The Planner- April 2022

APRIL 2022 NEWS REPORT SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT // p.4 • THE CONTROVERSIAL EXPANSION OF BRISTOL AIRPORT // p.22 • LEVELLING UP WHITE PAPER WHAT’S MISSING? // p.30 • HOW VIDEO GAMES CAN HELP PLANNERS // p.32

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

Paradigms lost NEW TOWNS WERE A MODEL FOR MODERN LIVING. WHAT GORDON CHAPMAN FOX SEES NOW ARE ‘BROKEN CONCRETE UTOPIAS’

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CONTENTS

APRIL

10 NEWS 4 Delivering sustainable transport to new homes 8 Biodiversity net gain and the Environment Act 2021’ – what’s next?

9 Green energy hub in prospect following Aberthaw power plant deal 10 A legal right to nature should be part of levelling-up agenda, say campaigners 11 Newsmakers: 10 top stories appearing now on The Planner online

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“ONE OF THE MAIN DEFINING FEATURES OF RUNCORN IS THE WESTERN POINT, WHICH WAS A HUGE ICI REFINERY AT THE TIME. IT LOOKED VERY MUCH LIKE THE OPENING OF BLADERUNNER”

20 OPINION

14 Louise BrookeSmith: Be grateful you can say it as you see it 16 Charles Welsh: Communities should discuss gain with developers on neighbourhood plans 16 Louise Welham: Environmental justice is also a planning issue a 117 Michael Greig: B Biodiversity enhancement e in Scotland S – a different a approach 1 Rosie Pearson: 17 U the communityUse centred c example of neighbourhood n plans

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KEY QUOTE

“WHERE EXACTLY NEW DEVELOPMENTS CAN PLUG INTO THE EXISTING SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT NETWORK SHOULD BE A MAJOR PRIORITY” MARK FROST, CHAIR OF THE TRANSPORT PLANNING SOCIETY SEE NEWS REPORT, PAGE 4

COV E R I M AG E | R I C H A R D L E A H A I R

FEATURES

INSIGHT

20 Gordon Chapman-Fox discusses Northern new town ‘broken concrete utopias’ with Simon Wicks

38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis

22 The decision to allow Bristol Airport to expand calls into question the planning system’s support for net-zero goals. Huw Morris reports 28 The levelling-up white paper prescribes corrections for national imbalances. What has it left out? Simon Wicks asks four experts 35 Planners should add city-based video games to their toolboxes, says Matthew Prescott

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42 Legal Landscape: Opinions from the legal side of planning

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44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute 50 What to read, what to watch and how to keep in touch

Make the most of The Planner by visiting our links for related content

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NEWS

Report { SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT

Delivering sustainable transport to new homes

By Laura Edgar Transport for New Homes recently recommended that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) should be redrafted to ensure that new homes are built near sustainable transport only.

The research and policymaking organisation advocates that homes should be built on smaller brownfield sites so that residents have access to local amenities, guaranteeing a walkable community and healthier, more sociable living.

According to its report Building Car Dependency, housing built on greenfield land adds “hundreds of thousands” of new car journeys to roads – increasing congestion, carbon emissions and air pollution.

The government and developers talk about places that are walkable, green and sustainable, but Transport for New Homes says the case studies it looked at for the report showed residents driving for “nearly every journey”. The vision for vibrant communities with local shops, leisure facilities and community services has not materialised and promised public transport was often not in place or had been reduced.

Why so difficult?

Local authority budgets have taken a big hit. Harry Steele, the RTPI’s infrastructure specialist, said funding is “one of the biggest challenges” in ensuring that public transport and active travel schemes are incorporated into new and existing developments.

Shaun Andrews, executive director at Nexus Planning, agrees. He told The Planner that “more than ever

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trip-making and mode choice,” they planning needs to get smart around explained. the need to attract and leverage private PJA notes that the results of the 2021 sector investment to deliver what Census, to be published in stages from communities need”. late May 2022, are unlikely to provide Steele calls for a significant modal “sufficiently robust data” for this. An shift built around the promotion of industry standard approach is required, public transport and active travel over one to which professionals, decisionthe use of private vehicles, which makers and examiners can subscribe. would address this and decarbonise surface transport.

Another challenge, said Catriona Ensuring transport is sustainable Swanson, associate, and Mark Options for sustainable travel are Nettleton, joint managing director at there – buses, trains, trams, walking, transport planning consultancy PJA, wheeling. But new-build developments is building a credible evidence base to are often completed without them. quantify and communicate the benefits Transport for New Homes found of sustainable development. that just two of its 20 case studies of “This is less easy greenfield developments to demonstrate than – Derwenthorpe (York) the well-established and Poundbury (Dorset) “DEALING WITH traffic models because – were designed with TRANSPORT SOMEHOW the empirical data inherent walkability.

SEPARATELY FROM is not there. We Chair of the Transport SPATIAL POLICY, need better and Planning Society (TPS) OR AS AN focused data on the Mark Frost agrees that AFTERTHOUGHT, beneficial impact of policy should encourage ULTIMATELY HAMPERS good development new developments to be OUR ABILITY TO MEET and infrastructure on WIDER POLICY GOALS” built with sustainable

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PLAN UPFRONT

Walking and cycling should be the natural choice for short journeys

transport options. Spatial planning, he said, should be “hand in glove” with transport policy.

“Where exactly new developments can plug into the existing sustainable transport network should be a major priority for consideration before construction starts, in exactly the same way that it is for energy or water connectivity. Dealing with transport somehow separately from spatial policy, or as an afterthought, ultimately hampers our ability to meet wider policy goals,” said Frost.

Steele calls for transport and planning to be brought together at the earliest opportunity to plan and deliver communities that are built within sustainable transport methods, including public transport and active travel. “Policies such as the 20-minute neighbourhood have shown how we can reimagine existing and new developments to increase connectivity and reduce the demand upon private vehicles.”

Sam Spencer, policy and data analyst at the RTPI, highlighted that the

institute’s Location of Development report shows that there is a clear preference for building homes in the areas with the best levels of accessibility but there are still a large number of homes being built in the least accessible areas.

This suggests, explained Spencer, that there is a potential difficulty in procuring sites in the right locations.

But the RTPI is “optimistic” that the £1.8 billion package announced in October’s Budget to regenerate brownfield sites might help to open up opportunities for development in amenity-rich areas.

Similarly, Swanson and Nettleton think that choosing the right location is key. “Moreover, the mix of land uses and the design of new developments is important to ensure walking and cycling are the natural choice for short journeys and that public transport is accessible.”

New government guidance on local transport plans expected this spring will help local authorities to develop plans that align with key sustainable transport policies such as Bus Back Better, Gear Change and the Decarbonisation of Transport Strategy, they added.

Andrews advocates for dense and compact places because they minimise the need to travel in the first place.

“We also need to accept that places are often polycentric – so, as well as promoting strong and vibrant centres, we also need sustainable neighbourhoods. Often these will rejuvenate existing parts of a place and sometimes sustainable urban extensions will be needed.”

This form of development would mean people could access most of their regular needs locally, ideally through active travel modes and/or e-transport options.

Brownfield first?

Philip Barnes, group land and planning director at Barratt Developments emphasised that by far the most important element is to deliver local plans and ensure they allocate the right homes in the right places. He adds that it is crucial that developers work in conjunction with well-resourced local

I M AG E S | A L A M Y

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NEWS

Report { HERT high hopes In July last year, Hertfordshire County Council set out its plans for a sustainable transport link connecting Hertfordshire and West Essex. The HertfordshireEssex Rapid Transit (HERT) is intended to improve the passenger transport network by establishing an “accessible, reliable and affordable east-west system”.

The mass rapid transit system (pictured, right) will feature transport hubs that connect planned cycling and walking routes to the HERT network.

Updating The Planner, the HERT project team says that a public engagement period was held recently to share the project’s aims and to get feedback, which is now being analysed. An outline business case is being created to submit to the government; it will explore what benefits the HERT could provide, the different options available and potential costs.

Explaining, the team said: “The HERT will create an integrated transport network, providing links with existing bus and rail services at improved transport interchanges that connect with high quality walking and cycling routes to offer seamless endto-end journeys. The HERT will connect with north-south rail lines to create new sustainable journey options across the whole of Hertfordshire and beyond, providing improved connectivity and delivering greater travel choice for all Hertfordshire residents.”

The type of vehicle has not yet been decided, but the project team wants it to be modern, comfortable and spacious so that it is easy to use.

Why is it needed? “The HERT will support the delivery of new homes and open up new

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opportunities for our communities to access jobs, education and key services. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the A414 was the most heavily trafficked A-road in Hertfordshire, and peak journey times could increase on average by 25 per cent by 2031. We have an opportunity to build back better and greener. We have already seen the benefits of reduced vehicle movements on air quality and carbon savings. We need to invest in bold and ambitious sustainable transport schemes that build on this positive behaviour change following the Covid-19 lockdown periods.

“We will be supporting the district and borough councils in delivering up to 100,000 new homes up to the mid-2030s, while we are committed to creating around 100,000 new jobs across the county during the same period. A significant number of these new homes will be built along this corridor. This means there will be further demand on our already congested road and rail network as more people travel.”

The team acknowledges the scale of the challenge but their ambition is clear. “We need to tip the balance in favour of walking, cycling and passenger transport by transforming our transport system.

It is only by planning and investing in transformational infrastructure schemes like the HERT that we will deliver a sustainable transport network.”

authorities to prepare local plans.

On that note, transport planners, urged PJA, should play a key role in identifying suitable development sites.

And planners need more input from the strategic transport planners to ensure that the land use mix is right, and that development is concentrated in areas that can most easily be upgraded to provide the accessibility it needs. “The ability of local authorities to do this thinking supported by a robust evidence base has been weakened by funding cuts and shifting national policies and housing targets.”

Planning needs to think more creatively to maximise the use of sustainable transport modes to reduce private car use, said Hywel James, associate at Nexus Planning.

Like Transport for Better Homes, and many others in the sector, developing brownfield land in cities is an “obvious solution”.

“However, these forms of development generally deliver flats as opposed to housing. A key question should therefore be: how can family housing also be made more accessible via active travel and public transport modes?

“Local plans should, in theory, provide the necessary foresight and enable the delivery of large-scale sustainable

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PLAN UPFRONT

Swanson and Nettleton said care must be taken when proposing development in rural areas as they are “inherently less sustainable than more urban sites” owing to the distance to amenities and lower densities to support public transport or investment in active travel. PJA believes “that rural developments can only be considered sustainable if they are big enough to be self-sustaining, or connected well enough to reduce the need to travel in private cars”.

This, they believe, should be balanced with wider policy considerations such as providing new affordable housing in rural villages meaning that some smallscale development will need to be accommodated. It is “important” that rural residential development is walkable to shops and services and supported by high-speed broadband.

Ideas such as community co-working spaces and mobility hubs are also growth. So, urban extensions have considerations. merits, but can sometimes still be TPS notes that where dislocated from the density of public possible, rural transport connections often found at the development should heart of towns and cities, the tendency be built with the in these locations is to drive instead of existing transport cycling or catching the bus,” he said. network in mind. If In planning the future of a district or these options are city region, James thinks local planning not sufficient, the authorities should review existing rail, focus should be on tram and bus corridors as a chance to multimodal trips; create sustainable new settlements the “simplest” way is or extensions, which “provide the to make cycling more opportunity to create an appropriate attractive so people can get mix of uses that minimise the need to to the closest public transport travel, in line with the NPPF”. stations in a sustainable way.

Citing the institute’s Living Locally Pastoral problems in Rural Wales report, Steele said Brownfield land and densification the 20-minute neighbourhood works in urban environments, but what principle could work in rural areas. It about in rural areas where bus services highlights the role the Welsh planning have been cut? system could play in supporting Barnes recognises that in rural areas, more sustainable, transport options such local living, not just as bus services are often “LOCAL PLANS to reduce reliance on not viable and require SHOULD, IN cars, but to encourage additional funding, or THEORY, PROVIDE the wider practice of an increased population THE NECESSARY placemaking within to use the service, FORESIGHT AND rural communities pointing out that new ENABLE THE across Wales. developments, “delivered DELIVERY OF LARGE­ “The smarter through proper spatial SCALE SUSTAINABLE provision of local planning, can help GROWTH” services and amenities contribute to this”.

I M AG E | S H U T T E RSTO C K

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in ‘local hubs’ can significantly reduce the need for travel, whilst further investment in active travel and public transport can create the modal shift required to provide true connectivity to these rural communities.”

A bright future The focus at present seems to be more on the home itself, said Barnes, “which is obviously important”, but he believes “there is a big opportunity via the levelling-up white paper for the government to enact widespread improvements to local and regional transport infrastructure”.

And once the infrastructure is in place, how do you encourage take-up?

TPS explains that behaviour change must be wider than existing transport users. Political decision-makers must also change their attitudes to sustainable transport to foster a shift towards sustainable transport options.

But TPS says current policy is overreliant on electric vehicles “and won’t achieve the reductions in emissions that we need”.

Swanson and Nettleton believe that cars will continue to be a significant part of the transport mix for the foreseeable future.

This means that, in addition to resolving tax implications of a shift from petrol and diesel to all-electric vehicles, it’s important to get charging infrastructure right.

Key considerations here include ensuring that charging points for cars parked on streets don’t create trip hazards or obstructions on footways, or hinder opportunities to reallocate road space to more sustainable modes or lock in private car ownership.

But the future is “brighter than people think”, PJA assured The Planner.

“As the next batch of greenfield developments are more difficult to make sustainable and the bar is being set even higher by policy, developers are willing to work much harder on the sustainable credentials of their sites to secure allocation in the local plan.”

