How remiss of me! Since I began working in the West Midlands I have been recording an annual collection of reflections on devolution and the Birmingham shortfall. Here we are towards the end of 2020 and I very nearly managed to miss the sixth instalment. If this is the first of these blogs that you have come across feel free to catch up via these links:· 2015 ; 2016 ; 2017 ; 2018 ; and 2019 (a fifth anniversary podcast special). December 2019 was a month that neatly encapsulates the issues at play in the West Midlands. It was last December that Birmingham City Council’s (BCC) Cabinet considered the looming three year anniversary of the adoption of the Birmingham Development Plan (BDP). A review mechanism, readers of past blogs and followers of this whole, sorry farrago will know, was introduced late in the day into the BDP whereby BCC would review the Plan within three years of adoption (10 January 2017) if the expected rate of progress on distributing a 37,900 home shortfall w...
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).