Skip to main content

Podcast episode 171: The Shard Inquiry

Episode 171 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now via this link or from the usual podcast platforms.

I was invited by Lorenzo Pandolfi of Logic Planning back in February to a seminar that he was hosting jointly with Simone Pagani of GIA Surveyors. They had invited Chris Katkowski of Kings Chambers and Russell Harris of Landmark Chambers to tell the story of the Shard inquiry. I was disappointed not to be able to make it, I recall that I was in Newcastle that afternoon, but one of the benefits of being an amateur podcaster is that if I cannot attend something I can politely enquire as to the possibility of it being recorded. Not just for me, obviously, but for the 50 Shades listenership as well.

As it so happens, and perhaps not surprisingly, the event was oversubscribed and so it was agreed that we would turn it into a 50 Shades episode.

Over the course of an hour and a quarter or so you will hear two of our most prominent KCs share their recollections of one of the most consequential planning inquires of modern times. They talk about the characters involved, what it is like to be a part of an event of that scale, and lessons that they took, and that we all can learn, from the experience.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Life on the Front Line

I like it when people get in touch with me to suggest topics for 50 Shades of Planning Podcast episodes because, firstly, it means that people are listening to it and also, and most importantly, it means I do not have to come up with ideas myself. I found this message from a team leader at a local authority striking and sobering though. In a subsequent conversation the person that sent this confided in me that their team is virtually in crisis mode. It is probably fair to say that the planning system is in crisis, but then it is also probably fair to say that the planning system is always in crisis… There is, of course, the issue of resources. Whilst according to a Planning magazine survey slightly more LPAs are predicting growth in planning department budgets (25%) rather than a contraction (22%), this has to be seen in the context of a 38% real-terms fall in net current expenditure on planning functions between 2010–11 and 2017–18. Beyond resources though the current crisis feels m...

50 Shades of Planning T-Shirts!

If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning Podcast you will have heard Clive Betts say that... 'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'. I said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt so I have made a few and it does! They are available in black or white (in S, M and L sizes) and are £15 if there is a chance that I'll be able to deliver one to you or £20 if you will need it posting. Please email samstafford@hotmail.com if you would like one. Planning might not be black and white, but the 50 Shades t-shirts are...

YIMBYs and NIMBYs. Is planning becoming a new front in the culture war?

Prepare the barricades, fellow planners; dig out a shelter at the bottom of your garden (if you are lucky enough to have a garden…); and stock up on tins of non-perishable food. There might be a culture war coming and a good planner always spots trouble before it arrives... Given broader cultural, media and political trends it was perhaps only a matter of time before the built environment was subject to the same us versus them, progressive versus regressive factionalism that mars other aspects of public policy and debate. Twitter, of course, is not representative of public opinion, but it can be representative of the cultural, media and political influencers that are shaping it and I spotted this image on there recently. As far as I could tell it was a Brit that posted it and so it is not one of those unseemly intellectual skirmishes breezily dismissed as something our crazy, madcap cousins on the other side of the Atlantic occupy themselves with. Stereotypes are sometimes funny and so...