Planning Inspectorate Newsletter - Issue 4
Planning Summer School 2006
This year, Planning Summer School was held at the University of Kent in Canterbury, perched high on a hill with spectacular views of the city.
The programme was incredibly varied and covered a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the planning of major growth areas to the building of playgrounds. These were delivered in the form of talks, discussions sessions, workshops and case studies. A full list of topics and copies of papers can be found at:
http://www.planningsummerschool.org
In addition, delegates were offered the opportunity to attend a choice of study tours.
For me, the highlight was going on the Ashford Study Tour. It provided an opportunity to get out into the field and actually see policy issues developed and put into practice.
Of equal importance, was the opportunity to meet with a range of people from differing backgrounds with varying experiences. I had expected Summer School to be educational, good for personal development and somewhat interesting; I hadn’t anticipated that it would be so much fun! It was a great opportunity to get together with others and to make new friends. Without incriminating any of my colleagues, I can say that a good time was had by all…and I have the footage to prove it!
Ashford Growth Area
Ashford is facing up to the growth area challenge of planning for 31,000 new homes and 28,000 jobs. The tour started with a presentation of the masterplan, then took in a walk of the central sites before concluding with a coach tour of the peripheral sites under construction or earmarked for proposed major development. Having, recently read ‘The Cost of Bad Design’ by CABE, it was interesting see a prime example of how the dominance of major roads adversely impacts the growth and spirit of a town. It was therefore encouraging to see a reversal of this trend, with plans to narrow the ringroad and integrate mixed pedestrian and traffic movement. Part of the long term vision is to build three new residential areas comprising of 6000 houses each. The challenge will be to create a sense of identify for what amounts to the creation of three new small towns, each of which will have a new high street/town centre, and avoid the area from becoming a dormitory town (particularly in the face of the new high speed rail link to london that opens in 2009). It will also be interesting to see how the town now copes with the new pressures caused by Eurostar’s recent decision to transfer its services to the competing area of Ebbsfleet.
Victoria Cooper
This was the first time I have been to Summer School and it certainly lived up to expectations. The talks/workshops were very varied and stimulating and, as with all such events, ranged through the inspirational, the educational and the entertaining through to the less obviously interesting but necessary. It really was good to get to make new friends and meet old colleagues. I recommend that people go if they have the chance.
During the intensive programme barrister Charles Mynors gave a thought provoking talk on the need for simplification of the planning system With the planning system as we know it having existed for around 60 years, the primary legislation is in 4 main Acts, the latest being largely independent of the other three. However the secondary legislation is in 101 regulations directly related to planning and supplemented by a further 100 or more directly or indirectly relevant. As he put it, ‘the need to sort out the uncertainties, overlaps and quirks of the system of course generates money for lawyers (which is one of the first signs of a system in crisis) - but much unnecessary delay and expense for everyone else’. The system is difficult for professionals to understand but is completely impenetrable for the public.
Among his ideas for change were the simplification of what needs consent; fewer types of consent; simplification of procedure; clarification of the basis for decision making (e.g. deciding in accordance with the development plan, having special regard to the desirability of preserving listed buildings, having due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination etc.); rationalisation and elimination of repetition of policy e.g. why have Green Belt policy repeated in the PPG, the RSS, the Structure Plan and the Local Plan?; a simpler system for making minor changes. Advocating at least a consolidation of the current legislation and a purge of the current secondary legislation, he acknowledged that there may be other and better ideas for change but floated some ideas for a much more streamlined system.
In contrast, some of us spent a couple of hours doing some ‘real’ planning (felt pens, visionary ideas). This workshop was run by the Urban Renaissance Institute and looked at urban design and density issues. Using photocopies of layouts from Building for Life awarded schemes, innovative recent developments and classic urban layouts - and felt pens - we cut and pasted ‘tissues’ of ready designed development onto our sites to produce master plans. A need to get to grips with the rather unusual task, lack of information about the wider context and shortage of time and made it rather frustrating, but each group just about managed to come up with a draft scheme. We could have made millions and given up the day job, but I somehow doubt our design would have been feted in the architectural press. Rochester would definitely never have been the same again!
