50 Shades of Planning

00:55:52

The Bin Lorry Effect

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/07/03

‘Well-intentioned highways department rules and guidance have had a devastating effect on new housing developments over the past 80 years. Many have led to roads not streets, units not homes, and ‘could-be-anywhere’ housing developments, not real places with centres and edges. A range of rules have the effect of stopping you getting out and about, preventing you meeting your neighbours, stopping you from creating communities and locking you into car dependence.’ That is a quote from the

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00:44:53

A conversation with Clive Betts

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/06/19

Death, taxes and reform are the three certainties that accompany planners along life’s endless cycleway. Insofar as the latter is concerned, this is one of the more turbulent periods. White Papers come and White Papers go, but last year’s was particularly notable for it’s almost wholesale reimagining of the planning system. “Radical reform unlike anything we have seen since the Second World War”, wrote the Prime Minister in his foreword to ‘Planning for the future’. “Not more fiddling around

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00:53:42

Some are more equal than others

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/06/05

What is town planning for? The Royal Town Planning Institute champions the ‘power of planning in creating prosperous places and vibrant communities’. The Town & Country Planning Association ‘works to challenge, inspire and support people to create healthy, sustainable and resilient places that are fair for everyone’. As Raymond Unwin wrote in the foreword to the Housing, Town Planning, Etc, Act of 1909: "Town Planning has a prosaic sound, but the words stand for a movement which has perhaps

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01:00:56

Hitting the High Notes - Ben Castell

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/05/15

Hitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career. Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear

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00:54:28

Fudge

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/05/01

"Thanks to our planning system, we have nowhere near enough homes in the right places. People cannot afford to move to where their talents can be matched with opportunity. Businesses cannot afford to grow and create jobs. The whole thing is beginning to crumble and the time has come to do what too many have for too long lacked the courage to do – tear it down and start again." So said the Prime Minister in the Foreword to 2020’s ‘Planning for the future’ White Paper. “Instead of new homes

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00:57:25

Cracking the Code

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/04/10

“We should aspire to pass on our heritage to our successors, not depleted but enhanced. In order to do that, we need to bring about a profound and lasting change in the buildings that we build, which is one of the reasons we are placing a greater emphasis on locally popular design, quality and access to nature, through our national planning policies and introducing the National Model Design Codes.” So said Robert Jenrick when announcing at the end of January 2021 the Government’s response to

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01:04:03

Hitting the High Notes - Victoria Hills

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/03/27

Hitting The High Notes is town planning’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. In these episodes Sam Stafford chats to preeminent figures in the planning and property sectors about the six planning permissions or projects that helped to shape them as professionals. And, so that we can get to know people a little better personally, for every permission or project Sam asks his guests for a piece of music that reminds them of that period of their career. Unlike Desert Island Discs you will not hear

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00:56:18

EA in the UK after the EU

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/03/12

As a 50 Shades of Planning Podcast listener you will be perceptive enough to have spotted that the United Kingdom has left the European Union. Town Planners will have noted in so doing that the regulatory regime for the assessment of environmental impact within the UK’s planning processes has been at least heavily influenced by, and at most grown to mirror, the rules, regulations and judgements emanating from and handed down in Brussells and Strasbourg. Environmental Assessment is on the

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00:59:47

Neutral Impact

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/02/27

Eutrophication might not have been a word that planners came across too often before November 2018, but many now know if they didn’t before then that it is the process by which nutrient-laden water encourages algae growth to the extent that it starves water and sediments of oxygen, forms a barrier to birds feeding, smothers seagrass beds and saltmarshes. Until November 2018 it was largely the case that an Appropriate Assessment undertaken to accompany development proposals affecting

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01:10:33

The Unearned Increment

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/02/03

Consensus between economists is rare, but almost all agree that there is a moral argument for the taxation of land. Planning reform, death and taxes have long been three of life’s certainties. Land taxation and the concept of betterment dates back at least to the time of Henry VI who is thought to have captured the value of land improved by royal investment in flood defences. Winston Churchill spoke in 1919 of the “unearned increment” accrued by landowners following public investment in

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00:56:29

Can the British plan?

