The Planner - November 2021

NOVEMBER 2021 NORTHERN IRELAND PLANNER LIVE // p.4 • 20 MINUTE NEIGHBOURHOODS // p.22 • DATA LED DECISION MAKING AND PLANNING’S ROLE IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS // p.28 • CASE STUDY: AURORA PLANNING // p.32 • SCOTLAND’S PAN 1/2020 // p.42

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

RYAN WALKER UNVEILS HIS VISION FOR THE RTPI’S YOUNG PLANNERS

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CONTENTS

NO VEMBER

07 NEWS 4 RTPI Northern Ireland Planner Live: Mallon committed to a digital planning system 7 Gove takes on levellingup portfolio 8 Planning and historic environment law set to be simplified 9 Irish planning legislation review gets under way 10 Study suggests housebuilders are not land banking 11 Newsmakers: 10 top stories appearing now on The Planner online

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14 Louise BrookeSmith: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…

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16 Jane Tennant: Two birds, one stone – but will it hit the targets?

16 Emmeline Brooks: Wales is giving planners the tools to address the climate crisis

17 Abb Abbie ie Miladinovic: Young planners p must be equipped equip p for task of reaching reach h a net-zero world

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“AGGREGATING NUMBERS OF OUTSTANDING PERMISSIONS MISSES THE ‘STORY’ BEHIND EVERY SITE THAT COMES FORWARD FOR DEVELOPMENT.” ANDREW WHITAKER, PLANNING DIRECTOR AT THE HOME BUILDERS FEDERATION ON A NEWLY PUBLISHED SURVEY WHICH SUGGESTS THAT LAND BANKING WOULD BE COMPLEX TO TAX AND WOULD IN FACT RAISE LITTLE MONEY

C O V E R I L L U S T R AT I O N | A L E X W I L L I A M S O N

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“I WOULD LIKE TO INCREASE THE COLLECTIVE VOICE OF YOUNG PLANNERS. WE HAVE SOME REALLY IMPORTANT AND VALUABLE THINGS TO SAY”

OPINION

17 Chloe McDonnell: Hydrogen should be factored into addressing climate change in NI

QUOTE UNQUOTE

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FEATURES

INSIGHT

18 RTPI Young Planner of the Year Ryan Walker tells Lisa Proudfoot why planning should highlight inclusivity

38 Cases & decisions: Development decisions, round-up and analysis 42 Legal Landscape: Opinions from the legal side of planning

22 Rhiannon Moylan reflects on the increasing traction of the 20-minute neighbourhood concept 28 Data-led decisionmaking will allow planners to tackle the climate crisis, says Sean Kelly 32 Case study: The Aurora Planning duo, winners of the Small Planning Consultancy of the Year, talk about thinking big

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44 RTPI round-up: News and interviews from the institute

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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 { RTPI NORTHERN IRELAND PLANNER LIVE

Mallon committed to a digital planning system

By Laura Edgar and Simon Wicks

Session: Political address, Nichola Mallon, MLA Northern Ireland’s infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon set out her commitment to the digitisation of the planning system and implementing a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic in a recorded message.

“My department has significantly invested, along with local councils, in the replacement of the current portal system with a new, more modern planning IT system.

“I am excited that central and local government are working collaboratively to deliver this innovative project that will put online and paperless submissions

at the heart of the planning process in the future.”

The new system will deliver a “more efficient and user-friendly system” that is better for the environment as well as making it easier for customers to submit planning applications, she explained.

“When the system goes live next year it will create a step change in how planning applications are submitted and processed across Northern Ireland.”

High streets The Department for Infrastructure’s strategic planning policy statement, which sets out the planning priorities and principles that are “fundamental to the achievement of sustainable development”, is central to Mallon’s drive to implement a green recovery from Covid-19.

Noting the economic and social challenges posed to town and city centres, Mallon said her department’s broad range of functions will help her to make sure that the strategic planning policy statement plays a “proactive role in shaping high streets and town centres”.

Read the full story: bit.ly/ planner1121-MallonNILive

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Mainstreaming climate change Session: Plenary 1 – Practical Climate Action for Planners How can planners take climate action? – moving beyond the rhetoric Speakers: Professor Alister Scott, professor of environmental geography, Northumbria University Tom Evans, placemaking and strategic planning manager, City & County of Swansea Steve Smith, placemaking and heritage lead officer, City & County of Swansea Roisin Willmott, director of RTPI NI and RTPI Cymru Chaired by Gemma Jobling, RTPI NI chair

Climate change, explained Professor Alister Scott, is an environmental concept that “needs to be normalised in the day-to-day actions of other policy domains”.

Policy is often developed in isolation. Instead, “we need to engage with the key stakeholders across the built environment, getting them in the room around the table... We must move away from working in climate change silos. We need to design policies that mainstream nature”.

Tom Evans noted that placemaking is “firmly embedded in the national development plan” in Wales and is the thematic core of the Swansea local development plan.

“Taking the placemaking approach requires us to have a renewed focus on outcomes, both in terms of the decisions that we’re making on all these planning frameworks, and also the decisions on the planning applications that come forward.”

Steve Smith spoke about what Swansea is doing for buildings. “It’s difficult for local authorities to set individual carbon standards, individual sustainable standards for buildings.” In Swansea, local government and the public sector are “acting as pioneers” around sustainable houses, “in order to test, prove and refine the concept to mainstream it for the private sector”.

Roisin Willmott highlighted that climate action is prominent in the Department for Infrastructure’s strategic planning policy statement, which states that shaping new and existing developments in ways that reduce greenhouse gas emissions can positively build community resilience to climate change effects.

So it is there in Northern Ireland, but it needs to be operationalised: something for which local authorities will be key.

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PLAN UPFRONT

Redesigning transport for the ‘phygital’ world Session: Plenary 2 – Sustainable infrastructure planning Planners taking responsibility for delivering sustainable transport options – leading the shift Speakers: Mike Axon, managing director, Vectos Sarah Mulholland, solicitor in TLT’s planning, environment and clean energy team in Belfast Garth McGimpsey, project manager, RES Chair: Andrew Ryan, partner in TLT’s planning, environment and clean energy team in Belfast Transport planning has shifted from “predict and provide” to “vision and validate”, explained Mike Axon. Designing for people and their needs, rather than cars specifically, this focuses on accessibility and active travel infrastructure, with “roads alongside this network if necessary”.

For digitally native, climate-conscious

millennials, transport is now “the third question after ‘Can I do it online?’ and ‘Can I do it online with deliveries?’”. As mobility becomes ‘phygital’, we should “expect rapid societal changes”.

“Planners have a massively important role to play in meeting climate change…

They will need to take the lead,” he said.

Electric vehicles have a big part to play in decarbonising transport, observed Sarah Mulholland. But, with only 4,000 EVs, Northern Ireland is poorly positioned to meet the UK Government’s 2030 target of ending sales of petrol vehicles. Potential EV drivers are in a catch-22: they won’t buy without infrastructure; firms won’t invest in infrastructure if EV sales are low.

Besides, Northern Ireland doesn’t have the grid capacity yet, no thanks to delays in the planned North-South interconnector. The

Northern Ireland Assembly isn’t helping matters, with two climate change bills currently in circulation, each with different climate targets.

Garth McGimspey stressed that government targets should be sufficiently clear to encourage firms to invest in Northern Ireland’s future energy network.

This means signalling engagement with the transition to a new energy system incorporating storage and renewables.

“These projects are years in the making and that’s why targets provide an important framework and are embedded in policy at a local level.” But there is as yet no best practice guidance for planners faced with “novel” schemes.

“Government needs to recognise the extent of the challenge and allocate resources to allow the planning system to function efficiently,” he concluded.

Creating FOMO Session: Plenary 3 – Creating sustainable neighbourhoods Who are we planning for?

What are the components for a sustainable neighbourhood? What can we learn from the pandemic?

Speakers: Giulia Vallone, senior architect, Capital Projects Implementation Unit, Cork County Council Trovine Monterio, built environment manager, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Chaired by Mura Quigley, associate director at Urban Scale Interventions

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Giulia Vallone, who hails from Sicily, compared her home nation’s close proximity to community with the loss of it in Ireland. She asked: “How do we sell to new, young married couples the dream of living above the shop, rather than a semi-detached house with two parking spaces and a garden?”

Of course, she continued, “individualism in this case is the enemy of urbanism, and the manifestation of this individualism is one car, one person, so how do we create FOMO – the fear of missing out – for those suburbanists.”

Advocating for the 15-minute neighbourhood, she set out the work undergone in Clonakilty,

“INDIVIDUALISM IN THIS CASE IS THE ENEMY OF URBANISM, AND THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS INDIVIDUALISM IS ONE CAR, ONE PERSON” – GIULIA VALLONE where the streetscape has been thought of in how many tables can fit on a street for events rather than the number of cars.

Have a plan, she said, and “make sure that through any investment there is a delivery of placemaking, a sense

of neighbourhood”.

Trovine Monterio spoke about the 2020 RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence Silver Jubilee Cup winner Marmalade Lane. The co-housing scheme, at North Cambridge’s Orchard Park development, was created

by Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service and development company TOWN. Residents share a ‘common house’ and shared garden, and are active in community life and engaged in their local area.

Describing the scheme, Monterio emphasised the importance of taking the community with you, right from the start of the process, on all aspects of a project.

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NEWS

Report { Countering the ‘slow burn’ of Brexit Session: Plenary 4 – The spatial implications for business following Brexit What are the issues following Brexit which planning can address and how can it do this – what’s the plan?

Speakers: Marie Ward, chief executive of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Dr Neale Blair MRTPI, associate head of the Belfast School of Architecture and Built Environment Chaired by Andrew Ryan, partner in TLT’s Planning, Environment and Clean Energy Team A key development of the past 20 years on the island of Ireland has been the idea of a cross-border ‘economic corridor’ linking Belfast with Dublin, noted Dr Neale Blair.

Two million people inhabit this belt, its population is relatively young and diverse and business start-up rates are high. It’s an area with great economic potential, where spatial planning can support growth in sectors as varied as financial services and agri-food.

However, two planning systems and eight local development plans in the corridor complicate matters; now Brexit more

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so. It is having a “chilling effect on cross-border flows of trade, people and capital”, Blair told conference delegates.

Could the corridor survive Brexit? Blair offered a qualified yes.

“Part of the positive answer is embedded not just in what is happening today but the history that exists of 20-plus years of a European influence on local and regional planning.

“We’re at a different starting point than previously. There’s an understanding that spatial planning approaches – visioning, collaboration – can yield benefits.”

Newry, Mourne and Down district provides a case in point, Marie Ward explained. Cross-border collaboration has long been the norm in this border district and it has a memorandum of understanding with its Irish neighbour County Louth.

A “gateway to Ireland, to the European Union and to international markets”, it’s a prime investment location that cannot allow Brexit to inhibit its plans for economic growth.

Planning has a critical role in creating the conditions for this to happen, through development plans that reflect the needs of businesses.

A new conversation about tech Session: Plenary 5 – What are the tech answers?

Does the tech revolution have the answers for addressing the big issues we face? Can it help deliver a more efficient and robust planning service?

Speakers: Clare Daniel, chair of Plantech Planning Institute of Australia Piers Mulroney, strategic planning and policy manager, VU.CITY Michael Batty, Bartlett professor of planning at UCL Chaired by Ryan Walker, RTPI Young Planner of the Year “We haven’t seen the extent of digital transformation that we’ve seen in other industries,” observed Clare Daniel.

“But we have seen significant investment in governments worldwide to improve delivery of government services, and planning is now on the agenda.”

Yet the direction of built environment tech does not necessarily “speak to the long-term outlook of planning”.

In 2019, planners in Sydney decided that “a new conversation was needed”, Daniel said. “We wanted to start with what planners actually do and link that to these new digital capabilities.”

Their 10 ‘digital principles’, “PLANTECH COULD adopted by the Planning Institute of Australia, put BE EXTENDED planners at the heart of INTO LOCAL design for digital planning AUTHORITIES IN infrastructure, while stressing LOCAL PLANS” – openness and transparency.

MICHAEL BATTY The role of planners in digital transformation “requires us to consider how our core values are integrated into these systems.”

Piers Mulroney suggested that ‘digital twins’ of towns and cities can improve planning decision-making by illustrating realistically how new development will look.

The kind of “interactive video game technology” being used by VU.CITY can “help people understand what is happening” in their cities.

Michael Batty said tech provides “no answers, only questions”. But, he noted, “that does not mean we can’t use tech to make better plans”. In an era of “platform economies and continual transformation of organisations by software”, the digital tools most likely to influence planning are those that visualise data, facilitate engagement and advance automation.

He cautioned: “One of the things that’s really missing is thinking about using digital tech in the actual preparation of plans... Plantech could be extended into local authorities in local plans in some way.”

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NEWS

Analysis {

Gove takes on levelling-up portfolio

By Laura Edgar Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle in September saw Robert Jenrick sacked as housing secretary and replaced with Michael Gove.

Soon after, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) became the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), reinforcing the government’s commitment to level up the UK. Just before the reshuffle, media reports suggested that elements of the government’s planning reforms, published in August 2020, could be dropped. Some proposals have been criticised by Conservative MPs and voters in the south of England.

The Times and others have reported that the government is likely to drop its proposals for a zonal system, as well as mandatory local housing targets.

Community opportunities for engaging with planning applications would be cut under the reforms.

A pause – and a reset?

What does the appointment of Gove mean for the planning reforms and what should his priority be? In his previous ministerial roles, including as environment secretary, he developed a reputation as “an effective reforming I M AG E | G E T T Y

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economic and environmental considerations being better integrated”.

Matthew Spry, senior director at Lichfields, says only the infrastructure levy “remained in terms of radical change”. A pause will allow a “reset” but it is “difficult to imagine hearing the outcome this side of Christmas”.

He believes there are two routes for the government; either “remodelling” the proposals back towards the original vision of the white paper to push it through as part of a wider levelling-up package, or a more targeted legislative reform that focuses on the infrastructure levy.

