approved site and since it is a site that can be made sustainable.

Tagg took issue with the LPA’s contention that the NPPF imposed a sequential test, “whereby sites that can be made sustainable are permissible only if the sites which are currently sustainable are unavailable” – a claim described by the inspector as “rewriting the terms of the NPPF”.

Lastly, it was determined that the sustainability of the appeal scheme could not be looked at in a vacuum – it must be viewed against the premise that Wychavon could not demonstrate a five-year housing land supply and that the district’s housing needs must be met somewhere.

(Notably, the communities secretary has approved two further appeal schemes involving Wychavon District Council in recent weeks.)

APPEAL REFERENCE: APP/ H1840/A/12/2202364

(4

[1] SALLY TAGG

Foxley Tagg Planning was lead consultant and project manager for the planning application and appeal process. We consider that this decision is an important breakthrough in the context of paragraph 17, crucially when more new housing is needed nationally. In the case of Wychavon District Council, where there was a dire need for new market and affordable housing, this appeal outcome is a resounding win.

SALLY TAGG Managing director, Foxley Tagg

Smithfield’s plans deemed “wholly unacceptable” (1 Communities secretary Eric Pickles has agreed with an inspector’s recommendation to refuse a £160 million proposal for a complex of offices, shops and restaurants on part of London’s historic Smithfields’ Market.

(2 Developer Henderson Global had applied for the partial demolition, part redevelopment and partrefurbishment of existing buildings for office (B1) and retail (A1-A3) uses, with associated servicing and access. Plans drawn up for developers Henderson Global I M AG E | G E T T Y

by architects John McAslan & Partners sought to retain buildings on the perimeter of the site, but large parts of the famous London market would have been removed to allow for the building of offices, restaurants and retail outlets.

Arguments in favour of the redevelopment held that the buildings were now in a poor state of repair.

(3 Rejecting the plans, Pickles said that the site’s state of disrepair was the result of a “history of deliberate neglect”. In assessing the planning balance, he said, “less weight should therefore be given to the current condition of the buildings and the consequent benefit of their repair”.

The proposal to demolish “important parts of significant market buildings, to the great detriment to the

surrounding area,” were, he said, “wholly unacceptable”.

Pickles said that the restoration of the external facades of the market’s Western Market buildings would “significantly enhance the appearance of the Smithfield Conservation Area and the re-use of the perimeter shops would be consistent with the prevailing character of the area.”

However, “in design terms, the proposed development would not be an appropriate or effective response to local character and history, nor would it reflect the particular identity of the local surroundings, so it would not make a positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness.”

> APPEAL REFERENCE: APP/ K5030/V/13/2205294

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The communities secretary sided with the campaign against proposals to demolish part of Smithfields’ Victorian market halls

owing to its proximity to an approved site and since it is a site that can be made sustainable.

Tagg took issue with the LPA’s contention that the NPPF imposed a sequential test, “whereby sites that can be made sustainable are permissible only if the sites which are currently sustainable are unavailable” – a claim described by the inspector as “rewriting the terms of the NPPF”.

Lastly, it was determined that the sustainability of the appeal scheme could not be looked at in a vacuum – it must be viewed against the premise that Wychavon could not demonstrate a five-year housing land supply and that the district’s housing needs must be met somewhere.

(Notably, the communities secretary has approved two further appeal schemes involving Wychavon District Council in recent weeks.)

APPEAL REFERENCE: APP/ H1840/A/12/2202364

(4 ANALYSIS [1] SALLY TAGG Foxley Tagg Planning was lead consultant and project manager for the planning application and appeal process. We consider that this decision is an important breakthrough in the context of paragraph 17, crucially when more new housing is needed nationally. In the case of Wychavon District Council, where there was a dire need for new market and affordable housing, this appeal outcome is a resounding win.

SALLY TAGG Managing director, Foxley Tagg

MIXED­USE DEVELOPMENT

Smithfield’s plans deemed “wholly unacceptable” (1 SUMMARY Communities secretary Eric Pickles has agreed with an inspector’s recommendation to refuse a £160 million proposal for a complex of offices, shops and restaurants on part of London’s historic Smithfields’ Market.

(2 CASE DETAILS Developer Henderson Global had applied for the partial demolition, part redevelopment and partrefurbishment of existing buildings for office (B1) and retail (A1-A3) uses, with associated servicing and access. Plans drawn up for developers Henderson Global I M AG E | G E T T Y

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by architects John McAslan & Partners sought to retain buildings on the perimeter of the site, but large parts of the famous London market would have been removed to allow for the building of offices, restaurants and retail outlets.

Arguments in favour of the redevelopment held that the buildings were now in a poor state of repair.

(3 CONCLUSION REACHED Rejecting the plans, Pickles said that the site’s state of disrepair was the result of a “history of deliberate neglect”. In assessing the planning balance, he said, “less weight should therefore be given to the current condition of the buildings and the consequent benefit of their repair”.

The proposal to demolish “important parts of significant market buildings, to the great detriment to the

surrounding area,” were, he said, “wholly unacceptable”.

Pickles said that the restoration of the external facades of the market’s Western Market buildings would “significantly enhance the appearance of the Smithfield Conservation Area and the re-use of the perimeter shops would be consistent with the prevailing character of the area.”

However, “in design terms, the proposed development would not be an appropriate or effective response to local character and history, nor would it reflect the particular identity of the local surroundings, so it would not make a positive contribution to local character and distinctiveness.”

> APPEAL REFERENCE: APP/ K5030/V/13/2205294

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INSIGHT

DiF { D

DECISIONS IN FOCUS

Go-ahead for Radlett rail freight interchange (1 SUMMARY A strategic rail freight interchange (SRFI) near St Albans has been approved.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has granted outline planning permission for the development of a major rail freight interchange at a green belt location in Hertfordshire.

A previous decision by the secretary of state to refuse permission was quashed by a High Court ruling.

(2 CASE DETAILS Developer Helioslough submitted proposals for the construction of a strategic rail freight interchange (SRFI) at land in and around the site of the former Handley Page aerodrome – home of the Victor bomber – at Radlett, Hertfordshire.

The scheme included a rail terminal, distribution warehouses and associated road and rail infrastructure including a new bypass.

Permission was initially refused by Hertfordshire County Council in 2009.

(3 CONCLUSION REACHED Agreeing with inspector A Mead, the secretary of state said that that although the project would cause substantial harm to the area, the overall benefits of the scheme outweighed its disadvantages.

The letter said: “The secretary of state considers that the factors weighing in favour of the appeal include the need for SRFIs to serve London and the South-East, to which he has attributed very considerable weight, and the lack of more appropriate alternative locations for an SRFI in the north-west sector which would cause less harm to the green belt.

Taken together, he said, the factors weighing in favour of the appeal “clearly outweigh the harm to the green belt and the other harms identified”, including the harm in relation to landscape and ecology and amount to very special circumstances.

APPEAL REFERENCE: APP/ B1930/A/09/2109433

A 77m high wind turbine was deemed intrusive and out of scale against the skyline

ENERGY

77m-high turbine appeal dismissed (1 SUMMARY Wind turbine installers Harmony Energy had proposed the erection of a single 500Kw wind turbine, 50m-high to the hub and 77m-high to the blade tip, with associated infrastructure and access track.

(2 CASE DETAILS The turbine was to have been situated in an elevated position at a height of 116 metres, some 200 metres to the west of the M6 motorway.

To the west of the proposed site is an area of open countryside extending to the outskirts of Carlisle.

