Archive

Whatever MPs think, councillors must be up to speed on planning

By Huw Morris

25 July 2008

It may not be a best-seller, but this week's Commons communities and local government select committee report on planning skills should be required reading for ministers, officials, councillors, planners, developers, lobbyists and indeed anyone with a stake in how this country functions.

Fyson on ... how the switch to impact tests

By Anthony Fyson

25 July 2008

Fyson on ... how the switch to impact tests will help turn back the clock on retail development patterns.

Forward-looking region knows true value of public sector staff

By Huw Morris

18 July 2008

They do things differently in the North West.

Fyson on ... the Planning Convention's growing range of influence in the professional and political sphere

By Anthony Fyson

18 July 2008

It must give the RTPI considerable satisfaction that its Planning Convention is firmly established as the occasion when the government launches initiatives, albeit long-heralded ones such as the consultation on planning town centres and the institute-inspired planning policy outcome assessment methodology.

Food supply must be secured by good planning not the markets

By Huw Morris

11 July 2008

One of the big ironies from this week's G8 summit in Japan is that after a superficially impassioned debate about escalating food prices and dwindling supplies, the world's leaders sat down to a sumptuous eight-course banquet.

Fyson on ... changes to permitted development rights that offer a mixed package of clarity and confusion

By Anthony Fyson

11 July 2008

The government is proposing to change the rules on householder applications, with the overall aim of relaxing the planning regime and extending permitted development rights.

Gummer on ... agreement in a good cause

11 July 2008

We need to stop unnecessary division where a consensus is perfectly possible.

Planners must talk their way out of the hole they have fallen into

By Huw Morris

4 July 2008

Just over a year ago, this column bemoaned the fact that planners and other professionals were divided by a common language (Planning, 1 June 2007, p13).

Fyson on ... Vicissitudes in debate over eco-towns

By Anthony Fyson

4 July 2008

Vicissitudes in debate over eco-towns as challenge panel report provides misdirected advice.

Richards on ... an evolution in plan-making

4 July 2008

Employing technology to do useful things seems to be a bit of a theme at the moment.