If Gove keeps the ‘zonal’ approach, Kite says it is “urgent that the ‘rules’ that will apply to each of the three zones are properly thought through and consulted upon”. If however, he “is not minded to ‘polish’ his predecessor’s proposal and instead seeks to go back to the drawing board, then his priorities may vary considerably, but I would imagine they should start by looking at the evidence for what is working well, and what is not”.

minister”, says Nicola Gooch, partner at Irwin Mitchell LLP. “Given the current political climate, it would not be unreasonable to expect his time at DLUHC to follow suit.”

Noting the unpopularity of parts of the planning white paper and the department’s expanded remit, Gooch “would not be surprised” if major reform was “put on the back-burner for a while”.

Timetable would ‘inspire confidence’ This would give Gove “time to find a way Ian Harvey, director at Civic Voice to balance” the government's desire to told The Planner Gove should clarify increase housebuilding with the views of whether planning reform is happening its backbenches. or not. “Local planning Ben Kite, managing authorities, developers, director at EPR says “It will housebuilders and the be a difficult balancing act, “LOCAL PLANNING wider sector all need the particularly given the need AUTHORITIES, confidence and certainty to ensure that any planning DEVELOPERS, changes also support HOUSEBUILDERS AND to be able to plan for the future.” If a bill is coming, both the department’s THE WIDER SECTOR Harvey says Gove needs levelling-up agenda and ALL NEED THE to “urgently” set out his the measures in the new CONFIDENCE AND timetable for it – while environment bill.”

CERTAINTY TO BE Spry feels the planning The ‘pause’ on planning ABLE TO PLAN FOR system needs fresh impetus. reforms might “herald THE FUTURE” – “Reviewing the NPPF is either a complete rethink IAN HARVEY all well and good but we’ve or just some minor tweaks seen how even the small to make the proposals more tweaks of paragraph 22 palatable to Tory MPs in the in July caused delays to a Home Counties”. number of plans that have Given that the 25set back housing delivery year environment in those areas.” plan was released while he was One priority should be running environment secretary, Gove “may a diagnostic for the system that have a better insight into the overlaps understands that the barriers to reaching between housing and environmental the government’s 300,000 homes-aconsiderations Xxxx xxxx in the planning system, xxx a desire not to frustrate year housing target and ‘levelling up’ and xxxxxxxxx perhaps also xxxxx “are geographically heterogeneous, and the objectives of his own environment demand spatially aware solutions”. strategy. We could therefore see

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NEWS

News { Planning and historic environment law set to be simplified

The Welsh Government has launched a new programme to simplify planning and historic environment law, part of a long-term project to create Codes of Welsh law.

A consolidation bill will bring together provisions from the “multiple, heavily amended” planning acts that currently set out the main framework, said the government.

This move would enable people using the planning system in Wales to refer to a single, fully bilingual act containing all the relevant law.

A consolidation bill that will form a coherent body of historic environment

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legislation for Wales is also promised.

“Owners of scheduled monuments or listed buildings currently face a complex challenge in understanding the relevant legislation, which has provisions that apply differently in England, Scotland and Wales.

“The consolidation bill will result in clear, distinct and modernised legislation for Wales,” insisted the administration.

The programme will also increase the accessibility of law through digital solutions, promised Mick Antoniw, counsel general and minister for constitution.

Sperrins gold mine plan heads off to inquiry Infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon has requested the Planning Appeals Commission to set up a public hearing for the contentious proposals to develop a gold mine in the Sperrin Mountains.

Canada-based Dalradian Gold wants approval for the scheme, earmarked for a site at Greencastle in County Tyrone.

The project has divided local communities and triggered thousands of objections on health and environmental grounds.

In June last year the minister announced that the project would be the subject of an independent public inquiry.

The minister said: “I am now satisfied that sufficient detail, consultee responses and representations have been provided to allow for robust scrutiny of the application in a public forum and that we should move as soon as practicable to the public inquiry phase in processing this application.

“I have therefore directed that my officials formally request a public inquiry to be held by the commission.”

Mallon said this would “consider a number of related applications including the gold mine minerals planning application and the two associated powerline applications”.

A legal challenge over the scheme was scheduled to be heard in the High Court in October..

The planning application for the mine was originally submitted to the Department for Infrastructure in November 2017.

The application was revised in 2019; the main changes included the relocation underground of the primary crusher building with an extended conveyor system, provision of new ore-sorting machinery, a modification of the haul route, removal of cyanide from any part of the processing of the ore and changes to extraction and processing quantities.

The amended proposal also results in the transport of concentrated material off-site for export rather than final on-site processing.

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PLAN UPFRONT

Irish planning legislation review gets under way The Irish Government has launched a “comprehensive” review of Ireland’s planning legislation in a bid to boost the delivery of its national housing strategy.

The cabinet has signed off the review, which will be overseen by Attorney General Paul Gallagher and a working group of professionals with planning law expertise. It is set to be completed by next September.

The review “will improve the government’s ability to implement major programmes, including the National Development Plan and Housing for All plan, as well as improve Ireland’s national competitiveness”, said a statement.

The government said planning

legislation had over time become unduly complicated and difficult to navigate and had contributed to significant delays and additional costs in the delivery of housing.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the country’s planning laws required “a complete overhaul” to deliver on the targets set out in the Housing For All strategy.

In a related development, IDA (Industrial Development Agency) Ireland has warned that the planning system and, in particular, the “protracted nature” of the judicial review process has become an area of “reputational risk to the state” and threatens international investment in the republic.

Highlands rewilding scheme launched An ambitious nature restoration project covering nearly 800 square miles of the Scottish Highlands, designed to help protect the landscape and wildlife, including the threatened Scottish wildcat, has launched.

The 30-year ‘rewilding’ project involves a network of landholdings covering an area of over 202,343 hectares stretching from Loch Ness across the central Highlands to Kintail in the west, and encompassing Glens Cannich, Affric,

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Moriston and Shiel.

The aim of the initiative, entitled Affric Highlands (whose emblem is the wildcat) is to restore habitat, woodland, moorland, and peatland in a scheme that also includes seeding plants, wildflowers, and tree planting. Organisers are also considering adding renewable energy projects to the mix.

The move follows three years of consultation between Rewilding Europe, Trees for Life, and other conservation groups.

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NEWS

News { Study suggests housebuilders are not land banking Of the units granted planning permission, either full or outline, between 3 per cent and 5 per cent might be expected to stall or lapse after five years, according to research.

The Land Promoters and Developers Federation and the Home Builders Federation commissioned the study – Tracking Progress – from planning consultancy Lichfields. The firm considered how the pipeline of sites for housing compares with what is needed to meet the government’s target to deliver 300,000 homes a year in England by the mid-2020s.

It analyses data from Central Bedfordshire, the London Borough of Wandsworth, Cheshire East, Colchester and Stratford-on-Avon to find out what happens to the planning permissions granted in a single base year over a five-year period.

Other than in Wandsworth, its says, outline permissions are a “significant” share of the homes granted permission in the base year, many of which comprise more than 500 homes. They account for more than half of homes permitted in three of the five authorities.

It is expected that with some outline permissions, in particular larger schemes, not all of the homes could be built within five years because with outline permissions work is still needed on detailed design and implementation matters.

Lichfields concludes that none of its analysis outside London indicates “any systemic failure in converting planning permissions to development”.

Read the full story: bit.ly/planner1121-landbankingstudy

Tough new flooding advice announced for Wales The Welsh Government has unveiled what it claims is the UK’s toughest guidance on development in areas prone to flooding and coastal erosion.

It has published a revised technical advice note (TAN 15) that makes it clear that new homes, emergency services, schools and hospitals must not be located in areas of high flood risk without strong defences.

If a local planning authority wishes to go against this advice, ministers will have to decide the application.

Climate change minister Julie James stressed that the new advice would be used by the government, local

planning authorities and developers to direct development away from areas at risk of tidal, fluvial and surface water flooding.

A new flood map published by Natural Resources Wales shows not only which areas are now at risk, but also those likely to be affected in future, plus existing flood defences.

Any local development plan under review and awaiting examination stage must also use the new TAN 15 and flood map after 1 December.

Read the full story: bit.ly/planner1121-TAN15

Councils see 45% jump in planning application loads 128,400 applications were submitted to district-level planning authorities in England seeking planning permission between April and June 2021.

This is an increase of 45 per cent when compared with the same quarter in 2020.

99,200 decisions were granted, up by 38 per cent compared with April to June 2020.

87 per cent of major applications were decided within 13 weeks or the agreed time, two percentage points less than in the same quarter in 2020.

9,600 residential applications were granted between April and June 2021, 5 per cent more than a year earlier.

2,000 commercial development applications were granted in April to June 2021.

351,700 decisions were granted in the year ending June 2021, 9 per cent more than the year ending June 2020.

Source: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

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CATCH UP WITH THE PLANNER

Newsmakers N 1 Major urban regeneration scheme mooted for west Dublin A public consultation process is under way over a large urban regeneration initiative earmarked for the western edge of Dublin city centre, which aims to provide 40,000 homes and 75,000 jobs. bit.ly/planner1121-westDublin

UK’s fossil fuel use increased since declaring climate emergency

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

An extra 800 million barrels of oil has been brought into production since the UK declared a climate emergency in 2019, according to Friends of the Earth Scotland. bit.ly/planner1121-fossilfuel

£144k penalty for homes let withoutt ion planning permission Brent landlord Orofena St John has been issued with a penalty for building a number of extensions and converting them into seven flats and two bedsits without planning permission. bit.ly/planner1121-144kpenalty

2 More action needed to reverse rse decline in biodiversity – but it can be done

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Outcomes for nature need to be integrated in development planss on land and at sea, according to a report published by the UK’s five e statutory nature organisations. bit.ly/planner1121-biodiversity

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Vale of Glamorgan Council agrees to quash business park consent The Vale of Glamorgan Council has agreed that its contentious planning permission for a 45-hectare business park near Cardiff Airport should be quashed. This follows receipt of a letter from a member of the public setting out proposals for a judicial review of the scheme. bit.ly/planner1121-businesspark

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Scottish Government announces appointment of chief planner The Scottish Government has announced that Dr Fiona Simpson has been appointed as chief planner with immediate effect. bit.ly/planner1121-simpson

6 Rail’s slow recovery threatens high streets and rising congestion

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Northern Ireland’s policy on fracking under scrutiny Infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon has kickstarted a review of strategic planning policy for oil and gas development in a move that will also consider unconventional hydrocarbon activity – so-called fracking. bit.ly/planner1121-oilandgas bit.ly/planner1121 yp oilandgas g

8 Access A to nature ‘should b a legal l l requirement’ i ’ be The planning system should ‘level up’ people’s access to nature by setting a legally binding target for that purpose, said The Wildlife Trust as it reinforced its call for a ‘Wildbelt’. bit.ly/planner1121accesstonature

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Commuting by train has reached just a third of preCovid-19 pandemic levels, threatening the future of towns and city centres and propelling increased congestion, according to research for industry body the Rail Delivery Group. bit.ly/planner1121-railtravel

Partnership agreed to manage water differently in Greater Manchester Leaders in Greater Manchester have arranged a partnership which seeks to guarantee that water is managed sustainably. This will include tackling the growing risk of flooding across the region. bit.ly/ planner1121-flooding

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05/10/2021 10:39

LEADER COMMENT

Event Young planners at the forefront of the climate debate Welcome to the annual young planners’ edition of The Planner! We’re delighted to have been offered the opportunity to jointly edit this edition in advance of the RTPI Young Planners’ Conference in Edinburgh on 29 October 2021.

Given that our conference precedes the United Nations’ COP26 conference at the other end of the M8 in Glasgow (31 Oct-12 Nov), we’ve adopted climate change as our theme.

In ‘Our Place in a Climate Crisis’, we want to explore what our role as young planners will be in responding to the climate crisis and how this will shape the future of the cities, towns, neighbourhoods, villages, parks, countryside and other places where we spend our lives.

With the help of expert speakers from across the built environment, we’ll be reflecting on what we can learn from planning

Sean Vincent Kelly MRTPI and Rhiannon Moylan MRTPI are co-chairs of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network

practices of the past to help us to adapt to the challenge of climate change; looking at low-carbon success stories of the present; and thinking about the ways in which we can build resilience into future plan-making.

We’ve mirrored some of these themes in this issue of The Planner. In the following pages you’ll be able to read a candid interview with Ryan Walker, the RTPI Young Planner of the Year, who discusses his approach to broadening the involvement of young planners in the RTPI’s work, as well as giving insight into what it’s like to represent young planners and why it’s important for

us to lead the profession’s response to climate change.

We’ve also written feature articles making the case for 20-minute neighbourhoods and digital, data-driven decision-making as tools that can help us to address the challenges of a warming world. We’ve invited young planners from across the UK nations to share their thoughts on climate-related policy and

Sub-editor Deborah Shrewsbury

ISSN 2053-7581

“OUR CONFERENCE PRECEDES THE UN’S COP26 CONFERENCE”

practice. Finally, we asked a young planning solicitor to share her thoughts on the ramifications of a controversial decision in Scotland’s Court of Session.

We hope you enjoy our climate-focused young planner takeover. It’s been hard work but an absolute pleasure to produce such a varied, interesting and timely look at how our profession is evolving and innovating to ensure we are taking our place at the forefront of the climate crisis.

If you haven’t signed up already for the Young Planners’ Conference, you can do so here: bit.ly/ planner1121-ypcon

Make the most of The Planner – use the links to find out more online

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

O Opinion

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet… … Or, as some would say, it is action and not a title that should make a difference. Sometimes, overcompensating in the naming game can just backfire. Calling a spade a spade has its place.

You know what you are getting when, like the advert says, ‘it does what it says on the tin’.

What should we make of the renaming of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities?

A positive move that means business or just a buzzword that people have yet to get to grips with?

Whether it’s a ‘Ministry’ or an ‘Office’ or a ‘Department’, it has seen a few bob spent on nameplates and new stationery over the years.