Inspector B Hellier said the main issue was “the effect of the proposed turbine on the character and appearance of the surrounding countryside, and whether any adverse effect would be outweighed by the benefits associated with renewable energy generation.”

(3 CONCLUSION REACHED In dismissing the appeal, Hellier noted that Harmony

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had suggested a reduction in the overall height of the turbine to 61 metres while in negotiations with the council prior to the application being determined. However, the application was not amended.

Hellier noted that the adjacent countryside was in fact “a relatively uninteresting landscape”, and that two medium-sized turbines had recently been approved in the same area.

While agreeing with the results of a Landscape Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) carried out by the appellant (which concluded that overall the visual effects would be moderate in scale), Hellier concluded that, nevertheless, “the turbine would appear intrusive and out of scale, often against the skyline and often with only a disconcertingly partial view of the blades.”

Hellier determined that “considerable weight” should be given to the harmful effect of the turbine on the near distance views of the receptors.

Appeal reference: APP/ E0915/A/14/2213261

I M AG E | A L A M Y

28/07/2014 09:17

+ We’d like to incorporate your comment, insight and analysis into Decisions in Focus each month. Whether you can offer a brief obversation on a matter of interest within an inspector’s judgement or an informed interpretation of a decision, please let us know by emailing DiF at editorial@theplanner.co.uk

ROUND­UP Here are nine more decisions that we think are worth a look this month. All the details and inspector’s letters can be found on the Planning Portal website: www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk APPEAL DECISIONS

AGRICULTURAL

(1) Application: Planning permission for a barn and lean-to without complying with conditions applied to a previous permission granted at Oak Piece Nursery, Broadway, Worcestershire.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issue: Harm would be caused to the character of the area in view of the site’s location within the Cotswold Area of outstanding national beauty (AONB) if the condition already granted was varied to allow the existing building adjacent to the road to remain in place.

Appeal reference: APP/ G1630/A/14/2215412

(2) Application: Erection of 10 stables and associated manegé (riding academy) and 1.2m-high fence in Essex.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issue: The appeal site is beyond the green belt on about 8.1 ha in a rural area beyond Danbury village. The site is devoid of buildings apart from the frame of a barn being built to replace two former agricultural barns. Native hedge would suffer, given its proximity to the footpath. The plan’s siting and dimensions render it harmful to its surroundings.

Appeal reference: APP/ W1525/A/14/2215327

and public/private space) at Bow Wharf, next to Regent’s Canal, London.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issue: The site amounts to some 0.24 ha within the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area. The proposal would preserve the area’s character and represents an efficient use of a previously developed site in line with the National Planning Policy Framework’s acknowledgement of the public benefits of securing the optimum viable land use.

Appeal reference: APP/ E5900/A/13/2205191

(1) Application: Retention of existing composting facility, access and an increase in throughput at Parkgate Farm Waste Management Facility, Purton, Swindon.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issue: The application was timed out. The appellant plans to increase the permitted green and industrial waste from 25,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 50,0000 tpa. This will mean an increase in heavy vehicle trips from 18 to 28 a day. An Odour Management Plan (OMP) had been submitted.

The site is regulated by the Environment Agency so both the permit and the OMP can be changed in response to updated procedures.

The proposals would allow sustainable transport in terms of safety, amenity, capacity and use of the roads.

Appeal reference: APP/ Y3940/A/13/2210484

COMMERCIAL

(1) Application: Demolition of existing buildings to develop 34 homes, 10 one-bed flats, two 15-bed flats and five 4-bed houses within three buildings, with 64 sq m of office floor space, parking

ENERGY

(3) Application: Construction of a single wind turbine with associated infrastructure including turbine foundation, crane hard-standing, cabling

works and new access to the site at a farm in Daventry, Northants.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issue: The site is in an area of open countryside between Byfield and Priors Marston just off a road linking the two settlements.

The area could absorb the proposed turbine without the landscape being unduly dominated. The proposal would cause only limited harm to the look of the area and would conflict to only a limited extent with local and national policies.

Appeal reference: APP/ Y2810/A/13/2204488

century features. Given the limited scale of the plan, the environmental and public benefits do not outweigh the harm to the scheme’s visual impact on a heritage asset.

Appeal reference: APP/ Y2003/A/14/2216839

HOUSING NEW BUILD

(6) Application: To build

(4) Application: Development of a single wind turbine, with accompanying access track, hard-standing, electrical switchgear house with underground cabling and temporary construction compound at Mowsley, Leics.

Decision: Permission granted.

Main issue: There would be limited harm and conflict with the local development plan in terms of the character of the area, specifically the landscape within about 1.5km of the proposed turbine, and no substantial harm to the significance of a small number of local heritage assets.

Appeal reference: APP/ F2415/A/13/2198540

(5) Application: Provision of solar panels for former memorial hall at Scunthorpe.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issue: Although not a listed building, or in a Conservation Area, the property is near a grade II listed former manor house.

The Old Hall has been altered with new additions and is separated into two dwellings but it retains many of its 17th

30 homes including 12 affordable homes, plus open space, meadow, access, and 75 parking places in Dorking.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issue: The site is a nongreen belt field to the west of Strood Green village. The 2013 flooding saw 96 nearby homes flooded. A prepared flood risk assessment does not properly identify the long-term risks. The proposed development was not considered sustainable.

Appeal reference: APP/ C3620/A/13/2206125

(7) Application: Erection of 51 dwellings with access, parking, open space and landscaping (following demolition of existing buildings) at Long Melford, Sudbury.

Decision: Appeal dismissed.

Main issue: The access and the number of homes would result in overdevelopment detrimental to pedestrian safety due to the narrow access to the site. There is a presumption in favour of sustainable development in the NPPF and there are benefits in the plan’s use of a brownfield site and the element of affordable housing. But pedestrian safety is key. The council has also shown a five-year supply of housing land elsewhere.

Appeal reference: APP/ D3505/A/13/2202631

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INSIGHT

LLegal landscape THE FIGHT FOR AFFORDABLE HOMES A year on from the introduction of S106BA, which allows developers to apply to councils to modify affordable housing obligations on viability grounds, there have been seven appeals to the secretary of state pursuant to S106 BC of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. How does that help to solve the UK’s housing crisis?

Of the seven S106 BC appeals heard, only one has been dismissed. The others have been permitted with the original affordable housing requirement being reduced for a three-year period.

The appeal decisions demonstrate the secretary of state’s mandate to maintain momentum in the delivery of housing even though the sacrificial lamb is affordable housing. Even in the one appeal that was refused the inspector acknowledged the national need to boost housing delivery, but concluded that, as the developer had an outline permission, it was premature to base a viability assessment on a scheme where the final development could be different to that assessed.

The appeal decisions illustrate that local authorities, when faced with an appeal on purely viability grounds, are not sufficiently resourced to properly

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Michele Vas interrogate both the viability evidence relied on by the developer nor properly justify their own viability case. In some instances the appeal forum has become a form of mediation, where the parties seek to agree elements of the viability appraisals rather than carrying out the exercise of challenging each element of the other’s appraisal.

One has to question how

“ONE HAS TO QUESTION HOW REDUCING AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROVISION IS A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH IN THE LONG TERM”

reducing affordable housing provision is a sustainable approach in the long term, particularly in a rising housing market in which values continue to increase and the availability of grant funding for affordable housing is increasingly difficult to secure (and, perversely, if at all where affordable housing is required as part of the section 106 package of obligations).

