Masters Success

26th July 2010

Catherine Caudwell, Planning Consultant at Baker Associates has achieved a Merit in a Town and Country Planning MA from the University of the West of England.

Dorset Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople

23rd July 2010

All of the local authorities in Dorset, including unitary authorities Bournemouth and Poole, are working together to produce a joint Development Plan Document which will allocate permanent and transit sites for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople to meet identified needs for the next 15 years. Baker Associates has been commissioned to undertake this work over the next 2-3 years.

The DPD was launched at a stakeholder conference in June 2010 and initial engagement is currently taking place with both travelling and settled communities to identify site needs and to establish site assessment criteria. A Request for Sites exercise is also underway and site surveys will tak... More

Bristol Core Strategy Examination

23rd July 2010

Bristol City Council Core Strategy Examination got underway on 21st June amid daily announcements about changes to the planning system as we knew it. On behalf of LandTrust Developments we attended some of the sessions and took part in some interesting discussions. Topics included the likely delivery of development across the city, which is increasingly in jeopardy due to the recent 25% budget cuts. This will have a particular impact on infrastructure schemes and HCA funding.

The early Pickles pronouncements on the revocation of Regional Spatial Strategies caused some of the more interesting sessions relating to housing numbers, the greenbelt and urban extensions to be post... More

Hot Housing

23rd July 2010

We are always there with the hot topics and there is none hotter at the moment than how to arrive at the housing provision to be made through the LDF in the absence of an imposed figure from the Regional Strategy. We have been doing this job for authorities in Wales where there was never a top down target and now with the revocation of the RS we are being called upon by authorities in England. We ran a session on the subject at a SW RTPI meeting on 14 July too. Whatever else can be interpreted from all of the statements (and speculation) on the changing planning system, it is clear that it is for local authorities to decide on their housing numbers and they should expect to be challenged ... More

Planning for Housing

Out with the RSS, in with local decision making and accountability, 17th June 2010

The coalition government seems determined to remove the current form of strategic planning without addressing the inevitability of something having to take its place.

One consequence will be the absence of a target for the housing provision to be made through the LDF.

This is not a reason for work on LDFs to end. Quite the contrary. In this and every other matter for the LDF it will be for the planning authority working with its partners to decide what should go in the LDF. Subject of course to sufficient justification. A compelling link between what the plan says and what the evidence says is a fundamental requirement of a sound plan, and of a good plan. M... More




Older Articles >




(what is this?)