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 Pete Swift. After graduating in Landscape Design & Plant Science at Sheffield University, and spending some time in Japan, Pete (@peteswifysan) co-founded landscape and design practice Planit. Their conversation takes in the Liverpool International Garden Festival, Michael Douglas in Black Rain and Tom Hicks and George Gillett's tenure at Anfield.
Pete's song selections.
Absolute - Scritti Politti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7Mk_JgesEM
Can’t be sure - The Sundays
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yARVs1ZNLjU
Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWmrfgj0MZI
Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIAfiVGluk
Silver (Tidal Wave) - Echo and the Bunnymen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmYB8VejrC8
The System only Dreams in Total Darkness - The National
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O6duDDkhis
Pete's Spotify playlist
Some accompanying reading
Planit
https://www.planit-ie.com/our-projects/
Festival gardens: The fascinating and controversial history behind one of Liverpool's beauty spots
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/story-festival-gardens-wasteland-international-17133347
Why is there a Japanese Kyoto Garden in Holland Park?
https://londonist.com/london/great-outdoors/why-is-there-a-japanese-kyoto-garden-in-holland-park
Liverpool Waters
https://liverpoolwaters.co.uk/
What’s planned for Manchester Town Hall and Albert Square
50 Shades T-Shirts!
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
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore 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 are 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.
50 Shades episode also include the 'All Around the World' series, which is being led by friend of the podcast, Paul Smith.
Paul put it to Sam that debates about the planning system in England tend, for the most part, to focus solely on the planning system in England. Planners here very seldom look to other countries for inspiration and ideas. Paul wanted to remedy that and so in this series he chats with planning professionals and academics from a number of countries to find out what works well there, what works less well, and what can be learnt.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram, and his blogs can be found here (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter).
The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use the podcast or the YouTube channel for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam via [email protected].
Why Fifty Shades? Well, town and country planning is very much not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
