The grinding gears of the planning system need to be kept moving. On that most people can agree. Applying a little bit of lubricant within the bits of the system that largely pass the public by, extending consents and flexibility on things like CIL payments, for example, are relatively simple and relatively uncontroversial. What about though those bits of the system that are exposed to the outside world? The bits that rub up against public expectations. How, for as long as social distancing lasts, and indeed beyond, can the public continue to be engaged with the planning system in a way that allows applications and local plans to not only progress, but to progress in ways that are sensible, fair, and perhaps most importantly, lawful.
Sam Stafford discusses these issues with Greg Dickson, Director at Barton Willmore; Sarah James, Policy & Membership Development Manager at Civic Voice; and Kevin Whitmore, Head of North & Midlands at BECG.
Twitter handles: @samuel_stafford; @GregDickson1; @jamesslf and @kevin_whitmore.
Some accompanying reading.
Temporary changes to the publicity requirements for certain planning applications:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/consultation-and-pre-decision-matters#covid19
Sarah's blog 'Going from the physical to the digital':
https://civicvoiceblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/going-from-the-physical-to-the-digital/
Kevin's blog 'Reflections from a virtual world':
https://becg.com/blog/reflections-from-a-virtual-world/
Publicity requirements for the London Plan (in the Business & Planning Bill):
Publicity requirements for other local development documents (a Written Ministerial Statement by Lord Greenhalgh):
Some accompanying listening.
Rules Of Engagement by King Creosote:
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....