Some would say we should be grateful that it has returned to being a department – at least it sounds like it has moved away from archaic terminology that conjures up long corridors, bowler hats and paper-shuffling.

I come from the DoE era of the 1970s/80s – straightforward and to the point. The snappy title was a catch-all for three pre-existing ministries and perhaps belied the huge workload that was generated – whoops! I meant to say covered – in the three Marsham Street Towers. It was a brave move to combine housing, planning, local government, environmental protection and transport.

Then ‘transport’ got a bit big

14

for its wheels and was given its own home. But in 1997, it came back into the fold and the DETR was formed – the R standing for regions.

So began an awakening that the world didn’t stop at Watford Gap and there was a concerted effort to address the challenges of urban areas in the North.

With the new millennium, all things ‘environment’ became flavour of the month. The environmental protection bods relocated into the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food to create Defra, leaving everything else under the umbrella of the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. Some say it was a subtle rearranging of the alphabet and no one noticed at the time. But before the

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“WILL THE LEVELLING­ UP MANTRA STAY ON THE STATIONERY FOR MORE THAN A FEW YEARS?” paint could dry at Marsham Street, that too changed. The love affair with transport hit a rocky patch and the petrolheads moved off to start their own party. Everyone else huddled into the new Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, in 2001. Let’s be honest, it never sounded right. And the powers that be felt the same.

So, on to the stage in 2006 came the DCLG. The emphasis on communities and local government was clear and it managed to survive for 12 years until housing was

recognised as a leading player and the MHCLG emerged in 2018. We reverted to a ministry, but at least the nation’s residential challenges took prime billing.

Following the recent cabinet reshuffle and the arrival of Michael Gove at the helm, what should we read into the dropping of ‘local government’ and the trendy addition of ‘levelling up’? Well, whether the physical move of the ‘Department’ to Wolverhampton had anything to do with the former captain of the ship coming from that neck of the woods, is, of course, completely coincidental. But it certainly adds the ‘Ronseal of approval’ and might actually do what it says on the tin. Nothing speaks louder than the relocation of civil servants out of sunny Surrey. Will Mr Gove lead from the front and take up residence in the leafy Eden that is the Black Country, and will the levelling-up mantra stick on the stationary for more than a few years? We live in hope.

Dr Louise Brooke-Smith is a development and strategic planning consultant and a built environment non-executive director I L L U S T R AT I O N | Z A R A P I C K E N

07/10/2021 14:24

Quote unquote FROM THE RTPI AND THE WEB

“No one could accuse the government of not focusing on its flagship policy from the 2019 election… However, the government has a maximum of three years to deliver tangible outcomes from this easy-to-say and fiendishly-hard-to-enact initiative or it will risk seeing the ‘blue wall’ crumble.”

PETER HOGG, UK CITIES DIRECTOR AT ARCADIS, ON WHY IT’S TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO RAMP UP LEVELLING UP

“We need every every at we decision that ether make, whether anning that be a planning decision orr any ncil other council eall ea lly y decision, to rreally consider the impacts of climate and ecology” ROISIN WILLMOTT FRTPI OBE, DIRECTOR OF RTPI NI AND RTPI CYMRU, SPEAKING AT THE RTPI NI PLANNER LIVE

ANDREW WHITAKER, PLANNING DIRECTOR AT THE HBF, ON LICHFIELD SURVEY, TRACKING PROGRESS, WHICH SUGGESTS THAT LAND BANKING WOULD BE COMPLEX TO TAX AND WOULD RAISE LITTLE MONEY

“Rather than locating retirement homes in leafy suburban or rural areas, there is a growing argument that we need to bring retirees more into our central town and city sites”

“It’s time for cities to optimise existing and future urban media programmes by… investigating the financial and community benefits that the latest technologies afford”

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

CATHERINE WILLIAMS, HEAD OF LIVING SECTOR AT NATIONAL LAW FIRM SHOOSMITHS, ON HOW SPECIALIST RETIREMENT PROPERTIES CREATE MORE LOCAL ECONOMIC VALUE AND LOCAL JOBS THAN ANY OTHER TYPE OF RESIDENTIAL HOUSING

“All of the world is a stage, so do we need to create – as planners, architects and urban designers – that stage before buildings come in? Because that’s where the action unfolds, where people linger longer.”

GIULIA VALLONE, SENIOR ARCHITECT, CAPITAL PROJECTS IMPLEMENTATION UNIT, CORK COUNTY COUNCIL, SPEAKING AT THE RTPI NI PLANNER LIVE

“This myth that housebuilders land bank has be been en d ismi is miss ssed ed has dismissed by a growing number of independent reviews. As this latest research demonstrates, aggregating numbers of outstanding planning permissions misses the ‘story’ behind each and every site that comes forward for development.”

“As we all know, the planning system is slow and protracted in nature. Once permission is granted there are often delays agreeing legal terms. This often leads to misconceptions by local people that the developer is ‘land banking’ whereas this couldn’t be further from the truth.”

ANNIE RICKARD, MANAGING PARTNER OF OOH CAPITAL, CONSIDERS THE ROLE URBAN MEDIA CAN PLAY IN SUBSIDISING THE GROWTH AND RUNNING COSTS OF SMART CITIES TO THE BENEFIT OF CITIZENS

IMOGEN HOLGATE, GRADUATE PLANNER AT BOYER, AGREEING WITH THE CENTRAL FINDINGS OF THE LICHFIELD REPORT

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

O Opinion

1

Jane Tennant MRTPI is a young planner and a strategic planner with Clydeplan, the strategic planning authority for Glasgow and the Clyde Valley

Two birds, one stone – but will it hit the targets?

We face a double emergency in both climate change and ecology. The Scottish planning system has been subject to a review that sees changes in legislation, processes, procedures and policy. To meet these emergencies there are a few key things that could contribute towards reducing emissions and the effects on biodiversity.

The forthcoming National Planning Framework (NPF4) will have the status of the development plan and a time horizon to 2050; it will align with other strategies and programmes, take into account Regional Spatial Strategies and incorporate Scottish Planning Policy (SPP). The policy, as well as guiding local development plans, will be used to determine applications.

The NPF4 Position Statement discusses nature-based solutions, green belt and vacant and derelict land, as well as 20-minute neighbourhoods. It references positive outcomes of adopting such approaches, such as achieving net-zero carbon, improving biodiversity and community resilience.

The historical impact of deindustrialisation in Scotland has left a legacy of derelict land.

This has a crucial role to play in solving today’s problems. Such sites come in a variety of sizes and locations and each lends

itself better to different uses.

Such land within and near cities and neighbourhoods could provide mixed developments to help support the idea of 20-minute neighbourhoods.

This could help to reduce carcentric development on green belt, cut emissions and provide a robust edge to settlements that provides habitats for nature.

But some sites may be better suited to a range of soft end uses and incorporate nature-based solutions. Such sites could offer quality local green spaces, woodlands or growing spaces for communities.

On larger sites they could form public parks or urban woodlands.

These sites could be connected through greening smaller sites, making stepping stones for habitat networks. They could also play a role by providing green active travel routes.

All of this would contribute to achieving net-zero carbon emissions goals, positive effects for biodiversity, community resilience and a green recovery.

There are many possibilities here that could help towards targeting the two emergencies we face. The NPF4 appears to be headed in this direction.

The rhetoric and ambition are there. However, it will be the strength of policy wording in the SPP that will determine what happens on the ground.

“VACANT AND DERELICT LAND HAS A CRUCIAL ROLE TO PLAY IN SOLVING TODAY’S PROBLEMS”

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2 BLOG

BLOG

Emmeline Brooks MRTPI is a young planner and a planning consultant with Arup in Cardiff

Wales is giving planners the tools to address the climate crisis; let’s use them

In September 2020, the Welsh Government announced a longterm ambition to have 30 per cent of the population working remotely on a regular basis, citing benefits for wellbeing, high street regeneration and carbon emissions.

In June 2021, it said there would be a freeze on roadbuilding projects across the country in a bold effort to meet climate change targets. In addition, 18 of Wales’s 25 local councils declared a climate emergency, as well as the Welsh Government.

Now, more than ever, there is the political to take climate action, underpinned by the statutory duty of public bodies to act in accordance with the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

After last May’s election, Julie James MS, minister for housing and local government, became the head of the new Ministry for Climate Change, with planning, housing and local government in her portfolio.

This shows that the administration sees the planning system as a core part of responding to the climate crisis and putting into practice its ambitions.

It can be argued that the Welsh Government has also sought to give planners the policy tools required to effect these changes. In February, Future Wales: the National

Plan was published, becoming the first national plan in Wales with development plan status.

Future Wales reflects the government’s ambitions to promote low-carbon development through, for example, setting expectations for the creation of walkable neighbourhoods, a ‘town centre first’ approach to commercial and community development, and support for the creation of a national forest, district heat networks and renewable energy generation.

Future Wales is also a framework for regional-level strategic development plans (SDPs). It will be interesting to see how SDPs are developed in alignment with national policy and political priorities. Similarly, as local development plans are reviewed there will be more policy support to deliver Future Wales’s objectives in consideration of individual local contexts. Both strategic and local development plans will be critical to the successful delivery of low-carbon developments ‘on the ground’, particularly in non-strategic development proposals.

The above shows that the planning policy framework is going in the right direction, but Welsh planners, in private and public sectors, will have a great deal of responsibility to ensure that policy becomes practice.

“NOW, MORE THAN EVER, THERE IS THE POLITICAL WILL IN WALES TO TAKE CLIMATE ACTION”

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

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

3 BLOG

Chloe McDonnell is a young planner and a land referencer at WSP in Belfast

Hydrogen should be factored into addressing climate change in NI

For centuries, humans have relied on fossil fuels to power industry, houses and transport; but with the pressure of climate change shadowing us, our dependency on grey fuel needs to transition to green to cut carbon emissions.

The UK has committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, which can be achieved through a justified energy transition to renewables and green energy.

What if hydrogen can help to unlock the next door in energy transition for Northern Ireland?

Hydrogen generated from renewables can be an abundant green source of energy that produces oxygen, not carbon dioxide, as a byproduct. It can be used in transport, heating and electricity, and offers the potential to achieve the UK’s green energy targets and mitigate climate change.

But current energy policy in Northern Ireland could be considered outdated and does not account for new technologies or provide a clear sense of direction for planners to make informed decisions on new energy infrastructure.

Action Renewables, the Belfast-based environmental consultant, found that 79 per cent of energy supply sources in the province were imported

4 BLOG

Abbie Miladinovic is a young planner and a senior planner, policy and plans, at Leeds City Council

Young planners must be equipped to meet the task of reaching a net-zero world

fossil fuels in 2019. New policy is required urgently.

An Energy Strategy 2050 is being developed and two climate change bills have been submitted to the Northern Irish Assembly, but more can be done – especially when it is unknown to what level of detail hydrogen will be acknowledged within this strategy. Although the new energy strategy will be an asset, a hydrogen action plan and supportive policy will need to be adopted to complement climate targets and encourage social acceptance for new energy technologies.

The province is strategically located to harness large amounts of onshore and offshore wind which could be co-located with the electrolysers that convert this energy into usable hydrogen.

But the policy and resources do not exist to allow for renewable energy applications to be validated in a timely way.

We need to move away from a reactive planning system and towards a proactive planning system that plans for the future, adopts a holistic approach, educates the public and engages with stakeholders to ensure the highest level of energy security to ultimately combat climate change.

“WE NEED TO MOVE AWAY FROM A REACTIVE PLANNING SYSTEM TOWARDS A PROACTIVE SYSTEM”

Having worked as a planner for three years before starting my planning apprenticeship in 2019, I had already experienced a fair share of ‘big planning challenges’ for someone so early on in their career; Leeds had been through two local plan examinations and the government had published its Fixing the Broken Housing Market white paper and a new NPPF. While all this was happening, I was busy finding my feet and learning the ropes supporting the city’s 35+ neighbourhood planning groups.

Witnessing the resilience, adaptability and dynamism of my colleagues through times of challenge has taught me a great deal about my future as a planner and the skills I need. As I near the end of my apprenticeship, the pace of planning change shows no signs of slowing.

National policy continues to evolve, and the 2020 planning white paper signalled “radical” transformation in our practice.

On top of this, the climate emergency looms over us with no immediate or easy solutions.

It would be easy for young planners to feel daunted, possibly overwhelmed, by it all.

I take a more optimistic view.

In Leeds, we benefit from a wide range of people and

organisations engaged in tackling the climate emergency, including the council, the Leeds Climate Commission, and the Leeds Sustainability Institute.

Being an apprentice gives me the flexibility to gain wider experience as part of my professional development, a massive opportunity to soak it all up, learn from colleagues across and outside of the profession, try new things and seek out new opportunities to collaborate.

Through harnessing these opportunities, young planners can start to shape the profession and ensure that it adapts to contemporary challenges, linking professional skills development to where these skills are most needed.

When I spoke at the 2019 Planning Convention, I highlighted lessons I’d learnt from working with local communities on neighbourhood planning: building trust, recognising that positive action comes from genuine collaboration.

It’s not a question of whether young planners can keep up with an ever-changing policy environment, it’s whether the policy environment can keep pace with the scale of change we need to achieve net-zero and empower young planners to play a central role in it.

“THE CLIMATE EMERGENCY LOOMS OVER US WITH NO IMMEDIATE OR EASY SOLUTIONS. IT WOULD BE EASY FOR YOUNG PLANNERS TO FEEL DAUNTED”

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INTERVIEW: RYAN WALKER

“PLANNING ISN’T JUST DESIGN TO DELIVERY, IT’S EVERYTHING AFTER THAT AS WELL”

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INTERVIEW: RYAN WALKER

ALL I N CLUSIV E THIS YEAR’S RTPI YOUNG PLANNER OF THE YEAR, RYAN WALKER, TELLS LISA PROUDFOOT WHY HE FEELS PLANNING SHOULD STRESS COMMUNITY, INCLUSIVITY AND THE VOICES OF YOUNG PEOPLE Lisa Proudfoot (LP): “Congratulations on being named Young Planner of the Year. What have your highlights been so far?”