50 Shades of Planning ·

2021/01/19

'Can the British plan? Sometimes it seems unlikely. Across the world we see grand designs and visionary projects: new airport terminals, nuclear power stations, high-speed railways, and glittering buildings. It all seems an unattainable goal on Britain's small and crowded island; and yet perhaps this is too pessimistic. For the British have always planned, and much of what we have today is the result of past plans, successfully implemented...' This is the synopsis of 'Great British Plans' by

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00:44:54

Reflections on 2020 - Part 2

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/12/27

Is it right that old times be forgotten, asks Robert Burns in the opening line of Auld Lang Syne. Instinctively one might want to say yes to that insofar as 2020 is concerned. Much has been lost, but it’s also right to say that much has been gained too. We are at home more, a trend that might have happened at a much slower pace if at all in some places, and we are perhaps working more patiently and emphatically with each other, which is a trend that probably would not have happened at all. It

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00:33:50

Reflections on 2020 - Part 1

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/12/18

Little did Sam Stafford know when recording Episode 14 in Manchester at the end of February 2020 that every episode for the rest of the year, and who knows how far beyond, would need to be recorded remotely. This is the first of two episodes that feature reflections on 2020 from past contributors to the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast. It is hoped that it serves two purposes. More immediately, it is hoped that in taking the time to listen you get chance to reflect on what you might have been

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00:52:05

Tall Stories

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/12/04

The nights have drawn in. It’s impossible as in previous years to nip out for a pint in order to escape Strictly or Celeb (at least it is in Tier 3). A long, inhospitable winter will have to be endured before there is any possibility of a springtime shot in the arm and a return to something approaching normal. Sprinkled on top of this bleakness for planners is that the handling of the White Paper arguably makes planning’s systemic challenges harder to tackle than should have been hoped

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01:10:31

Legal Eagles

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/11/18

Planning law is a serious business. If the lawyers need calling in then typically something going very well needs safeguarding or something going very badly needs salvaging. If lawyers do get called in then matters also get very formal. A protocol for this and a correct way of doing that. Lawyers and the law are to be revered... Planning law seems more important, more influential and more high-profile than ever. Planning lawyers themselves though seem more accessible, more engaging and more

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00:53:24

Beauty is in the eye of the freeholder

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/10/16

‘We want to ensure that we have a system in place that enables the creation of beautiful places that will stand the test of time’ states the 'Planning for the future' White Paper. Not just well-designed places. Beautiful places. The Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission, set up to advise government on how to promote and increase the use of high-quality design for new build homes and neighbourhoods, proposed that beautiful placemaking be a legally enshrined aim of the planning

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01:10:09

The High Street is dead, long live the High Street

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/09/30

‘Vital and Viable’, the good practice guidance that accompanied the old PPG6 included a large survey of planning authorities. A fifth of town centres in 1995, it was reported, were then thought to be ‘declining’, while only a few metropolitan cities and historic towns thought of themselves as ‘vibrant’. What would the results of such a survey be now? Oasis, Warehouse, Debenhams and Cath Kidston have filed for administration and between M&S, John Lewis, Boots and WH Smith 14,000 jobs could

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01:09:13

The Numbers Game

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/09/17

“At the moment, some local authorities can duck potentially difficult decisions, because they are free to come up with their own methodology for calculating ‘objectively assessed need’. So, we are going to consult on a new standard methodology for calculating ‘objectively assessed need’, and encourage councils to plan on this basis.” So said the ‘Fixing our broken housing market’ White Paper in February 2017. It might have been hoped that the introduction of the standard method in 2018 would

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00:51:21

Places & Spaces

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/09/08

A place, in the urban context at least, is its buildings, the spaces around them and the hustle and bustle of people making their way betwixt and between them. The only place that many people have known for a while though is home. On the one hand we have got to know our local environs more, but, on the other, and as we creep tentatively back into towns and cities, how will we find urban places now? The buildings are less densely populated and might soon need to be used for different things

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01:02:39

A conversation with Chris Findley

50 Shades of Planning ·

2020/08/25

In a piece written during a recent period of furlough leave Sam Stafford posited that a career is like climbing a mountain in that the real reward is at the top when you can sit back, with the greatest possible perspective, and take it all in. Sam gets the chance to test that theory in this episode by chatting to Chris Findley who, as many North West-based 50 Shades listeners will know, recently retired after a 42 year career that included 26 years at Salford City Council. The conversation

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