Visiting the Land of Scots

My wife Philippa and I travelled up to Edinburgh last Tuesday evening to attend a number of events in Scotland on behalf of RTPI members. We have a great affection for Edinburgh and my maternal grandfather was a Mossman, a border Scot! Our youngest daughter, Alex, attended university there so we visited regularly buying up most of what IKEA Edinburgh had to offer (then having to shift it down south when she left)! Ian Rankin and his detective stories of Inspector Rebus show the dark side of this great city but for us, the sun is almost always shining and for this visit it was crisp and bright - Scotland at its best.

We started at the RTPI in Scotland Office run by the enthusiastic and able Director, Veronica Burbridge and her team of Annette, James and Charles. RTPI Head of Research, Jenny Crawford is based at the office too along with Research Assistant Kendra Gracie, who also supports the Commonwealth Association of Planners Secretary General Cliff Hague. They are a smashing bunch and made us feel extremely welcome.

Our first engagement was meeting with officers of the Edinburgh Planning Department, Damian, David and Dorothy (the 3 Ds!) who took us on a walking tour to show us conservation and development schemes around Princes Street (as seen in the picture courtesy of City of Edinburgh Council), the main shopping street overlooking Edinburgh Castle and the Castle Gardens. The area is suffering temporarily because of the introduction of a new tramline from Leith on the waterfront, through the city centre and out to the airport in the west just short of the M8 to Glasgow. However, once complete, the tram will reinforce a spine of communications linking residential areas with employment, culture and education in a safe and attractive form of public transport – what a great initiative.

The design challenges of a World Heritage Site and the motor car has resulted in some good schemes notably St Andrew Square (an award winner the next day) onto which the new Harvey Nichols store fronts. There was much honesty in reviewing schemes and certainly some of the careful mixtures of new and refurbished development proposed will transform Princes Street and give it the design reputation it deserves as the “High Street” of Scotland. This new vision for the city centre, known as the “string of pearls” vision, will rejuvenate the area and see the street divided into distinctive blocks (the so-called pearls – as shown in the attached illustration courtesy of Jonathan Guthrie/Project Edinburgh). I could see why most planners working in Edinburgh either had been there or intended to remain there, for some time. It is a beautiful city with many opportunities for even more good planning. As someone whose career has been throughout the country, albeit in some attractive places, I admire those who give their lives to one place and can see the results of their hard work realised. All power to your elbow Edinburgh City Planning Department!

After lunch I addressed the Scottish Young Planners Conference alongside Simon Pallant espousing the benefits of Planning Aid and Nicola Hay from the Environment Department of the Scottish Government explaining their approach to Place Making and sustainable development, in particular Eco-Towns. The Young Planners are a lively bunch and under the able chairing of Prof. Trevor Davies, ex. Planning Cabinet member of Edinburgh Council, there was a healthy dialogue and exchange of views.

I also remained on the stage to participate in a discussion with David Harding promoting the value of public art and Alistair McIntosh demonstrating people power in planning using the example of the Isle of Eigg, a Hebridean island located off the West Highlands of Scotland acquired by the community through a public world wide appeal. These two sideways looks at the world of planning were both refreshing and humbling; two great men giving up their lives to their chosen causes and enriching the lives of planners by their commitment.

A dinner later that evening with Veronica, the current and ex. Scottish RTPI Convenors John Esslemont and Roger Kelly, representatives from the government and the Inspectorate and Cliff Hague, led to robust discussion on the role of the RTPI and Scottish planning practice. I came away impressed by the ‘planning village’ in Scotland with enormous strengths and close co-operation between central and local government, and between public and private practice.

Thursday commenced with a visit to Heriot Watt University ably led by Prof. Alan Prior where I met students and lecturers from one of the best UK Planning Schools. The students were a lively and confident bunch whose main concern was the availability of jobs once they completed their courses later in the year. (My article for Planning this month seeks to address the issue of the job market in a recession.) On the positive side I drew attention to new planning jobs in social infrastructure – health, education, care – in utilities, the emerging climate change industry and education/research. However the fall out up and down the planning and development supply chain is having a deleterious effect on the traditional planning jobs in local and central government and its agencies as well as in consultancies. The RTPI is now more flexible regarding APC eligible experience and I believe that a combination of voluntary work such as in Planning Aid and earning enough from non planning work could also see some graduates through and beyond the recession and into chartered membership.