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NEWS

News { BNG and the Environment Act 2021 - what next?

Our event, ‘The Planner’s guide to biodiversity net gain and the Environment Act 2021’, sponsored by Environment Bank and held on 9 March, considered the emerging requirement for planners to measure, plan for and enforce biodiversity net gain (BNG).

Certainly, the recently passed Environment Act’s attempts to spell out legal duties and obligations in this area hasn’t exactly cleared things up. What, for example, is a biodiversity net gain ‘credit’ – and how will the proposed market for such credits operate?

To bring us up to date, we invited three specialists: Professor David Hill, founder of Environment Bank; Nina Pindham, a leading environmental barrister with No.5 Chambers; and Richard Blyth, head of policy and practice with the Royal Town Planning Institute, who is leading the institute’s response to the act.

The hour-long event certainly worked as a robust introductory primer – but as the close to 3,000 registered attendees and 175 questions attest, there is much more to the discussion that still lies ahead of us.

With planning permission for new development having to demonstrate how a minimum 10 per cent BNG will be achieved, David Hill outlined the ways in which

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the requirement will work in practice, through a biodiversity gain site register, a market for biodiversity units and the creation, evaluation and monitoring of biodiversity gain plans.

Environment Bank’s solution is a network of habitat banks, one in each LPA area, to help de-risk the process from an LPA perspective. Environment Bank will work with landowners to have parcels of land registered.

Questions came from listeners in three areas. First, who, will ultimately bear all of this new cost? (Might LPAs be able to charge a fee for the added burden of administering offsite BNG?) Second, scope. Given the figure of 60 per cent habitat loss since 1970, is a 30-year plan enough?

Finally, accountability.

How will double counting of BNG credits be prevented?

Who will be liable if BNG is deemed to have failed? Who will ensure BNG credits continue to exist after the 30-year period?

Written responses to questions raised on the day, and a link to watch the full webinar again, can be found at the following link: bit.ly/Planner0422-BNGQ

10% year-on-year decline in applications submitted

48,625 applications were submitted to the Planning Portal for permission in January

10% This is 10 per cent less than the 54,153 applications submitted in January 2021

6-18% In line with the lower number, most regions also saw fewer submissions compared with January 2021.

Drops ranged from 6 per cent to 18 per cent across the English regions, with a 5 per cent drop in Wales

16,522 In the first month of the year, 16,522 householder applications were submitted, compared with 18,960 a year earlier

S O U R C E : P L A N N I N G P O R TA L

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PLAN UPFRONT

Active travel network set for Glasgow Glasgow City Council has approved plans to build a City Network of active travel infrastructure.

It comprises 270 kilometres of cycle ways and improved footways along the city’s main roads, adding to Glasgow’s segregated cycleways.

The council hopes that the network will support the shift to walking, wheeling and cycling and forms part of the effort to reduce the city’s carbon footprint.

The council said the City Network will be designed so that it is easy to access safe, segregated routes from homes, schools, key amenities and cultural destinations throughout the city.

Schools will be within 400 metres of the main active travel routes, with homes no more than 800 metres from segregated cycling infrastructure.

Anna Richardson, city convener for sustainability and carbon reduction, said: “By having an active travel network of safe, segregated infrastructure that is easily accessible... we can provide a viable alternative for the millions of car journeys that are less than three kilometres. Reducing our reliance on private vehicles and encouraging a shift to the most sustainable forms of transport can make a major contribution to Glasgow’s effort to tackle climate change.”

I M AG E S | A L A M Y

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Green energy hub in prospect following Aberthaw power plant deal The 10 local authorities involved in the south-east Wales growth deal – the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) – have agreed to acquire the former Aberthaw power station with ambitious plans to transform it into a green energy hub.

This, they believe, could create thousands of new jobs.

The city region councils have bought the decommissioned power station and nearly 200 hectares of land from energy giant RWE in an £8 million deal.

They have committed another £28.4 million to demolish the power plant and fund remediation and redevelopment work at the site in the Vale of Glamorgan.

A proposed masterplan suggests that the development could include a battery storage facility to support energy projects and a zero-carbon manufacturing cluster that would

include green hydrogen production facilities.

The coal-fired 1,560-megawatt plant, which began generating in 1970, ceased producing electricity for the National Grid in 2019. It was RWE’s last coal-fired station in the UK. The CCR’s city deal is being jointly funded by the Welsh and UK governments. This project was approved by the CCR’s cabinet, composed of the region’s 10 local authority leaders.

Kellie Beirne, director for the CCR City Deal said: “The acquisition of the Aberthaw site is a significant opportunity for the Cardiff Capital Region to take ownership of a major strategic site, which will support green and clean economic growth, innovation, and job creation within a key industry of the future – demonstrating compatibility of climate and economic aims.”

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NEWS

News { A legal right to nature should be part of levelling-up agenda, say campaigners The government should set legal duties in levelling-up legislation so that developers and public bodies are obliged to provide equal access to nature-rich green and blue spaces for everyone.

This is just one call set out in a letter to levelling-up secretary Michael Gove signed by more than 60 organisations, including from the nature, planning, health and equality sectors.

The letter comes in response to the government’s levelling-up white paper, which includes “12 bold, national missions” to be given legal status through a levelling-up and regeneration bill. The 12 missions will be “cross-government, cross-

society efforts” that are “quantifiable” and are to be achieved by 2030.

The coalition behind the campaign calls on the government to set legal duties in levelling-up legislation for developers and public bodies to provide equal access to naturerich green and blue spaces for all.

Signatories to the letter include Craig Bennett, chief executive, The Wildlife Trusts, Dr Richard Benwell, CEO, Wildlife and Countryside Link and Hilary McGrady, director general, National Trust.

Read the full story: bit.ly/planner0422-righttonature

First NI offshore wind farm set to make waves Netherlands-based energy company SBM Offshore has identified two sites for a multimillion-pound offshore wind project off the coast of Northern Ireland.

The two sites are in the North Channel, about halfway between Northern Ireland and Scotland, between 12 and 27 kilometres from the County Down and County Antrim coasts.

The scheme – North Channel Wind – would involve between 20 and 25 of the latest floating wind turbines and generate 400 megawatts of power – representing 13 per cent of Northern Ireland’s energy demands – which would come ashore near

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the Kilroot and Ballylumford power plants.

Project director Niamh Kenny said: “We are in discussions with the Northern Ireland government, the grid operator SONI, the energy regulator, Renewables NI and the Crown Estate.

“Significantly, we have completed our site characterisation and have commenced a scoping exercise in consultation with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, which is the first step in applying for a marine licence to build offshore infrastructure.”

If the project goes ahead, it will become Northern Ireland’s first offshore wind scheme.

New Irish regs encourage pub-tohousing conversions Irish housing and local government minister Darragh O’Brien has signed off planning regulations that will exempt the conversion of former pubs into residential units from the need to require planning permission.

This new exemption is contained in an extension of 2018 planning regulations that allows a change of use of certain vacant commercial premises – including vacant areas above ground-floor premises – to residential use such as ‘above shop’ living.

The exemptions are designed to increase reuse of vacant commercial buildings to stimulate much-needed housing supply and renew urban areas. The rules signed by the minister extend the exemption to the end of 2025.

The Irish Government is increasing the funding of local authorities’ vacant homes officers (VHOs) from the current €50,000 to €60,000 a year, subject to the local VHO being full-time (and preferably in a permanent role).

I M AG E | I STO C K / A L A M Y

11/03/2022 09:15

CATCH UP WITH THE PLANNER

N Newsmakers Backing for Belfast shopping centre change-of-use plan Change-of-use proposals affecting Belfast’s CastleCourt shopping centre in Royal Avenue were approved by the city council. The project will see part of the shopping centre becoming a leisure hub including a new cinema. bit.ly/ planner0422-CastleCourt

‘Health test’ requirement for new development

Michael Gove reportedly M told attendees at a private t meeting that the government m will w not proceed with the planning bill proposed in the p 2021 Queen’s Speech.

2 bit.ly/planner0422-reforms b

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A researcher has indicated that plans by developers seeking planning permission for major projects should undergo a ‘health test’ by local councils to see if they promote healthier living. bit.ly/planner0422healthtest

I M AG E S | S H U T T E R S T O C K / A L A M Y / R I C H A R D T OW N S H E N D P H O T G G R A P H Y

Reports hint that Gove R w scrap planning bill will

Dundee arena proposal unveiled A large city centre development involving a 10,000-capacity arena has been proposed for Dundee. Wilson and Gunn Architects’ proposal would see the existing Mecca Bingo site in Nethergate turned into a venue with a 70-room hotel. bit.ly/ planner0422-Dundeearena

4 Flexible generation plant in Thurrock granted consent Energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has granted a development consent order for the Thurrock Flexible Generation Plant, a gasfired electricity generating station and battery storage facility located in the green belt. bit.ly/planner0422DCOThurrock

The planning committee at Bolton Council has refused permission for revised plans to restore and redevelop Hulton Park, which if approved would have hosted one of golf’s most prestigious events. bit.ly/planner0422-Boltongolf

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Irish ministers roll out heritage blueprint The Irish Government has committed to coordinated action to protect the country’s natural, built, and cultural heritage and published a road map to guarantee progress. bit.ly/ planner0422-Irishheritage

Revised golf course scheme refused in Bolton

Welsh ministers ramp up tax on second homes and holiday lets The Welsh Government has announced a swingeing increase in the maximum level of council tax premiums for second homes, as well as new local tax rules for holiday lets. bit.ly/planner0422-secondhomes

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London borough plans to bl block building amalgamations The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council’s new local plan pl seeks to prevent the knocking down and building of tunnels between separate properties to create bigger homes. bit.ly/ planner0422-Kensingtonplan

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Think tank calls for more rights for communities over Wales’s land and assets A think tank has demanded more rights for Welsh communities over land and assets after concluding that Wales lags behind England and Scotland in the rights the public enjoy to identify assets of community value. bit.ly/planner0422-communityrights

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Our features and editorial coverage reflect the views and concerns of the UK’s leading town planning professionals.

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06/09/2017 12:08

09/03/2022 10:16

LEADER COMMENT

Event Complexity of BNG law could boost planning’s position You’d expect me, I hope, to discuss our recent webinar in which the legal requirement for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) on a minimum of 10 per cent on new developments – due to come into effect from November 2023 – were discussed. And, my goodness, there is indeed much to be discussed.

What makes this particularly interesting is that we’re working to a pretty tight deadline. Making BNG a statutory requirement in just less than 20 months has understandably piqued the interest of planners across the spectrum, with close to 3,000 of you registering for our event. And November 2023 is hardly any time at all when you consider the sheer volume of clarification and preparation required between now and then.

There are so many aspects to this. BNG when it’s provided on-site, then BNG provided off-site whereby

Martin Read a developer purchases or manages habitats by working with landowners with the associated market for biodiversity credits to fund off-site habitat enhancements. Stand by for a biodiversity gain site register and much more besides. There’s administration, and then there’s BNG administration.

Our own Simon Wicks stuck well to his task in chairing our event. David Hill from our sponsor, The Environment Bank, set out

its specific habitat bank proposition, while we were grateful to barrister Nina Pindham of No.5 Chambers and the RTPI head of policy Richard Blyth for commenting on the situation as it currently stands.

How the law is to be interpreted is an evolving situation, but there can be no doubt about the need for developers and local authorities to work together if such a system is to thrive.

I left the event with more questions than answers, but that’s chiefly because we had more than 170 questions from our readers alone (we’re still processing them as I write). Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – in fact, it’s a sign of great interest in something that will impact planners significantly – but shouldn’t

“PERHAPS THIS LEGISLATION WILL SOW THE SEEDS OF A NEW RELATIONSHIP”

such legislation aspire to greater clarity from the outset? There is a clear thirst for knowledge in this area that needs addressing. Just to pick one aspect, how on earth is all of this to be taken on by LPAs with current levels of funding?

But let’s end on a positive note. Perhaps this legislation will sow the seeds of a new relationship between government and planning.

Perhaps the complexity of the BNG requirement’s administration, and the additional workload required of LPAs, will lead to greater awareness of planning’s major role on the road to Net Zero? Here’s hoping.

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11/03/2022 14:03

LO U I S E B R O O K E ­ S M I T H O B E

O Opinion

Be grateful you can say it as you see it Current circumstances in Europe are bringing to the fore so many emotions. Of course, it’s a rapidly moving situation and hostilities might have ceased by the time you read this. Or the big red button may have been pushed and we’re all blowing in the wind with Raymond Briggs.

Let’s assume, at best, that peace talks have prevailed or are prevailing. I’m not going to repeat the hackneyed ‘David and Goliath’ analogies but I am going to highlight the importance of free speech, how it has been viewed in various parts of the world and how it has changed recently.

Perhaps it’s just an odd coincidence that the telly seems to be playing lots of docudramas looking at Hitler’s modus operandi, the cohort around him and those who stood up to his insanity. Comparisons with Mr Putin are clear. Perhaps it’s the plethora of war films that seem to be doing the late-night slots on obscure channels.

Or maybe it’s because I’ve just finished reading the story of Virginia Hall, ‘a woman of no importance’ who as a radio operator was a key player in the French Resistance. There seem to be so many people highlighted long after the event who tried to make a difference using communications.

Some succeeded, some failed; but they had a go at spreading the word of what was actually happening, as

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opposed to what the powersthat-be wanted you to think was happening.

Who knows whether those close to Putin might call him out? Or those poor people charged with driving tanks on the front line. Who knows if there will be a mass crisis of conscience?