Appeals permitted under S106BC impose an arbitrary three-year period within which the reduced level of affordable housing can be “banked” and subsequently built out within that three-year period. The reasoning behind this is to incentivise developers to get on and build the housing. This provision fails to recognise that in a rising market the viability of the development could improve radically within those three years, but with no

reverse mechanism enabling viability to be reassessed if certain thresholds are met (or retrospective review at the end), the local authority has lost the opportunity to recover any affordable housing provisions that would otherwise have been properly required.

Although viability is fundamental to delivery, there is a range of other factors affecting viability – other S106 contributions, CIL, and design and sustainability standards (to name a few). Other ways of assisting the viability of a scheme could include taking a more flexible approach over affordable housing tenure mix, allowing for affordable housing ‘holidays’ to enable a sufficient amount of market development to get under way early on, or setting minimum levels of affordable housing provision subject to viability testing at an appropriate stage of the development.

Councils should take a more proactive approach to viability of development from the start. It is not in a council’s interest to push developers into using the ‘developer-friendly’ S106 tools. A negotiated approach to viability is always going to secure a more acceptable outcome than one that might be imposed by a secretary of state on a crusade to boost housing delivery.

–

MICHELE VAS Michele Vas is a managing associate and member of the public law practice with Dentons

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LATEST POSTS FROM THEPLANNER.CO.UK/BLOGS

B LO G S This month… Recent legislation has cleared uncertainty in Scotland about the legitimate scope and use of S106 planning agreements

L E G I S L AT I O N S H O R T S Grampian conditions step forward Saskia Molekamp On 6 March the final version of the National Planning Policy Guidance (NPPG) was published. It replaces a substantial amount of guidance including circular 11/95 on the use of planning conditions (except Annex A of the circular, which is retained).

Significantly, the new guidance now states the policy position on ‘Grampian conditions’ as they relate to section 106 agreements. Such conditions restrict development until a S106 agreement is provided, thereby enabling grant of permission before completion of the S106. This can be useful, for example, to allow developers to start discharging planning conditions, or to exercise an option under a conditional sale contract (following grant of planning permission) and enter into the S106 as the landowner.

It can also help where the local planning authority owns part of the land that needs to be bound by the S106. It is doubtful whether the local planning authority (LPA) can validly covenant with itself and thereby bind the land under S106. But a Grampian condition could potentially overcome this by requiring a

S106 agreement to be entered into by any future non-LPA freeholder.

Despite their value, it was not previously clear whether Grampian conditions could properly be imposed. Previous guidance said a condition could not require the applicant to enter into a S106 agreement, and also that a condition could not require the payment of money or other consideration.

The NPPG now directly addresses the issue.

The guidance says that, although unlikely to be appropriate in most cases (we wonder whether this means “necessary”), Grampian conditions may be appropriate for more complex and strategically important development, where the delivery of such development would otherwise be at risk.

The six tests must also be met. Furthermore, the prohibition on requiring payments by way of conditions is helpfully qualified in the NPPG with an acknowledgement that such conditions may be possible if worded negatively.

While reflecting previous practice in a number of cases, seeing these statements in the policy will, we hope, increase local authorities’ confidence that Grampian conditions can be used in appropriate cases.

The new guidance may also help developers secure the use of an “Arsenal condition”,

which restricts development on a specific portion of the land until a S106 agreement binding that portion is entered into. This is clearly of benefit if negotiations with third-party landowners are taking longer to finalise. The local authority can still have the comfort of a S106 agreement for the rest of the site where development can start.

Although Grampian conditions help the practicalities of completing a S106 agreement, parties should also remember the principle that conditions should be used instead of planning obligations where an objective is equally achievable by either. There is a rising trend in the use of more fleshedout conditions on schemes where conditions are playing a uniquely close role with S106 obligations in determining when certain planning obligations are triggered and which land is bound by them. This enables flexibility for schemes with several phases spanning a long term.

But where measures do need to be in a S106 agreement and a Grampian condition is required, the new guidance should go some way to reassure more cautious parties that such a condition can be imposed.

Saskia Molekamp is a solicitor specialising in planning law at Mills & Reeve LLP

Cockermouth neighbourhood development order passes referendum A successful referendum in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth means that certain types of development and changes of use will be allowed without planning permission.

The neighbourhood development order (NDO) passed by 772 votes to 496, permits commercial properties along two town centre streets to change use to restaurants and cafes, and for the owners to put tables and chairs along the streets. It will also allow business owners in Market Place to convert their upper floors into flats.

The NDO was prepared by a consortium of town, district and county councils, trade groups and the Cockermouth Civic Trust. Nineteen per cent of the electorate took part in the vote.

Archaeologist fails in n 1066 battle site bid Archaeologist Charlie Jones has failed in an attempt to have a development site near York designated as the location of the first battle of 1066.

At a hearing in London, Jones said his research showed that Germany Beck, on York’s southern outskirts, was the site of the Battle of Fulford, feated an English where Vikings roundly defeated army ahead of the invasion by William of Normandy.

Even though English Heritage has conceded that the site identified by Jones is probably the right one, it said the evidence wasn’t strong enough to add the site to the Battlefield Register, thus granting it legal protections.

House builder Persimmon plans to put 650 homes on the site.

Neighbourhood plan area appeals to be examined by ministers The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has introduced new criteria meaning that planning appeals within or close to neighbourhood plan areas could be subject to scrutiny by ministers before a decision is made.

The DCLG said that communities secretary Eric Pickles wanted to ensure that planning appeal decisions reflected the wishes of communities that had created neighbourhood plans.

More than 1,000 areas have started the neighbourhood planning process, and some 20 referenda have been held so far.

The new criteria for the recovery of planning appeals will include “proposals for residential development of over 10 units in areas where a qualifying body has submitted a neighbourhood plan proposal to the local authority, or where a neighbourhood plan has been made”.

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INSIGHT

Career { D E V E L O P M E N T C R U N N I N G A C O N S U LT A T I O N

Consultation is very much the order of the day in contemporary planning. But, asks Simon Wicks, what is it, how do you do it, and where can you find help?

What is how do it? you do what Where it? skills do to find

L

ocalism, community, neighbourhood – these are watchwords in contemporary planning, and all point towards one end – talking to people who are affected by development, and giving due weight to their opinions.

A consultation represents just one aspect of this conversation.

According to the RTPI’s Guidelines on Effective Community Consultation, it is therefore different from ‘involvement’, ‘engagement’ and ‘participation’, which imply continuing relationships as opposed to a single event with a fixed aim.

help?

you need?

The RTPI says a consultation is: “The dynamic process of dialogue between individuals or groups, based upon a genuine exchange of views, and normally with the objective of influencing decisions, policies or programmes of action.”

(1) When to consult – and why Local authorities have long had to consult on planning applications. More recently, the Localism Act and the NPPF have obliged public authorities to consult on local plans and to support communities in developing neighbourhood plans – which may involve a consultation.

More broadly, local authorities must also prepare a Statement of Community Involvement (SIC) outlining how they intend to involve the community in decision-making.

In addition, the Localism Act 40

requires private developers to consult before they apply for planning permission. The idea of creating a “dynamic process of dialogue” is – theoretically at least – at the heart of the modern planning system.

“Planning is something that everyone needs to be involved in as a society and a neighbourhood at every level,” says Nick Wates, founder of CommunityPlanning.net. “We need to collaborate on how we solve the problems we all have.

“I come back to first principles, after planners like John Turner and Tony Gibson. Their fundamental belief was that people know and understand their local environment better than everybody else. It [community planning] is about getting that local knowledge involved in the decisionmaking process.”

Consultation also has tangible benefits from a developer’s point of view, says Pauline Roberts, planning director at Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP). “The attitude of clients is changing and many are appreciating there’s a value in an effective consultation because it speeds up the process and helps to resolve issues early in the pre-application stage,” she says. “It can result in a better scheme.”

