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 any of that music during the episode because using commercially-licensed music without the copyright holders permission or a very expensive PRS licensing agreement could land Sam in hot water, so, when you have finished listening to this episode, you will have to make do with YouTube videos and a Spotify playlist, links to which you will find below.
Sam's guest for this episode of Hitting The High Notes is Aecom Director Ben Castell (@ben_castell). Their conversation takes in the New Deal For Communities; CABE; good practice design guides; the Housing Market Renewal Initiative and neighbourhood planning.
Ben's song selections.
Brickbat by Billy Bragg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgKKZSF04Ks
Clandestino by Manu Chao
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSEUH4KRfN8
Police & Thieves by Junior Murvin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlP3J3J3Upw
Honest Life by Courtney Marie Andrews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cv0ATLNDJQ
Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town by Kenny Rogers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1e9p6J89rQ
NW5 by Madness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1J2-_u9DOM
Ben's Spotify playlist.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6IXe20tZ0BPbd4kwTa6iN3?si=uDSo6r43TjuwQ-rEZkwcEA&dl_branch=1
50 Shades of Planning
Sam Stafford started posting on the 50 Shades of Planning blog in 2012 and in 2019 turned it into a podcast. 50 Shades of Planning is about the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which is a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners. If you would like to feature on 'Hitting The High Notes', or know somebody that would make a great guest, please email [email protected].
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com.
As with the 50 Shades Blog, the 50 Shades Podcast is a platform for Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is produced in partnership with Cratus Group.
Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between...