Perhaps the solution will be economically led.

Money is a great persuader – whether you are an oligarch, a teacher in St Petersburg or a market trader in Vladivostok, if you can’t access your savings to buy the basics, then you might be a tad sceptical of the state social media brainwashing. You might tune into the bigger international picture. How many cells can Putin magic up to house what could be enormous numbers of people questioning the validity of the current war?

“SMOKE AND MIRROR GAMES PLAYED BY SOME CAN BE CALLED OUT AND DEBUNKED” It might therefore be the owners of local voices who become the unsung heroes, held aloft in future TV dramas. We know that we live in an age of soundbites and instant news: social media, satellite comms and digital messaging are proving to be a powerful tool of war, too. The butterfly effect of one well-reported event cannot be underestimated.

Of course, there is the potential for fake news, but we have also moved on from the rose-tinted propaganda of Pathé News and, no matter whether you feel the BBC is

entirely independent, we do still have the semblance of free speech.

Being able to express what we feel, to choose how and when to say it, is an absolute privilege. It means that the smoke and mirror games played by some can be called out and debunked. Because in the end, facts speak for themselves. In today’s digital age there is a decreasing number of times black can be called white before someone shouts foul and others listen.

The need to defend freedom of speech, freedom of information and freedom to choose the nature of our governance is more than important. If that goes, then what is the point? And before anyone asks “What’s the link to our world of planning here?”, well, bluntly put, it comes down to the freedom to propose stuff, to be invited to comment on it, to see the pros and cons debated and for it to be decided in a public forum. A simplistic approach possibly, but it is ’freedom’ to say it as you see it.

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director

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CASE STUDY

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To celebrate the contribution

that women make to planning and to further the discussion around improving diversity in the planning profession, we’re su supporting The Planner’s inaugural Women of Influence reception in London on 9 May 2022.

If you’re a 2022 Woman of Influence, we look forward to seeing you there!

www.landmarkchambers.co.uk

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11/03/2022 09:18

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

O Opinion

1 BLOG

Charles Welsh MRTPI is a freelance architect and planner

Communities should discuss gain with developers on neighbourhood plans

It does not seem an accepted part of neighbourhood planning that communities can make housing allocations that are conditional on a negotiated level of planning gain, in a winwin deal with landowners.

Ordinarily, planning gain is secured at district level in a formulaic, top-down process. But in locations where development is not normally allowed by the extant local plan (principally in and around rural settlements), a neighbourhood plan can by this means allow the creation of community assets. These might include public open space, locally targeted affordable housing, livework units, a community hall, areas of tree planting (in conjunction with the Forestry Commission), allotments or conceivably more adventurous agricultural endeavours in the manner of eco-villages.

The limits are not fixed.

Having regard to the history, setting and existing spatial arrangement of the settlement, they are a function of the amount and quality of new housing the community considers acceptable in relation to the perceived benefit to be derived in exchange.

Community consultation on “constraints and opportunities”

allows options to be refined and stakeholders to own the process. Spatial matters lead then to forming a masterplan on which policy is based.

While neighbourhood plan consultants are normally planners, this spatial approach together with the identification of development opportunities, suggests architects might play a leading role. Dealmaking involves comparative development land valuations and communities should also have access to surveyors in the process of securing a deal in principle with landowners.

There will be issues as to how this might work in urban and suburban areas where the presumption against development is not as marked in extant policy and where the leverage to be applied might not be as great. More broadly, clarification is required as to how local community planning can be integrated with district planning in identifying and meeting strategic objectives.

So whilst there is unrealised potential in the system, Mr Gove might accept the process should be developed and refined as a means of empowering communities to act for themselves in the market - and also as a function of local levelling-up.

“ORDINARILY, PLANNING GAIN IS SECURED AT DISTRICT LEVEL IN A FORMULAIC, TOP­DOWN PROCESS”

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2 BLOG

Louise Welham is an urban planner at BDP

Environmental justice is also a planning issue

As town planners, our definitions of sustainable development are often framed in the context of BREEAM requirements or biodiversity net gain, yet we know sustainable development is also rooted in social outcomes.

Our unfortunate reality is that both the negative and positive social outcomes of development are unevenly and unfairly spread. To address this, we should take inspiration from environmental justice measures being applied to planning and policy systems in the US. The environmental justice movement began in North Carolina in the 1980s as a protest against the siting of a waste landfill in a mainly African-American community Today, environmental justice has grown to become a core focus of the Biden administration, with the government launching its ‘Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool’ this month. This means better digital tools to help agencies and developers protect, engage and empower disadvantaged communities through planning.

An example of how this has worked on the ground is in Massachusetts, where the environmental justice map has allowed the state to digitally plot areas with high

proportions of low-income, minority or non-English speaking households. In these areas there is an onus on developers to take measures such as more detailed community engagement or providing translators at consultation events.

It’s exciting to see tech innovation being used for good, holding developers to account to put environmental justice into practice. We could benefit from this kind of practice in the UK, where tackling environmental justice in the built environment has arguably been slower. What is stopping us gathering the right demographic data and using similar digital tools to add these kinds of layers to our local plan maps, backed up with policy?

Some seeds are being planted, such as Centric Lab’s Right to Know tool, which reveals environmental health trends in your area. But we have a long way to go. We need policy and government to drive initiatives forward as they have in the US. As planners, we can take small steps like doubling down where we see underrepresentation in community engagement or challenging developers to pursue social and racial justice alongside environmental gain.

“AS PLANNERS, WE CAN TAKE SMALL STEPS LIKE DOUBLING DOWN WHERE WE SEE UNDER­ REPRESENTATION IN COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT”

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11/03/2022 09:18

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 BLOG

Michael Greig is legal director at DLA Piper

Biodiversity enhancement in Scotland – a different approach

Unlike England, Scotland has not followed the model of imposing a legal requirement to deliver biodiversity net gain. Instead, the Scottish government is proposing to deliver biodiversity gain through the national planning framework (NPF).

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 changes the content of Scottish development plans so the NPF will form part of the development plan. Consultation is currently under way on NPF4.

Draft NPF policy 3: Nature Crisis includes provisions for “biodiversity enhancement” (as opposed to biodiversity gain).

Different policy requirements are set in relation to (firstly) national, major and EIA development; and (secondly) local development.

The former should only be supported where they “conserve and enhance biodiversity, including nature networks within and adjacent to the site, so that they are in a demonstrably better state than before intervention”.

Applications should be supported by an assessment of fully mitigated potential negative effects. Also, proposals are to set out “significant biodiversity enhancements” which should be secured with reasonable certainty.

4 BLOG

Rosie Pearson is cofounder and chair of Community Planning Alliance

Use the communitycentred example of neighbourhood plans

Local development proposals should only be supported if they include “appropriate measures to enhance biodiversity in proportion to the nature and scope of the development.” There are limited exceptions to this policy.

Unlike England, Scotland is not proposing to have a nationally set minimum level of biodiversity enhancement.

Neither does the approach adopt use of a biodiversity metric model to calculate the required level of biodiversity provision. The appropriate level of biodiversity enhancement would be a matter for the discretion of the local planning authority as opposed to being prescribed at national level.

Draft Policy 3 does not rule out the possibility of off-site biodiversity enhancements, but there is no suggestion that the Scottish government is considering a biodiversity credit system.

The use of the development plan to provide biodiversity enhancement in Scotland may have the benefit of a more flexible approach than BNG in England. However, the wording of NPF Draft Policy 3 means there is uncertainty in the level of biodiversity enhancement developers may be expected to provide.

“SCOTLAND IS NOT PROPOSING TO HAVE A NATIONALY SET MINIMUM LEVEL OF BIODIVERSITY ENHANCEMENT”

Block votes, street votes, neighbourhood plan referendums – there’s a huge appetite for community involvement in planning.

There’s a major gap in community involvement, though: local plan-making.

Perhaps owing to pressure on planning authorities to deliver housing numbers, I have yet to hear of a local plan designed by local people instead of imposed on them. Local plans are generally decided by officers and/or councillors and put out to consultation. At that point there is little residents can do other than fight to have unsuitable sites removed. The plans become contentious and positions become entrenched.

Take the leader of Tameside Council, Brenda Warrington. In February, a Manchester Evening News reporter quoted her telling a council meeting: “Make no mistake – I will be on that first bulldozer that will start to build houses on Godley Green and, believe me, it will be rammed down your throat.”

Planning inspectors often end up deciding whether an unpopular plan is legally sound, with no opportunity to discuss alternatives.

Communities need to be involved from the outset and asked what they want. There

needs to be frank debate with all options set out and the pros/ cons made clear. Where concerns are raised, they need to be addressed in a series of iterations. A plan created this way would be smoother, faster and more likely to be found sound at examination.

The ultimate goal has to be co-creation of a local plan by stakeholders of all types. So what if the procedures followed for a neighbourhood plan had to be followed for a local plan?

From what I see, it’s too much to hope that LPAs will move from ‘decide, announce, defend’ to ‘engage, deliberate, decide’.

So, stakeholder participation will have to be made mandatory and tested at examination.

LPAs should have to send out surveys to every household at the start of the local plan process.

Before plan submission, there could be a referendum asking stakeholders whether engagement was fair. This would ensure that councillors and officers keep communities in mind throughout. Or maybe there needs to be a fifth soundness test, relating to community participation.

Imagine if a plan could be found unsound because communities had been ignored: that really would keep councils focused.

“A PLAN CREATED IN THIS WAY WOULD BE SMOOTHER AND FASTER AND, IMPORTANTLY, MORE LIKELY TO BE FOUND SOUND AT EXAMINATION”

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11/03/2022 09:19

“IT’S THIS WHOLE LEVEL OF UNEASE AND TERROR THAT JUST DOESN’T SEEM TO EXIST IN THAT WAY ANYMORE”

Listen Scan the QR code, press the play button and listen to Gordon’s music as you read the interview.

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11/03/2022 09:20

INTERVIEW: GORDON CHAPMAN­FOX

PARADIGMS LOST NEW TOWNS WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE MODEL FOR A MODERN WAY OF LIVING – A NEW PARADIGM. BUT, FILTERED THROUGH A CHILDHOOD SHAPED BY DOCTOR WHO, SINISTER PUBLIC INFORMATION FILMS AND EMPTY PROMISES OF A BETTER TOMORROW, MUSICIAN GORDON CHAPMAN­FOX SEES ‘BROKEN CONCRETE UTOPIAS’ WHERE A SUNLIT FUTURE SHOULD HAVE BEEN, AS HE TELLS SIMON WICKS

PHOTOGRAPHY |

R IC H A R D L E A H A I R

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t’s the adverts that Gordon Chapman-Fox recalls most vividly: forever sunlit worlds emblazoned on TV screens; pristine buses rolling serenely on traffic-free roads; children cycling through otherwise empty streets of futuristic housing estates; uncannily clean concrete monoliths providing structural support for a secure, anxiety-free life; and the injunction, should you wish to live in the exotic locale of Runcorn, the ‘Mark 2’ new town, to call Eileen Bilton on the number provided.

Later adverts for the ‘Mark 3’ Warrington new town were more pastoral. “I have a book on Warrington New Town and they had these fairly incongruous half-timbered buildings,” Chapman-Fox says. “There’s pictures of kingfishers, of families walking through green meadows by a stream with houses in the background. They are focusing on this homey, semi-rural aesthetic. Even in 1982 or 83, they were thinking that is what people want.”

This was Runcorn. This was Warrington.

This was the future, 1970s-style, imagined as a flight from the grime and grind of modern urban life into somewhere clearer, cleaner, more ordered.

The boy from the outskirts of Wigan inhaled these visions avidly, alongside sinister public information films in which children always seemed to die in the most distressing ways (on railway lines or electricity pylons, in shallow ponds) and creepy children’s TV programmes which lingered unnervingly in the mind.

It was a future distilled in the weird, churning electronica of the Doctor Who theme, both attractive and repellent; exciting and unnerving; exotic and curiously banal. Just take a look at the video for Chapman-Fox’s Gateway to the North, which uses imagery from an actual 1970s promotional film for Runcorn (bit. ly/planner0422-gateway) and features the voice of Sir Arthur George Ling, Runcorn masterplanner and RTPI president in 1968.

This footage was taken from an actual documentary about Runcorn produced in

1974 (https://bit.ly/planner0422-runcorn).

“Exotic is the word, I think,” a now middle-aged Chapman-Fox concedes in a gentle Lancastrian lilt. “I’m not sure if it’s me being a cynical adult, or it’s just changing times, but very little seems exotic anymore. It was this… something quite exciting seems to be happening just over the hill. The adverts and press made it sound incredibly vibrant and exciting.”

‘Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan’ (WRNTDP) is the knowing nom de plume under which Chapman-Fox creates music. Produced at home on 1970s synthesisers, it captures the mournful, eerie otherworldliness of empty streets and cold concrete at night, say, or the dystopian rhythms of lives configured by industry. It translates an almost Soviet idea of the future and the good life into a suburban English context (Arthur Ling, it’s worth noting, took early inspiration from Soviet town planning).

