Tribute to Test Valley planning teams

Sorry this one is out of sequence, but I do want to pay credit to my colleagues in Test Valley Borough Council, who invited me back to see how my team's 1976 Romsey Town Centre Plan had panned out.
The invitation came from Policy Design and Conservation Manager, Steve Lees, one of two heads of service responsible for planning at TVBC - the other, who had just been appointed, being Paul Jackson, Head of Planning and Building, who joined us for the tour.
Steve was a little perplexed at some recent advice on the submitted Core Strategy, but his team was clearly enthusiastic and we briefly discussed the challenges of capturing all stakeholder commitment in a two-tier local authority structure, a common issue for LDF processes.


I met many young planners and those, who weren’t MRTPI, were licentiates or well on the way through their part-time planning courses. I remember well the excitement of securing MRTPI, just before I took up the post of TVBC team leader, Policy and Conservation, in 1973!!
We reviewed the old plan and I was particularly interested in the Bell Street, Romsey, area, where I cut my teeth on understanding the economics of conservation - when faced with a council-owned tranch of land, just behind a line of listed buildings within the conservation area, but in poor condition.


I was advised by a councillor to “go and speak with the enemy”, the local estate agent who gave me advice I have never forgotten.
One scheme would create values where an “accidental fire” might take place to allow comprehensive redevelopment; the next would have no impact at all and buildings would continue to fall into disrepair; the promoted scheme - in what we believed was the first planning “development brief” in the country - was to put parking in and secure ginnals through to the rest of the town centre.
We were also concerned at the general quality of new design, so Colin Stansfield Smith - now Sir Colin, the county architect - was persuaded to provide expert young architects (Huw Thomas, Neil Bradbury, Robert Adam and especially Steve Harte, who designed the car park and landscaping) to illustrate well designed extensions, to again provide the basis for investment in the listed buildings.
Colin also agreed to use Huw to design a housing scheme on the Abbey Garth which the County Council constructed as speculative housing which as you can see is still an outstanding design.
These proposals were put in place and the buildings were refurbished, now 30 years later, as the centre of specialist ladies' shops for Romsey, the ultimate test of “viability”.
We walked round Romsey and, with improvements from Steve over the years, were able to see that all of the Plan proposals had been put in place!
Romsey is a little gem and I must also credit the local conservation society, created to “save” Romsey, when it became part of Test Valley, in 1974 with Andover, whose council had previously demolished about 50 listed buildings in their town centre!
Back for lunch with the Cabinet member, CEO and other staff and old friends.
It was a particular pleasure to meet Bob Gregory, the Development Manager North, who I had appointed in the mid 70s as a trainee and sent off to college to get qualified. He hasn’t aged a bit and still looks youthful - but now has a family!
A real pleasure for me to see what real planning is about.




The following week, with Rynd, Tino and others, I met Phil Kirby, (then) President, David Hackforth, about to be (now) President, and Steven Tapper, Junior now Senior Vice President of the Planning Officers Society.
The RTPI is refreshing a number of relationships and this, with the POS, is an important one. The conversation established potential links between RTPI Networks and POS committees and looked at other issues, where a common agenda might emerge. Those responsible for planning in local authorities are the “face” of planning and the review allowed us to demonstrate how important the RTPI believes they are to the profession as a whole.

Martin Willey
2009 RTPI President

Meeting some unsung heroes in Yorkshire

Off to Yorkshire to stay - first of all - with Honorary Secretary Peter Wilbraham and his lovely wife, Anna, in Menston, a Pennine village north-west of Leeds, as they had kindly agreed to put me up during my Yorks and Humber visit.
Following a hearty breakfast of kedgeree, kidneys, a full English, porridge, wholemeal toast, croissants and healthy live yoghourt, I left by train for Leeds to meet Richard Crabtree, of Arups, the Regional Branch chair, who was to be my guide.

York City planning department was the first stop, where we received an excellent presentation from Mike Slater’s team, on their emerging local development framework and some major projects within the historic city centre.
York was a poor performer until it received the gypsies whisper from GOYH (the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber), and the newish council invested substantially in new resources, with immediate effect.
Their core strategy is in an advanced form, with a further stage of community engagement about to commence. We discussed the value of a visionary overview and an infrastructure framework to align other public stakeholder investment, and then took a walk around the walls and past a number of hugely sensitive development sites, where archaeological digs were underway.



York has not had an approved development plan since 1956, and the much treasured Green Belt has never been approved. The city has extended its boundaries into adjoining districts, so now has a rural hinterland. It is one of the most beautiful places anywhere and I came away full of admiration for the excellent work their planners are undertaking.

Next, Mr Wilbraham’s annual Cobbetts supported CPD (continuing professional development) conference on Development Control in a wonderful listed building in the middle of a city centre park. The other presentations were very technical and clearly hugely helpful to the 114 delegates. Mine sought to explain what the RTPI was doing for the sector, but - to my horror! - only three delegates have heard of and are members of our Development Management Network (and one of those is Past President Janet O’Neil). More for us to communicate here!