Ryan Walker (RW): “There’s been a lot to cover in such a short space of time. I attend a lot of different young planner events and accompany the RTPI president [Wei Yang] on nations and regions tours. I won’t say any has been a particular favourite, but it genuinely has been a really interesting journey.

“Being Young Planner of the Year, you get to meet lots of people, which is fantastic. It opens doors, starts conversations and increases the exposure to so many other opportunities.”

LP: “Do you have any aspirations for your year, and how will you use the status to influence other young planners within the RTPI?” RW: “There are two that I’m driving throughout my year – I’d want to see these as a bit of a positive legacy. The first, with assistance from Wei Yang, was a proposal paper that we took to the RTPI’s Board of Trustees, called the Rising Stars Programme.

“I’m very fortunate to get a platform to speak as a young planner at international, national and local events, and that’s great. But I don’t think it should always be about the

one person. I would like to increase the collective voice of young planners.

We have some really important and valuable things to say. So that proposal was looking at ‘broadening the stage and lengthening the limelight of young planners’.

“A young planner of the year is awarded in each of the nations and regions. They can work together to create something that has a little more impact than just the national winner on their own. So maybe I’m the turkey who’s paying for Christmas.

“So all of the local young planners of the year would have the opportunity to accompany the president on a visit and there’s an opportunity for the president to provide mentorship.

“The second option I’ve been looking at as my broad-brush vision for the year was to be ‘green, global and goal-orientated’. That builds on my own professional interest and my passions, and it’s where I see the future of the industry – place-driven, not process-driven, and looking at environmental and social goals.

“It’s definitely taking more of a conscious step in the direction of doing things that are better for all species on the planet, not just human species, and realising that now is the time for change, that we have to do that.”

I L L U S T R AT I O N | A L E X W I L L I A M S O N / P H O T O G R A P H Y | A K I N FA L O P E

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INTERVIEW: RYAN WALKER

came together. There was no question or LP: “I’m interested in how you got into query that was ever off the table.” planning. Where did it all begin for you?”

“Northern Ireland is unique in that the RW: “Well, like a lot of people, planning community plan has a statutory link with was not on my radar. I think that can still be the case where at a few different events, the local development plan, the spatial family things as well, you tell people you’re plan. So I was always thinking of those social outcomes through partnerships, a planner and they ask you if you’re a community organisations and looking at wedding planner or a party planner. So I long-term sustainable delivery through think there is a bit of work that we need to stewardship, maintenance, do generally as a profession. management. Planning “I started with a degree isn’t just design to delivery, in geography at Queen’s “I DON’T THINK it’s everything after that as University, Belfast. I loved it IT SHOULD well.” and was very much into the ALWAYS BE social side, the human side, ABOUT THE LP: “How did growing up in very driven by people and ONE PERSON. I Northern Ireland influence place. For a moment I thought WOULD LIKE TO the planner you are today?”

I wanted to be a geography INCREASE THE RW: “I’m born and teacher but quickly realised COLLECTIVE raised and very proud that wasn’t the route for me.

VOICE OF YOUNG of being from Northern I took a year off to work PLANNERS” Ireland. It’s an amazing and save for a master’s and place. The people are went to Queen’s to see what amazing and definitely courses there would be. I saw shaped me personally everything there to do with and professionally. My planning and thought ‘Yup. parents lived in a place Tick, tick, tick. This looks called Merville Garden village. It was really interesting’.

“I was fortunate to come out of university Northern Ireland’s first garden village.

It’s quite unique in that it’s a landscape and get a job with Belfast City Council. It development right on the edge of the city. was not long after the decentralisation of “Growing up, there were a lot of factors planning powers so there was an amazing that I enjoyed, but I didn’t have my opportunity to get involved in the local planning anorak on back then. As I’ve development plan process. Everybody moved into the profession I can see what was learning from scratch, going through a worked well and what I could adapt for new process, and we had a shared learning other development schemes.” experience throughout that – everyone

“It’s a development that is very much focused on community. It has landscape intertwined throughout it and that’s a key part of the development quality. But the underlying principle of it all is definitely community. My parents moved in 36 years ago. Northern Ireland was a very different place – ‘The Troubles’ were on, it was not the country’s greatest hour. They moved into this development because they really liked the sociable principles that underpinned it.

“You had to sign the Merville Constitution, which sounds a bit odd, but during ‘The Troubles’ that was innovative.

It made a declaration that you wouldn’t discriminate on age, sexual orientation, gender, political views and religious views.

“It was the idea of always looking out for each other, but it had quite clever planning policy mechanisms that were embedded into the plan. There were loads of instruments or mechanisms to ensure that that area did not become tribalised, that it did not become territorialised and that it remained an inclusive and accessible place.

“The chief planner for Northern Ireland was born and raised there. I was born and raised there. A senior lecturer from the University of Ulster lives there and two senior planning civil servants as well.

Either there’s something in the water or it just attracts those planners. It definitely shaped my outlook on my professional expectations of what we should be going for as planners and that we should always be conscious of creating community first.”

LP: “I hear you say ‘community’ a lot in relation to your experience to date. Are there any standout projects for you?”

RW: “Community can be quite a divisive word in Northern Ireland. But increasingly, in recent years, it’s being much more inclusive and accessible, and breaking away from those old traditions.

Merville Garden Village is famous for its cherry blossoms

Ryan Walker will be in conversation with Robyn Skerratt, his predecessor as Young Planner of the Year, at this year’s RTPI Young Planners’ Conference on 29 October 2021 bit.ly/planner1121-ypcon

I M A G E | RYA N WA L K E R

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INTERVIEW: RYAN WALKER

CU RR I CU L U M VI T AE

Ryan Walker MRTPI Born: 1992, Belfast Education: Ballyclare Grammar School; Queen’s University, Belfast: BA Geography (2014); MSc Planning and Development (2016) Career highlights

2016 RTPI Prize for the best student in MSc Planning & Development; Turley prize for best thesis

Ryan’s way Ryan Walker has three ‘deliverables’ that he’d like to see enacted during his tenure as the RTPI Young Planner of the Year:

1

To have a diversity champion on each young planners’ committee.

“I think as a profession we should be much more diverse, we should look like the communities that we represent.”

2

Secondary-level education. “I’ve set out a commitment that each of our young planner committees will commit to at least one school

engagement or careers event. It doesn’t have to be ‘This is what a planner does’; it could be building on the momentum of ‘Who here has heard of Greta Thunberg? Let me tell you about a profession that would help you act on those ambitions’.”

3

Collaborative partnerships.

“I’ve always worked in multidisciplinary practice and I’m very keen on co-design, bringing communities in and creating innovative participative techniques.”

2017 Assistant planner, Belfast City Council

2017 Young planner representative, RTPI General Assembly

2017 Chair, RTPI Northern Ireland Young Planners

2019 Consultant, Paul Hogarth Company

2020 RTPI Northern Ireland Young Planner of the Year

2021 RTPI Young Planner of the Year

2021

Senior planner, DP9

2021

Presentation to House of Lords Covid-19 Recovery Committee

2021 Senior planner, Iceni Projects

“At Paul Hogarth Company, I worked on a project called the Connswater Greenway. It linked various parks in an area of East Belfast that suffered from multiple deprivation and low educational attainment rates. The parks were pretty much no-go areas after dark and, from a natural point of view, the rivers that ran through them flooded every year and properties couldn’t be insured.

“It was a multidisciplinary project with National Lottery funding that created a linear park which connected all these areas. It was really focused on design quality and sustainability. A key thing was getting the community on board from the start – naming bridges over the river, getting local schoolkids to design areas.

“Where I was able to come in was working with communities to try to get increased levels of stewardship, of ownership, of participation.”

LP: “Our young planners’ conference focuses on our place in a climate crisis.

How do you see the role of planners within the climate agenda?”

RW: “We should be leading the conversation. The voice needs to come from the young planners as well.

Everybody has something to say and should be given a voice and a platform.

But there really is a strong risk here of intergenerational theft of opportunities from the next generations growing up through it [the climate crisis].

“I feel like this is the time for the younger generation to actively shape their future. They’re the ones who are going to be suffering the impacts. They’re the ones who have to be dealing with the fallout of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and collapse of natural ecosystems. So why shouldn’t they be there telling us what they need and what we can do to support them?

“As a profession, our strength is how adaptable we can be, how general we can be as well, too. We can bring people together, whether that’s just creating the right environment for ideas, knowledge, conversations to be shared. That’s where I see planning as being quite central to facilitating what we need to happen.”

LP: “If you could describe planning to someone who doesn’t know about it what would you say?”

RW: “Changing the world for the better. I think that’s the kind of thing that we need to be doing. We need to create an elevator pitch. As planners we’re talking cities, villages, we do development management, we do policy. Planning is very broad, but it often means our messaging can be mixed and people don’t necessarily appreciate the work that we do. We need an elevator pitch. It rolls off your tongue and people go, ‘Wow!’.” n Lisa Proudfoot is a senior planner with Montagu Evans and a past chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network

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“WE NEED TO INVEST IN THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES THAT PUT PEOPLE FIRST”

VISIONS THE COVID­19 PANDEMIC HAS THRUST THE IDEA OF THE ‘20­MINUTE NEIGHBOURHOOD’ INTO THE LIMELIGHT AROUND THE WORLD, AS COMMUNITIES EVERYWHERE RETHINK THE LIVEABILITY OF WHERE WE LIVE. HERE, RHIANNON MOYLAN STUDIES THE PHENOMENON

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he concept of creating healthy, sustainable neighbourhoods has long been an aim of the planning sector. But in the past year, the phrase ‘20-minute neighbourhood’ has become a buzzword. So what makes this idea different, and why has it become a key focal point of planning?

With 20-minute Neighbourhoods, the strategy centres on the principle that residents would have access to the services they need – workplaces, schools, shops, healthcare and leisure facilities – within a 20-minute radius from their home.

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Although the idea of localism has been high on the agenda in recent years, it seems to be only since the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns that people have begun to really explore and appreciate their local communities.

As people have begun to fully grasp the importance of having access to key services and facilities nearby, the term 20-minute neighbourhood has grown in prominence.

The phrase is user-friendly. When you talk of a 20-minute neighbourhood, it is much more readily understood by the public compared with planning jargon like ‘sustainable urban communities’. This

ease of understanding may allow it to become much more widely adopted by the public and politicians. Community and political buy-in will be essential if this policy approach is to be adopted more broadly.

In Scotland, the term rose to prominence when the National Planning Framework 4 Position Paper was published in November 2020. This asserted that 20-minute neighbourhoods could help Scotland to achieve its net-zero goals.

The Scottish Government believes that by building 20-minute neighbourhoods, we can plan our homes together with

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20-minute neighbourhoods can be created from grassroots movements

everyday local infrastructure, including schools, community centres, local shops and healthcare, to reduce the need to travel significantly.

The sustainable neighbourhood But where does the government begin?

First, this principle should not apply purely to new development; the priority for creating 20-minute neighbourhoods should be within existing towns. This is where most of our infrastructure and community services currently lie, and so we should be promoting town centres as the future for 20-minute neighbourhoods.

Again, this is not a new idea: the ‘Town Centre First Principle’ was incorporated into Scottish Planning Policy in 2014 and this pinpointed town centres as the focus for new investment, taking priority over out-of-town locations.

The town centre first policy also promoted town centre living and highlighted the importance of promoting residential uses above retail units. Its aim was to diversify the uses of the town centre and create new residential communities in Scottish towns.

So if we already have

CASE STUDY:

Towards a more liveable Melbourne Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 is a long-term plan to accommodate Melbourne’s future growth. The plan is guided by the principle of 20-minute neighbourhoods.

In 2018 the Melbourne government, launched the 20-Minute Neighbourhood Pilot Programme, which stressed ‘living locally’. Three pilots underpinned a 2019 report that emphasised the benefits of walkable neighbourhoods and carried recommendations that will feed into longer-term planning.

The pilots found: ‘place-based’ planning is effective; community partnerships are key to successful neighbourhood planning; creating 20-minute neighbourhoods is a long-term commitment; planning outcomes need to be monitored; and there is a need for better designed medium-density development.

Community engagement drove the pilots, with community days, workshops, and even a street party. The emphasis was on making interventions that would create better places for people to live. These do not have to be large-scale projects and can be as simple as arranging neighbourhood activities.

The ambition within Melbourne is to create more ‘liveable’ places, embed the principle of 20-minute neighbourhoods into decisionmaking and forge partnerships between government, industry, and communities.

Creating a more liveable Melbourne: bit.ly/planner1121melbourne

Melbourne has pioneered ‘walkable neighbourhoods’

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a policy framework that supports town centres, how will the 20-minute neighbourhood improve this?

The significant difference here is this concept’s focus on creating sustainable communities. It is not purely about the proposed use or supporting the economic role of the town centre; it is about creating healthy, sustainable places to live.

How so? Well, first, the 20-minute neighbourhood is predicated on sustainable travel, with its radius based on the time it takes to walk or cycle to services. It promotes active travel over cars and aims to reduce both journey times and the need to commute to work.

Second, the priority is on neighbourhoods and communities.

It is a people-focused model, which focuses on the health and wellbeing of the neighbourhood and those who live within it. We have all come to appreciate our neighbourhoods more in the past 18 months, and in some cases, understand where it may be lacking; and we are more aware of the necessity to ensure that our places meet the needs of our local communities.

Although the discussion on creating 20-minute neighbourhoods is often centred on the need to make sure that new-build developments

CASE STUDY:

Understanding place The Place Standard, which was successfully used to inform local planning policy throughout Scotland, provides a simple framework to structure conversations about place.

The tool provides prompts for discussion by identifying the areas of a place that its residents consider to be successful, those that could be improved and those that are missing entirely.

Thanks to its simple language, the tool is used by a broad spectrum of users, from businesses to community groups to schools.

Information gathered by the Place Standard can provide baseline data for measuring the impact of interventions arising

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from the tool’s use – in particular, whether the desired 20-minute neighbourhood has been achieved.