“There’s a [music] scene where people create a fake soundtrack to either a film

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things for small children that never existed or an “IT’S ABOUT in those days. And that’s existing film,” explains THE SPACES. before you get into the Chapman-Fox. “Instead of IT’S ABOUT THE public information films. trying to make a soundtrack PEOPLE WHO GO It’s this whole level of to something incredibly THROUGH THE unease and terror that just grand, ambitious and SPACES” doesn’t seem to exist in that artistic, I thought I’d try way anymore.” something parochial and mundane. When I listened to electronic music from An interim report that time, it conjured up to But WRNTDP’s music me the music you would isn’t simply a journey into hear on children’s TV dramas. the past. It is a surprisingly sophisticated “I remember growing up with adverts musical critique of the municipal idealism on television – you know, ‘Locate your of a certain period, its built expression business in Warrington, Runcorn’. The and, ultimately, its failure. adverts always said ‘Phone Eileen Bilton’ at Runcorn new town’s most futuristic the end - it took me years to realise Eileen estate, for example – the classically Bilton was an actual person who maybe Brutalist Southgate Estate – was completed ran a property sales company. in 1977 and torn down just 15 years later to ”It was always that sort of Radiophonic be replaced by more ‘traditional’ housing.

Workshop sound. Doctor Who nowadays A further 700 new town homes were is an adventure programme for children demolished in 2002 for the redevelopment but it was a horror programme then and of the Castlefields Estate. used to terrify us. There was a lot of horror However much planners eulogise the

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ambition and purity of the planning dream that sits behind the new town movement, can it really be said to have succeeded?

When commissioned in 1964, it was envisaged that Runcorn would eventually house 100,000 people, the overspill from the urban blight of Liverpool. Its population today is a little over 60,000.

“There’s a definite bleakness to it,” says Chapman-Fox. “It’s unfair to focus on the Brutalist aspects of Runcorn because that was essentially just one big estate out of many. But yeah, you certainly have that bleakness with subways, underpasses and pedestrian bridges over dual carriageways, things like that. They’re not welcoming environments in any way.”

Indeed, Chapman-Fox describes WRNTDP as ‘music for a broken concrete utopia’. But there’s nothing triumphal in his analysis, no ‘I told you so’. Instead there is almost a mourning for something that maybe overreached itself in its boldness.

His music reflects the big ideas about society that were in tension during his childhood. WRNTDP’s first album, released in 2021 is called simply Interim Report, March 1979. Look past the knowingly bureaucratic (language and note the time: 1979 was a threshold, the year Britain stepped through the doorway separating one idea of society and economy from another.

“It was a definite choice,” says Chapman-Fox of the title. “The dreams of the planners trying to make life better – it was the last time, I think anyway, that governments and people tried to make life better for normal people because they should, not because there’s money in it.

Interim Report, March 1979 stands as a moment between one state and another, a hiatus between the postwar collective and the millennial individual; a review of what has, or has not, been achieved by the generation that rebuilt the nation after the war. It was a civic idealism that, arguably, could never have fulfilled its promise.

“That change from community to individuality is one of the reasons why, certainly in Runcorn’s case, it didn’t work out as well as it could have done. Runcorn was designed with its own separate bus lanes around the city and people instantly wanted to move away from commuting or travel by bus to wanting to have a car. The big concrete Brutalist blocks of the estate were all based on a shared, communal way of living and people instantly wanted their own home. Every home built these days

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INTERVIEW: GORDON CHAPMAN­FOX

is detached. You may not be able to fit a credit card between them, but everyone wants a detached individual home.”

People and place The second WRNTDP album, People and Industry has a sonic atmosphere that is less empty and more full of noise and bustle: the people and industry of its title.

Warrington and Runcorn were towns whose populations fed the big industries of the North West, where the likes of Ford and ICI had production facilities. “One of the main defining features of Runcorn is the Western Point, a huge ICI refinery at the time. It looked like the opening of Bladerunner with the pipes and flames and they would burn through the night.”

He continues: “The first album I tried to do as a soundtrack of a promotional film.

With the second I wanted to get into who actually lived here and what they did.”

In its way, it’s just as melancholy and as menacing. There’s even a track called Eye See Eye, which sounds like an Orwellian take on the chemical manufacturer; Chapman-Fox assures me it’s just a joke, wordplay and nothing more. I’m not entirely sure I believe him.

“I suppose the inspiration of this was to look at how the places relate to one another. It’s about the people who go through the spaces, how the shopping centres relate to the residential areas relate to the industrial areas…”

He recalls bus journeys to the (famously Brutalist) Preston bus station as a child.

“There’s certainly a definite inspiration in the same way that Kraftwerk are inspired by just looking out of the window on a long bus or car journey – that sort of rhythmic passing of lampposts.”

Chapman-Fox freely admits he entered into the project with little knowledge of planning and its relationship with Warrington and Runcorn. But he was so surprised to find people contacting him with their own memories of the places he evokes that he began to gen up.

“As an outsider to planning, I don’t fully understand the nuance. But there’s nothing wrong much wrong with their plans and dreams to make life better for normal people. It’s just that either politics and funding didn’t work out or the building’s quality didn’t work out or just the architects and planners didn’t appreciate human behaviour…”

Of the two towns, he judges Warrington to have fared better with

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time. ‘It’s more visibly and of that ‘It’s got to be old to “IT WAS THE economically successful be good’ mindset feeds the LAST TIME THAT and has more going on narratives that helped fuel GOVERNMENTS whereas if you visit the Brexit?”

TRIED TO MAKE centre of Runcorn, with the e critique goes on: LIFE BETTER FOR “ThThere’s Shopping City which was this whole little NORMAL PEOPLE the focus gone it’s now a England vibe like Little BECAUSE THEY fairly desolate void.”.

Whinging from the Harry SHOULD, NOT “Looking at some of the Potter books. They’re BECAUSE THERE’S all going for charming later estates in Warrington, MONEY IN IT” they’ve obviously decided authenticity and failing badly that the concrete and in my eyes, because it feels Brutalism doesn’t reflect like a contrived charm rather what people’s experience than an earned charm.” is. So they still have fairly Chapman-Fox himself Modernist buildings, lives with his wife and but they have this fairly odd timber sons in the village of Churchtown, south half-cladding on them, which is so of Lancaster, where he works in the incongruous. I think there’s a definite university’s marketing department. The balance to be struck between the joy village has a historic character but is also of living in somewhere futuristic and a hodgepodge of old and new. His home is Modernistic, but also the comfort of the the same age as he (born 1975). familiar and the old.”

Alongside his day job, Chapman-Fox What he admires, it seems, is the soundtracks short films and adverts while intention behind these environments making music for himself. A third album rather than their effects. His is a due soon has the immensely plannerish paradoxical nostalgia for a lost future, title Districts, Roads, Open Space. an idea of the future that could never After 30 years of making music, be manifest. He compares this with Gordon Chapman-Fox has touched a the current fad for housing design that nerve, musically and culturally. He is embraces an idea of a singular ‘tradition’ somewhat baffled. “To suddenly not be a that seems to exclude all others. hobbyist musician and find some degree “It does seem the last time there was of fame and fortune after doing this for an effort to make a sort of Futurism for nearly 30 years, it’s been mesmerising. A Britain. With these half-timbered houses whirlwind.” He concludes, with beautiful it feels like everything has gone more understatement: “The last year has been and more regressive and certainly when very unusual.” you get to something like Poundbury it’s almost entirely regressive. Trying to do n Simon Wicks is deputy editor of The those ersatz Georgian mews properties Planner. This is an abridged version of all over the country is entirely regressive a longer article. You can read the full and part of me is thinking how much version at: bit.ly/planner0422-fox

11/03/2022 09:21

THE PLANNING INSPECTORATE’S DECISION TO ALLOW BRISTOL AIRPORT TO EXPAND HAS GENERATED DEBATE ABOUT THE CAPACITY OF CURRENT PLANNING POLICY TO SUPPORT NET­ ZERO GOALS. HUW MORRIS GETS CAUGHT IN THE CROSSWINDS OF A CONTENTIOUS CALL

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ven the Planning Inspectorate admitted its verdict would be a “major disappointment”. In the event, that would prove to be an understatement.

February’s decision by a panel of three inspectors to allow Bristol Airport’s appeal to expand passenger capacity was greeted with widespread dismay.

Critics have interpreted the decision as a triumph for economics over the environment, and pointed to gaping loopholes within government policy on climate change. Others condemned the verdict for undermining local democracy, such was the strength of local opposition to the expansion. Doubts now hang over

how far England’s planning system is fit for purpose in handling the challenges confronting climate and democracy.

But what precisely is the controversy about? In short, the inspectors approved the application by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Bristol Airport’s owner and Canada’s largest single profession pension plan to accommodate an extra two million passengers a year (see box, ‘Expansion plan’).

In defending its proposal, the owner had cited the expansion’s climate credentials – particularly plans for netzero operational emissions by 2030 and improved public transport to reduce car journeys to and from the terminal.

However, other environmental issues and the panel’s reasons for allowing the appeal provoked a degree of outrage, with carbon emissions proving to be the first point of contention.

Carbon ‘neutral’ The panel found that any rises in emissions from the expansion could be offset by greater reductions elsewhere in the UK, adding that they could not stipulate whether the UK will meet its Sixth Carbon Budget. To widespread alarm, they attached “neutral weight” to climate change in their decision.

The inspectors conceded that “it is self-evident that any increase in CO2

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emissions in one location will have consequences elsewhere”, potentially making the duty of the secretary of state (SoS) to meet carbon targets under the Climate Change Act (CCA) tougher.

“But,” they stressed, “in this case the comparative magnitude of the increase is limited and it has to be assumed that the SoS will comply with the legal duty under the CCA.” They accepted the appellant’s argument that the airport’s expansion represented “around 0.220.28 per cent of the 37.5 MtCO2/annum of the planning assumption related to the 4th and 5th carbon budgets” and between 0.29-0.34 per cent of the Committee for Climate Change’s (CCC) “balanced pathway assumption”.

The panel also did not see caps on passenger capacity as “the way forward”, in contrast to the CCC’s demand for such limits. In any case, the inspectors noted “a number of current options and potential future approaches to assist in the achievement of this target”. Despite “problems and uncertainties associated with some approaches”, several may be used at the national level to address climate change, they added.

The inspectors also maintained that “advances in technology, to whatever extent they materialise… are one part of the government’s approach to achieving net-zero and should not be discounted, albeit it is recognised there is uncertainty as to when this technology might be adopted commercially by airlines”.

They concluded: “there is no policy which seeks to limit airport expansion or impose capacity limits – which would

be the effect of dismissing the appeal in this case”. Under current national policy, “the conclusion must be that the aviation emissions are not so significant that they would have a material impact on the government’s ability to meet its climate change target and budgets”.

The panel did not include non-CO2 emissions because of “uncertainty as to their effect and longevity”, despite conceding that they “have the potential to bring about climate change”.

BDB Pitmans legal director Mustafa Latif-Aramesh says he has taken three lessons from the decision. The first confirms that the 2014 Aviation Policy Framework (APF) and 2018’s Making Best Use of Existing Runways policy document “remain valid and [are] not outdated, nor superseded by recent netzero-related policy announcements”.

A second lesson is that the panel gives limited weight to the Airports National Policy Statement (NPS), which he adds is “perhaps not unsurprising in this context given the policy itself says it’s important and relevant for airports in the South East” – as opposed to the South West.

Latif-Aramesh also notes an attempt by objectors to argue that stricter WHO limits should be a substitute for current Air Quality Objectives for nitrogen dioxide, PM10 and PM2.5. “The inspectorate appears to give short shrift to such standards, stating that ‘given the international and national context it is not unreasonable to assume that something will come forward to fill the space’,” he says.

However, New Economics Foundation

The proposal to expand Bristol Airport, which is around 11 kilometres south-west of Bristol City centre and mostly located in green belt, was originally refused by North Somerset Council in 2020. This rejection was backed by Bristol City Council, Bath and North East Somerset Council and the West of England Combined Authority.

The airport handled 8.9 million passengers in 2019, making it the ninth busiest in the UK and the third-largest regional airport in England. The expansion proposal includes raising its operational cap from 10 million passengers a year to 12 million, two extensions to the

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senior researcher Alex Chapman argues that this is a cause for serious concern: “The inspectorate has also decided not to weigh the impact of non-CO2 emissions against the application, despite the latest science suggesting these emissions more than double the climate warming created by the aviation sector.”

Policy vacuum The decision has stunned North Somerset Council’s leader Don Davies, who says it “simply flies in the face of

terminal building, a walkway and pier, a service yard, a multi-storey car park for 2,150 spaces and extension to another car park to provide around 2,700 spaces, as well as a rolling annual cap of 4,000 night flights between 11pm and 6am.

The airport forecasts that expansion will increase North Somerset’s economy by £70 million with 710 additional jobs, with the West of England seeing benefits of £220 million and around 2,460 more jobs. The South West and South Wales economic footprint will be around £430 million larger and support 5,560 more jobs.

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“TO TREAT IT AS ‘NEUTRAL’ IN THE PLANNING BALANCE SETS A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT THAT COULD EFFECTIVELY GREEN LIGHT EXPANSION AT EVERY AIRPORT IN THE COUNTRY”

local democracy and disregards the views of the communities who fought equally hard to resist the expansion”, while undermining the authority’s target to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

Chapman says “it is very hard to understand” how the panel came to its conclusion. “The additional climate damage from new flights is by far and above the most serious impact of airport expansion. To treat it as ‘neutral’ in the planning balance sets a dangerous precedent that could effectively green light expansion at every airport in the country, putting us all at risk from runaway climate breakdown,” he insists.

“What’s particularly confusing is that the inspectors seem to consider the climate damage from aviation to have been dealt with in national policy. In reality, the only national policy we have – Making Best Use/APF – is now out-ofdate by two carbon targets – 2035/2050 – and while aviation is very much in the scope of these targets, the government has no plan for aviation to achieve them.

“The function of a planning decision should be to weigh up pros and cons to reach a balanced decision and, contrary to the approach applied by the inspectors, the government’s Making Best Use of Existing Runways policy

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does just that, encouraging decisionmakers to weigh up ‘all’ relevant impacts.