(picture courtesy of Tendai Mutasa)

I was delighted to attend another superb planning awards ceremony, this time addressing the Scottish Planning Awards. This encompassed the Patrick Geddes Awards to students, the Designing Places Awards and the Scottish Quality in Planning Awards. The Scottish National Party Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, Stewart Stevenson, an ex. banker, made great play of how he was more popular as a Planning Minister than as a banker!! Both he and the Chair of the main judging panel, the Deputy Editor of the Glasgow Herald Joan Burnie demonstrated great faith in the planning system, although I drew attention to the business value of planning to newspaper profits! The overall winner was a delightful rural regeneration scheme on Lerwick Waterfront in the Shetland Isles. It was a very Scottish solution with good eco and community credentials as well as some sympathetic designs, a worthy winner.

My presentation included reference to Scotland punching above its weight in championing planning and I also thanked Jim Mackinnon, the able Chief Planner, for the influence he applies in sustaining planning interests.

Philippa and I came away pleased that we Sassenachs were allowed across the border to address Scottish Planners. We look forward to our next visit.

Presidential visit to Parliament

A busy ten days for me started with the annual ROOM@RTPI lunch at the House of Lords. On the first Monday in March each year, Lord Edmonton (an ex trade unionist) books the House of Lords veranda marquee overlooking the River Thames for ROOM and has done so for the last 10 years. The event originated when ROOM was the National Housing and Town Planning Conference before the National Housing and Town Planning Council (NHTPC) moved under the wing of the RTPI and was renamed ROOM@RTPI. The event includes a tour of Parliament then a lunch addressed by the Lord Edmonton and two other guest speakers. Funds raised from each ticket sold subsidise the London Branch of ROOM each year and the event tends to be attended by contractors and Housing Associations with a few consultants thrown in for good measure.

I have visited the Houses of Parliament a number of times including chairing a couple of events but have never experienced the tour which was fascinating. The history of Black Rod, the opening of Parliament and the Queen’s presentation of her government’s proposals for the following year provides a rich tradition. Both Houses were much narrower than they appear on TV, two swords lengths apart for the front rows. There are not enough seats for all Members to sit at the same time so I guess it can be quite a scrum!

I was invited to the lunch by John Harvey, the “Association’s” (now included in Networks) representative trustee on Executive Board, who wanted the President to talk about the links between housing and planning especially in these troubled times. I was able to refer to the current problems surrounding Section 106 Agreements relaxations on affordable housing to promote development and also talk about the RTPI-CIH Planning for Housing Network, a joint initiative launched last year with the Chartered Institute of Housing. Another important issue I raised is the need to sustain quality and sustainability standards alongside volume in the current environment. I feel strongly about this issue as there are enough bad examples of short term fixes to housing problems over the last 60 years for planners to be cautious about relaxing standards in a poor market! It was an enjoyable event although there is still much to do in improving links between housing and planning professionals.

On Thursday I briefly joined in on a telephone conference organised by the Global Planners Network (GPN), administered by RTPI’s Judith Eversley, which brings together representatives from planning bodies in Australia, Canada, the Commonwealth, USA, France and ourselves, looking to share knowledge of planning best practice internationally. The challenge for the GPN is how to resource and manage an initiative where the wealthier bodies can contribute resources but the less wealthy, in relative terms, have the greatest need both to own the GPN and benefit from it. More to follow as my year progresses.

Later that day I joined a distinguished panel at the EcoBuild Conference and Exhibition to discuss, amongst other things, EcoTowns. The event was chaired by Sarah Montague of Radio 4 fame and consisted of Maxwell Hutchinson (architect), Christian Wolmar (transport commentator), Kelvin McDonald (strategic policy consultant), Toby Lloyd (consultant) and myself. There is understandably a great deal of suspicion regarding EcoTowns especially in the current economic climate. However, the Panel did not entirely reject them but felt that there would almost inevitably be a need for substantial public investment upfront and so they would have to take their chances with other schemes. The truth is that we all felt that EcoTown standards should be applied to all major development and that urban extensions were more likely to deliver sustainable communities in the short term!

Keep track of my blog next week when I will report back on my Presidential visit to Scotland.

Martin.

My first meeting with Mayor Boris

Ireland 14: England 12…………… and 2 more England yellow cards!