(2) How to consult The key to a good consultation is a rigorous process that identifies the people who should be consulted and the best way to speak with them. As Roberts notes, “The better and more complete the consultation, the less likely a challenge later on.”

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n We’ll continue looking at consultations in next month’s Career Development, where the emphasis will be on how to interpret the results.

l Key steps:

(3) Reach a wider community

The rebirth of the charrette

Nowadays, technology is more likely to play a role – especially when it comes to reaching groups of people who have traditionally not pushed themselves forward to take part in consultations.

Wates cites the example of teenage skateboarders who used a park that was to be redesigned. Working with the local authority’s youth officer, he devised a postcard for the skaters to pass on to each other that highlighted a texting-based survey. It worked.

Other organisations are using social media to reach hitherto untouched segments of the community. The Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, for example, is running a local plan consultation, Our Live Park, through Twitter and a website.

Pauline Roberts sees electronic consultation as the future. “That’s where the industry as a whole needs to be more – using Twitter and Facebook is relatively new. It’s about reducing the reliance on documentary (i.e. written) consultation and placing increasing emphasis on participative methods where literacy standards are less of a barrier to participation.”

A charrette is a period of intense face-to-face collaboration between different stakeholders to arrive at a solution to a planning problem that everyone can live with. Typically, different groups of people affected by a scheme will work with experts and each other over several hours or even days.

At their best, charrettes are creative, collaborative, multi-disciplinary and result in solutions that reduce time, cost and conflict – and this 19th century design process is making a comeback.

For example, the Scottish government local authorities hold charrettes to create local development plans.

(1) What is the aim of the consultation?

How clearly can you express this?

(2) Who MUST you consult with, as a statutory requirement? Who specifically within those organisations do you need to speak to?

(3) Who SHOULD you consult with?

(4) Who else CAN you consult with who might be affected by the proposal?

(5) What is the best way to consult with each of these groups?

(6) Has any of this information already been recorded as the result of previous consultations?

The answers will enable you to design the consultation process itself, says Wates, and this is likely to be different for different stakeholders.

“It’s about finding out what methods people find easiest to engage with. For example, the hallmark of early community planning was the Post-it note, because it’s a brilliant way of recording information and very simple and transparent.”

l What skills do you need?

According to the RTPI: c Stakeholder profiling and mapping; c Stakeholder relationship management; c Consensus building; c Mediation; c Conflict resolution; and c Negotiation.

Many planners – whether private or public – will outsource some or all of a consultation exercise to a specialist. Larger firms may have developed their own consultation methodology, often backed up by bespoke software.

Wates says the consultation skills of planners are improving. “There’s increasing knowledge about methods, and an increasing amount of good practice guidance,” he observes. “But it’s like anything – if you want to get your car fixed it’s a good idea to go a garage where they have fixed cars similar to yours before.

“But one of the difficulties of going to a consultant is that they will tend to use a particular method they have used before. I run a placeplanning workshop where they think through the processes they want to use. It’s always fascinating to see how people develop the process. There’s no magic to it – you just have to think it through.”

(4) Set expectations “The important thing is to be honest and straightforward with what’s up for grabs,” says Wates. “This is particularly true with neighbourhood planning – people will accept constraints as long as it’s dealt with honestly. What’s really difficult is when you almost imply they can do whatever they want and what they say will happen.”

The RTPI recommends that planners take every opportunity to explain that public consultation findings and individual objections are only part of the evidence base upon which decisions are taken.

(5) Rank responses Wates recommends ranking stakeholders according to the weight

their views merit. Key stakeholders might be landowners, local authorities and residents’ groups. Less key might be utilities companies and community members only tangentially affected by a development.

Reaching stakeholders can be a particular challenge for developments that don’t involve fixed physical structures – transport networks, for example.

“You might start involving passenger groups,” says Wates. “The ways in which we have to involve these people is quite sophisticated. But there’s no magic formula for working out who to speak to.”

It’s a question of rigour, thoroughness and accepting your own limitations. “If you are searching for the perfect process, it can become elaborate, unmanageable and costly.

You need to develop a process that’s suitable for your budget and manpower.”

+ Resources – learn about consultation in detail n RTPI Guidelines on Effective Community Involvement and Consultation www.bit.ly/1jbbFZr n Communityplanning.net www. communityplanning.net n Community planning consultants list www.bit.ly/1oLi0sy n Planning practice guidance about consultations on the Planning Portal www.bit.ly/1rehgyz

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INSIGHT

Plan ahead P

Send feedback to editorial@theplanner.co.uk Tweet us @The Planner_RTPI

Under examination How would you bear up under crossexamination at a public inquiry?

A one-day seminar on 15 September could help you find out, says Kevin Leigh “Since PINS changed the rules, public inquiries are rarer. But when they do happen, they usually result in a better quality decision,” says Kevin Leigh.

A 20-year veteran of hundreds of appeals, the barrister from No.5 Chambers in Birmingham has presented and picked apart cases at more inquiries than you can shake a stick at – and he revels in his tough reputation.

“I’m known as something of a Rottweiler,” he says, admitting that he relishes the crossexamination at the heart of this “inquisitorial process within an adversarial framework”.

“I always say to people you have nothing to fear unless you’re talking rubbish. If you have an unsound case, I’m likely to make you look foolish.”

Although he makes it sound a bit frightening, Leigh concedes that inquiries are usually quite civilised. That’s in part because they are ‘front-loaded’, with participants required to present their evidence at the outset in the form of a ‘statement of case’.

Thus, there are few surprises.

“It’s not like a criminal trial,” the barrister stresses. “It’s about informing the inspector about the merits of your case at the same time as proving the weaknesses of the opposition’s case.

“In an ideal world, a public inquiry should reach the right solution in an orderly fashion because everybody knows what the other person

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Kevin Leigh: “I'm known as something of a Rottweiler”

is saying in advance.”

It helps to know what you’re getting into, however.

On 15 September, Leigh and colleagues from No.5 will be giving planners a crash course in preparing for public inquiries and examinations in public at De Vere Venues in Birmingham.

The one-day seminar will introduce participants to inquiry procedure and tactics, types and formats of different hearings, appropriate submissions and statements, cross examination and the role of experts at inquiries.

A mock inquiry in the afternoon will test performance under pressure – and participants may well find themselves being crossexamined by ‘the Rottweiler’.

Why go through this?

“There are serious consequences if you lose an appeal and face the prospect of paying costs,” explains Leigh. “We’re going to make sure people are in the right frame of mind before they even engage with an appeal.”

Examinations in public, on the other hand, present a somewhat different challenge

“WE’RE GOING TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE ARE IN THE RIGHT FRAME OF MIND BEFORE THEY EVEN ENGAGE WITH AN APPEAL”

as the inspector considers the merits of a local plan. In this case, the authority argues for the documents that support its local plan. It’s still inquisitorial, but less adversarial, says Leigh.

“Planners go to them a lot and they may have to present their case. Many will use barristers to help them prepare and some will use lawyers to argue for them.”

Once again, it pays to be able to perform under examination – whether from a barrister or an inspector. “It’s a good lesson for those who haven’t seen it done before, to see how easy it is for you to make a fool of yourself under examination,” Leigh concludes.

“Or how easy it is to control the situation to that you don’t make a fool of yourself.”