Glasgow City Council has even created a toolkit that links use of the Place Standard tool with key attributes of 20-minute neighbourhoods in the creation of what it calls ‘liveable neighbourhoods’.

The toolkit shows how the two principles (simple place analysis and 20-minute neighbourhoods) can be connected to identify priorities for, and deliver interventions to, communities.

It also shows how significant small changes can be; it is likely to be these that unlock the potential in our towns and cities.

The Place Standard: bit.ly/ planner1121-placestandard

have access to shops and services, should the focus not be ensuring that our existing communities have access to what they need?

It’s well documented that the poorest areas often have the least access to services and community facilities. We have a chance to use this policy to reduce inequalities, promote accessibility and improve the health of our communities.

For example, with Scotland being a country of towns, we could use the 20-minute neighbourhood approach to focus on the role of existing towns to promote enhanced public transport, new cycle links and better pedestrian accessibility. The priority should be on refreshing our towns to guarantee that they can meet the needs of our communities. Instead of the previous focus on retail, town centre regeneration should be led by community and leisure uses, alongside an increased residential population.

This will ensure that new development is located next to existing assets and transport links while promoting healthy communities and increasing local access to services and community hubs.

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CASE STUDY:

Community ownership in Dumfries

The Midsteeple Quarter project in Dumfries

From dream to reality How do we guarantee that this becomes a reality? To begin with, we need a change in policy. We need to continue to promote the importance of 20-minute neighbourhoods and acknowledge the decline in the retail sector. Town centres cannot continue to rely solely on retail business to survive. Instead, they need to evolve to become community hubs, subject to a policy approach that aims to revitalise town centres instead of relying solely on class 1 retail uses (A1 in Wales and Northern Ireland; retail use in England is incorporated into the broader class E).

Next, we need to make sure there is government funding for town centre regeneration. This can come in many forms, whether cash for redevelopment of vacant and derelict land, ‘levelling-up’ funds or specific town centre funding.

Finally, we need continued government buy-in. While the idea is still at the forefront of the political agenda, we need to continue to promote it. We need to highlight the benefits of supporting local communities and sustainably regenerating our town centres.

So, 20-minute neighbourhoods are the

Like many towns in Scotland, Dumfries was declining as a result of out-of-town retail and online shopping. The high street had many vacant units, the residential population had largely left the town centre and the upper floors of many high street buildings were largely unoccupied.

In early 2011, The Stove – a collective of local artists – took on a high street property owned by the Chamber of Commerce.

Initially intended to provide a cultural showcase for Dumfries, it became a vibrant public arts centre.

The building was transferred to Dumfries and Galloway Council, which in turn now leases it to the Stove Network.

This is the UK’s only artist-led Community Development Trust and led discussions around the town centre regeneration, engaging the Dumfries community in shaping the future of its town centre. From this emerged the idea of a communityowned block – and the Midsteeple Quarter project grew from there.

“THE PRIORITY FOR CREATING 20­MINUTE NEIGHBOURHOODS SHOULD BE WITHIN EXISTING TOWNS. THIS IS WHERE THE MAJORITY OF OUR INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITY SERVICES CURRENTLY LIE”

Both 100 High Street, the home of The Stove, and The Oven in the Midsteeple Quarter have brought new civic infrastructure to the town centre, securing its position as the heart of the community.

The regeneration of Dumfries highlights the impact a local community can have on the high street. Although there were barriers to development, there were also opportunities because of funding for community development and the impact of The Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.

Dumfries also demonstrates how 20-minute neighbourhoods can be created from grassroots movements.

Building on existing assets, The Stove and the community have successfully created new community infrastructure. The proposal also seeks to repopulate the town centre, use existing assets and land, and conserve the historic centre of Dumfries town.

Midsteeple Quarter: bit.ly/ planner1121-midsteeple

future. But to make them a success, we need to learn from our past. We need to put communities and people at the centre of regeneration and create places that work for those using them.

We need to encourage the regeneration of existing assets and land to ensure that we are developing in sustainable locations. We need to invest in infrastructure and community services that put people first.

Planning is about creating places for people to live, work and play, and there is no better way to do this than creating neighbourhoods where all of these elements can be accessed by just a short, 20-minute walk. n Rhiannon Moylan MRTPI is a

senior planner with Montagu Evans and co-chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network

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CASE STUDY

CLOSER LOOK:

REWILDING AT GLENFESHIE IN MAY THE PLANNER’S DEPUTY EDITOR SIMON WICKS VISITED THE GLENFESHIE ESTATE WITH HIS CAMERA TO TAKE A FIRST­HAND LOOK AT THE CAIRNGORMS CONNECT REWILDING PROJECT

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The Glenfeshie Estate in the Cairngorms National Park is part of the biggest rewilding project in the UK – the 600-square-kilometre Cairngorms Connect scheme – a collaboration of landowners and conservation bodies that aims to “enhance habitats, species and ecological processes” over 200 years.

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Large tracts of the region’s ancient Caledonian Forest have been stripped away by sheep farming, grouse hunting, commercial forestry and the grazing of deer which have been allowed to proliferate. In 2006, Wildland Ltd – owned by Danish retail billionaire Anders Povlsen – bought the estate with the aim of rewilding it.

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Rewilding is taking several forms: removing deer to allow natural regeneration, thinning pine plantations, replanting native trees, and allowing natural regeneration to occur. The work is full of surprises; conservation director Thomas McDonnell recalls a forgotten rowan woodland springing up where a pine plantation had been cleared.

Juniper, birch, wood anemones, foxgloves, twinflower and even wild raspberries are beginning to proliferate alongside pine, oak and hazel.

At 72 square kilometres (7,200 hectares), Glenfeshie includes mountains, heath, forest and a vitally important stretch of the River Feshie, considered to be one of Europe’s most important braided river systems.

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McDonnell has also overseen restoration of a historic bothy and the creation of tracks for estate vehicles, walkers and cyclists blended into the landscape. His aim is to open up the estate for the public to enjoy the benefits of its “rehabilitation”. The estate is already building income from tourists staying at its lodge and cottages. “We are seeing natural capital as the future of commercial [income]. We are trying to look for different models,” says McDonnell.

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Rewilding can enable regionally important species to flourish.

Five thousand species have been recorded at Glenfeshie, including red squirrels, crested tits, pine martens and golden eagles, wildcats, black grouses, ospreys and capercaillie. It’s a long-term commitment that will outlive its initiators. “I think of myself in 30 years’ time – what would I wish someone had done?” says McDonnell.

“By 2035, I would hope that we have done the hard landscaping,” he adds.

Find out more about Cairngorms Connect and the Wildland Ltd: bit.ly/planner1121-cairngorms bit.ly/planner1121-wildland

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DIGITAL PLANNING

DATA DRIVEN SEAN VINCENT KELLY SUGGESTS THAT THE STEADY PROGRESSION TOWARDS DATA­LED DECISION­MAKING WILL ALLOW PLANNING TO PLAY ITS PART IN THE CLIMATE CRISIS

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am neither an IT specialist nor data management expert. I am, however, a town planner, and one who recognises the increasing importance of data and sophisticated digital systems in how we plan our towns, cities and rural areas.

Such systems are even more important in the context of addressing our changing and unpredictable climate, which infiltrates almost all aspects of our lives in some way, with serious and well-recorded societal impacts.

As the facilitators of social, economic and environmental change, planners have a critical role to play in meeting the challenges of climate change. To do this, we will need a strong grasp of how technological advances could help us take more effective action.

It is fair to say that our profession recognises this, with work well under way to implement digital changes to planning systems across the United Kingdom.

For example, at a UK level, RTPI president Wei Yang is co-chairing the recently created Digital Task Force for Planning which has as its aim a mission to “raise the awareness, identify the needs, and urge actions” in relation to digital planning advances.

In England, although it has been reported that planning reforms are being “paused” for now, the government’s Planning for the Future white paper discussed the use of technology to aid developers, engage with communities and

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allow a more consistent approach to decision-making.

In Scotland, the Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan is a key strategic document. The plan recognises that planners have a “crucial” and “influential” role to play when dealing with the climate crisis and that a digital transformation of the planning service is key to this.

It has since been backed with a £35 million funding pot to deliver the recently launched Digital Planning Strategy, which aims to develop a more coherent and green “worldleading” planning service in Scotland.

So legislation and policy seem to be changing and that is obviously positive.

Progress through technology What are the possibilities for digital technology to transform the way we plan? As a profession, are we prepared for them?

Research commissioned by the RTPI highlighted a range of climate-related benefits from a digital overhaul of the planning system.

In relation to climate, the suggestion is that better data management could result in lower energy demand and lower emissions from more efficiently planned places in terms of integration, connectivity (both travel and digital) and density.

Meaningful behavioural change could also be a possibility through digitally enabled and

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DIGITAL PLANNING

collaborative placemaking that encourages communities to adopt more sustainable ways of living (KPMG, 2020). Other studies suggest a digital planning service will allow us to monitor policy effectiveness in almost real time (Scottish Government, 2020). This could have a huge impact, particularly with environmental and socially focused policies allowing us to adapt before irreparable damage is done.

This is all great stuff, and there are many examples from around the UK where planners and our colleagues are developing exciting ideas that go some way to making better use of data and technology. In Scotland, Greenspace Scotland’s ‘Greenheat in Greenspaces’ (GHiGs) initiative builds upon its previous ParkPower project.

GHiGS has taken a data-led approach to investigate the potential of urban open spaces, including green and blue spaces, as untapped low-carbon heat sources, heat storage locations and potential heat transmission zones.

The outputs from the research are eyecatching and encouraging, suggesting that in Scotland alone the renewable heat potential from below our green and blue spaces could supply up to 80 per cent of the country’s heat demand.

Greenspace Scotland has worked in collaboration with a number of local authorities on both ParkPower and GHiGS and Glasgow City Council’s planning department is currently reviewing how this most recent data can help inform the delivery of the city’s open space strategy. Unfortunately, licensing agreements mean that some of this data is not yet publicly available.

In London, the GoParks project has produced an interactive city map that identifies publicly accessible parks and green spaces across all boroughs in the city.

This was developed by a consortium that includes the Greater London Authority and the National Park City Foundation.

The map is web-based and allows users to select spaces to find out: n what facilities are available; n which active travel routes can be used to access the space; and n how users can get more engaged with community activities.

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A granular view: Q&A with Rania Sermpezi Rania Sermpezi (RS) is a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and data specialist currently working as GIS technical officer on Glasgow City Council’s Horizon 2020 Connecting Nature project.

Here, she offers insight and advice on the current ‘datasphere’: Q: What are the three main barriers to being able to use data to help make better and more informed planning decisions?

RS: “First, the perceived need for confidentiality and lack of cooperation between departments and institutions impeding data sharing.

“Second, granularity and periodicity – ie, how granular is the data and how often is it collected? Data is often at city/national level and collected as a one-off job with no prospect of repeating this annually/biannually.

“Third, a lack of expertise which leads to unusable data formats; for example, non-GIS/ database based but in Excel spreadsheets or PDFs. Q: In your experience as a data GIS specialist, how easy is it to access different types of useful data sets?

RS: “It depends on the data and who is the owner of such data.

There are citywide economic data sets which are open for everyone to use, but then social and health data are rarely available either because no surveys have been undertaken or they are considered part of ‘personal’ data and there is therefore hesitation to share.

Environmental data are often project specific or national,

and so rarely help when trying to consider habitats and biodiversity in Glasgow.”

Q: What’s the most positive recent development in data management for planning and the built environment?

RS: “Recently I’ve been speaking to representatives from various organisations who are all aware of existing datasharing issues and keen to find ways to collaborate and break those silos.

“This, I think, is probably the most positive recent development in that there is wider recognition of the issue but also of the importance of good data management.

A recent example from my work is the collaboration with Safe Haven to get access and analyse health data across the city to improve our understanding and base future council decisions on evidence.”

Q: We can expect the use of data to become more prevalent in planning. What tips do you have for young planners as they begin their careers?

RS: “More of a general requirement for all professions – and not just planning nowadays – is to have a basic understanding of data, analytics and the importance of evidence in decisionmaking.

“Planners should be introduced to these concepts and the relevant technology at an early stage (perhaps as part of their academic lives) and inspired into exploring these further to improve their understanding and their career opportunities.

“One thing the pandemic has shown us is how easy it is to convey a message and shape policy through some basic data in a simple dashboard.”

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Glasgow’s Connecting Nature project focuses on interventions that either create or open up green space within the city

resulted in planning departments losing a third of our workforce since 2009 (RTPI, 2021).

Going back to our original questions, then? Well, the possibilities could almost be boundless. This article has only looked at digital planning in the context of climate within the UK and we can expect it to be much further reaching than this.

In terms of preparedness within the profession, I think the emerging policy areas and examples show that we are heading in the right direction.

The difficulty is that any change will probably need to be gradual as we fight for more resources and champion the role of planners. The problem, of

It’s a good example of technology being used to encourage ownership and potentially even behavioural change, as well as a relatively straightforward and perhaps even obvious model for other local authorities to follow. However, to prepare and manage this level of functionality requires a lot of effort and joined-up thinking. It is also not clear how well and consistently systems like this integrate with local planning policy.

There are, no doubt, many other examples like these having positive impacts at the local level around the UK. But do they indicate a coherent digital planning service is on its way soon? Possibly not – not least because even understanding what data is available to draw from requires a level of technical understanding and a mastery of the technical language of data and digitisation that planners may not yet possess as a cohort.

The here and now Glasgow City Council’s Connecting Nature project aims to bring nature back into the city and allow better decisionmaking with positive social, economic and environmental outcomes.

The project is using data as the key component in its map-based delivery plan for the city’s open space strategy.

However, obtaining relevant and quality data sets in the right format has been a big challenge (see box, A granular view).

The examples in this article illustrate the scale of the challenge ahead if planners are to use technology to help us better plan for climate change. It is I M AG E S | A L A M Y

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clear that we need more user-friendly language and training; easier ways to integrate across services; better access to consistent data formats; and robust governance structures for long-term management of tech.