Nonetheless we had a lovely weekend and Ireland is the only side unbeaten with the potential to win the 6 Nations Rugby Trophy 2009 so we will support them in their remaining matches.

Back to the RTPI, the first event I attended on your behalf was the London Planning Awards where for the first time I met London Mayor Boris Johnson. He was extremely funny introducing City Hall as one of the worst buildings in London with an impossible interior then having to give an award to the developer of the site next to it thus demonstrating his impartiality and lack of influence over the judging process! I spoke briefly with him and Sir Simon Molton his planning advisor where they both explained that one of the most enjoyable aspects of their jobs was a two hour weekly session to review planning applications submitted to them. The Mayor has a genuine interest in the impact of planning on the lives of Londoners and we should find a way of engaging him again.

The Mayors Award, reflected the RTPI Planning Awards Silver Jubilee Cup winner went to the Channel Tunnel Rail link and other awards included a beautiful garden in South London bringing peace and tranquillity to a difficult area – quite delightful. The Awards allows the RTPI to stand alongside others in promoting high quality and sustainable development in the Capital city. Afterwards at the awards drinks reception on the 9th floor we enjoyed wonderful views across the River to Tower Bridge and beyond, which was an enjoyable experience with other built environment professionals from London.

I also ended up doing a small piece for the Guardian Arts section (published on 3rd March) owing to the excellent network of our new(ish) Marketing Team led by Tino Hernandez, but this time following a link through Sophie Stapleton our New Zealand Communications Manager (best not to talk about rugby!) She persuaded a Guardian journalist to send me to the Le Corbusier Exhibition at The Barbican Art Gallery and then interview me regarding my impressions of it as a Town Planner. The interview was then turned into a first person piece and although a little journalistic licence was used by the journalist, it reflected my views well. I was always aware of the Le Corbusier foundation for the delightful two storey, white, flat roofed dwelling design from the 1930’s but was not so aware of his master planning work in places as far afield as Marseille and India. Also, for me with my interest in art (my Paternal Great Grandfather was a 19/20th century engraver) his pictures and tapestries were full of colour and life. If you want to read the article the click here.

Martin Willey
2009 President

Presidential visit to Northern Ireland

Maybe being 60 isn’t quite so bad? I had a lovely birthday weekend with my family and friends where the young went to bed first and appeared to recover slowest!

My first commitment of the week was meeting with the RTPI Executive Board. We are delighted to welcome three new members - Janice Morphet and Mark Southgate, Corporate Members elected for 2009-2010 and Young Planners representative Charlie Collins – I’m looking forward to working with them over the coming year. As an Institute we are approaching 23,000 members and are seeing the gender structure change from 70/30% male/female currently, to a 60/40% female/male intake of youth which is good to see. There are only three female trustees out of 15 although the RTPI General Assembly (GA) is moving towards a better mix. Nonetheless, 2008 RTPI President Janet O’Neill and future 2010 President Ann Skippers are female and I expect to see the trend of greater female involvement in the RTPI’s governance continue. A good example is the election of Leonora Rozee, a long standing member of GA as vice president of the Town and Country Planning Summer School, to be President next year.

However, I regret that we are not being so successful in addressing ethnicity with a very small percentage of members in comparison to the community we serve. Last year, the Board had two members from non white groups; this year none. This is one of the reasons I have chosen a presidential charity that concentrates on Africa, the largest of our Commonwealth friends. LINK Community Development http://www.lcd.org.uk is an educational charity that raises money for Black education. Their CEO Steve Blunden is an enthusiastic and able leader, growing the organisation to help promote understanding of the African issues in the West and bring about an improvement in educational attainment in Africa itself. We are discussing projects within RTPI Botolph Lane but I hope to raise enough money to provide a placement for one or two RTPI Young Planners to go out and promote better dialogue between planners and educators in local authorities and perhaps participate in a project such as building teachers housing in the rural areas to attract teachers there. Watch this space and expect me on my RTPI Presidential Regional and National visits to ask you to raise cash for this outstanding charity.

I also had my first Presidential engagement in the wonderful community that is Northern Ireland. My wife Philly and I visited Belfast and represented the RTPI at two events, both at Stormont, the most spectacular government building I have visited. The first was the RTPI-RSPB Northern Ireland Sustainable Planning Awards 2009 where we were treated to a wonderful series of presentations varying from a 60 hectare community to a small lock keepers cottage based centre providing visitor services as part of a tourist attraction. The winners included a Theatre in Derry that had been refurbished to provide community support of a truly sustainable nature. The link between the RTPI and RSPB is one of great synergy and may I thank the Director Aidan Lonergan, his team and the RTPI Northern Ireland (NI) Branch team for their excellent organisation.