P R E P A R I N G FO R P U B LI C I N Q U I R I E S A N D E X A M I N AT I O N S I N P U B LI C Where? De Vere Venues, Colmore Gate, Birmingham, B3 2QD When? 15 September 2014, all day Theme: Procedures and practices to prepare for public inquiries and examinations in public Find out more and book for this event at: http://bit.ly/1cNbJJb

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DIARY

LISTINGS Talks, conferences, training, master classes – everything you need to keep on top of the latest thinking and developments in the planning world.

SOUTH EAST 18 September – Housing Event A look at some of the hot topics for housing in 2014-15, with speakers from local authorities, the private sector and Hampshire Alliance for Rural Affordable Housing.

Venue: Test Valley Borough Council, Beech Hurst, Weyhill Rd, Andover, Hampshire SP10 3AJ Details: www.bit. ly/191TLTS 9 October – What is the future for the UK’s town centres and retail planning?

A look at the impact of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and revised National Planning Practice Guidance (NPPG) on town centre development. How to regenerate, fund, manage and promote and make ‘fitfor-purpose’ town centres for the 21st century.

Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit. ly/1jXJTR2

LONDON 04 September – Regeneration Network Conference: celebrating successes and tackling future challenges In its centenary year the RTPI celebrates regeneration successes and considers future challenges.

The day consists of speakers and workshops.

Venue: Dugdale Centre, Thomas Hardy House, 39 London Road, Enfield Town, Enfield, EN2 6DS Details: www.bit. ly/1rmCHzO 17 September – Environmental Impact Assessments masterclass The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Regulations require developments that have the potential to be harmful

to the environment to go through a rigorous assessment process. This workshop covers the relevant legislation with explanatory examples and will assist with submitting an EIA. Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit. ly/1iXb3Wl 18 September – Understanding developers and development finance This masterclass uses lectures, workshops and exercises to help you think like a land buyer. Key issues covered: schemes different developers want; principles of a development appraisal; mistakes that developers make; land contracts and options; and development finance.

Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit. ly/1ocMqs0 23 September – POCA in planning enforcement Councils are increasingly using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to seek confiscation orders to deprive a criminal of the benefit received as a result of the planning crime.

Confiscation orders could go some way towards making an enforcement service self-financing.

Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit. ly/1qO7Vwa 24 September – Development quality and the NPPG Understanding a full range of aspects of the development and design process; including feasibility and technical assessments, through to the public engagement and masterplanning process.

How to deliver viable developments and a legacy of quality developments.

Venue: The Hatton (etc

DON’T MISS Negotiation skills for planning professionals Negotiation is a way in which two parties collaborate to solve a problem that neither party can solve alone, leaving both parties better off. This one-day programme will equip you with a range of practical tools and techniques which will not only improve your chances of getting a positive outcome to a negotiation, but will also help you to use negotiations as a way to build on and strengthen relationships. It is aimed at anyone who has to get others to agree to their proposals or to make changes to, or improvements in their behaviours or results.

Date: 30 September Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit.ly/1yhNZaf

Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit. ly/1qrzMoO 25 September – Renewable and lowcarbon energy planning One-day workshop covers the key renewable energy planning policy drivers and the practical implementation process from both the LPA and private consultant’s perspective. The format blends presentations and an interactive masterclass.

Venue: The Hatton (etc Venues), 51-53 Hatton Garden, London Details: www.bit. ly/1jF3dSE

NORTH EAST 10 September – Design and conservation in the historic environment in a period of diminishing resources Changes are being made to heritage legislation and the protection and management of the historic environment. How can new community-led planning and development activities protect the best buildings and townscapes?

Venue: International Centre for Life, Times Square, Newcastle upon Tyne Details: www.bit.ly/ U6NmRe 7 October – Navigating the Assessment of Professional Competence Guidance to licentiates, mentors and employees on submitting the APC. This free evening event gives a comprehensive overview on how to maximise your chances of becoming a chartered member of the RTPI.

Venue: University of Newcastle, Planning Studio, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear NE1 7RU Details: www.bit. ly/1tZNF07

YORKSHIRE

1970s, hosted at an iconic example of 1970s infrastructure. Includes a tour of Drax power station.

Venue: Drax Power Station Details: www.bit. ly/1mWmbDP

WEST MIDLANDS

10 September – Local enterprise partnerships and planning: rising to the challenge Local economic partnerships are faced with the preparation of Strategic Economic Plans, and will be responsible for greater investment funding. The conference will review how our LEPs are responding and the role of planners in this new context.

Venue: Leeds Details: www.bit.ly/ KmTmAT

7 October – Planning Law update A seminar by planning lawyers on topical legal issues: emerging legislation and guidance, recent case law and appeal decisions and their significance.

Venue: DLA Piper, Victoria Square House, Birmingham, West Midlands B2 4DL Details: www.bit. ly/19RT1Pt

13 September – centenary 5-a-side football tournament RTPI Yorkshire’s first 5-a-side football tournament; 15 teams of up to eight players compete for a trophy. Entry costs £50 + VAT per team. Includes buffet. A team can be up to eight players who work in or seek work in planning or a related profession. Teams can be all male, all female or mixed. Teams with at least one female will have a one-goal advantage. Kickoff is at 10.30am.

Venue: Goals, Redcote Lane (Off Kirkstall Road), Leeds LS4 2AW Details: Download a booking form or email yorkshire@rtpi.org.uk

19 September – Planning at the Edge: managing change in coastal communities Drawing on experience from across the SW, this session will consider alternative approaches to coastal urban regeneration and explore links to the planning of the marine environment.

Venue: Cornwall TR7 1EW Details: www.bit. ly/1g5Act0

24 September – We’ve got the power! The golden age of infrastructure A seminar on Yorkshire’s greatest planning achievements in the

SOUTH WEST

NORTH WEST 8 October – development management update The effects of recent case law and the way in which the development management process is affected by policy and legislative changes.

Venue: Eversheds, Manchester Details: www.bit. ly/1kfKPiO

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NEWS

RTPI {

RTPI news pages are edited

by Tino Hernandez at the RTPI, 41-42 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

A year to remember WINNING RTPI YOUNG PLANNER OF THE YEAR LAST JULY LED TO A FANTASTIC AND VERY HECTIC 12 MONTHS, SAYS ALISON WRIGHT, ASSOCIATE PLANNER AT SAVILLS, OXFORD This time last year I was getting over the excitement of winning RTPI Young Planner of the Year and was busy making plans for how I was going to put my ideas into action – a daunting prospect. However, my overall aim was to support, encourage and inspire other young planers and I set out to do this through my own passion and commitment for the profession.

The year began by contacting a number of other RTPI Young Planner networks and offering to present at their regional events. This led to visits to the South East, South West and London Regions, where I was able to participate in APC workshop sessions, presenting on my personal experiences of the process and facilitating in breakout groups on particular elements of the submission. I was also able to visit the Yorkshire Region as part of my involvement in the Young Planners’ Conference in Leeds in October. I presented on my personal perspective of how the economic climate and the changes in the UK planning system had impacted upon the type of work I had experienced in the South East.

I was also keen to use the award as an opportunity to reach a wider audience, in particular the ‘planners of the future’, so I approached my former Planning School at Sheffield University and my local Planning School, Oxford Brookes. This led to two visits in December, when I spoke to students about my experiences of working as a private sector planner and provided advice on job hunting and employability.

As I headed into the RTPI centenary year I became involved in the Future Planners initiative, which aims to raise awareness and foster interest in planning with school students aged 11 to 18.

My interest stemmed from personal experiences, as I was always keen on geography at school, but

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failed to make the connection between geography and planning. I actually fell into planning by chance. I strongly believe, therefore, in the importance of raising the profile of planning in schools and I am now an ambassador for the South East Region. I undertook my first school visit in June, which was very rewarding and I would encourage all planning professionals to get involved if they can.