We also cannot ignore how grotesquely underfunded planning departments have been up and down the country. The £35 million-funded digital strategy is, of course, very welcome but it has been well recorded that cuts have

course, is that climate change is not gradual anymore. It is here now and our profession will need to act faster if we are going to take advantage of these technological shifts to take our place in a climate crisis. n Sean Vincent Kelly MRTPI is senior project officer – Connecting Nature with Glasgow City Council and co-chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network steering group

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CASE STUDY: AURORA PLANNING

Space Hub in Sutherland is the first spaceport in the UK to be granted planning permission, thanks to Aurora Planning

WE HAVE LIFT­OFF IN JUST THREE YEARS, MAGGIE BOCHEL AND PIPPA ROBERTSON TOOK AURORA PLANNING FROM START­UP TO PLANNER OF CHOICE FOR THE UK’S FIRST SPACEPORT. THE FOUNDERS OF THE RTPI’S SMALL CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR TELL SIMON WICKS HOW THEY DID IT

Award: Small Planning Consultancy of the Year

Maggie Bochel

Pippa Robertson

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“We celebrated our fourth birthday in June,” says Pippa Robertson via Zoom.

“When you’re starting out, you’re wondering if what you’re doing works – because we are quite a unique combination. I don’t know of other consultBochel, who had been head of planants that have Maggie’s experience and ning at Aberdeen City Council, had met the fact that I am really a lawyer.

Robertson, a planning solicitor, when “[Winning the award] is a wonderful the two worked at law firm Burness endorsement that maybe we have got Paull. It was a friendship forged over something to offer here.” post-work glasses of wine. By 2017, A welcome early birthday present in both were free agents and Bochel was April, the RTPI’s award for Small Planinvited to consult on a large project. ning Consultancy of the Year is also an “I thought if I’m going to do this kind acknowledgement that even the smallof thing I don’t really want to do it on est consultancies can have an impact my own,” she recalls. “So I gave Pippa a that belies their modest scale. call and said, ‘Fancy a coffee? What do In its brief existence, the two-woman you think about this?’ And she took me Aurora Planning team has built a versaseriously, much to my surprise! Before tile business able to take on small resiwe knew it, we were going ‘What do dential applications up to we call ourselves? Do we sizeable housing schemes need a website?’.”

– not to mention the UK’s Aurora Planning is “I THOUGHT IF I’M first spaceport.

GOING TO DO THIS founded on the natural The business began chemistry between the KIND OF THING with coffee between two women, their comI DON’T REALLY friends and former colplementary skill set and a WANT TO DO IT ON leagues Maggie Bochel MY OWN. SO I GAVE shared sense that planning and Pippa Robertson. is a public good.

PIPPA A CALL”

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“We’re very keen to as our clients, for exam“WE’LL BE ABLE TO balance the commercial ple. Whereas housing DO THINGS THAT aims of making money, associations, yeah, HELP PEOPLE. because I like to keep a Individuals, IT’S NOT ALL GOING definitely. roof over my head and businesses, particularly TO BE DRIVEN BY provide for my young local businesses, charTHE MONEY” daughter,” laughs Robertities. And, yes, we do son. “But another thing some more commercial Maggie and I are clear work because that’s about is why we are interwhat allows us to do ested in planning in the the other work that we first place – it’s because want to be able to do. of the public benefits it brings.”

“It was nice that that was recognised Bochel adds: “I had nearly 30 years by the judges, that our small planning in the public sector and I remember consultancy was balancing commersitting down and saying ‘You know, cial success with social responsibility.” we’ll be able to do things that help people. It’s not all going to be driven by SETTING UP SHOP money’.”

Although the two women are partners, Robertson interjects: “It was clear the business structure itself is not a that we were very much aligned from partnership but a limited company. that point of view.”

“Because it was just the two of us it Bochel continues: “We never seemed the simplest way to manage intended to get volume housebuilders it, to deal with accounts, to deal with I M AG E | H I E A N D N OR R

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W H AT T H E JUDGES SAID “Aurora Planning stood out to the judges due to their impressive and inspiring scope of work completed by a team of two within only three years of starting their business.

“They have provided innovative solutions to unique projects, which has resulted in fantastic client feedback, and the judges liked their multidisciplinary approach. The judges felt the team brought something different to the table and were blown away by their pro bono work in order to support local groups and the community.

“Aurora Planning epitomises what a small planning consultancy should be, balancing commercial success with social responsibility.”

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The RTPI Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship >>

Grow your talent Employ a Chartered Town Planner Apprentice

Find out more at www.rtpi.org.uk/ apprenticeships

Through this apprenticeship your apprentices will:

You may be eligible for a government employer incentive of £3000 per apprentice.

More information can be found at rtpi.org.uk/ apprenticeships

• Gain practical on the job experience in Town Planning • Gain an RTPI fully accredited degree • Become fully qualified with the RTPI as a Chartered Town Planner • Get free student membership of the RTPI during their apprenticeship The apprenticeship: • Typically takes three to six years (depending on existing qualifications) from start to finish Organisations in England can offer this apprenticeship. Large employers can fund the apprenticeship through the apprenticeship levy, while smaller organisations may be able to receive government funding - speak to your chosen Planning School for further details. You will still pay the apprentice’s salary.

A number of RTPI Planning Schools in England are offering the apprenticeship. They are listed at: www.rtpi.org.uk/apprenticeships

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CASE STUDY: AURORA PLANNING

Aurora’s work ranges from the largescale down to the small and domestic – including window enlargements in historic coastal cottages

incorporation documents and shares and in terms of how we wanted to pay ourselves,” says Robertson, who also took on initial responsibility for accounts – until these simply became “too complex” as the firm’s client list and income grew.

Assuming multiple roles within the business – accounts, administration, marketing, business development, as well as planning – has been challenging, but keeps Bochel and Robertson grounded. “We both have a really good handle on what’s going in, what’s going out, what’s making us money and what’s not,” Robertson notes.

Business has come mainly from word-of-mouth recommendation. The two joke that they get as much work as they do because they are one of few planning consultancies in a city full of

architects.

But it’s also because they recognise that small projects have as much value to clients as large ones.

“We worked with a guy to get planning permission for a fence around his garden,” Robertson explains. “It seems like such a tiny, insignificant thing, but the garden goes alongside a road so he didn’t have any private area for his child to play. We got a fence and that made his year. I can’t think of a time when we’ve had someone so absolutely ecstatic.”

Despite her legal background, Robertson operates as a planner, but is not averse to “digging around in

the body of legislation or case law in a way that Maggie hates doing”.

Bochel draws on her strengths as a strategic thinker honed during a decade as a head of planning.

She’s glad to be more ‘hands-on’ again and the two divide work fairly evenly.

“A big part of how we work is we spend a lot of time just talking to each other,” Robertson elaborates. “That was one of the things that was important to us from the outset; we wanted a business model that gave us time to talk things over because we believe that two heads are better than one.

“When we’ve got something in we talk it over and we can come up with

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CASE STUDY: AURORA PLANNING

Aberdeen is a place of opportunity for Aurora as the nation makes a transition to a renewables-based economy and Covid-19 changes the face of commercial centres

a plan of action and divide up what needs to be done between us as appropriate at the time.”

They are a double act, with no plans to expand beyond that, but Robertson and Bochel do take on an intern each year. “It’s important to us, giving people the chance to get a start in a career in planning,” says Bochel. “We love the profession that we work in, we think it’s important for society that planning is done right, that everybody has the opportunity to be involved in it.”

TIME FOR TAKE OFF The consultancy’s most newsworthy project to date is the UK’s first spaceport, the Space Hub, on a 5.3-hectare portion of the Melness Crofters Estate in Sutherland, being built by Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The port will support about 250 jobs and launch up to 12 small communications satellites a year.

Aurora worked on the application for a launchpad, control centre, access roads and associated infrastructure in what is an environmentally sensitive area.

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community but in the wider Highlands “It was a contact that knew of us and Scotland as a whole. One of the big and had been appointed the project things is that our launch service promanager,” explains Bochel. “They vider and the people building the rockwere looking for planning support so ets [Orbex] are based in Scotland.” they got in touch with us and we said Bochel and Roberstson have since ‘Please, please, please, we must been commissioned to work on a secbe involved!’.” ond spaceport on the west coast of It was an unprecedented opporScotland. We joke that Aurora Planning tunity. “No one had really done that is the UK’s “premier before, so no one knew spaceport consultant”. what the planning “NO ONE KNEW WHAT But there’s a serious requirements for a A SPACEPORT WAS point here – the two spaceport would be.

MEANT TO LOOK planners are developing There were no industry LIKE, NEVER MIND early expertise in a new regulations at the time FROM A PLANNING industry, we were doing it,” she POINT OF VIEW” The rest of Aurora’s goes on. “So no one work is "quite a mix" knew what a spaceport and includes a co-living was meant to look like, development in Abernever mind from a deen, changes of use of planning point of view. town centre shops to Those two things were class 3 (food and drink), office converchallenging. And the location next sions and a hydrogen refuelling facility. meant that the environmental What about the future? “The answer challenges were significant.” really is to keep doing what we do,” The project has won broad commuconcludes Robertson. “Because I think nity support. “We needed to be able we’re doing something good and I to justify it in economic impact terms. don’t want to lose that.”

Not just in terms of the immediate I M AG E | I STO C K

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CASES &DECISIONS

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

Historic clifftop tearoom’s conversion to holiday let blocked

The appeal concerned Bluebird Tearooms, a café situated on top of the White Cliffs of Dover between St Margaret’s Bay and Deal.

Built as a coastguard’s lookout in 1921, the building had a secret underground bunker added to it to house a magnetron radar device during the Second World War, which was twice visited

by Winston Churchill.

It became a coastguard station again after the war, and received a visit from Prince Charles in 1979.

It was then converted into a tea room – named after the Vera Lynn song (There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover – in the 1990s, with holiday accommodation above.

The property was put up for sale for £3.5 million in 2016, but remained unsold.

In 2020, the owners applied to cease the café use and convert the ground floor into a holiday let with manager’s accommodation above, but the council was concerned about the loss of a community facility and tourist attraction.

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LOCATION: St Margaret’s Bay AUTHORITY: Dover District Council INSPECTOR: David Spencer PROCEDURE: Virtual hearing DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: APP/ X2220/W/20/3254613

However, inspector David Spencer noted that apart from a short period in autumn 2017, the café had “not generally been open” since 2016. Contrary to “the council’s assessment that the appeal site is a

strategic, iconic clifftop visitor destination”, he found that the “detached, out-of-the-way” location was not one where “a visitor would reasonably expect or anticipate a tea room facility”.

There were other facilities better placed to serve both visitors to the area and residents of St Margaret’s, he added, ruling that the loss of the tea room would not conflict with local or national policy.

However, the inspector was not persuaded that there was a “persuasive functional case” for a permanent on-site presence, either to manage the holiday accommodation below or to act as a first point of contact for those in danger along the clifftop.

Spencer was also concerned about the scheme’s likely impact on the character of the surrounding Kent Downs AONB, pointing to the appeal site’s isolated location.

Considering the council’s description of the landscape as “bleak”, he called this “an accurate but nonetheless positive attribute”, noting the value to be found in “these remaining pockets of relative wildness and remoteness”.

Domestic clutter associated with permanent residential occupation of the property would risk harm to a “highly vulnerable area of unspoilt AONB and heritage coast landscape”, the inspector ruled. For these reasons, he dismissed the appeal.

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

A tearoom atop the White Cliffs of Dover that was used as a secret radar bunker during the Second World War cannot be converted into a holiday let with manager’s accommodation, an inspector has ruled, citing potential harm to the ‘bleak’ and ‘vulnerable’ landscape.

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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, sponsored by Landmark Chambers, is sent out every Monday. Sign up: bit.ly/planner-newsletters

Revised Epsom Hospital care community scheme approved The redevelopment of land formerly owned by Epsom General Hospital to create a 300-home ‘care community’ can go ahead, said an inspector, deciding after a six-day inquiry that an amended version was acceptable.

LOCATION: Epsom

New stadium and homes would ‘create sense of place’ An inspector has ruled that non-league football club Cheshunt FC’s plans to build a 2,000-seat stadium and 163 homes as part of a ‘sports village’ can go ahead as the scheme would be a ‘high-quality design’.

AUTHORITY: Epsom and Ewell Borough Council INSPECTOR: David Prentis PROCEDURE: Inquiry DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ P3610/W/21/3272074

The appeal concerned Cheshunt Football Club, which plays in the 7th tier of English football. The club sought permission to build a new 2,000-seat stadium in place of its existing ground, along with 48 houses, 115 apartments, and various community and commercial facilities as part of a development known as Cheshunt Sports Village.

Inspector Michael Boniface noted that the scheme’s design had evolved following discussions with the council, shifting from a contemporary approach to a more traditional appearance which sought to reflect existing properties in the area “without seeking to copy any one design”.

Although some of the apartment buildings proposed would be five storeys high, the inspector considered, the site was close to far larger buildings, and a recently permitted data centre would see more large-scale development nearby.

The scheme was “appropriately scaled for its intended public use” and would “assist in creating a sense of place and character as a destination within the borough”, he said.

Turning to the living conditions of existing LOCATION: Cheshunt residents, Boniface noted that the scheme would AUTHORITY: Broxbourne Borough Council involve some two-storey houses orientated to INSPECTOR: Michael Boniface the rear of some other existing homes.

PROCEDURE: Inquiry But he found little to support concerns that this DECISION: Allowed would lead to overlooking.

Noting the social and REFERENCE: APP/ economic benefits of the W1905/W/21/3271027 scheme and the council’s housing supply shortfall, Boniface saw no material considerations to justify denying permission.

The appeal concerned 1.5 hectares of land south of Epsom General Hospital which was formerly part of the hospital complex. In 2019, the land was purchased by the financial services company Legal & General for £18 million.