The second event was the RTPI NI Branch Annual dinner addressed by the sometimes controversial Minister for the Environment, Sammy Wilson MP MLA. It was a memorable experience. Sammy was a kindred spirit, clearly hugely enthusiastic about planning and the RTPI. His after dinner speech was highly amusing but most importantly, extremely supportive of the RTPI NI Branch. At the moment, Northern Ireland is undergoing a Review of Public Administration including new District Councils with planning powers, previously applied solely from the centre. In my reply to Sammy I offered thanks on behalf of the RTPI for his support and extended the possibility of sharing with his department, perhaps at a Convention later in the year, some of our English experience of change and in particular lessons learned from our 2004 Act. Northern Ireland has a special opportunity to learn from English experience, good and bad, and commence a new period of sustainable and spatial planning that might be a catalyst for all the change the community is seeking. I wish them well.

At the end of the evening, the RTPI NI Branch Presidential chain was passed from Fiona McCandless to Gavan Rafferty, both clearly at the younger end of the profession! For Philly and I, it was a special visit as two of our children have recently married into Northern Irish families. We were both looked after with great kindness and courtesy by the RTPI NI Branch team for which we thank you. We love the Northern Irish community, although this coming Saturday when Ireland play England at Croke Park, Dublin, we will, of course, be supporting England!!!

Finally, many of you have visited this blog but nobody has responded to the issues I have raised. I encourage you all to do so, so that the blog becomes both a Presidential communications service to members and an opportunity for you to ask questions or raise issues for wider discussion.

All the best

Martin
2009 RTPI President

Green Planning Awards in Northern Ireland

left to right (front row): Declan Hill from Todd Architects representing the Woodbrook Project, Lisburn; Niall McCaughan from the Playhouse, Derry; Hugh McCann from Orchard Acre Barn, Fermanagh.
left to right (back row): Aidan Lonergan, Director RSPB NI; Martin Willey, RTPI President.

A shot of the finalists from the Awards.

The second week was if anything busier than the first week!

I started my second week as RTPI President with the SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers) Annual Dinner, an impressive event which provided me with the opportunity to meet their President, Trish Haines and a number of SOLACE officers and to meet old friends including Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the BBC Trust and my erstwhile Chair of the English Cities Fund. He informed me that one of the schemes I helped identify outside Wakefield Railway Station was just starting on site 6 years after we started discussions! Make sure you go and see it – an exciting combination of mixed use and good design, linking the railway station with the city centre. I have to say Brindley Place eat your heart out.

Most importantly, SOLACE is an important potential partner for the RTPI in promoting the status of planners in Local Authorities. They need to be persuaded that a planner should ALWAYS be on a Local Authority Management Team, planning should ONLY be delivered by Chartered Members, and we need them to resource Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) as a matter of urgency in these difficult times. I will be discussing this issue further in my column next week in Planning.

I was part of a small RTPI team who met Sir Bob Kerslake, CEO of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) during the week. We met to discuss the scope for planners to be part of his "Single Conversation" with Local Authorities not least in the promotion of LDF resourcing, I am pleased to report there was a great deal of constructive dialogue. We also discussed the scope for a closer relationship between RTPI and HCA Regions. The issue of planners skills also emerged and Sue Percy's excellent work with the HCA Academy, previously the Academy of Sustainable Communities, will clearly continue. We will be holding further discussions shortly to see how relations might develop but it is clear that the RTPI's offer of support for the work of the HCA, through our Networks and Regions, might bare fruit. Watch this space!!

Next I met Steve Quartermain the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Chief Planner. We discussed, amongst many things, the possibility for higher levels of co-operation between our Regions and Government Offices (GOs). This will feature in my Regional visits this year. Some Regions invite a GO rep occasionally to their meetings, some do not. If we are to increase our influence as a body, perhaps we need to maintain regular correspondence with our GOs, collectively in the Regions, as well as for individual purposes? Steve is a great ambassador for the profession and we need to deliver results for him at CLG, particularly through the provision of practitioner experience and solutions. The RTPI Networks offer a ready made source of expertise here and Rynd Smith, RTPI Director of Policy and Practice will lead on this.