A particular highlight in 2014 was attending and presenting at the American Planning Association (APA) National Planning conference in Atlanta. I presented alongside the RTPI on its recently published Planning Horizons papers. I was also invited to take part in a ‘Fast, Funny and Passionate Session’, which required presenting on a topic for seven minutes, using 21 slides and with only 20 seconds per slide – quite a challenge in itself.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the US and was fascinated to learn about the American planning system and share ideas on best practice.

My year drew to a close by attending the RTPI General Assembly in June, where I presented on local planning conflicts in Oxford – on the topical issue of housing need and potential for green belt review.

On reflection, I hope I have been able to achieve my aims, but the year ended up meaning so much more to me. I was able to gain a wider knowledge and awareness of planning, build networks with the RTPI and within the profession and contribute to discussions affecting the profession. I have also improved my public speaking ability, which is a vital skill for any planner.

Overall, the experience has incentivised me to continue my involvement with the RTPI and reaffirmed my passion for planning. Finally, I would like to thank everyone at the RTPI and Savills for their support and encouragement throughout the year.

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494 F: 020 7929 9490

Registered charity no.

262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

RTPI SHORTS

Maria Shoesmith Development Management Team Leader UTTLESFORD DISTRICT COUNCIL

(1) What do you currently do?

I am a Development Management Team Leader for Uttlesford District Council, managing a team of planning officers and assessing major and contentious applications within the northern part of the district.

(2) If I wasn’t in planning, I’d probably be….

I have no idea what I would be if I were not in planning! It is something that I think about occasionally, but can never seem to come up with an answer.

(3) What has been your biggest career challenge to date?

One of my biggest career challenges to date has been concurrently assessing three major applications within the historic market town of Saffron Walden comprising 700 dwellings, an extra care village, 31,000 square metres of commercial floor space, two school sites and a minimum of 7.8 hectares of recreation space. The challenging aspects of the schemes were dealing with the town’s constraints on highways, air quality and topography, while also dealing with the district’s continually moving five-year housing supply, cumulative impact from previous developments within the town, and negotiating with numerous parties through the political controversy and resistance.

However, the most interesting part was presenting the cases at a marathon 10-hour planning committee while listening to 74 speakers.

(4) What attracted you to the profession?

I wanted to work within the construction industry from a young age. I have always been interested in how the built form relates to space and the influence this has upon our environment and daily lives. I wanted to make a difference to communities by providing for their future needs. I have particularly enjoyed dealing with regeneration schemes in the past.

(5) What single piece of advice would you give to someone starting out in planning?

The invaluable piece of advice that I was given when I was starting out was when assessing applications I should ask myself the question ‘what is the harm?’ This has helped to focus the mind on balancing out what the main issues are, and coming to a view on schemes – also avoiding unnecessary and costly appeals.

(6) If you could change one thing about the planning profession, what would it be?

The current continual change in legislation. As our profession plans and affects the long-term future of communities and their sustainability while aiming to boost the economy, the continual changes to legislation could have longer-term implications, such as the loss of remote agricultural buildings and the loss of offices within business estates.

CAN YOU HELP US? Would you like to contribute to the Royal Town Planning Institute’s work of accrediting university courses in planning and help to shape the next generation of planners?

The RTPI is looking for members with an interest in planning education to volunteer for roles in the institute’s work in accreditation and university

partnerships.

The institute currently accredits more than 100 planning degrees at universities in the UK, Ireland and overseas.

It appoints a ‘Dialogue Member’ and a representative to guide universities through the initial process of getting a course accredited.

Once a university has one or more accredited courses, then a Partnership Board is set up, with members appointed by the RTPI (the Chair and Representative), and by the university.

n We need to build up a pool of members with relevant interest and experience for these RTPI appointments. If you are interested, please contact Stephen.court@rtpi.org.uk for further details and an application form.

CONDUCT AND DISCIPLINE PANEL DECISION Mr Leslie Clark has been found to be in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct by the Conduct and Discipline Panel for failing to provide the RTPI with his CPD and PDP records. Mr Clark was randomly selected by the institute as part of the CPD monitoring exercise carried out by the RTPI in December 2013. The panel has agreed to suspend his membership for a period of six months.

While suspended from membership, a person is deprived of all privileges and benefits of membership, shall not use the institute’s designatory letters, shall not call themselves a Chartered Town Planner and shall not hold themselves out in any way as being a member of the institute. n If members have any queries concerning the Code of Professional Conduct they should contact Sandra Whitehead, the institute’s Complaints Investigator, by email at sandra.whitehead@rtpi.org.uk.

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NEWS

RTPI {

APC Outstanding Achievers 2013 c Becky Bonnett c Laura Brownsword c Miles Drew c Julie Broere

Top tips for APC success EACH YEAR AROUND 500 LICENTIATES SUBMIT APPLICATIONS FOR CHARTERED MEMBERSHIP OF THE INSTITUTE. SENIOR MEMBERSHIP ADVISER HILARY LUSH CAUGHT UP WITH 2013’S OUTSTANDING ACHIEVERS AND ASKED FOR THEIR TOP TIPS FOR FUTURE CANDIDATES

The RTPI regularly updates the resources it provides to help support candidates going through the Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) process. Our assessors were asked to put forward what they considered to be the best examples from 2013 and these were then judged by the institute’s APC Advisory Panel earlier this year. Twelve candidates have been chosen as great examples of how a candidate can successfully demonstrate they have obtained the skills and competencies of a professional planner.

We are pleased to announce that the APC Outstanding Achievers for 2013 are: Becky Bonnett, Julie Broere, Laura Brownsword, Rachel Clements, Miles Drew, Laura Feekins, Rachel Hill, Harry Manley, Peter Maxwell, Bethan McCaw, Kathryn Smith and Lydia Voyias. Detailed profiles highlighting their experiences and their top tips for candidates are on the RTPI website.

Many of the 12 stress the importance of gaining a wide range of experience and carefully choosing case studies. Becky Bonnett says it is important to continually assess potential case studies and be able to recognise if there are any criteria not being met. “This gives you the opportunity to alter the nature of your work and address these gaps in your learning,” says Bonnett.

Rachel Hill was inspired to pursue a career in planning after completing

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c Bethan McCaw c Laura Feekins c Rachel Clements c Peter Maxwell

c Harry Manley c Rachel Hill c Lydia Voyias c Kathryn Smith

work experience in the private sector. She went on to complete a geography degree and an RTPIaccredited Master’s. In 2010, while working on her dissertation, Hill was accepted into the Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners graduate rotation programme.

Here, she gained a wide range of experience working on tourism, retail and residential developments, which “enabled me to broaden my practical spatial planning experience and develop new skills”, she says. After completing her APC, Hill was promoted to Senior Planner.

Most candidates had about two-and-a-half years of spatial planning experience before submitting their APC. Outstanding Achiever Lydia Voyias offered this advice: “If you have not got enough experience or haven’t quite finished perfecting your submission, including the log book, don’t try to rush. Seek to pass first time by working towards a later submission deadline.”

Another key practice is reflective learning, says Miles Drew. “When preparing your Professional Competence Statement, remember to explain why you took a particular course of action; don’t simply describe what you did. Reflect on your judgements/actions and be self-critical. Don’t be afraid to say what you might have done differently.

This is how I was able to demonstrate to my assessors that I have learnt from my experiences and developed as a planner,” says Drew.