“Overturning the democratic decision of North Somerset Council, on a calculation which excludes the single most important impact, has left the local community devastated and feeling like they have been ‘gaslighted’ by the government – particularly as, in the very same week the Bristol decision was announced, the government was promoting a new levelling-up strategy which promises to ‘empower local leaders and communities’.”

Aviation Environment Federation director Tim Johnson notes a further issue with outdated policy documents such as the Airports NPS and APF. The government is committed to reviewing them, but only after publishing its Jet Zero Strategy later this year.

“In the meantime, local authorities, inspectors and examining authorities lack the appropriate policies to determine applications and appeals for airport expansion,” he says. “By the time policy catches up, it could be too late to

influence many current expansion bids.”

A key issue concerns the inspectors’ acknowledgement that there was no formal assessment of the cumulative impact of airport expansions amid the uncertainties with proposed mitigation.

“Without this information, what basis was there for concluding that expansion at Bristol would not have a material impact?” Johnson asks. He contrasts this with how the examining authority for the proposed reopening of a freight hub at Manston Airport concluded that weight should be given to the CCC’s guidance for no net increase in UK airport capacity “when presented with the same post-net zero policy vacuum”.

So what are the implications for airport expansion elsewhere in the UK? Johnson notes a lack of consistency in decisions in the past 15 months “which reflects the wider policy uncertainty”.

These include refusals at Stansted and Bristol overturned by inspectors and, while the government chose not to intervene in Southampton, it has called in Leeds-Bradford and is considering whether to do so at Luton.

Meanwhile, the High Court quashed the government’s initial decision to grant the Development Consent Order for Manston for failing to give sufficient reasons for going against the advice of the examining authority and its request for more evidence on compatibility with the Sixth Carbon Budget.

“It’s difficult to argue that any one decision sets a precedent and some of the approvals are still subject to legal challenge,” Johnson adds.

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A STEEP ASCENT THE AVIATION INDUSTRY MAY HAVE BEEN SENT INTO A NOSEDIVE BY THE PANDEMIC, BUT IT IS NOW BEING SCRAMBLED AGAIN FOR EXPANSION ­ CHARTING A COURSE THAT POSES A THREAT TO THE CLIMATE.

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n September 2021, the government updated its ‘carbon values’, revealing that the cost of cleaning up emissions to meet its 2050 net-zero target had more than trebled in the short term, from £70 to £240 per tonne of carbon emitted.

This is expected to rise further, to around £378 per tonne by 2050.

An analysis in January by the New Economics Foundation concluded that this would double the overall carbon value of the eight

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airport expansions now in the planning system, from £36.8 billion to £73.6 billion.

The foundation argued that airport expansion decisions have been made on outdated estimates of the costs of mitigating emissions. It quoted Lord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee, telling airport operators “there is not any space for airport expansion” if the UK is to meet its climate goals” and called for all “active” UK airport expansions to be paused immediately.

£11.6

BILLION What the aviation industry will pay towards clean-up costs from emissions at expanded airports

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The recalculated carbon value of expansion at England’s eight airports with active expansion plans

l sto Bri 5m £64

ds Lee ford d Bra 13m £9

Southampton £954m

“THE COST OF CLEANING UP EMISSIONS TO MEET THE GOVERNMENT’S 2050 NET­ZERO TARGET HAS MORE THAN TREBLED IN THE SHORT TERM, FROM £70 TO £240 PER TONNE OF CARBON EMITTED”

M a £5 nsto .1b n n

£73.6 BILLION

Estimated emission clean-up costs from departing flights from the eight UK airports undergoing expansion

Luton n £5.2b Source: The £62 billion carbon giveaway, New Economics Foundation, January 2022

£62

row Heath.2bn

BILLION The bill for emissions from UK airport expansion to be picked up by the taxpayer and wider society

ted Stans n £2.4b

£49

Gatw i £9.1b ck n AP R IL 2 0 2 2 / THE PLA NNER

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‘LEVELLING UP THE UNITED KINGDOM’ – THE LENGTHY LEVELLING­UP WHITE PAPER – CONTAINS A SERIES OF PRESCRIPTIONS FOR CORRECTING IMBALANCES THAT MAY LIMIT OUR POTENTIAL AS A NATION. WE ASKED FIGURES WORKING IN AND AROUND PLANNING TO COMMENT ON IMPORTANT THEMES IT CONTAINS – AND THOSE IT DOESN’T

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L E V E L LI N G U P

On BALANCE An overlooked sense of place?

In common with other planners, I awaited the publication of the levellingup white paper with interest in order to understand what contribution we can make. I am drawn to one particular aspect that aspires to ‘Restore a Sense of Community, Local Pride and Belonging’.

My concern arises from an apparent gap in understanding community and sense of place. The white paper does not draw a clear distinction between communities of place and communities of practice; indeed, there appears to be an overall lack of definition of ‘community’.

The materiality of a place is a product of society, and communities are shaped by more than a physical sense of place.

This begs the question: how can we recognise place, belonging and identity?

More importantly, how do we recognise ‘who people are’ in that place?

One proposed solution appears to be design codes to improve the quality of place for ‘left behind’ communities in particular. Design codes may appeal to those with aspirations for highly objectified capital who live in urban extensions such as Poundbury, but this approach will not speak to communities disenfranchised by the loss of industries that have characterised their town and

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framed their local identity. Sense of place emerges from more than beauty; it is built upon history and belonging to communities of practice and place.

For these communities, peripheralised and stigmatised by a redundant industrial past, we should recognise that the pursuit of beauty in place is often a ‘nice to have’ rather than an essential component of everyday life.

Surely the first step in levelling up must

“LEVELLING UP NEEDS TO BE SO MUCH MORE THAN A SOUND BITE. IT NEEDS TO LISTEN TO THE HIDDEN VOICES AND RECOGNISE THE SOCIAL OTHER”

be to engage with why these places have value to those who live in them, including value which may be invisible to others. To quote the geographer Yi-Fu Tuan: “without exception, humans grow attached to their native places, even if these should seem derelict of quality to outsiders”.

A 2020 YouGov poll found 69 per cent of respondents had never engaged with a local plan consultation. Furthermore, the public’s perceptions of being ‘done to’ are specifically referenced in Levelling Up the United Kingdom. The opportunity to engage frequently appears to extend to stakeholders and gatekeepers, but not necessarily the wider public. How do we work more directly with communities?

Levelling up needs to be so much more than a sound bite. It needs to listen to the hidden voices and recognise the social other, so frequently silent on planning.

As someone who has spent years researching public disengagement from planning processes, I have cautiously high hopes for the proposed ‘Strategy for Community Spaces and Relationships’ as a potentially inclusive process giving a genuine voice to communities and informing local decision-making. I hope it lives up to my expectations. n Dr Catherine Queen MRTPI is a lecturer in planning at the University of Liverpool

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Missing capital – nature

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“THE PAPER MISSES THE MASSIVE CONTRIBUTION THAT ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES MAKE TO THE ECONOMY, HEALTH AND WELLBEING”

inequity in interaction with nature are significant. Yet there are many opportunities through local nature recovery strategies to secure benefits for communities cost-effectively.

The RTPI has proposed ‘local environment improvement plans’ to achieve this in concert with wider strategic objectives.

Levelling-up funding should recognise that investments in the natural environment deliver improved quality of life and tackle health and wealth inequalities. The incidence of flood risk, urban heat island effect, obesity and poor mental health is highest where nature is the least visible. Perhaps ‘nature equity’ needs to be more closely mapped and used to make local investment decisions alongside ensuring that new development both delivers and maintains green infrastructure. n Timothy David Crawshaw MRTPI is president of the Royal Town Planning Institute *73% according to the Natural Capital Account for the Tees Valley http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/ publication/5271371803525120

Levelling up provides a massive opportunity to achieve equity across social, environmental, and economic spheres. To be effective, all measures, interventions and investments must be tested against these objectives and the criteria for success developed with communities. But there is a glaring omission from the various forms of capital considered by the levelling-up white paper: natural capital.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has welcomed the Nature for Everyone campaign that seeks to secure a legal right for everyone to access nature, and is supported by many built environment organisations. It has recognised the “huge importance” of nature and green space. Even at this late stage, its omission from the levelling-up white paper could be addressed.

But therein lies the problem: if transport – as opposed to green – infrastructure had been overlooked, this would have been no doubt flagged up before publication. Nature and green space seem still to be in the ‘nice to have’ category; the paper misses the massive contribution that ecosystems services make to the economy, health and wellbeing.

Inequalities of access to multifunctional green infrastructure are analogous to the inequalities that are the shadow of growth in personal wealth for the few. When recipient regions of levelling up are considered, green infrastructure is a defining characteristic.

Think of the Tees Valley. How much of this area is ‘green’ as opposed to urban or industrial?* Across these areas, the opportunities to generate nature-based solutions to climate change and support green jobs and green local wealth creation sit alongside the intrinsic benefits of access to green space. Such access to nature is, I argue, a basic requirement for wellbeing. The downstream costs of

The devolution gap The aim of the levelling-up white paper is to expand and deepen local devolution in England, empowering local leadership and securing a devolution deal and a simplified longterm funding settlement for every part of England that wants one by 2030.

The intention is that local leaders will have a broader range of functions and greater revenue raising powers, as well as more accountability and responsibility over decisions. The West Midlands and Greater Manchester will be the ‘trailblazers’, acting as examples for other mayoral combined authorities.

However, to what extent is this compatible with the overall objective of the white paper to address regional inequality? Will the devolution agenda in fact only strengthen the geographical divides? Can devolution truly impact the planning system?

The white paper highlights that currently less than half the UK population lives in an area covered by a devolution deal. There is also a clear division between existing and even proposed devolution deals across the

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11/03/2022 11:14

L E V E L LI N G U P Natural capital is considered a topic missing from the levelling-up white paper

UK and a significant gap in the Home Counties.

In planning delivery in these areas we have recently seen a move away from broader geographies towards smaller, localised geographies. This includes East Hampshire and Havant Borough Council, which recently ended a 12-year partnership in order to focus more closely on their own priorities.

Similarly, Cherwell District Council and Oxfordshire County Council recently voted to dissolve their partnership. Many in the Home Counties question the repeated failings of previous reorganisations and partnerships. So will there be any appetite for devolution in these areas?

Even if there is, how will this work in relation to planning powers and will it deliver any more efficient or effective planning? We have recently seen the creation of the single unitary authority, Buckinghamshire Council. Despite a requirement to prepare a new local plan by April 2025, work to date has been limited, with unknown future reforms to the planning system cited as hindering progress.

“WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO DEVOLVED AUTHORITIES IF PLANS DO NOT PROGRESS WITHIN SET TIMESCALES, OR THERE ARE ISSUES WITH DECISION­MAKING?”

What will happen to devolved authorities if their plans do not progress within the set timescales or there are issues with decisionmaking and underperformance?

A recent example is Uttlesford District Ccouncil in Essex, which was recently stripped of its planning powers.

How much planning power will devolved administrations have and how effective can they be, in particular while the national system remains plagued with uncertainty and constant reform? n Alice Davidson is an associate

director with Boyer

North and it’s somehow about creating the infrastructure for jobs.

The imbalances are more complicated.

[They are] not just about a North-South divide, although that’s real enough; there’s also an intergenerational divide, and that’s across the country.

For instance, Wigan is not in need of levelling up housing. The issue in Wigan is not lack of reasonably priced The generational deficit housing, it’s that Wigan doesn’t have “Politicians, policymakers and enough employment opportunities strategists are not thinking enough to keep people in Wigan. There are about people in their 20s and 30s who, different solutions for different places, if they can’t get on the first rung of the but in the obsession with the ‘red wall’ housing ladder, can’t trade up equity– now ‘blue wall’ – it’s important to wise, so are priced out. remind politicians that we tend to forget We are under-built residentially, housing in all of this. certainly in the South East. There is Housing doesn’t easily subject itself no equilibrium between supply and to a five-year political cycle. It’s not a demand at a point in which household quick fix. One positive I formations are also changing. I don’t think “THE IMBALANCES take from Michael Gove as environment secretary enough planners really ARE NOT JUST consider the evidence ABOUT A NORTH­ is that he learned about thinking as a systems demographically as to SOUTH DIVIDE. thinker. what’s going on.

THERE’S ALSO I’ve long believed You end up in a AN INTER­ housing can only be sorted place where we’re GENERATIONAL out by doing 100 small not building enough DIVIDE” things right over a long housing and where period, and I have this prices – sale or rent vain hope that the housing – are too high. Those ministerial team will be the lucky enough to have same one for four or five parents with money can years in a row. get help and those without are stuck.

I would make the debate more Baby boomers have had it all but not complicated because it is. I would talk invested in the fabric of society such about ways in which different areas that they’re passing on something more need different types of levelling up. And affordable and longer-lasting for the while that needs to be locally inspired next generation. There is a generational and managed, it does often need to be deficit. centrally funded and certainly needs There’s this rather facile view that central regulations. [levelling up] is about ploughing Each side needs to be reminded what money from the South East into the they will contribute; the nation state can contribute fiscal push and policy and regulatory support, and the local area can offer the mapping, the data and responsible accountability on how those forces are being brought to bear. You can’t have one without the other – they are interdependent.” n Marc Vlessing is founder and chief executive of Pocket Living. He was speaking to Simon Wicks

Towns such as Wigan have already received levelling-up funding

n Read the full version of this article, on The Planner website – bit/ly/Planner0422-Levelling

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Tech { L A N D S C A P E “SOME PLANNING BODIES HAVE ALREADY ADOPTED MINECRAFT FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES”

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A NEW GAME PLAN WHILE BESPOKE SOFTWARE TOOLS HAVE THEIR PLACE, VIDEO GAMES CAN ALSO PLAY A VALUABLE ROLE. MATTHEW PRESCOTT OFFERS THREE WAYS IN WHICH CONSUMERS’ FAMILIARITY WITH VIDEO GAMES CAN HELP PLANNERS IN THEIR WORK

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f we planners are to make sure that the places we create can meet the diverse needs of the people they are intended to serve, then we need to build greater awareness of planning and engage new audiences.

