Reflections on 70 Years of Planning

John Dean Memorial Lecture/Young Planners Conference 

John Dean: 8 June 1931 - 2 August 2018

This week I had the honour(?) to chair a couple of major Planning events. A distraction from the day job but you do need to raise your gaze. And to talk to others to know the trends.

Two very senior public sector Planners separately bemoaned to me about the continuing  ‘dismantling’  of Planning with ‘prior approvals’, 'permission in principle’ and even neighbourhood planning dumbing down standards. It was seen as a conspiracy to reduce the status of planning. 

While I also regret these changes I don’t think it is some sort of Government conspiracy. More about trying to create publicity and being seen to do something.

In my opinion such injunctions in the new NPPF related to  design quality, including the curse of value engineering; greater need for Plan justification for removing green belt; and, front loading of viability assessment enhances the role of public sector Planning not diminishes it.

For me on the dark side of Planning, but caring just as passionately as my public sector colleagues, getting approval is harder not easier. With applicant Planning Appeal success down to an all time low of 25%, with even longer wait times for decisions, its even harder. 

The trick is to accept the new reality and move on.

L to R Grant Butterworth, Martin Bradshaw, Sir Peter Soulsby, Alwyne Dean, John Acres, Peter Wilkinson.

Memorial Service and Lecture for John Dean

John will be remembered by many members as City Planning Officer of Leicester for over 22 years, an ex RTPI President; Planning enthusiast par excellence; and, an all round good egg. As previously reported he passed away in August and a Memorial Service at Leicester Cathedral is being held at 3pm on Thursday 1st November. All are welcome.

On the same day, Thursday 1st November, John was due to give a major speech on:

   Reflections on 70 Years of Planning

So to celebrate his life , there will be a special evening of talks held at City Hall in Leicester the same evening. Martin Bradshaw (ex Civic Trust Director and former RTPI President) and Sir Peter Soulsby (Leicester City Mayor) will reflect on the life of John and the subject of 70 years of Planning since the introduction of the Town and Country Planning Act in July 1948. Martin intends to weave John’s observations into his own thoughts to give a unique perception of the 70 years through which both lived. 

The current RTPI President John Acres will also be in attendance, as will a number of other famous Planners from previous and current eras.

The talks will start at City Hall at 5:30pm. The event is free but a booking is required through eventbrite: https://bit.ly/2NmkDrT

Please circulate so all his old colleagues and friends know.

Speeding Up House Building

Recent LGA research into speeding up housing build rates struck a particular chord with me. And two points in particular.

Firstly, it called for an end to binary arguments on whose fault delays are. Councils and Developers frequently blame each other and clearly that is the easiest way to grab a headline or soundbite. 

The reality is that from initial identification of some land by a prospective developer to the occupant moving into a new home an absolute myriad of steps is involved. And a myriad of expertise of a wide variety of players. The joining up of all the dots is at least as important as the dots themselves. No one person can be ‘expert’ at more than a few tasks.  The process, while not completely linear, is very tortuous. There is a long critical path, where one slip can bring the whole exercise to a grinding halt.

 

So lets have less confrontation and more negotiation (incidentally Landmark Planning’s strap line!)

Secondly, the conclusion of the press release for the research document, calls for greater Planning Officer control.

In that it meant "empowering officers so that they are not just ‘post boxes’ for other views but have the capacity and capability to add value”. 

A massive round of applause to that. How frequently are applicants in the position where they have to satisfy every requirement of all the consultees? It means designing down to the lowest common denominator, which is a complete recipe for dumbed down design and mediocrity.

As a very good friend, a Council Planning Officer, said to me recently on a major housing scheme we are negotiating. Here we are with the highway authority imposing their standards on us, which compromise the design. We, as Planners, consult everyone, but how much does everyone else in setting their standards? They just impose their views on the Planners.

So go on Councils, empower your Planning officers to actually use their training and strike balanced judgements. You never know, we might help get better houses built out quicker. And wouldn't that please the Government.

Very sad to hear of John Dean's (22 years Leicester City Planning Officer and RTPI President 1987). 


John worked with Landmark Planning for a while after he left the City Council to provide some suitable gravitas to a young company.

The families intention is to hold a private funeral service for family and close friends, but to hopefully arrange a memorial service in Leicester Cathedral in October. This is when all his many collaborators will be invited to remember a great Planner.

Sincere condolences to Alwyne and all their family.

Hard Print is Not Dead

1970's

Present Day

I have been a daily subscriber to the Leicester Mercury for over 25 years. As it’s from the same stable as the  Derby Evening Telegraph and Nottingham Evening Post I imagine they have taken similar trajectories in sales, design and content. I believe that in the 1980’s the Mercury would sell plus 150,000, but it is now down to less that 30,000 daily sales. While they might not have been as popular, the other two evening papers will doubtless have seen similar declines. From the 1990’s onwards I have seen regular stories about redundancies at these papers (and others) as a consequence. 