The Professional Development Plan (PDP) is an aspect of the APC often left until the last minute by candidates, but it is an important part of the submission and demonstrates a commitment to life-long learning. “Always be clear on when your actions will be delivered and how you will gauge improvement,” says Becky Bonnett, who also stresses the importance of having a back-up for when things don’t go as planned.

It is also important to make the most of the resources available to you, and finding a mentor as soon as possible is advisable, according to Rachel Clements. “Constructive criticism from someone who has been through the process is by far the most useful advice you can receive.”

Even if your mentor has not been through the APC process, they still play a valuable role by providing a different perspective.

Julie Broere says: “The RTPI is held in quite high esteem by developers and agents. I feel that, together with my years of experience, being a member adds weight to my role as a professional and qualified planner for the local authority.” n More information on all of these outstanding young planners and their tops tips can be found at: www.bit.ly/APCtheToptips

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STEP CHANGE

BOOK! NOW

BOOK NOW FOR YOUNG PLANNERS CONFERENCE FOR ONLY £99

Early bird tickets are just £99 for this year’s event – Future Challenges: Finding a Planning Balance – which is being hosted by the South West Young Planners in Bristol 24-25 October 2014.

Young planning professionals from across the UK will gather and be challenged to question if – and how – town and country planning can achieve a balance for the future by considering four key areas: housing and population growth, the infrastructure challenge, environmental resilience, and reassessing our systems.

The conference will also incorporate workshops and study tours, providing opportunities for young planners to enhance their practical skills.

An informal drinks reception will be held on the Thursday evening to welcome early arrivals to the city and to launch the two-day event. A formal dinner and social will also be held on the Friday at the Marriott Royal Hotel.

RTPI members discuss their big career-changing decisions “I WANTED EXPERIENCE AT ‘THE COAL FACE’ ”

Owen Woodwards Senior Planning Officer – Central Area Team THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON & CHELSEA

EXCLUSIVE PACKAGE OF DISCOUNTS AND BENEFITS FOR MEMBERS RTPI Plus is an exclusive package of discounts and benefits for RTPI members that is available to Chartered Members, Fellows, Legal Members, Legal Associates and retired members in those classes, and can help you save a large proportion of your membership subscription. In tight financial times it makes sense to take advantage of the best deals available.

You can access your benefits if you are a Chartered Member, Fellow, Legal Member, Legal Associate, or a retired member in one of these classes Offers include: retail cashback at more than 50 major retailers including Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Marks and Spencer, and Debenhams; discounted cinema admissions at many major cinema chains; 2-for-1 dining or 25 per cent off the entire bill at more than 6,000 restaurants with the Gourmet Society; the lowest corporate rate gym memberships at more than 2,000 gyms and leisure centres; and an exclusive 5 per cent discount on package holidays from many of the major tour operators including Thomas Cook, Thomson and First Choice.

Terms and conditions apply to all benefits. See website for further details. n You can access your RTPI Plus benefits visit www.bit.ly/1xroJgn

I took the unusual step of moving from the private to the public sector. I started my career in consultancy before leaving to go travelling. When I returned I secured another consultancy job with a great company, but it didn’t feel right. There was nothing wrong with my job and the people were great, but I felt like a new challenge.

I wish I could say it was to do with the life-changing experience of going off travelling, but I think it was more to do with the consultancy environment not providing the type of experience and work that you imagine a town planning career to provide when you start out following university. I wanted experience at “the coal face”.

In October 2011, I moved to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. I’ve learnt so much. Each day I deal with different applications and I am completely involved in the decision-making process. I have greater influence over the application process than previously owing to the nature of the work being determining applications rather than advising on them. I also enjoy the greater responsibility you are given in the public sector at a younger age.

There aren’t really any negatives about changing sectors.

Sometimes working with planning applications in the public sector means that you become involved in the process at a later stage than if you were a consultant so the role can be more reactive, rather than being more involved in the development of a scheme. But even in this regard, here at Kensington and Chelsea we have a very professional pre-application process, which enables me to engage with proposals at an early stage.

I’d love to stay in the public sector, but I haven’t ruled out moving back into private practice. I’d just like to see what opportunities come along. Right now, I’m happy with my career-changing decision and would recommend public sector experience to all planners.

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ADVERTISEMENTS

Recruitment { PLANNING MANAGER (THREE YEAR FIXED TERM CONTRACT) £27,550 - £33,900 per annum The Welsh Government’s Planning Division is facing new challenges and this post offers the opportunity to be part of a team shaping land use planning at a crucial time in Wales. The vacancy is in the Development Management Branch taking forward changes to legislation and guidance to support improvements in development management practice.

Closing date: 26 August 2014 To discuss the post please contact Hywel Butts on 02920 821619 For information and to apply, visit www.wales.gov.uk/recruitment or email hr-helpdesk@wales.gsi.gov.uk or fax a request to 029 2080 1266.

The Welsh Government is committed to being a good Equal Opportunities Employer.

A large print, Braille or audio version of this advert can be obtained by request from 029 2082 5454.

Conservation Officer Christchurch and Furzehill, Wimborne | Salary: £28,922 – £31,160p.a Christchurch and East Dorset Councils are now a Partnership. Both Councils understand that working in Partnership to deliver common aims gives us greater capacity and resilience in delivering services that are important to local people.

The Christchurch and East Dorset Partnership is looking for a Conservation Officer to join their Development Management team.

You will be responsible for providing advice to Team Leaders, Senior Planning Officers and Planning Officers in the assessment and determination of listed building and conservation area applications and related matters. You should be able to respond confidently to complex Listed Building and Conservation Area enquiries and have experience in writing appeal statements and representing Local Authorities at appeal.

£22,668 - £27,596

This is an exciting time to join a strong team that lead on the master planning for localities across Oxfordshire, developing infrastructure schemes that meet the needs of our signi¿cant growth agenda.

The role will be responsible for assisting with providing technical input

You will be required to be the first point of contact and to liaise on behalf of the Partnership with land owners that have a Heritage Asset. You should be able to make recommendations on the assessment of the character and quality of existing Conservation Areas including the consideration of boundary changes and re-designations.

You will also be required to make recommendations and review the statuotry list of listed and locally listed buildings and complie and manage the buildings at risk register.

on transport strategy proposals for localities across Oxfordshire. It will

The successful applicant will need to possess an appropriate qualification within Building Conservation or a related discipline, with significant post-qualification experience in determining and providing pre-application advice on Listed Building and Conservation Area matters, together with providing advice to internal and external stakeholders.

Please note this is a politically restricted post.

planning legislation, effective coordination and liaison skills and be an

This post is a dual location post. An ability to travel around Christchurch and East Dorset to undertake site visits is required For an informal confidential discussion about this role, please contact Giles Moir, Development Management Manager on 01202 795104.

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Assistant Transport Planner

be assist with planning and strategy development, including technical input into the Local Plans and associated documents and County Council responses to development proposals.

The post holder will need basic knowledge of planning or transport active communicator with a strong customer focus.

Please call 01865 815764 and speak to Paul Fermer for further information.

Closing Date: 31st July 2014 (Closing time for all vacancies unless otherwise stated is 4:00pm) Interview date: 13th & 14th August 2014

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ADVERTISEMENTS

COMHAIRLE NAN EILEAN SIAR

PLANNING OFFICER – DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (5140), £20,660-£36,383 | Stornoway, Isle of Lewis | Fixed term to 31 March 2016 PLANNING OFFICER - DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT (2060), £20,660-£36,383 | Balivanich, Isle of Benbecula Comhairle nan Eilean Siar is the planning authority for the Outer Hebrides, an area renowned for environmental quality, beautiful scenery, outdoor opportunities, low crime rates and good schools.