Indeed, the need to enhance public appreciation of planning formed one of the core pledges of Wei Yang’s manifesto when she became RTPI president in January 2021.

Greater publicity for planning and what it involves can also help generate the kind of interest that can attract prospective planners into the sector – particularly if this exposure comes at an age when career aspirations are still taking shape.

It’s important then, that the planning profession actively seeks opportunities for inclusion and self-promotion as the benefits of doing so are clear and significant. One relatively quick and cheap way to engage the wider public, which the profession is already grasping, is through the use of digital tools.

Although bespoke digital tools for public consultation, mapping or modelling have an important role to play here, possibilities for engagement should not be restricted to those developed for planning or urban design purposes alone. For example,

better use of popular social media such as YouTube can be of value in introducing more people to planning; in recent years the likes of the RTPI and the TCPA have been regularly providing more content on their respective channels.

However, one digital tool that the profession hasn’t embraced is video games.

That’s not to say they have been ignored – in fact, city-builder simulation SimCity is referenced in the opening paragraph on the About Planning page of the RTPI website – but rather that their potential for planning is perhaps underappreciated.

Here are three uses for video games within a planning context that illustrate how they can help the planning profession engage with and generate the interest of new audiences.

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Participatory practice Increasingly sophisticated gaming hardware and software engines are pushing the boundaries of what is possible for video games and how they can be used. Several industries, including health, music, fashion and journalism, have already turned to gaming as part of their practice and as a new platform for dialogue, participation and education.

Planning has also dipped its toe in the

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The gaming landscape

Games such as Grand Theft Auto can bring planning to life for non-planners

Globally, gaming is the largest entertainment industry, including in the UK.

water. In 2016, city planners in Stockholm, Sweden, teamed up with developers of city-builder Cities: Skylines to facilitate the redesign of the capital’s Norra Djurgårdsstaden district. This saw a mockup of the district and its physical assets recreated in-game using user-generated modifications (‘mods’) before members of the public could examine and test out alternative visions for the area.

That same year, the Finnish city of Hämeenlinna also used Cities: Skylines to support the development of an inner-city masterplan, inviting players to download a simulated map of the city and submit their designs for consideration. This particular project prompted Cities: Skylines producer Emmi Halikainen to observe: “It’s inspiring to see how a video game can bring city planning a bit closer to citizens.”

Closer to home, companies like Brighton-based BlockBuilders, established in 2014, specialise in using video game Minecraft to help enable young people to collaborate in projects relating to the built environment. This includes consultation on major road redevelopment, in cooperation with the Department for Transport and Highways England, or to support production of the Lewes Neighbourhood Plan.

In these contexts, video games have been found to afford considerable benefits to planners and the respective developments by providing interactive 3D visualisations and models, as well as opportunities for collaborative creation, situational learning, and ideas generation across a range of ages.

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Education and awareness building It’s the potential of video games as an educational and awareness building resource that is perhaps of most value to the planning profession. This includes opportunities both in and outside of formal educational settings.

In 2016 Minecraft launched its Education Edition, a vanilla version of the game developed specifically for use in academic environments. According to Sara Cornish, a senior marketing manager for Minecraft Education Edition, the UK is a top 10 market; Wales, in particular, has one of the largest global user bases with more than 460,000 students having access.

Cornish, who has a degree in urban studies, states that because design thinking and iteration is “built into the game’s DNA”

According to Savills, the UK is the fifth-biggest gaming market worldwide, with more than 36 million gamers and a domestic worth of £7 billion in 2020.

Roughly 1 in 3 UK households have a dedicated video games console, while most individuals own a personal computer and/or smartphone.

Microsoft’s Flight Simulator

Studies by Savanta UK and the Interactive Software Federation of Europe have shown that the video game user base is diverse in terms of age and gender.

A 2020 study by digital media firm Limelight Networks found that video games are the primary form of entertainment for young people today versus traditional media (film and TV).

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LANDSCAPE Minecraft has been used to teach architecture, engineering, and urbanism

it makes a lot of sense to use e Minecraft to “invite new participants for planning for co-creation and human-centred ntred design”.

She has welcomed the possibility ossibility of a partnership with the planning anning profession in the UK to identify ntify options to increase awareness and support pport planning education. Some planning bodies have already adopted Minecraft for or educational purposes; the Cairngorms National Park Authority uses it as a tool to introduce children to the idea of sustainability inability and to understand why planning g decisions are made.

Yet video games also have ve significant educational value outside of formal academic settings. This is largely argely because of the increasing popularity of gaming and streaming culture, which has the potential to provide content that blends ds entertainment and education. ion.

This has seen professional planners on YouTube, such as City Planner Plays and Sam Bur, use Cities: Skylines to educate viewers about the US and Australian planning systems respectively. Other YouTube users include Alpine, who uses Minecraft to teach architecture, engineering, and urbanism. By December 2021, Minecraft themed videos had generated an astonishing one trillion views on YouTube – a demonstration of the platform’s huge appeal.

That is not to forget the many video games which situate players in large, vibrant, and dynamic virtual worlds, crafted by developers to make them as representative of the real world as possible to heighten immersion and believability. This includes incorporating

“MICROSOFT’S FLIGHT SIMULATOR CREATES ARGUABLY ONE OF THE BEST, MOST COMPREHENSIVE VIRTUAL MODELS OF THE ENTIRE PLANET"

the basics of urban development including, but not limited to, land use patterns, road hierarchies, streetscapes, legibility, and landmarks, making these virtual environments a great way to introduce people interactively to good (or bad) urban design.

And if there were any doubt about the suitability of some gaming worlds, Microsoft’s Flight Simulator creates arguably one of the best, most comprehensive virtual models of the entire planet. Its incredibly detailed recreations of many of the world’s most iconic cities give players a visually compelling and novel way to experience the built environment.

3 Some professional planners on YouTube use Cities: Skylines

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Generating interest in planning Exposure to video games not only has educational potential but can also generate an interest in planning. A survey of professional planners working in

central government found that, of 61 respondents, 20 per cent credited citybuilder games (for example, SimCity) as having had an impact on their career choice to some extent.

Another survey conducted by the YouTube channel Imperatur, which publishes Cities: Skylines content, reported that playing or watching the game had generated a personal interest in town planning in 69 per cent of 8,400 respondents (of the remainder 19 per cent were already interested), while 95 per cent would watch educational videos using video games if planning professionals were to make them.

This area would certainly be worthy of further research but nonetheless implies that there is demand for such content.

A world of possibilities All of this suggests that as the profession continues to look for more innovative approaches to engage with and appeal to new audiences, video games might just provide a new (virtual) world of possibilities.

n Matthew Prescott is a planning policy officer at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

This article draws on his master’s dissertation Levelling Up Planning: The Potential of Commercial Video Games for the Town Planning Profession

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If you want to get recognised for your high quality, impactful spatial planning research, then enter the Awards for Research Excellence.

The categories are: • The Sir Peter Hall Award for Research Excellence • The Student Award • The Early Career Researcher Award • The Planning Practitioner Award

Entries close 16 May 2022

Enter now rtpi.org.uk/researchawards

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LANDSCAPE

C&D { C

CASES &DECISIONS

A N A LY S E D B Y B E N G O S L I N G A N D H U W M O R R I S / A P P E A L S @ T H E P L A N N E R . C O . U K

Romford blocks rejected over overheating threat from climate change An application to build four residential blocks in Romford has been dismissed after an inspector decided that overheating owing to climate change would harm future living conditions for occupants.

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LOCATION Romford AUTHORITY London Borough of Havering

INSPECTOR William Cooper PROCEDURE Hearing DECISION Dismisses REFERENCE APP/ B5480/W/21/3267774

could further improve air movement and reduce the risk of overheating” by using a ceiling fan, additional blinds in the home, as well as external louvres or shades.

Cooper said external louvres or shades are not included

in the proposal, adding that he had “no certainty that occupants would be able to afford to install solar blinds”.

In the absence of these measures, he was uncertain that future residents could avoid a possibility of overheating. Even allowing for the attractions of living in an accessible metropolitan location with elevated panoramic views, the adverse effects could result in discomfort for occupants.

He also noted that to avoid noise from traffic on the nearby A215, residents of one of the proposed blocks would have to keep windows closed.

The inspector noted the range of amenity spaces proposed on the site, which would provide occupants with access to outdoor amenity spaces catering for various interests and age

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POLICY POINTS

( Despite these proposals having significant benefits in terms of contributing to local housing supply, and contributions to public green spaces, the inspector felt that the plan’s conflicts with local and national policy were too great. ( The plans conflicted with Policies D3, D4, D5 and D6 of the London Plan, which focus on providing comfortable, people­focused homes. Policy D6 was particularly relevant to this appeal, as it requires dwellings to provide adequate ventilation, and avoid overheating, given the wider context of climate change and global warming. ( The London Plan is the spatial development strategy for Greater London, providing guidelines across all London boroughs for 20 to 25 years.

I M AG E S | I STO C K / A L A M Y / S H U T T E RSTO C K

Galliard Homes had challenged the London Borough of Havering’s refusal of its proposal for four blocks ranging from five to nine storeys to provide 82 homes, 41 of them affordable.

Inspector William Cooper, pointing to the overheating analysis (OA) by the appellant’s building services and sustainability adviser, said the proposed homes are likely to require a mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system. The council had questioned the effectiveness of a MVHR system to provide a comfortable internal environment, when taking in air from outside the building in hot summer months.

The inspector found no reason to doubt the OA’s technical confidence in the relative energy efficiency of MVHR and the suitability of smart controls to monitor external temperature and reduce flow-rates when hotter outside than inside.

But, judging from the OA, many homes in the development would be at risk of overheating under future climate change conditions, he added.

In this scenario, the OA recommends that “occupants

groups. The proposal would also create local public open spaces, meeting the fundamental aims of the council’s Residential Design Supplementary Planning Document.

The proposal would fail to provide high-quality, comfortable accommodation under future climate change conditions, and from the implications of noise. As such, it would undermine the National Planning Policy Framework’s fundamental objective of creating high-quality, sustainable development through good design. The inspector dismissed the appeal.

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40 or so appeal reports are posted each month on our website: www.theplanner.co.uk/decisions. Our Decisions Digest newsletter is sent out every Monday. Sign up: bit.ly/planner-newsletters

Inspector dismisses Lancashire homes for policy breach An outline application for up to 125 homes on the edge of a Lancashire village has been dismissed for being a significant breach of development plan policy.

LOCATION Barton, Preston AUTHORITY Preston City Council

Barn and solar panels would be ‘inappropriate’ in green belt surrounding listed castle An inspector has dismissed plans for an ‘agricultural barn’ and solar panels beside a listed castle because the barn would not be used for agriculture – failing the exception test for green belt land.

The solar panels, too, failed to meet the green belt exceptions spelt out in paragraphs 149 and 150 of the NPPF, said inspector Benjamin Webb. Both elements of the proposal would therefore be inappropriate development.

The appeal related to land around Midford Castle, south of Bath in Somerset. An 18th-century ‘folly’, the castle was built in the Gothic revival style in the shape of the ‘clubs’ symbol from playing cards for a local landowner, Henry DisneyRoebuck. The castle is in both the Bristol and Bath Green Belt and the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Its current owner, who has a holiday lets business there, proposed to erect an “agricultural barn” and solar panels.

A “large part” of the barn would store wood for a biomass boiler; some of the remainder would contain “equipment relating to the operation of the solar panels”to provide energy for the castle and lets.

Although the appellant LOCATION Midford Castle, Bath had referenced a flock of sheep and hay production AUTHORITY Bath and North East in his application, the Somerset Council inspector said there was “no clear evidence” shown INSPECTOR Benjamin Webb of agricultural use.

The barn did not meet PROCEDURE Written the agriculture exception representations test for green belt land set out in the NPPF or DECISION Dismissed the Bath and North East Somerset Core Strategy.

REFERENCE APP/ The appeal was therefore F0114/W/21/3282769 dismissed.

INSPECTOR Jonathan Price PROCEDURE Inquiry DECISION Dismissed REFERENCE APP/ N2345/W/21/3276293

The proposal included up to 44 affordable homes on five hectares of farmland at the edge of Barton, north of Preston. The site directly abuts the village’s built-up side to the west, just outside the boundary defined in the development plan.

The Central Lancashire Core Strategy focuses growth on brownfield sites in central Preston and other urban areas, while protecting the character of suburban and rural areas. It notes that some development will be required on the fringes of urban areas.

Lower down the settlement hierarchy, the strategy and local plan state that

development will typically be small-scale and limited, unless there are exceptional reasons for larger-scale redevelopment schemes.

Inspector Jonathan Price said the proposal was a large-scale housing scheme in a location representing “a significant breach of development plan policy”. It would result in the harmful loss of open countryside next to a village containing only a modest range of services.

Price said a proposal of this scale is “neither a minor or technical breach of policy and would run counter to, and undermine, a plan-led approach towards correlating the appropriate amounts of growth with existing levels of transport connectivity, infrastructure capacity, service provision and brownfield land availability”.