The company planned a major redevelopment of the site to provide a “care community” comprising “302 care residences, 10 care apartments and 28 care suites”, along with a restaurant, gym, wellness centre and other facilities.

When the council refused permission, an amended,

slightly smaller scheme was submitted, offering 35 fewer residences, but this was also refused. Both iterations were considered at a six-day inquiry by inspector David Prentis.

The earlier scheme’s tallest building was planned to be nine storeys, while the redesigned scheme was planned to have one less floor of accommodation, reducing its height by six metres. However, local policy sought to limit building heights to 12 metres outside of Epsom town centre.

Prentis pointed out that the council had itself acknowledged that this policy would conflict with its bid to optimise housing delivery. In the inspector’s view, the taller scheme would appear “excessively dominant” and would fail to respond to its context, while the shorter scheme would assimilate more successfully.

The inspector found that both schemes offered benefits, but only the revised scheme would achieve highquality design in line with national policy. He issued a split decision, allowing only the revised scheme.

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C&D { C Edinburgh university’s long-held sports village plans blocked

proposed would “reduce the clear demarcation between town and country which currently exists”. The scheme would be “damaging” to the area’s character and would fail to “create a landmark that enhances the skyline and surrounding townscape”.

Noting that the site was almost wholly in the green belt, the reporter ruled that the student accommodation proposed could not be considered ancillary to the sporting use of the site, noting that it was designated “as green belt, not a university

Topography and design justify six-storey co-living scheme A developer’s plans for a co-living development in Wandsworth offering 159 studios have been approved by an inspector, who ruled that the topography of the area meant that considering only the number of storeys proposed would be an ‘overly simplistic’ approach.

The appeal concerned developer Dandi’s plans for a part-two, part-six storey development in Wandsworth offering 159 co-living studios, as well as flexible internal amenity space, an internal courtyard and roof terraces.

The plans were endorsed for approval by the council’s planning officers despite 39 objections and no representations in support, but the planning committee voted to refuse permission.

The scheme’s studios were designed to feature “dynamic

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furniture”, including beds that can be raised to the ceiling when not in use, with a large light fitting equipped beneath.

LOCATION: Edinburgh AUTHORITY: City of Edinburgh Council

REPORTER: Katrina Rice PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Dismissed REFERENCE: PPA­230­2329

Inspector D R McCreery noted that the appeal site was occupied by a single-storey octagonal building that was “novel in its combination of scale and extensive site coverage”, but contributed “little to the character and appearance of the area”. It had created an “expansive townscape gap” that was uncharacteristic of the area, he said, with most surrounding buildings “more tightly knit at a higher density”.

Although the proposed building would be taller than surrounding development, which averaged three to four storeys in height, McCreery noted, the “sloping topography” of the site meant that a “straight comparison” in terms of height would be an “overly simplistic approach”.

The design of the proposal employed “a series of set

site, in planning terms”.

Acknowledging the university’s “long and proud history of promoting and supporting sport and exercise”, she noted that the scheme would deliver “facilities of a national standard” and acknowledged that the scheme had been a clear part of the university’s strategy for several years.

But Rice concluded that the scheme’s benefits would not overcome its conflict with the development plan, and dismissed the appeal.

I M AG E S |

The appeal concerned 20 hectares of playing fields owned by the University of Edinburgh in the south-east of the city. The university had sought permission to create a sports village at the site, comprising 573 units of student quarters across three Y-shaped blocks of up to 10 storeys, and an 8,700-squaremetre sports centre.

Reporter Katrina Rice noted that although a large proportion of the site would remain undeveloped, the height and scale of the accommodation blocks

SHUTTERSTOCK / ALAMY / ISTOCK

Plans for 573 student bedrooms and an 8,700-squaremetre ‘sports village’ in Edinburgh have been denied by a reporter, who was unconvinced that the scheme’s benefits justified its scale and incursion into green belt.

backs from the road and step downs in height” and was supported by “extensive evidence on townscape and visual impacts”, the inspector noted. Overall, he was persuaded that the development would not be “overly dominant”, and he allowed the appeal.

LOCATION: Wandsworth AUTHORITY: Wandsworth BC INSPECTOR: D R McCreery PROCEDURE: Written submissions DECISION: Allowed REFERENCE: APP/ H5960/W/20/3266181

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DECISIONS DIGEST{

SUBSCRIBE to our appeals digest:

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

24/7 prescription unit could endanger pedestrians A Newport pharmacy’s plan to install an automated prescription machine outside its premises has been blocked by an inspector, who was concerned that pedestrians could be forced off the narrow pavement and into the road if a queue formed. bit.ly/planner1121-pharmacy

Student halls would ‘radically alter’ landscape at rural university Plans for three blocks of student halls at a rural university in Gloucestershire would “radically alter” the landscape at the appeal site, an inspector has ruled, refusing permission despite the university’s need for more accommodation. bit.ly/planner1121-halls

Passivhaus library conversion would disrupt phosphate neutrality Plans to convert a library in Hay-on-Wye into four Passivhaus-standard holiday lets have been blocked by an inspector, who found that the development would cause harm to the River Wye by failing to achieve phosphate neutrality. bit.ly/planner1121-hay

Pandemic underlines need for sporting facilities An inspector has approved plans for a major expansion to a sports centre on the edge of Bicester, commenting that if the quality and quantity of sports facilities in the area was allowed to decline, residents’ health and wellbeing would decline along with it. bit.ly/planner1121-sports

Time called on listed Poole pub to make way for 74­flat block A locally listed pub can be demolished and replaced with a block of 74 flats, after an inspector found its significance as a heritage asset to be low and the proposed replacement satisfactory. bit.ly/planner1121-pub bit.ly/planner1121-pu yp p

Benefits justify business park’s expansion into the green belt The benefits of a plan to expand an existing business park in the Amber Valley into the surrounding green belt amounted to “very special circumstances”, an inspector has found, noting the “disproportionate” impact the pandemic has had on the area. bit.ly/planner1121-greenbelt

Inflatable ‘air dome’ over tennis courts deemed ‘unneighbourly’ A sschool in Buckinghamshire that erecte erected a 10-metre-tall inflatable ‘air dome’ over its four tennis tenn courts must remove the structure, after an inspe inspector called it “an alien and incongruous form of development” that harmed the deve character of the area. bit.ly/planner1121-dome

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An inspector has approved plans for 59 homes on land within a designated coastal and estuarine zone (CEZ) in North Devon, ruling that the appeal site and the area immediately around it did not have an “undeveloped or particularly tranquil character”. bit.ly/planner1121-devon

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Plans to convert a village pub near Swansea into a home have been blocked by an inspector, who found that serving meals might broaden the pub's appeal, despite another establishment less than a kilometre away already offering food. bit.ly/planner1121-swansea

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59 homes allowed in designated coastal zone

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Village pub saved from conversion after 100 objections

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LLegal landscape OPINION

When is a consultation not a consultation?

The overturning of Scottish Ministers’ amendments to planning policy shows the importance of paying attention to the rules, says Lynsey Reid

Ministers in relation to their In July 2021, the Court interpretation of SPP, and of Session quashed confirmed that SPP provided amendments made by a ‘tilted balance’ in favour Scottish Ministers to of the grant of planning Scottish Planning Policy permission where a shortfall (SPP) in December 2020, in housing land supply and Planning Advice Note was identified, or where a 1/2020, ‘Assessing the development extent of the 5 plan was “out years supply of “CARRYING OUT of date” (ie, effective housing A CONSULTATION more than five land’ (PAN WHERE EVIDENCE years old). The 1/2020), when OF IMPORTANT consultation giving judgment FACTUAL ISSUES proposed to in (1) Graham’s IS NOT MADE remove from SPP the Family AVAILABLE the presumption Dairy (Property) CANNOT BE in favour of Limited and JUSTIFIED development Mactaggart and

BY THE FACT that contributes Mickel Homes IT IS NOT to sustainable Limited and (2) AVAILABLE AT development Elan Homes THE TIME OF THE (from which Scotland Limited CONSULTATION” the ‘tilted v Scottish balance’ arose).

Ministers [2021] It also proposed CSOH 74. to make The consultation amendments which preceded to policy on the December housing land supply (HLS), 2020 amendments followed including setting out a the June 2020 case of method for calculating HLS Gladman Developments which used the ‘average Limited v Scottish Ministers method’ – in essence not [2020] CSIH 28, in which taking into account shortfalls the Court of Session in previous years. found against the Scottish

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In December 2020, Scottish Ministers published their ‘Finalised Amendments’, which kept a presumption in favour of sustainable development, but removed the ‘tilted balance’. Various amendments to HLS policy were made, but the methodology for calculating HLS was put into the new PAN 1/2020, to be treated as technical guidance rather than policy.

The petitioners had made representations during the consultation process, and their ground of challenge was that the consultation process had been so unfair as to be unlawful, as there was a lack of evidence for assertions made regarding the impacts of the proposals, and the final amendments relied heavily on a research paper which had not been consulted on.

The UK’s legal systems share their fundamental legal principles regarding consultation, and Lord Clark’s opinion sets out a useful outline of the relevant case law regarding whether a

consultation process has been unlawfully unfair.

In summary: 1. What fairness requires depends on the circumstances, including the extent to which those consulted can be expected to understand the issue, and how a reasonable reader would understand the documentation.

2. Whether nondisclosure of information makes a consultation unfair depends on

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process had been so unfair as to be unlawful:

“THERE IS A CLEAR TRAIL OF CASE LAW SETTING OUT THE RELEVANT LEGAL PRINCIPLES, AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THIS CASE”

various considerations, including the importance of the information to the justification for the ultimate decision, and whether consultees were prejudiced

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by the non-disclosure.

3. The consulting body must put consultees in a position to properly consider the consultation request, giving enough (sufficiently clear) information to enable an intelligent response.

4. It is not necessary to reconsult on matters that emerge during consultation unless there is a fundamental change of circumstances.

In applying these principles to the Scottish Ministers’ consultation, Lord Clark concluded that the

1. The basis upon which the assertion that the proposals would have ‘no impact’ on decision-making was not made clear, and so a reasonable reader would be unable to give an informed response to the consultation. The comparison upon which the assertion appeared to be based was not the right one.

2. There was little or no evidence supporting the proposals, and Scottish Ministers’ assessment regarding impacts. The consultation failed to identify consequences of changes to HLS provisions. Carrying out a consultation where evidence of important factual issues is not made available cannot be justified by the fact it is not available at the time of the consultation.

Although he did not consider the research paper constituted a fundamental change that required reconsultation, he did consider that its content demonstrated the lack of evidence and analysis on material issues in the consultation documentation.

3. Scottish Ministers’ description of the proposals as “technical and procedural” was incorrect, as, in the court’s view, they were “substantive and potentially farreaching”. This resulted

In brief Scottish Ministers amended planning policy and guidance to remove the tilted balance and amend housing land supply calculation Multiple petitioners challenged the decision on the grounds that the consultation on which it was based was unlawful Lord Clark agreed, finding the consultation was based on poor information and wrongful assertions It is advisable to follow established principles and rules when conducting a consultation

in the reasonable reader being (unintentionally) materially misled, and unable to give a “proper and affective response”.

For these reasons, Lord Clark quashed the December 2020 amendments and PAN 1/2020. The decision is an important reminder to policymakers of the importance of proper consultation. There is a clear trail of case law setting out the relevant legal principles, and lessons learned from this case, and those preceding it, should be kept in mind by both central and local government.

Lynsey Reid is an associate in Burges Salmon’s planning and compulsory purchase team. Burges Salmon advised Elan Homes Scotland and Gladman Developments on their legal challenges.

07/10/2021 14:34

NEWS RTPI news pages are edited

by Dominic Brady at the RTPI, 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has sent an overview of the award-winning work of the UK’s planners over the last year to its patron HRH Prince Charles.

The specially created brochure highlights some of the winners from the RTPI’s Awards for Planning Excellence 2021 and celebrates the contribution that planning and planners have made to society, particularly to create healthy and sustainable places.

In an accompanying letter, RTPI President Wei Yang FRTPI writes that the award-winning projects show how the planning profession is enabling places around the world to be more sustainable and inclusive, and to

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actively contribute towards reducing carbon emissions.

She writes: “I am delighted to showcase the work of our profession to your Royal Highness as our Patron and trust that you agree that we share many priorities for the future.

“It is our sincere hope that we can work more closely together to encourage the positive role that the planning profession plays in delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as global communities now urgently need a world where there is greater harmony with nature and the planet.”

In an introduction, RTPI Chief Executive Victoria Hills MRTPI also highlighted the success of the

Institute’s Plan the World We Need campaign which has promoted the positive role that planning can play in helping recover from the pandemic.

Prince Charles has been patron of the RTPI since 1989, and, in September 2019, agreed to continue in the role for another term.

In recent years, the RTPI has worked with The Prince’s Foundation on a number of projects, such as the international Planning for Rapid Urbanisation initiative and the Beauty in My Back Yard online resource. n See the full brochure sent to Prince Charles: bit.ly/planner1121-brochure

I M AG E | F R E DE R IC L EG R A N D COM EO / S H U T T E RSTO C K. COM

RTPI showcases work of planners to patron Prince Charles

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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

MY VIEW ON… THE IMPORTANCE OF URBAN PLANNING IN RESPONSE TO HUMANITARIAN CRISES Michele Vianello, international policy and research officer at RTPI The sustainable growth of towns and cities globally can support refugees and other displaced people to recover and be self-reliant, while displaced people’s contributions to a place can support a local economy to thrive.

However, quick inflows of people, low capacity and political opposition can result in displaced people being stuck in places cut off from the opportunities of urbanisation, leading to increased costs for humanitarian agencies and poor outcomes for

displaced people.

By bringing together existing evidence on urbanisation and planning approaches used in displacement settings the RTPI hopes to support humanitarian and development actors

to create secure and inclusive locations that benefit both the hosts and the displaced communities. n Read the full report at bit.ly/planner1121-displaced

POSITION POINTS

OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL PLANNING IMPROVEMENT COORDINATOR BARBARA CUMMINS, RTPI SCOTLAND CONVENOR RTPI Scotland is of the view that the Office of the National Planning Improvement Coordinator should be an independent ‘planning champion’, equipped to provide peer support to planners and other users of the system working in local government, national government, agencies, the private and third sectors.