Isobel McCretton
Study Tour to the Isle of Sheppey, and a talk on Finstock Playground
Anyone needing to travel to the Isle of Sheppey, will be pleased to know that the new bridge from North Kent to the Isle (Swale crossing) has now been opened (on the right in the photograph when it was under construction), and you won’t have to allow so much time as you used to when you had to wait for the lifting bridge to open and close (just above it). The latter is still working for those who prefer it, not least because it has to carry the train as well as the old road.
The reason for the new bridge is the major regeneration scheme for Queenborough and Rushenden, which lies within the Thames Gateway. 70% of the regeneration area of 168 hectares is contaminated brownfield land, which is to be brought back into use. The area will have new commercial and retail development, as well as community, leisure and environmental facilities, 2,000 houses, a marina, and improved transport links including roads. 
There are schemes for education and training to fill skills gaps, and new employment in marine and tourism areas. The Port of Sheerness nearby, with its historic dockyard, is Britain’s fifth largest port, and we saw hundreds of imported cars at the dockside, and fresh fruit being unloaded. The Masterplan involved many of the existing community in what they wished to see, and the (portable) model of the Masterplan was built by local schoolchildren. Further information is at http://www.qrregen.co.uk/. Details of the Masterplan are at http://www.qrregen.co.uk/document/261 and http://www.qrregen.co.uk/document/262.
For a very different and much smaller scale approach to community involvement we saw a presentation about the design (by the village community) of the Finstock Playground, in Oxfordshire, also built by them in 9 very long days, for about £60,000. Almost a victim of its own success by attracting people and cars from far and wide, it has also generated a number of other village projects in Finstock.
For other pictures and details (for example if you want to build your own) see:
http://www.won.org.uk/export/won/Projects/Past/FinPlayground.html
Stuart Reid
Marine Spatial Planning
On the theme of new areas into which spatial planning might develop, Jim Claydon of Terence O’Rourke Associates demonstrated how this could be a tool used in the marine environment. The Government intend to introduce a Marine Bill in 2007, which would include such initiatives. To illustrate the potential for a comprehensive approach to the spatial planning of marine areas, he set out the results of a pilot study undertaken in the Irish Sea. The mapping of the various uses of the area, from fishing grounds to undersea pipelines and cables to dredging and aggregate extraction, showed the complexity of these often competing uses, together with their relationships with land areas on the coasts, and highlighted both the need and the potential for an holistic approach to the marine environment. This could be used both to identify opportunities for new development and to help resolve conflict within existing situations. Many of the people involved would be technical specialist such as geologists and marine biologists. However, the process, which would involve plan making, stakeholder involvement and relationships with various consenting regimes, are all familiar matters to town planners who could have an important role to play within any new system of marine spatial planning.
Liz Hill
I was very fortunate to attend summer school this year, which was held at the campus of the University of Kent. The event included plenary sessions, workshops, study tours and of course social events. The topics were wide ranging and included regeneration issues, spatial planning both on land and at sea, design and provocative papers on planning law and its need for simplification and questioning the assumption that sports pitches should preserved.
Some of the workshops were aimed specifically at delegates from local planning authorities and the private sector, for example a workshop led by Chris Young, a Barrister from No 5 Chambers, on Public Inquiries. I found these particularly interesting because the spin given to the information was obviously quite different from the way in which it would be presented at the Inspector's Annual Training Week. I attended the study tour to the Isle of Sheppey, a part of the country that I had never visited before. Like the whole of the event, it was well planned and extremely interesting and focussed on the regeneration challenges of the area. The Inspector delegation had an additional study tour of Canterbury, which was arranged by David Smith and Jonathan Bore, and of course included a visit to a good restaurant and some local hostelries. In summary, I consider that the event was very well organised, extremely interesting and good value for money.
Shelagh Bussey
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