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Ten Years Time

As I mentioned in a post at the start of April, friend of the podcast Simon Ricketts has invited some of the finest minds in the planning profession... and me... to help him mark ten years of his Simonicity blog at a now sold out event at XLP in the ‘Smoke on Monday 1 June, Simon has asked Angus Walker, Catriona Riddell, Hashi Mohamed, Jennie Baker, Nick Cuff, Nicola Gooch, Philip Barnes, Zack Simons and I to speculate as to what the fast-paced, ever-changing, rock and roll of town and country planning might look like in another ten years time. I had better start preparing… Planning, it could be said, is to identify the problems of the future and to try to do something about them today... My first thought then was to explore what was happening ten years ago. Would it have been possible to foresee then what we are talking about now? The below are the results of a search for the news stories on the Planning website from 1 June 2016. What do we notice? Arguments about the robustness of ...
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Podcast episode 166: The West Midlands Problem (plus Grey Belt and some other stuff)

Episode 166 of the podcast is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. I was in Birmingham recently and took the opportunity to catch up with friends of the podcast Mike Best, Kathryn Ventham and Michelle Simpson-Gallego at PodHaus studios in Digbeth. We talked about why the recent consultation on areas for producing Spatial Development Strategies seemed to generate more interest in the West Midlands than other parts of the country (an issue for which this episode has named); we talked about the politics of Grey Belt; we talked about some live development management issues, including LPAs basing decisions on unpublished evidence; and we touched on PINS’ recent performance.
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Podcast episode 165: What is really wrong with the Habitats Regulations?

Episode 165 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms. You might have spotted, planning fans (and a shout-out to eagle-eyed friend of the podcast Nicola Gooch for putting it on my radar), that DEFRA last week launched a consultation on significant changes to it’s guidance on how Habitat Regulations Assessments should be carried out. The consultation comes at an interesting time. As Nicola has noted in a recent blog, it is, firstly, barely a month since DEFRA announced that Natural England and the Environment Agency have been given a new mandate to “prioritise outcomes over process” and “speed up decision-making while maintaining high environmental standards”. Secondly, we are in the midst of Part 3 of the Planning & Infrastructure Act being rolled out. Thirdly, it comes shortly after MHCLG’s announcement of an intention to transition from Environmental Impact Assessments to Environmental Outcomes Reports within the next year. As it...
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The Story of my Season (2025/26)

What would I want to do were I not a town planner? Every now and then I like to imagine myself as the chief football writer at a broadsheet newspaper and to indulge that fantasy a little I have got into the habit of writing a match report on Instagram  after every game that I have been to. This is a collation of reports that tell the story of a very special 2025/26 season. Lincoln City 2 Reading 0 2 August 2025 So. Here we are. Another year around the footballing sun. Older? Definitely. Wiser? Possibly. Still though with the same joyful enthusiasm for the first day of the football season that I hope never diminishes. The day I take no pleasure on such occasions from turning to my match day companions (today both Stafford Boys) and commenting on how good the pitch looks is a day that is not worth looking forward to. The youthful romanticist embraces today as pregnant with possibility. The seasoned pragmatist perhaps less so. Yes, of course, anybody can go up, but let us also remembe...
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