Then back to Leeds for YORnet, a wonderful multi professional built environment professional forum, led by Young Planner Bhupinder Dev, whose energy is staggering! As a consultant, who has gone back into local authority work, he is a good example of how YPs bridge the gap between public and private sectors, without any prejudice. Charles Veal, from RTPI HQ, had also kindly supported my day and managed to raise the first £50 for my Presidential charity, LINK, at a social session in the evening, kindly sponsored by Peacock and Smith Leeds planning consultants - for which, thank you!

Supper chez Wilbraham, then a breakfast the following morning - of tap water, bread and dripping - and back to Leeds Station, from where Richard drove me to Wakefield.
I have fond English Cities Fund memories of the City, where I selected and promoted what is now Merchant Gate - a major mixed use scheme between the railway station and the city centre, that is now under construction.



Of particular note is that, under Ian Thompson’s leadership, they have an approved core strategy, have DC workers transferred into the LDF team, following the drop in applications, seemed to have mastered the “other public stakeholder alignment” challenge and, most significantly, operating within a multi disciplinary department, were quietly using the LDF process to guide the community, sustainability, economic and investment strategies of the corporate plan.
This approach absolutely mirrors my personal aspirations for the LDF to eventually become the sole LA strategy for engaging the community – a one stop “continuing conversation” rather than consultation fatigue from multiple documents – and for a robust public and private investment framework.
All power to your elbow, Ian and team, and despite the rain, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the fruits of your endeavour in many regeneration schemes on the ground.

Next, off to meet the unsung heroes of planning, those at the regional level in what has in Y & H been transferred from the Regional Assembly to “Local Government Yorkshire & Humberside.” Their planning team, led by Richard Wood and Chris Martin gave me a hard time on how those at regional level in RA or RDA felt forgotten by the RTPI and how regardless of what a new government might do, the regional strategic approach brought huge benefits to communities. We agreed that there was a need to find a language that demonstrated the rationale and outcomes of planning between local and national levels. I await their case and this issue will feature in one of my planning articles later this year.

Finally, back to Leeds for a round table discussion with over 20 heads of planning, academics and others from throughout the region, again addressed by Steve Q and myself. It was a frank exchange of views and it is clear that there are huge political and other pressures on those planners who operate at the coalface.
The academics also explained how the independence and thus status of some planning schools were being challenged by their being brought into multi functional departments. Steve and I were able to explain both what is on offer from CLG (Communities and Local Government) and the RTPI, and how we intend to continue to promote the essential benefits of planning and the need for strong planning schools.

I was particularly impressed by the commitment and stamina of our local authority colleagues. The RTPI must continue to use whatever influence it has, to sustain a properly resourced planning service in local authorities.

So, the end of my first regional visit... with a pint of Yorkshire bitter, before being dropped off at the station by Richard, who had arranged an excellent visit for me. I have to say that I slept most of the way back!

Martin Willey
2009 RTPI President

Robust discussions and greater understandings

The first of two meetings at Communities and Local Government (CLG) involved our bi-monthly session of co-operative working, where we were shown a map of local authorities’ local development framework (LDF) Core Strategy performance – not a happy picture.
Reasons vary from inadequate reflection of guidance, to political resistance, to problems surrounding the increase in housing, reflected in approved Regional Spatial Strategies (RSS), to lack of professional capacity. The reduction in Housing and Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG) – albeit from a much increased level over the next couple of years – may impact further on performance. However, the Government Office (GO)–Planning inspectorate (PINs)–Planning Advisory Service (PAS) regional task forces had been helpful. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Advisory Team for Large Applications (ATLAS) are also coming in with the expectation that major projects and infrastructure investment will require robust LDFs in place.

The second gathering was of 20 major and two sole trader consultant heads meeting Steve Quartermain, the RTPI team and me to consider more effective methods of engagement for what is now more than 50 per cent of the profession.
The meeting started off with some complaints, but ended with both gaining a greater understanding of the RTPI service offer and a framework for future co-operation with both CLG and RTPI. We will meet again in the autumn to monitor progress. I also hope to repeat these sessions, as part of some of my regional and national visits.

Next, a robust and healthy discussion with the Young Planners’ Steering Group – a baptism of fire for both Ann Skippers (next year’s President) and me. They are a lively and challenging bunch and our debate ranged primarily around why perceptions of planners are so negative. They came up with some good ideas, especially through the use of new technology techniques, such as blogs and twittering (lost me at this point, although my children are always accusing me of wittering on – is this the same, I wonder?)
The evening of 12th May was one of the most pleasurable events to date for me, as President, where I was invited to give the presentation at the 40 years celebration of the accreditation of London South Bank University’s planning course.
As a part time alumnus, who studied for the then RTPI external exams at, firstly, Brixton School of Building and then South Bank Poly, it allowed me the luxury of reminiscing about those wonderful teachers who laid the foundation for my planning career – Shean McConnell (theory), Tony Morris (history), George Chartres (design) and “Fitz” (economics) – never did find out his christian name but he had a brilliant teaching technique of bringing in a newspaper, often the FT, getting us to read and understand a story, then providing the economic theory behind it.

George, on the other hand, taught me to think and present in 3D, an early foundation for what became “place making”, once you added the people! It was great fun meeting past and present lecturers and students.

Next week, the first of my “proper” regional visits, Yorkshire and Humber, returning to one of my favourite parts of the country where youngest daughter Alex was born – in North Yorkshire.

Martin Willey
2009 RTPI President