He noted that Preston could show a 6.1-year housing land supply, which put the council in a “robust position”. The council has also performed well in housing delivery by exceeding its target by around 152 per cent over the past five years. He concluded that the appeal should be dismissed. bit.ly/planner0422-lanc

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LANDSCAPE

C&D { C Chatham housing plan rejected for harm to ancient woodlands

application to confirm whether the development started before 18 June 2021.

Inspector E Symmons pointed to a landscape character assessment that mentioned ancient woodland as a distinct feature. He noted the proposal involved removing trees. Local and national policy and guidance state that ancient woodland is an “irreplaceable habitat and proposals should not result in its loss or deterioration”. A local plan policy also seeks to protect and enhance the natural environment.

Minister allows Wembley mixeduse plan in conservation areas Proposals for more than 450 homes, including replacement operational accommodation for TfL train crews, have been allowed on a Wembley car park between two conservation areas.

The application related to an area of 0.7 hectares between Wembley Park Station and Olympic Square. The car park hosts a pair of TfL operational buildings and 94 parking bays.

The proposal consisted of 454 flats in five buildings ranging from 13 to 21 storeys.

Four buildings would be residential, with one a mix of residential and retail units.

The proposal also included garden areas and 1,101 square metres had been allotted as operational space for TfL staff.

The application, called in last May by Michael Gove was delegated to Eddie

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Hughes, minister for rough sleeping and housing. Hughes agreed with inspector Tom Gilbert-Wooldridge that the development provided significant benefits for the

LOCATION Chatham, Kent AUTHORITY Maidstone Borough Council

INSPECTOR E Symmons PROCEDURE Written representations DECISION Dismissed REFERENCE APP/ U2235/W/20/3270846

local area, in spite of concerns about its design and potential effects on conservation areas.

Gilbert-Woodridge noted the proposal’s proximity to the Lawn Court and Barn Hill conservation areas.

Addressing concerns about whether the scheme’s design would complement the setting and potential encroachment on viewpoints, he observed that it would “fill the skyline” when viewed from Barn Rise, forming a “stark contrast” with the area’s mock-Tudor design.

But the inspector felt that the scheme would cause “very limited less than substantial harm” to Barn Hill conservation area, and none to Lawns Court. The buildings would step down in scale when viewed nearby smaller buildings, helping the site to integrate into its suburban

Symmons said the proposal would harm woodlands through loss of trees, recreational pressure and habitat fragmentation, noting a policy presumption against development of the site unless exceptional reasons have been proved. The proposal would also introduce homes to countryside outside the settlement boundary.

Noting the council’s 6.3year housing land supply, he dismissed the appeal.

ISTOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK

The appeal related to two former grazing fields outside Maidstone’s settlement boundary within a landscape gap separating Lordswood and Hempstead.

Outline planning permission for the site was granted on appeal for 89 homes, open space and a biomass plant in 2015.

A condition requiring the development “shall begin not later than two years from the date of approval” of the last of its reserved matters is currently part of a Lawful Development Certificate

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I M AG E S |

Plans for 115 homes near Maidstone have been dismissed after an inspector ruled that the scheme could not demonstrate wholly exceptional reasons to balance its harm to ancient woodland.

surroundings. Hughes agreed that the public benefits of the proposals far outweighed this minimal harm.and agreed that it reflected local policies, as well as the National Design Guide. The minister permitted the application. bit.ly/planner0422-wemb

LOCATION Wembley, London AUTHORITY Brent Borough Council INSPECTOR Tom­Gilbert Wooldridge PROCEDURE Called in appeal DECISION Allowed REFERENCE APP/ T5150/V/21/3275339

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE to our appeals digest:

https://subs.theplanner. g co.uk/register

Public footpath bisecting garden does not mark curtilage limiting permitted development

Carport forms ann ‘unsympathetic addition’ to conservation area

A homeowner can site a ca caravan and beehives beyond a public footpath across his garden ga because the path does not n mark the curtilage of the property, an inspector has ruled. bit.ly/planner0422-footpath b

A carport in Owston, Doncaster, has been retrospectively dismissed smissed at appeal after an inspector deemed d it incongruous with the surrounding conservation ervation area. bit.ly/planner0422-carport 22-carport p

Large housing development allowed on land allocated for employment

Kent golf course redevelopment refused for harming ming natural beauty

A large housing development in Shaftesbury has been approved at appeal after the appellant succeeded in convincing an inspector that the development would provide significant employment. bit.ly/planner0422-shaftesbury

A hybrid application for a major redevelopment of a golf course and a relief road in Kent has been refused after an inspector ruled that its benefits did not p outweigh the harm to an AONB. bit.ly/planner0422-golf nner0422-golf g f

Plans for WWII photographic factory ‘incompatible’ with setting The planned conversion of a former photographic factory into 15 residential units has been rejected at appeal. Plans for the site, at the historic RAF Wyton, Cambridgeshire, were rejected owing to concerns for the area’s unique character and appearance. bit.ly/planner0422-photo

Dumfries and Galloway wind farm approved on landscape grounds Planning permission has been granted for a wind farm comprising 10 turbines of up to 180 metres high on a hill in Dumfries and Galloway after a reporter found that its landscape and visual impact would be tightly contained. bit.ly/planner0422-dumfries

Wiltshire market town scheme approved despite spatial conflict An outline application for 67 homes on the edge of a Wiltshire market town has been approved after an inspector ruled that its benefits outweighed any conflict with the council’s spatial strategy. bit.ly/planner0422-westbury

IInspector t rues ffailure il tto prove windfall site is not contaminated

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A major mixed-use scheme in Sevenoaks has been rejected after an inspector attacked the af proposal for fundamentally harming green belt policy. bit.ly/planner0422-green

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Plans for 18 entry-level homes on the edge of an East Sussex village have been rejected after an inspector said the windfall site could be hazardous or contaminated bit.ly/planner0422windfall

S Sevenoaks mixed­use scheme la lambasted for green belt harm

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LANDSCAPE

LLegal landscape OPINION

Horse Hill appeal decision means end-use emissions count in EIAs The Court of Appeal has ruled that Surrey County Council acted lawfully in discounting enduse emissions when assessing an oil well proposal. However, as Katie de Kauwe explains, the judgment means such emissions can be considered in future Planning and the environment, including consideration of climate impacts, should be inextricably linked: what development, and where, should always be decided in the context of the environmental impacts and possible harm of any development, of any size.

There is a democracy to our planning system: communities have a right to influence what happens in their area. This is why the split ruling handed down last month by appeal court judges over the lawfulness of Surrey County Council’s (SCC) oil production decision offers more hope than might be immediately obvious.

The case was brought by campaigner Sarah Finch on behalf of the Weald Action Group, with Friends of the Earth as the legal intervener.

Finch appealed against Surrey County Council’s permission for an oil development at Horse Hill that would extract more than three million tonnes of oil over 20 years.

The Court of Appeal’s majority judgment is an improvement in climate terms from that of the High Court. The latter had ruled that, as a matter of law, the

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end-use emissions. And greenhouse gas emissions helpfully, for those resisting from the burning of the fossil fuel developments, oil (when it’s ultimately they concluded that it used) could not be indirect is scientifically possible effects of the development to calculate them, and under the Environmental that there are established Impact Assessment (EIA) methodologies for this.

Regulations.

Friends of the Earth The Court of Appeal has estimates that the end-use rowed back from this hardemissions from line position. this oil project It has ruled “THE REALITY could amount that what is, IS THAT MOST to more than 10 and is not, EMISSIONS ARISE million tonnes of an indirect NOT FROM DIGGING CO2 equivalent. effect of a FOSSIL FUELS Finch is development OUT OF THE considering for the GROUND… BUT FROM appealing to the purpose of Supreme Court.

EIA is a matter THEIR ACTUAL USE” For now, the for the local Court of Appeal’s planning judgment authority to makes clear decide. SCC’s that the ball is in local decision that the end-use planning authorities’ courts emissions were not indirect to decide whether they effects was, according to will insist on the inclusion the majority ruling, lawful of end-use emissions in and rational. The dissenting EIA for proposed fossil judgment from Lord Justice fuel developments. Several Moylan did not agree. councils across the country Importantly though, the have declared climate majority ruling in the Court emergencies. In light of this of Appeal was not that SCC’s judgment, they should now hands were tied on this issue. show that this commitment They did not find that SCC’s means something. conclusion was the only The reality is that most lawful conclusion that SCC emissions arise not from could have come to. digging fossil fuels out The judgment referred of the ground (which are to the inevitability of these

direct effects of these developments), but from their actual use. Friends of the Earth is a main party resisting the proposed We estimate that the end-use emissions from Whitehaven coal mine could amount to 194 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The developer, West Cumbria Mining Ltd (WCM), has so far declined to quantify them at all, in part relying on the Horse Hill High Court judgment.

But the law has now changed, so we will invite the planning inspector to require WCM to do this assessment.

Fossil fuel companies must take responsibility for their end-use emissions.

Katie de Kauwe is a solicitor with Friends of the Earth

In brief An appeal against an oil well decision turned on whether end-use emissions were lawfully discounted in an EIA The ruling found they were; but also that local planning authorities can count end-use emissions Since end-use emissions are the bulk of emissions from fossil-fuel extraction,

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EVENTS

CASES

LEGISLATION

NEWS

ANALYSIS

NEWS

Campaigners granted permissions to challenge inadequate climate strategies The High Court has granted a judicial review that will examine the UK Government’s climate strategies. Its follows Friends of the Earth’s challenge to the government’s Net Zero Strategy (NZS) and its Heat and Buildings Strategy, both published last October. The group’s contention is that the NZS does not comply with the Climate Change Act 2008. It believes the strategy has not quantified how its policies will be achieved and by when, as well as it being entirely theoretical – both of which make it unlawful. In its current guise, Parliament and the public cannot hold the government to account regarding the country’s transition to a low-carbon future, insists the campaigning body.

The court will also consider whether or not the government’s Heat and Buildings Strategy failed to take into account the impacts of its policies on protected groups. This includes race, age, gender and disability, which can make people more vulnerable to the effects of the changing climate.

Katie de Kauwe, a lawyer at Friends of the Earth, said: “The judge agrees that our case has a realistic chance of success and merits investigation at a full hearing.

“We hope to prove just how woefully inadequate the government’s Net Zero Strategy is, the policy framework that is supposed to be the UK’s roadmap to a safer, greener future. We believe the government has breached the Climate Change Act 2008, a vital piece of legislation that Friends of the Earth was pivotal in bringing into law. We will now get to work on preparing our case, and look forward to our day in court.”

Legal proceedings launched over Islandmagee gas project No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland have launched proceedings against a decision to grant a marine licence for the Islandmagee gas storage project under Larne Lough.

The licence was granted to Islandmagee Energy Limited, a subsidiary of Harland & Wolff. The Environmental Consent Decision, Full Marine Licence, Abstraction Licence and Discharge Consent was granted in October by the Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs.

The project is a salt cavern gas storage facility in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Islandmagee peninsula is the site of Northern Ireland’s main gas-fired power station at Ballylumford – the strategic electrical interconnection point to Great Britain and the terminating point of the existing Scotland-Northern Ireland gas pipeline – which Harland & Wolff claims makes the site ideal for a project of this type.

The facility would comprise seven underground caverns storing about 500 million cubic metres of gas in Permian salt beds. It is expected to provide more than 25 per cent of the UK’s current natural gas storage capacity. Harland & Wolff states that this is the “most environmentally friendly, safe and efficient method of storing large volumes of gas”.

But No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland say the scheme would have a “significant detrimental impact on the local environment and sea life, as well as undermining efforts to counter the climate crisis”. They maintain that the hypersaline salt solution created by the excavation process would be discharged into the sea near Islandmagee, resulting in a “dead zone” where marine life could not survive. They say that 11 Northern Ireland Priority Species protected under legislation, “are found within 100 metres of the discharge point”.

No Gas Caverns and Friends of the Earth NI have filed an application requesting a judicial review with the High Court in Belfast. The challenge relates to several issues, including that the decision is based on inadequate environmental information.

LEGAL BRIEFS Community group wins right to challenge 91-home plan A community group has been granted permission by the High Court to challenge planning permission for 91 homes on the outskirts of Clane, in Kildare. Clane Community Council says the project will contribute to “significant overdevelopment”. bit.ly/planner0422-Clane

Supreme Court to hear appeal in ‘drop in’ dispute Local Government Lawyer reports that the question will be: Where there are successive planning permissions relating to the same site, and the later permission(s) is/are for focused localised changes to a wider development approved in the original planning permission, how much of the original permission becomes unimplementable? bit.ly/planner0322-DropIn

‘Grasping the nettle’ – the role of previous inconsistent decisions To what extent does a planning decisionmaker have to have regard to previous decisions about the same or similar development? When do you have to ‘grasp the nettle’ of any disagreement with such a decision? That’s the theme of this Cornerstone-fronted webinar. bit.ly/planner0322-Nettle

Landmark Chambers’ Planning Case Law in 2021 Re-Cap Matthew Dale-Harris and Matthew Fraser consider what they see as the most important planning law cases of 2021 in this hour-long video. bit.ly/planner0322-ReCap

Blarney Castle challenges hotel and supermarket development It wants the court to overturn An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant permission to develop an 80-bedroom hotel, licensed supermarket, commercial buildings, coffee shop and 70 residential units which would be situated just 200m from the attraction. bit.ly/planner0332-Blarney

Lewisham to face fresh judicial review challenge A High Court judge has ordered a rolledup hearing in a second judicial review challenge over Lewisham Council’s granting of planning permission for a redevelopment of part of the Sydenham Hill estate. bit.ly/planner0322-Sydenham

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NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

by Ashley Lampard at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

NEW HOUSING MINISTER

RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills meets new housing minister RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills met new housing minister Stuart Andrew and chief planner Joanna Averley at Westminster in February to discuss the importance of planning.