If you need reminding, my Presidential theme is "Planning Delivering Solutions" – The 2008 RTPI Awards ceremony, my last engagement of week 2, was a brilliant platform to expand on this message and provided dozens of "solutions" from throughout the UK. The event was a success due to the high calibre of award winners and superb organisation skills of Judy Woollett and her RTPI team. With the arrival of the National Policy Statements and the Infrastructure Planning Commission, it was a great joy to see the Channel Tunnel Rail Link: High Speed 1 win the Silver Jubilee Cup - a major infrastructure project delivered on time, on budget and with optimum, economic, environmental and community benefits. This surely bodes well for the planning process. For me personally, it was wonderful to meet so many friends from throughout the country, and to be approached by many colleagues with the phrase "Do you remember me" - difficult to miss me with the chain around my neck but impossible for me to remember everyone I have had the privilege of working with - and to hear "Do you remember me? You gave me my first job."

I’m celebrating a milestone this week – I’m turning 60 and I’ve got to say I am beginning to feel my age. But I’m not alone as two other RTPI colleagues share a birthday on Valentine’s Day - Janet O'Neill, RTPI President 2008 (but who of course is many years younger than me) and Rynd Smith. It’s bad enough having my surname but apparently my grandmother also wanted to call me "Valentine"!

Catch up soon,
Martin.


Photographs: © Haymarket

My first week as RTPI President

I’ve just passed the one week mark into my year as RTPI President after a wonderful inauguration at the Royal Society of Arts, with lots of friends from my previous life joining me on the evening, together with the RTPI General Assembly and last years’ excellent RTPI President Janet O’Neill, who all attendees congratulated on a terrific year. Any delusions of grandeur I might have had however were quickly erased by grand daughter number 1, Caissie, who said in a loud voice during the ceremony: “Why is Grumpy wearing a big necklace” of course referring to my RTPI Presidential chain!

My first engagement as President was acting as an RTPI representative at the annual RTPI West Midlands Region multi professional “Great Debate”. This was held at Arup’s excellent eco friendly offices in Solihull where the RTPI WM Regional chair Sue Manns resides. I’ve attached a photo to my blog showing most of the panel and despite representing planners, engineers, architects, surveyors and the new Homes and Communities Agencies (HCA) three of us were planners - myself, Paul Spooner (HCA) and Louise Brooke-Smith (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors - RICS). The big issues were coping with the credit crisis which I plan to talk about more in my monthly column in Planning but we were also challenged on sustaining design quality and delivering Local Development Frameworks (LDFs). John Baker, chair of the Development Plans Network, gives a fascinating presentation on LDFs entitled “What are you waiting for?” and I share his sentiments!

Although many Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) have benefited from the injection of Planning and now Housing and Planning Delivery Grant (HPDG) to accelerate the LDF programme, large numbers are still some way off Core Strategy approval. It is absolutely essential that we deliver LDFs as quickly as possible and if we are short on capacity then we should look to capture the surplus delivery skills out there and available I suspect at reasonable rates? It may be that we have to persuade the department of Communities and Local Government (CLG) that HPDG should be made available on a more flexible basis to achieve this?

There is much good advice available from the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) and the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) and some Government Offices (GOs) are running mentoring schemes to share knowledge of efficient approaches without losing “local distinctiveness”. A number of us met the top team at CLG a week or so back and they are hugely supportive of the Spatial Plan Led process. At the RTPI we will continue to look at ways of disseminating best practice and encouraging the Regions and Nations to take a supportive lead. If we can identify additional sources of finance we will signpost them.

Design quality also emerged at my second presidential engagement at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) concerning Design Review Panels (DRPs) supported by The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and all of the design professions. Experience of DRPs was generally good, but there were issues regarding increasing councillor and community awareness of the importance of good design and also making sure our professional members are properly trained at University and through Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the principles of good design. I know that Colin Haylock, RTPI Executive Board trustee, CABE commissioner, Chair of the RTPI Urban Design Network and Chair of the Urban Design Alliance is taking a lead in this area. The DRP team are also looking at increasing accountability of DRPs with Annual Reports and Councillor Briefings on the agenda.

I sign off my first blog in Somerset, snowed in, but a beautiful day nonetheless and look forward to hearing from you.

Martin

Picture: Katrina Sealey LBIPP