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 Wayne Hemingway. In 1979 Wayne completed a degree in Geography & Town Planning at UCL, co-founding at the same time fashion business Red or Dead. In 1999, having sold the company, he co-founded Hemingway Design, which specialises in affordable and social design. Their conversation takes in squatters, hipsters and Gorillaz.
Wayne's song selections.
Me No Pop (12" version) by Coati Mundi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPHN6wBm4sI
(We don’t need this) Fascist Groove Thang (12" version) by Heaven 17
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV5dbcOmw6I
Harlem River Drive (album version) by Bobbi Humphrey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVoWOSCkvQ0
Dare by Gorillaz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAOR6ib95kQ
The light pours out of me by Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nImOq_eWHEM
Tees Happy (12" version) by North End
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRDUu96mzvw
Wayne’s Spotify playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5cDgsrUij1o5Ktf412S6oZ?si=1MSBGIExT36jvU0sdZYAyg
Wayne’s Mixcloud
https://www.mixcloud.com/hemingwaywayne/
Some accompanying reading
Hemingway Design
https://www.hemingwaydesign.co.uk/
Go home to Wayne’s World
https://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/property/go-home-to-wayne-s-world-9211553.html
Staiths South Bank – A retrospective
Barratt Developments’ ‘Great Places Initiative
Dreamland: Margate amusement park sold for £2.3m
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-56171446
Hipster-led Regeneration
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/hipster-led-regeneration-wayne-hemingway
Incredible Edible Todmorden
East Point / First Light, Lowestoft
https://firstlightlowestoft.com/east-point-pavilion/
Vintage-by-the-Sea, Morecambe
https://www.decopublique.co.uk/vintage-by-the-sea-1
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....
