Picture the scene. Half-a-dozen property professionals gathered in the boardroom of a Manchester city centre office to watch the live webcast of a Joint GMCA/AGMA Executive Board meeting. The hosts have provided fruit, pastries and charcoal shots (these, like master developers , are all the rage apparently) for a late breakfast. 'This is the worst party ever’, somebody says. There was a time when the first talk of two North West property professionals was the Cheshire East Local Plan Strategy. More than that, there is a generation of planners who grew up, professionally-speaking, in the period between a Cheshire East Core Strategy Issues & Options Paper in 2010 and the adoption of a Local Plan Strategy in 2017. I was a bright-eyed, optimistic Associate when I first made reps on that Issues & Options document and a world-weary, cynical Director when it finally got over the line. I am part of a small group of people who saw it all the way through and wonder sometim...
Hello. My name is Sam, I am a Town Planner and I sometimes write about town planning-related things (in my own time and as an expression of my own opinions). I used to podcast, there is a link to that on this page somewhere, and I circulate a newsletter from time to time. There is a link to that somewhere as well. Should you be so inclined, I am on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford).