Opinion

The NI planning system ends its infancy: so what have we learnt?

15.04.2019

Four years since inception, is Northern Ireland's decentralised planning system working, for planners, developers and citizens? It's a slow learning process, argues Emma Walker.

Sustaining rural estates – maintaining aristocracy or planning for the greater good?

16.11.2018

Scott O’Dell

Development Management & Enforcement | England | Rural | rural development | Rural estates | Sustainability

In our zest for maintaining countryside and rural heritage, we may be inadvertently holding back the rural economy, says Scott O'Dell
Read the Raynsford Review and ignore the whims of the talking heads

15.11.2018

Chris Shepley

England | Planning reform | Policy & Politics | Raynsford review

The Raynsford Review of Planning is the first comprehensive look at the whole English planning system for decades and deserves to be taken seriously, says Chris Shepley
Legal landscape:When does a planning obligation no longer serve a ‘useful purpose’?

06.11.2018

Charlotte Lockwood

England | Planing gain | Planning Law | planning obligation | Policy & Politics | S106 | section 106

When is a ‘useful purpose’ not a useful purpose when it comes to planning obligations? A recent judgment brings clarity to a contentious area, says Charlotte Lockwood
Cities must become more sustainable if they are to continue to support global economic growth

01.11.2018

George Adams

Climate Change | Design | Economic Growth | Infrastructure - Energy | International | resilient cities | sustainable development | Technology | UK | World Cities Day

This year's World Cities Day took the theme of 'Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities'. If we're to meet this challenge, we need to focus on inefficiencies in the way cities are designed, built and...
Legal landscape: NPPF2 - sea of change?

30.10.2018

Paul Wakefield

Environmental | NPPF | NPPF 2.0 | Planning Law | Policy & Politics | Strategic environmental assessment | UK

Friends of the Earth’s challenge to the revised NPPF creates a knotty legal problem, says Paul Wakefield – what weight should be given to the new policy document should the challenge succeed?...

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FEATURES

Small wonders: Can micro-living help to solve our housing woes?

Whatever its pros and cons, ‘micro-living’ is happening, out of lifestyle choice or necessity. And it's being created at grassroots level from self-build schemes, right up to large projects backed by investors and developers, says Serena Ralston
Tech landscape: Into the flow

#Plantech has tended to focus on intelligent data gathering and sorting, but what about the fundamental processes that drive planning? Simon Wicks finds out about Motif, workflow software for planners, and planners alone.
Council mergers: When two become one

This month sees the merging of council planning departments in Dorset, Somerset and Suffolk. Mark Smulian reports on the logic behind municipal unification.

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