We believe this role should take a positive approach to working alongside planners across sectors and specialisms to improve performance throughout the planning system, not just in local authorities.

The RTPI maintains that the perception of the independence of the role, not just from local government but other users of the planning system, including the development industry and community interests, will be crucial to its success. We therefore urge the government to consider creating an independent appointment where ‘ownership’ should be shared collectively by all users of the planning services.

Read the full think piece at: bit.ly/planner1121-npic

WORK COMMISSIONED BY THE RTPI TO CONSIDER FUTURE CHALLENGES TO RURAL PLANNING RICHARD BLYTH, RTPI HEAD OF POLICY, PRACTICE AND RESEARCH The challenges that rural communities are facing in the 2020s are wide and varied.

The urgent need to tackle and adapt to climate change, as well as to understand and address the short and long-term impacts of the pandemic are not just matters that are affecting our towns and cities.

The implications for rural communities are great, and we need to ensure that the planning system can equip rural communities and local authorities with the right tools to meet these challenges head-on.

We believe that this project will benefit greatly from the wealth of knowledge and expertise of this academic consortium, and we eagerly await their findings and recommendations on this vast and important topic.

Read more about the project here: bit.ly/planner1121-rural

I M AG E S | RT P I

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NEWS

Sue Bridge FRTPI to become RTPI Vice-President 2022 current role as Chair of the Board of Trustees until the end of 2022.

Sue was Head of Planning for six years at Northampton Borough Council and has worked since 2014 as an independent planning consultant. She became a Fellow of the Institute in May 2018.

As well as her work on the RTPI’s Board of Trustees, she has also volunteered on the Planning Policy and Practice Committee and on the English Policy Panel.

Victoria Hills MRTPI, Chief Executive of the

“I’M DELIGHTED THAT VICE­ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TONY CROOK FRTPI WILL BE PART OF THE BOARD FROM 2022 AS A CHARTERED TRUSTEE”

RTPI, said: “The RTPI is delighted to have a planner of Sue’s calibre as its next Vice President. Sue has many

RTPI Northern Ireland selects its Young Planner of the Year RTPI Northern Ireland is pleased to announce that Donna Lyle (left) has been awarded the Young Planner of the Year Award.

The award seeks out the brightest RTPI members in the first 10 years of their career. Potential candidates can work in any area of the industry. It is awarded to an outstanding young planner who can demonstrate a

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contribution to planning or significant career achievements in recent years in Northern Ireland.

Last year, RTPI Northern Ireland named its first Young Planner of the Year – Ryan Walker – who went on to win the overall RTPI Young Planner of the Year.

This year’s winner, Donna Lyle, is a Senior Planner at TSA Planning.

years' experience as a planning practitioner in both local government and the private sector and has served the Institute in a range of voluntary roles. I am sure she will bring a range of interesting and challenging ideas to the table at this fascinating time for the profession.

“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the other vicepresidential candidate Tony Crook FRTPI, and I’m delighted that he will be part of the Board from 2022 as a Chartered Trustee.”

She has had a varied career from which she has benefited and gained a range of experiences.

Donna is passionate about her position as a role model and leader among female planners, having been a founder of Northern Ireland Women in Planning.

The judges said: “Donna is clearly an excellent role model for young planners, and had a very accomplished start to her career, which has allowed her to further influence

I M AG E S | RT P I

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is pleased to announce that Sue Bridge FRTPI (pictured, right)will become the Institute’s VicePresident in 2022.

Sue, who has been a Trustee of the RTPI Board since 2016 and Chair of the Board since July 2019, emerged victorious from an election that was open to all Chartered members (MRTPI and FRTPI).

Following her year as Vice-President, working alongside 2022 President Timothy Crawshaw MRTPI, Sue will become President in 2023.

She will remain in her

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MEMBER NEWS

2022 subscriptions Susan Bridge FRTPI, Chair, RTPI Board of Trustees

and promote females in the profession.

“Through Women in Planning she has provided a forum to encourage discussion and support within the profession here in NI, and the events run through the network have offered something different to other planning events that take place in NI. “She is an excellent role model to both men and women, as shown through her dedication to all types of development control and forward planning in her work in England and now in NI.”

This year has seen many challenges, and research reports; not all of which are related to the k Offered an outstanding online pandemic. Climate change, urban programme of CPD masterclasses; displacement, and perhaps most k Launched our Politicians in importantly how we use the towns Planning network; and cities that we live in have also k Celebrated a year of CHANGE been rising to the top of the agenda.

– our action plan to promote the planning profession to be as diverse The role of planning in all these areas is now more important than it as the communities it represents; and has ever been. For example, where topics like 20-minute neighbourhoods k Welcomed the first cohort of once might have been apprentices applying more of a conceptual to complete their End “OUR dream, circumstances Point Assessment of the PRESIDENTIAL are turning them into a Chartered Town Planner TEAM IS viable reality.

Apprenticeship.

CURRENTLY IN Working in planning GLASGOW FOR PART might be more To be able to do all OF THE COP26 challenging than it has this and more we need SUMMIT TO PUSH ever been, but it is also your continued support.

OUR CASE AND more exciting as there at is why this year ENGAGE IN DEBATE Th are real opportunities for the Board of Trustees AND DISCUSSION” has taken the difficult positive change, which the RTPI is embracing decision to increase and facing head-on. the subscription rate It’s why, for example, by 2 per cent. For a our Presidential team Chartered member is currently in Glasgow for part of that is a rise of £6.00, the price as the COP26 summit to push our case a fish and chips from your local and engage in debate and discussion, takeaway. We hope that you’ll agree because planners need to be at the that, despite the increases in the top table to help achieve net-zero cost of living and the challenges ambitions. See more about the we all face, your membership still RTPI’s stance at COP26 visit bit.ly/ represents value for money in terms planner1121-cop26 of promoting and campaigning It is not just about using our for the value of planning and the influence to bring about positive profession. Members will shortly change; we also want to engage the receive their RTPI Membership public to change their perception of Renewal notice confirming their planning. That’s why in early 2022 we RTPI membership subscription fees will launch a microsite to help prove for 2022. Subscriptions are due for the value of planning to society and renewal on 1 January annually. attract new people into the profession.

Overall, it has been a busy 2021. The n If you have any queries email RTPI has: subscriptions@rtpi.org.uk, or phone 0370 774 9494 n Make sure to are getting the k Launched NURTURE – our mentoring programme; most out of your membership: bit.ly/planner1121-membership k Published a range of policy, practice

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Here is a selection of the most recent opportunities from a few of those organisations working with The Planner to recruit the best quality candidates in the marketplace.

Principal Planning Of cer Salary: £39,413 £47,201 pa Location: Windsor, Berkshire

Planning Manager Salary: Competitive Location: Bristol

Senior Development Planner Salary: £27,000 £35,000 pa FTE, depending on experience and location Location: London, Manchester, Bristol

Planning Monitoring Of cer Salary: Competitive Location: This position can be based in any of our Scottish of ces or from home

Principal Planning Of cer Salary: £45,859 – £47,839 (pro rata for hours worked) Location: Stevenage, Hertfordshire

Planning Of cer

Salary: £27,041 £35,745 p.a., plus bene ts Location : Cambridgeshire

To a dve r ti s e pl ease em ai l : t he pl a n n e r jobs@redact ive. co. uk or ca l l 0 2 0 7 880 623 2

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Principal Planning Of¿cer Development Management (Strategic Sites and Place Team) • • • • •

Salary £42,186 to £47,745 per annum Permanent post Flexible working arrangements (home/of¿ce) Generous annual leave and bene¿ts including private health care Relocation Package

This is a new post within a newly restructured and expanding development management section that is needed to help address a signi¿cant increase in developer and inward investment interest within the district, realise Dover’s ambitions for high quality growth and regeneration and contribute to the Council’s strategy to mitigate climate change. This is a senior role that will make a positive contribution to the shaping and delivery of the Council’s planning service.

Dover District is an exciting place to come and work, live and enjoy life. The area is steeped in history, with the iconic White Cliffs, Dover Castle and the historic coastal towns of Dover, Deal and Sandwich.

Leisure opportunities abound along our stunning coastline, within our vibrant and growing towns and attractive countryside, part of which includes the North Downs AONB. The district is amongst one of the most attractive and diverse in Kent and offers a stimulating and varied range of environments and opportunities within which to develop and advance your planning career.

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Principal Planning Of¿cer: Reporting to the Team Leader (Strategic Sites and Place), this post will play a key role in the newly established Strategic Sites Team. Having a breadth of experience in processing major planning applications and negotiating S.106 agreements with minimal supervision, you will take responsibility for your own caseload and also contribute to a development team approach focused on processing pre-application enquiries and planning applications for the Council’s strategic (plan allocation/project) sites. You will have a customer focused and proactive approach and aim to secure high quality outcomes, using PPA’s and arranging/attending Design Reviews when required and negotiating S.106 agreements. You will present cases at planning committee and at appeal and will deal with all applications in a timely way and to target. The role provides an opportunity to take on line-management responsibility to assist the Team Leader as required. Knowledge/experience of dealing with Urban Design, viability and other specialist issues aligned to this role would be an advantage.

For an informal discussion about this post, please contact: Peter Wallace: peter.wallace@dover.gov.uk (01304 872462) or Luke Blaskett: luke.blaskett@dover.gov.uk (01304 872449).

Closing Date: 15th November Interviews to be held 22/23 November.

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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 World Town Planning Day 2021 Remember, remember the 8th November. Endorsed by the RTPI, World Town Planning Day is now celebrated in 30 countries and on four continents as it seeks to bring about a wider awareness of the aims, objectives, and progress of urban and regional planning around the globe. Visit here to see what the RTPI and others have in store, or to promote your own WPTD event. bit.ly/planner1121-world

RTPI COP 26 hub The UN’s COP26 summit takes place from 31 October to 12 November with the aim of accelerating action towards the goals of the Paris agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The RTPI is hosting events during the summit and you can find out about them here – as well as take a look at the RTPI’s collated list of resources on the subject of tackling climate change. bit.ly/planner1121-cop26

Young Planners’ Conference 2021 – Our Place in a Climate Crisis It’s hashtag #YPConf21 for this year’s RTPI Young Planners’ Conference, which takes place in Edinburgh on 29th October, just days after this magazine lands and immediately prior to COP26 kicking off in Glasgow. Its principal theme is ‘How can planning address the climate crisis and what is our place as Young Planners in responding to this crisis?’ Visit the link for the full programme.

Programme: bit.ly/planner1121-crisis | Event: bit.ly/planner1121-ypcon

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RTPI Research Awards 2021 For anyone yet to catch up on this year’s winning entries, the full 60 minute awards ceremony is now on YouTube should you want to find out about the winners, which include a project that highlighted declining design quality after planning permission is granted (Hannah Hickman MRTPI, winner of the Sir Peter Hall Award for Research Excellence) and a project considering the use of survey data in planners’ decision-making processes. bit.ly/planner1121-research

Kiss The Ground The content tsunami on the world’s streaming services includes some powerful documentary work. Now, with COP26 top of mind, the 1hr 24-minute Kiss The Ground from Netflix sees science experts (and, sure, some celebrity activists) explaining the ways in which a focus on the Earth’s soil is the key to combating climate change and preserving the planet. Narrated by Woody Harrelson, naturally. bit.ly/planner1121-kiss

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LANDSCAPE

Breakpoint – a counterhistory of progress Director Jean-Robert Viallet’s documentary examines what it describes as the Anthropocene epoch – two centuries of progress that have led to the ecological crises we face today.

Its premise is that, having trapped around 1,400 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere and invented such things as napalm, pesticides and radioactivity, man has irrevocably changed the Earth.

Over 1hr 38 minutes this film questions the scientific, economic, and political values of the modern era.

Strong stuff, and so not the lightest of entertainment. It’s on Amazon Prime. bit.ly/planner 1121-break

Webinar – Urban Planning & Displacement Olafiyinfoluwa Taiwo, chair of the Commonwealth Young Planners’ Network and a member of the RTPI International Committee, oversees this event focused on how urban planning expertise is used in different ways by a range of actors in displacement settings, from international agencies to local governments and displaced and host communities. The webinar considers how engagement with planning poses new challenges and can help to navigate new opportunities offered by urbanisation processes. bit.ly/planner1121-urban

When Fracking Comes to Town: Governance, Planning, and Economic Impacts of the US Shale Boom Editors Sabina E Deitrick and Ilia Murtazashvili trace the response of local communities to the shale gas revolution in the US. The multidisciplinary perspectives of this volume’s essays tie together insights from planners, legal scholars, political scientists and economists. The book promises “a more nuanced perspective” of shale gas development and the impact that it has had on municipalities and residents.

Publisher: Cornell University Press ISBN: 9781501760983

What we’re planning The Thames with Tony Robinson The actor, comedian and archaeologist Tony Robinson fronts this series – there’s now been three! – about the River Thames in which he explores the role it has played in the past, and continues to play today, in providing London’s inhabitants with clean water, extracting sewage and irrigating natural habitats along its banks. Individual episodes on Battersea Power Station, London Gateway and Greenwich form part of this latest six-episode series. bit.ly/planner1121-thames

Upoming editions will reflect a particularly busy period, with COP 26 as well as two RTPI conferences taking place in Scotland. We’re writing about the agent of change principle and the right to light, as well as considering what the levelling-up agenda is and planning’s role in delivering it. Our January edition will also see us discussing the future of the profession with the incoming RTPI president for 2022, Timothy Crawshaw.

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

Book today rtpi.org.uk/training training@rtpi.org.uk + 44 (0)20 7929 8400 @RTPIPlanners #RTPICPD

Boost your CPD with interactive online masterclasses High-quality expert training for planning professionals PLN.NOV21.052.indd 52

rtpi.org.uk/training

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