The meeting followed a letter written to the minister earlier in the month in a continued commitment to strengthening the common ground between town planners and the government.

“The RTPI worked closely with the minister’s predecessor, Christopher

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Pincher, always aiming to be a helpful, expert source of solutions,” said Hills.

“I look forward to continuing this relationship to demonstrate how planners bridge the gap between ambitions to level up and real projects that provide homes, encourage inward investment,

and support communities.

“We will strive to work with Mr Andrew as we have with Mr Pincher to utilise the full power of the planning system to support policy goals. Together, the government and planners can work collaboratively for people, the economy, and society.”

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Editorial E: rtpinews@rtpi.org.uk

RTPI (switchboard) T: 020 7929 9494

Registered charity no.

262865 Registered charity in Scotland SCO37841

GOVERNANCE

Members say ‘yes’ to key governance changes In a strong show of support, 95% of RTPI members who voted in the RTPI’s governance change ballot did so in favour of the institute’s proposals.

The ballot was conducted with regard to a series of important changes to its governance structure including a reduction in the size of the Board of Trustees, a recalibration of the General Assembly and a series of changes to the institute’s by-laws and regulations.

“I am delighted that members have given their strong backing to these important changes to our governance structure and regulations,” said RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills. “These changes will give both the board and the General Assembly a renewed focus

on the major issues that affect the profession.”

The changes will bring the institute into line with current best practice guidelines issued by the Charity Commission, increasing transparency, accountability and good governance. The ballot followed an independent review by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and a lengthy consultation process with members.

“The changes are designed to create a leaner and more efficient governance structure as well as reducing barriers

to entry for members looking to get involved in governance roles. This is part of our commitment to good governance and to being an institute that is both robust and flexible in facing challenges today and into the future,” said Hills.

RTPI NI tells planners to ‘hold their nerve’ on audit office reports Early in February 2022, the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) and Northern Ireland Audit Office released reports on the performance of Northern Ireland’s planning system, reflecting on changes introduced in 2015.

Although the findings made for a difficult read, RTPI NI welcomed the reports, which could provide directions for actions to improve the system in the province.

The audit office’s highly critical report must be seen as the next step in the journey in establishing Northern Ireland’s planning

system. Those working in the planning service work hard and give their best efforts. It is important to reflect on the findings not as personal targets, but instead in relation to the whole system and how planners operate within it.

The report offers lessons of improvement for everyone who works in planning – from the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), statutory consultees, local authorities to proposers of development and their agents.

The 2015 changes to both the planning system and local government in Northern Ireland were substantial but offered real benefits to

deliver outcomes that are responsive to local needs.

There is good planning work taking place in Northern Ireland, delivering good outcomes for communities, and the RTPI NI believes that this must not be disregarded. The DFI report highlights helpful amendments to legislation.

The RTPI NI is digesting the findings and recommendations of the reports and is preparing how to work collaboratively with its members, stakeholders and other built environment professionals.

Its goal is to ensure the opportunity offered by these reports is seized upon to build on the planning system in Northern Ireland.

I M AG E S | RT P I / I S T O C K / S H U T T E R S T O C K

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NEWS

YOUNG PLANNERS

Young planners uniting for Change Ryan Walker, Young Planner of the Year 2021, has been inspiring the next generation of planners during his time in the role. Here, he writes about his commitments to the industry I set out my term as Young Planner of the Year with the aim of raising the profile of Planning and of Young Planners in particular. I was keen to ensure that, as a profession, we confidently cast our net farther and wider than ever before as we push our outreach, engage with new audiences and inspire future planners.

To achieve this, I developed three commitments to make practical and positive progress towards that aim.

In January 2020 the RTPI published its new 10-year Corporate Strategy with ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity’ one of four key integrated pillars.

Committed to translating policy into practice, the RTPI then developed a more detailed action plan, entitled ‘CHANGE’, to help accelerate the transformation and build a more diverse institute and profession.

As a keen advocate for a more inclusive, accessible and welcoming profession, I was determined to reflect the values and commitments of CHANGE in my work.

On being awarded ‘RTPI Young Planner of the Year for 2021’, I set out three key commitments that I wanted to see delivered during my term. Enabling this, I set a collective challenge to all Young Planners spanning the length and breadth of the RTPI’s Regions and Nations: n Commitment 1: Each Young Planner Committee will actively support the recently appointed EDI manager and look at how we can embed EDI into the work of each of our committees. In particular to ensure events, communication, and the composition of our committees are inclusive. n Commitment 2: Each Young Planner Committee commits to hosting one

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college or school engagement session.

This is to supplement, not replace, any existing university careers event. The aim is to highlight the profession as an exciting and attractive option for students of all backgrounds, placing the profession on every radar as a potential career option from an early stage. cCommitment 3: Each Young Planner Committee commits to hosting one event with another professional body or community group to demonstrate that we as planners are a collaborative and outward-facing profession, always seeking to create positive synergies for improved outcomes.

The chairs of the Young Planners Network met in November 2021 to discuss these proposals and unanimously agreed to support the three commitments.

Now the Young Planners, with the help of the RTPI, are creating waves of change that will ripple across the UK. This is the first time that collective action has been taken by Young Planners regarding a direct campaign for greater equality, diversity and inclusivity. Young Planners have carved out their own

route, spoken as one voice, and responded to this area of great concern. Young Planners have made a bold commitment and are determined to help the RTPI in its long-held goal of generating change in the profession.

Each Young Planner committee will now work on implementing the three commitments in their respective region and nation during 2022. Positive progress has begun, and the Young Planners, with the help of the RTPI, are creating waves of change that will ripple across the UK. With a greater diversity of voices invited to the table, the more enriched and reflective conversations we will have. I truly believe that this approach and these commitments will lead to better outcomes for people, places and the planet. n The RTPI encourages all young planners to apply for this year’s RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence – Young Planner of the Year. Entries are open until 11 March

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WORLD TOWN PLANNING DAY

I M AG E S | RT P I

Imaginative design and ingenious puns at RTPI’s World Town Planning Day schools’ competition This year’s annual World Town Planning Day schools competition asked pupils to imagine that they are the keynote speaker at a UN Climate Change (COP) conference being held in the UK in 2031. As town planners in this theoretical conference, they would have come up with an idea for a new sustainable community near where they lived. They would then have to share this idea with the conference delegates.

“It was heartening to see the awards offered a fantastic variety of inspiring entries and planning proposals directly addressing this issue,” said Andrew Close, RTPI director of education and profession. “We can’t wait to see what World Town Planning Day this year will bring.”

For the competition, designed to inspire pupils aged 12-15 across the UK, the students were asked to create a visual presentation of their plan for a sustainable community, which included everything they felt a community needed to thrive. The RTPI received hundreds of entries from 41 secondary schools, which our competition partner, The Education Company, whittled down to a shortlist of 21 highly commended planning ideas. A volunteer judging panel of four RTPI members collectively chose the following winners: n The winning entry was from Lexie Byatt of Broughton Hall Catholic High School, with an outstanding submission of “My Perfect Eco-friendly Community (Eco-Amo)” n Second Place and Joint Best Community name: Fernhill School, “Atten-Borough” n Third Place: Goffs-Churchgate Academy, “The Endeavor Community” n Fourth Place: Wymondham High Academy, “Ecoville” n Joint Best Community Name: Court Moor School, “Port Viridi”.

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

The RTPI Awards for Research Excellence 2022 are open for entries Now in their eighth year, the RTPI Awards for Research Excellence continue to recognise and promote high-quality, impactful spatial planning research carried out by Chartered Members and accredited planning schools from around the world.

Submissions are invited into these four categories: n The Sir Peter Hall Award for Research Excellence n The Student Award n The Early Career Researcher Award n The Planning Practitioner Award The winners will be announced at a ceremony that is due to take place during the UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference on 5 September at the University of Manchester. n For more information and details of how to enter, visit bit.ly/planner0422-research

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To a dve r ti s e pl e as e e ma i l : t he pl a n n e r j ob s@ re da ct i ve . co . uk or ca l l 0 2 0 7 880 6232

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Planners and Senior Planners Salary: Competitive Location : Cheltenham, Gloucestershire/¸exible working

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Recruitment {

RECRUITMENT ADVERTISEMENTS To advertise please email: theplannerjobs@redactive.co.uk or call 020 7880 6232

CAREERS AT RPS As one of the largest planning consultancies in the UK, we have deep expertise throughout the entire planning life cycle.

We’re looking for people who will underpin our outstanding reputation for delivering only the very best and where you’ll be empowered with autonomy, encouraged to innovate and build a career that means something to you.

Could you help us deliver exceptional results?

Search for opportunities at: rpsgroup.com/careers

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Reach out to our audience of membership professionals The Planner job board offers you an opportunity to attract the attention of a guaranteed, dedicated audience of membership professionals, and reassure them that you are still looking to recruit.

Whether you have vacancies now, or will be looking to recruit at a later time, remind our readers what sets your organisation apart,and let them know your plans.

You might also consider advertising in The Planner magazine, and ensure you are seen by the profession’s top-calibre candidates and kept at the forefront of their minds.

Show them that you are here, your brand is strong, and your organisation needs them.

For more information and rates, contact us now on: T: 020 7880 6232 E: jobs@theplanner.co.uk S ea rc h t h ep l a nn e r.co .u k / j o b fo r t h e b e s t v a c anci e s

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Activities

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CONTENT THAT'S WORTH CHECKING OUT

A digest of planning-related material. Each month our work takes us around the internet in search of additional detail for our stories, meaning we invariably come across links to items we think you’ll find educational, entertaining, useful or simply amusing. Here’s our latest batch.

What’s caught our eye ‘Why We Need to Plan the World’

‘Urban planners aim to eliminate slums— with a mathematical approach’ Interesting Science Magazine video explaining how researchers are testing a tool based on a “topological view” of cities and slums to improve the design of growing urban areas. Algorithms use satellite data and local maps to work out which areas are least accessible by road, with an app that designers hope will give locals a say in decisions. bit.ly/planner0422-links

This face-to-face and webcast event, considering how planners are making a difference across the globe, was organised during COP26 by the RTPI in partnership with the Global Planners Network, Commonwealth Association of Planners and the International Society of City and Regional Planners. Maimunah Mohd Sharif (pictured, executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, was among the participants. bit.ly/planner0422-sharif

Moving from regulation and conflict toward collaboration and creativity in urban planning Tim Hagyard of East Herts Council gives a 45-minute presentation about urban design in local government. How did we get to where we are, how are we doing now and how do we deliver iver the vision? Strong local leadership is seen as critical to urban design, but how can this be achieved? Local authorities can do well by the public through their use of urban design methods and resources, ces, Hagyard maintains. bit.ly/planner0422-urban

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Transport for the North (TfN) Northern Evidence Academic Forum February’s quarterly meeting of the Northern Evidence Academic Forum drew together g decision-makers rs and academics whose research can inform transport rt projects, providing ing a collaborative space to aid infrastructure planning based on evidence. The focus was on how spaces can be best managed and developed to meet the needs of the economy, environment and local communities. bit.ly/planner0422-tfn

Google's plan for producing smart buildings at scale James Dice interviews IT folk in his series about the potential for smart city ecosystems and the combined use of building science with h data science. This episode considers Google’s plans in this area. Expect to hear a discussion centred around analytics, data a modelling and the issue of supervisory control. bit.ly/planner0422-google

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LANDSCAPE

Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain This is described as ‘an enthralling journey around the Britain we have created since 1980: the horrors and delights, the triumphs and failures.

From space-age tower blocks to suburban business parks, and from postmodernist exuberance to Passivhaus

Days of the New Town: A research blog about Warrington's New Town history In interviewing Gordon ChapmanCox for this issue, we were informed of this exhibition of photographs which “recall the years Padgate and its surroundings changed forever as they became New Town expansion areas from the early 1970s onward under the stewardship of Warrington and Runcorn New Town Development Corporation”.

It’s an extraordinary, unique social and architectural history – in Padgate Library, Insall Road, Warrington. bit.ly/planner0422-padgate

Podcast: Streets Ahead

eco-efficiency.’

Wimpey homes, Millennium monuments, riverside flats, wind farms, spectacular skyscrapers, city centre apartments, out of town malls – they’re all covered in this book.

ISBN-10: 0571348130

Adam Tranter, Laura Laker and Ned Boulting produce this lively series considering all aspects of post car-centric travel, from liveable streets through to low-traffic neighbourhoods and more. Each episode discusses the “news and views in the fastpaced world of active travel, cycling, walking and urban planning in a jargon-free safe space”.

The Planner’s Women of Influence List 2022 It’s that time again! Who are the women working in and around planning who have had an impact over the past year - a year of much discussion about levelling up, continued concern about health, inequality and the built environment, and an intense concentration on the climate crisis, culminating with COP26 in Glasgow? Well, here they are – our Women of Influence for 2022. bit.ly/ThePlannerWoI2022

What we’re planning Is it nearly May already? Get the suncream out! The next few months will see us covering Scotland’s new space race; biodiversity net gain; the very topical issue of planning and displacement and the true heritage of new towns. And plenty more, of course.

Enjoy the spring!

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If undelivered please return to: The Royal Town Planning Institute 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

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