The obvious inference from these facts is that this decline with a spiral of falling circulation and declining standards is terminal. And of course it might be.

But actually I think (and hope) not. What has really surprised me is that the quality of the Mercury seems to have measurably improved in the last few years. Pictures, now both in colour and black and white have improved in quality by a significant level. They are better, sharper and more pertinent to the written word. The content is more varied with a more magazine-like feel and broader appeal, which, for me at least makes sitting down for a quiet 15 minute evening read much more pleasurable. 

And finally the accuracy of the content. I am sure nearly everyone when reading a story about something, which they know about,  has said in the past that either some fact may be wrong or the interpretation is flawed. Well I can only comment about the area for which I have some expertise and can therefore comment authoritatively: property, planning and development. I am sure I am not looking through rose tinted spectacles, but I feel the standards here have also risen substantially in the last few years.

So well done Mercury (and others?). I hope you can make another 100 years. At the moment you certainly deserve to do so.

St Georges Churchyard, Leicester in Context

Historically Town Planning was associated with the visionary development of places and spaces from new towns in the medieval period (Market Harborough) through the industrial revolution (Saltaire) to those of the 1950's and '60s (Milton Keynes). In terms of spaces I don’t think anyone would question the quality of John Nash's Regent Street. But this progressive nature of town planning has largely been lost in the latter part of the twentieth century. It is now often replaced by a regulatory and bureaucratic regime that frustrates both developers and objectors in roughly equal measures. The flair has gone out of town planning.

In my opinion over the last few years Leicester has started to readdress this balance, but  in a way that is more sympathetic to the existing urban fabric than much of Konrad Smigielski's plans of the 1960's. The "Connecting Leicester" project, for example, has, and is, substantially improving much of the City centre. The De Montfort campus has been transformed; the restoration of buildings such as the Great Hall and City Hall are a delight; and, the Highcross Centre is a first class example of modern facilities integrated into an existing urban fabric.

As with progress everywhere one is never going to agree with every proposal. I certainly don't. At first I was very unsure about the proposals to transform the context of Lutyen's War Memorial on Victoria Park. Now it has been implemented, I can see that, in say 10 years, there is every possibility that it could be another special place. For sure our City Fathers will not get it right every time, but at the moment I think their win loss record is at least as good as Alex Ferguson's (65%) and he is widely acknowledged as the most successful Premier League Manager of all time with 13 league titles.

And for me this transmits to the current debate about St Georges Churchyard, including the loss of 21 trees. Public comment has been almost universally negative. At the very least we should give the City Council the benefit of the doubt; given their recent track record. In time I am also very confident that their approach to opening up this dark and dank space will be seen as another positive contribution to the City. If anything, I think, the opposition has caused them to scale back their plans with the removal of less trees than originally proposed. I would have been more positive; further opened up the space; and, removed more of the trees; especially those that are somewhat misshapen and becoming overly mature. 

Lets see the works undertaken and ask those who are constantly carping to refrain until the works are undertaken. In my opinion the City has another winner on its hands and it could be another fine example of positive town planning in Leicester.

Annual Midlands Development Management Conference

Landmark Planning 's 19th annual event was, I am pretty sure,voted a success by the 150 who were there. Next year's RTPI President, John Acres, opened proceedings with an insightful shifting of the gaze from the coal face; but delegates seemed most interested in the substantive content on how to do their job better. 

Alfreton Rd Nottingham, Major scheme by Hodders -

Gail Stoten assessment of harm to heritage assets was very well received while the role play (based upon North Kesteven's Planning Committee model) was not only enjoyable, but also very educational. The fact that the audience came to a very different conclusion than the Blaby Committee who actually had to determine the application was instructive to say the least. Ian Davies, the real life  Development Manager gave the post decisions consequences, which highlighted that we are in the real world making real decisions that affect people' lives. 

And that is why Development Management  is so important. The other joy is our advocates Hugh Richards and Simon Stanion who always ham their roles up to be parodies of objectors and supporters. Good on you guys.

This year we concluded the day with the legal updates from Hugh and James Burcher, which worked well. As they had been on opposite sides in the first Supreme Court case on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) (five years after it was issued) brought a real insight into where we stand at the moment.The primacy of the Development Plan and where a Council cannot demonstrate a five year housing land supply then the 'tilted' balance of NPPF para 14 and sustainable development is only then engaged is fundamental. 

By next year in time, for our 20th anniversary event, hopefully more can be known and explained about how we actually define this housing need. Not before time I hear you say. Book early as we were sold out this time and had an unfulfilled waiting list.