The Development Department is looking for two enthusiastic Planning Officers to join a dedicated team of planning professionals. One post will be based in Balivanich, Isle of Benbecula, and the other will be based in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. The Stornoway-based post is fixed term to 31 March 2016.

You will be required to undertake general planning (Development Management) duties. As a minimum you should hold an HND or equivalent in a planning related discipline, have sound knowledge of planning and environmental legislation, and be prepared to work towards student membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute.

A current driving licence and access to a vehicle is essential.

Placing on the salary scale will be dependent on qualifications and experience.

Application forms from: Human Resources Section, Council Offices, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2BW,

Closing Date: Monday 25 August 2014

(CVs will not be accepted).

T: (01851) 822606.

E: human.resources@cne-siar.gov.uk

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Principle Planning Officer

Planning Officer x 2

Full Time - Fixed Term Contract, 2 years. £38,753 - £42,526

Full Time – Permanent £25,780 - £29,434

Mole Valley District Council are seeking a Principal Planning Policy Officer to contribute to the development of the new Mole Valley Local Plan and associated delivery plans. The successful candidate will have experience in strategic plan preparation including sustainability appraisal and gathering evidence, regeneration and be a Member of the RTPI.

This remit will include dealing with a variety of planning and other applications, carrying out site visits, negotiations and modifications, preparing recommendations and processing appeals. The successful applicant(s) will ideally have had some experience of working in a planning service (preferably in dealing with development control applications) and be a graduate working towards Membership of the RTPI.

Further Information For an informal discussion on the roles and responsibilities of the post, please contact: Jack Straw – Planning Policy Manager at: jack.straw@molevalley.gov.uk – 01306879246 or the Corporate Head of Service – James Lalor on 01306 879237.

For an application form and full Job Description please contact the HR department at: hr.admin@molevalley.gov.uk

Further Information For an informal discussion on the roles and responsibilities of the post, please contact: Gary Rhoades-Brown – Development Control Manager at: gary.rhoades-brown@molevalley.gov.uk – 01306 879240 or the Corporate Head of Service – James Lalor on 01306 879237.

For an application form and full Job Description please contact the HR department at: hr.admin@molevalley.gov.uk

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INSIGHT

Plan B P

TAKING OWNERSHIP

TWEET TWEET TO WHO? Like many MPs, new planning minister Brandon Lewis uses Twitter to keep his constituents informed of his activities as their representative from day to day. But

whereas some of his parliamentary colleagues are barbed, d witty, insightful or just peculiar on the social media channel, the Great Yarmouth MP’ss feed has to date MP consisted mainly of con retweets, mundane ret reports of the day’s re events and the ev occasional baffling o non-sequitur.

It's all n very ordinary. v “I’ve been calling Great Yarmouth residents to discuss local issues this

evening,” us i ” he h informs i f flatly (accompanied by a photograph of himself in an anonymous office on a phone). That’s great.

But what did they say?

Cruelly, Politics.co.uk ranks Lewis’s as the worst parliamentary Twitter feed. It is, they suggest, “a crime against vitality,” and “the political equivalent of a child smearing its face with crayons”.

We mustn’t be too unkind. After all, the

average MP didn’t enter politics to be judged j d d on their h i Twitter i skills. And Lewis did win his seat on an antiexpenses abuse ticket.

And he did force fellow Conservatives at Surrey County Council to back down over a shockingly high pay rise they had awarded themselves.

We're looking forward to seeing less of the mundane messaging and more of the crusading spirit in Mr. Lewis' Twitter feed from now on.

ERIC AND BRANDON, TOGETHER AGAIN You can’t keep a good double-act down, and Brandon Lewis’s promotion to minister of state for housing and planning brings his relationship with boss Eric Pickles back into sharp focus. The two are a partnership of some years’ standing, dating back to Lewis’s time as council leader in Pickles’ Brentwood constituency.

During this time, the two men cohosted a radio show on the local station, Phoenix FM. The Eric and Brandon Show consisted mainly of occasionally excruciating interviews with local notables and easy listening music.

Eat your heart out, Alan Partridge.

Catch a bit of the show on YouTube at: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=rXjzvTOHWjU

THE PLANNER – A NOVEL

50

“James may know how to design housing estates and high streets, but is it really possible to redraw the masterplan for his own life?”

Plan B was delighted to receive news (but not a copy, sadly – yet) of The Planner, a novel by Tom Campbell. How marvellous.

“James is exactly what you’d expect from one of London’s most promising, young town planners,” the blurb promises eagerly. “He’s cautious, respected by colleagues and performs well in team meetings.”

Plan B can’t honestly say this sounds like any of the

young planners we’ve met. Yet. Obviously, James doesn’t stay cautious, but descends into some kind of lurid psychosis brought on by too much socialising in the big city. It’s easily done, but it’s still not entirely familiar ground to the average planner.

The book, in fact, has received some pretty complimentary reviews (from the Independent on Sunday and, er, Sainsbury’s Magazine). Comedian Mark Watson finds it very funny and says it “manages to nail the lunacy of modern urban living and the more general problem of being a human being”. Now that sounds more like planning.

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Every now and then, Plan B gets to peruse planning appeal decision letters in search of the extraordinary. It's quite a task – and with such a uniformity of presentation, it's the small details that cry out loudest.

The baldness of the language is refreshing. Whenever an appeal is unsuccessful, point 1 of most decision letters starts with the inspector stating bluntly that “the appeal is dismissed”. That’s 99.9 times out of 100, the same four words – “the appeal is dismissed”. And really, who can argue with that? It’s sensible. Unambiguous. Clean.

But every now and then, relief comes in a jarringly different sentence; a left-field take on those standard four words that leaves us slightly stunned at the inspector's change of tone. Instead of “the appeal is dismissed”, we get a different four words that make the whole thing suddenly sound more personal – “I dismiss the appeal”.

This, the inspector is declaring, is emphatically their decision. They have dismissed the appeal, and there’s no two ways about it. And after page after page of 'The appeal is dismissed', 'I dismiss the appeal' is like being forced to listen to song after song by the Electric Light Orchestra and suddenly hearing the Sex Pistols for the very first time.

It's a rarelyseen pearl in the appeal decision ocean and it needs to be deployed more often in our opinion.

We're grateful whenever we see inspectors taking such personal ownership of their work. “I dismiss” = we love.

28/07/2014 13:32

Providing support for members and their families The RTPI Trust exists to provide support to members of RTPI and their families ZKR DUH LQ JHQXLQH ¿ QDQFLDO KDUGVKLS We offer “in kind” assistance, such as advice and counselling, to help a member and their family through a crisis.

:H JLYH ¿ QDQFLDO VXSSRUW LQ WKH IRUP RI JUDQWV IRU VSHFL¿ F items of expenditure, which are regarded as needed to support the welfare of the member and their family.

The Trust may also support individual students who are seeking a career in town planning but have barriers to undertaking the studies they need because of genuine ¿ QDQFLDO SUREOHPV For more information on how WKH 7UXVW FDQ KHOS \RX SOHDVH visit the RTPI Trust page on

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Are you proud of planning and proud of planners?

If you want to let the planning world know of a great initiative, award, major project or just want to endorse some of the great work that planners across the world are involved in, then join our Facebook page today.

Find us at: Proud of planning proud of planners.

Set up by the Royal Town Planning Institute, following the RTPI’s President Dr Peter Geraghty’s inaugural speech in January 2013, to demonstrate pride in the profession and its achievements.

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