Sam Stafford's Blog

Episode 128 of the podcast is available now via this link or from iTunes and Spotify . I have mentioned in recent episodes that the podcast would consider the new Government’s reform agenda and this is an attempt at doing so. The specifics of the NPPF consultation will be covered in more depth in due course, but what you will hear in this jam-packed extravaganza of an episode is an exploration of that reform agenda in it’s broader sense. In anticipation of the NPPF, I invited some of the Shades alumni to discuss some of the policy areas of most interest to them and how the new Government could and should approach them. The voices that you will hear belong to Vicky Payne , Hana Loftus , Ben Castell , Andrew Taylor , Pooja Agrawal , Claire Petricca-Riding , David Diggle , Nicola Gooch , Shelly Rouse , Gilan Macinnes , Ian Wray , Paul Smith , Mike Kiely , Simon Ricketts and Annie Gingell . Vicky, Hana, Ben, Andrew and Pooja talk about design and placemaking. Claire, David and Nicola ta...

Polly Toynbee writing opinion pieces for the Guardian on planning policy is a sure sign that something might be afoot. I would not go as far as to suggest that planning is, has been, or ever will be ‘cool’, but it is front and centre of the new Government’s agenda, which, it is fair to say, it certainly was not under the previous Government. Toynbee’s piece considers some of the challenges faced by Steve Birkinshaw, Head of Planning & Regeneration at Erewash Borough Council, over the past decade, which are not dissimilar to those faced by planners across the whole country, and highlights both the challenges and opportunities facing the incoming administration. Birkinshaw talks of his years planning part of HS2’s route to Leeds along an old freight line, which, not cancelled, has still blighted streets along the route because of overarching compulsory purchase powers. HS2 is unlikely to return at all let alone in its former guise, but the new Government has stated that policy inten...