Planning Portal Blog

Historic England’s latest Heritage at Risk Register, just published, highlights that a Napoleonic watch tower in Essex, a lighthouse in Sunderland, a 20th century concrete church in Birmingham and the remains of a First World War munitions factory in Northamptonshire are among England’s heritage now at risk.

On the brighter side, this annual assessment showed that Margate’s Dreamland rollercoaster, the Post-War bear pit at Dudley Zoo and vast airship sheds in Bedfordshire have been rescued and are no longer at risk.

For the first time, Historic England (formerly known as English Heritage), has compared all types of heritage on its register to find out the types of heritage that appear the most, from domestic buildings, to protected wrecks, archaeological ruins to industrial sites and places of worship.

Barrows, the ancient burial mounds that cover the length and breadth of the country, are the most at-risk making up 15.6 per cent of the Register (853). Nationally, much is being done to improve their fate.

Since 2014, 150 barrows have been rescued and taken off the Register. Historic England has done this through working with owners, in particular Natural England, to find ways of restoring these ancient sites.

Residential buildings, anything from Roman Villas and Georgian town houses to individual prehistoric huts and roundhouses, are the second most common (6.6 per cent; 360).

Settlements, small concentrations of dwellings such as deserted medieval villages, are the third most common type on the Register (6.4 per cent; 352).

A third of all sites on the 2010 register have been rescued, which means Historic England has beaten its target of getting 25 per cent off the register over five years. Across the next three years, the agency aims to take a further 750 sites off the Register.

Roger Milne

October 22, 2015

National Trust project quantifies coastal protection

View more information about the Neptune Coastline campaign

A repeat of one of the biggest mapping projects of the 20th century has revealed that the built-up areas of the English, Welsh and Northern Irish coasts has increased by 42 per cent over the last 50 years. Over 17,500 hectares more of the coast is “urbanised”, equivalent to the area of Manchester.

That is one of the key findings of an initiative undertaken by the National Trust which has updated an original survey carried out in 1965 as part of its Neptune Campaign. That was the first time the impact of development on the coastline was assessed methodically.

The new mapping report, which compares the two surveys, showed that nearly three quarters of the coast of England, Wales and Northern Ireland remains undeveloped, providing an important resource for people and nature.

This latest exercise has highlighted that much of the land that has remained undeveloped is now protected by landscape or nature conservation designations such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

In fact, of the 3,342 miles identified as pristine in 1965, some 94 per cent of this has some form of statutory protection.

The National Trust insisted that the findings of the two surveys illustrated the importance of a robust and well-enforced planning system.

Peter Nixon, Director of Land, Landscapes and Nature for the Trust, said: “50 years after we launched our Neptune campaign, most of the UK coast remains undeveloped. Our coastline has been spared the sort of sprawling development that other countries have suffered.”

Roger Milne

October 22, 2015

Planning round-up 22 October

View the news article on the BBC

Housing project funding dispute

The Department for Communities and Local Government has hit back at a BBC investigation which identified a slow take-up so far of a £525m fund designed to unlock hundreds of housing projects stalled by the economic slowdown.

The BBC said a Freedom of Information request to the Homes and Communities Agency, which runs the scheme, had revealed that 18 months after the launch of the initiative only two projects had benefitted – in Cornwall and Essex. Just over a £1m had been used up on these two projects.

Housing Minister Brandon Lewis insisted: “There have been high levels of interest in this scheme that will deliver thousands of homes for hard working families.

“We are considering 86 bids for funding worth more than £250m as well as having already signed eight contracts for £11m and a further 33 contracts worth £68m are in the process of being signed.

“The remaining funding is available to support house builders between now and 2017.”

Swansea developments

Swansea City Council and Neath Port Talbot Council have prepared a joint draft master plan designed to provide a more integrated approach to planning along the so-called Fabian Way corridor.

This stretches for five kilometres either side of the A483 Fabian Way, which forms the eastern gateway road approach to Swansea city centre from junction 42 of the M4.

Aim of the document is to capitalize on existing and emerging developments in the area. These include the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon, Swansea University’s Bay Campus, the Bay Studios and the University of Wales Trinity St David’s plans for a new waterfront campus at Swansea’s SA1.site.

The draft document backs the development of a knowledge economy cluster along Fabian Way that would complement the city centre’s regeneration, create new jobs and boost economic prosperity across the Swansea Bay City Region as a whole.

In a separate but related move the planning authority is drawing a high buildings strategy which after public consultation will become supplementary planning guidance.

London round-up

Ambitious plans for the transformation of the area by Paddington station in west London whose centrepiece will be a 224-metre high tower have been revealed by the property company behind the Shard. The scheme also includes over an acre of new public realm, an open-air roof garden with panoramic views of the capital, new access to the Bakerloo underground station, 200 new homes, over 14,000 square metres of commercial floor space and shops, restaurants and cafes.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has pledged to announce ten more ‘Housing Zones’ by next May as he revealed the identities of the last two zones of the initial 20-strong tranche. Zones in Merton and Lambeth, both in south London, have been unveiled. Johnson has also committed to publishing planning advice designed to safeguard music and cultural venues across the capital, after a report showed more than a third of the capital’s grassroots music venues were lost since 2007. In the future developers will be specifically required to mitigate potential conflicts between new developments and long standing live venues.
The City of London Corporation has committed to build 3,700 new homes by 2025, in what will be the biggest house-building programme since the completion of the Barbican estate in 1976. The homes will be built on the City’s existing housing estates and land outside the Square Mile. Some will be social housing, and some will be offered at market rate.
Members of the east London Borough of Barking & Dagenham have rejected plans for a 28-storey residential tower proposed for land next to Barking railway station. Officers had recommended approval.

Energy project developments

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s strategic planning committee has refused permission for a five megawatt solar power farm proposed by Peel Energy for a green belt location at Hapsford on land south of junction 14 of the M56. Officers had recommended approval.
Banks Mining has submitted plans for an open cast coal mine close to a nature reserve at Druridge Bay to Northumberland Council.
Allerdale Borough Council is apologising to residents in Oughterside near Aspatria, Cumbria after ignoring their objections and granting planning permission for a single wind turbine near their homes. Residents complained to the Local Government Ombudsman. The watchdog decided an apology was in order. The planning authority said: “We fully accept the decision of the Ombudsman and have already made all necessary changes to policy, procedures and training to ensure that similar issues cannot happen again
Communities Secretary Greg Clark has dismissed an appeal over a single turbine on farm land near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire against the advice of the planning inspector who held the recovered inquiry. The SoS’s decision letter said the scheme would have an adverse effect on heritage assets and the nearby Chilterns AONB and that residents’ concerns had not been fully addressed.
The developers behind the Navitus Bay project, a huge offshore wind farm earmarked for a large area off the Dorset and Hampshire coasts denied consent recently by the Government, have decided not to mount a legal challenge over the refusal.

Legal round-up

A High Court judge has quashed the grant of outline planning permission for a residential development in Wiltshire over the appearance of bias.
Lambeth Council in south London has secured a £382,000 confiscation order against a landlord who converted a property into flats without planning permission.
A High Court judge has given the Licensed Taxi Driver Association permission to bring a judicial review challenge in relation to the construction of the East-West Cycle Superhighway by Transport for London which claims the scheme required planning permission.
Proposals to connect Manchester’s two biggest railway stations (the subject of a Development Consent Order under the 2008 Planning Act regime) have received High Court backing despite claims they will damage a key part of rail history.

Large sites help

The Department for Communities and Local Government has published its large sites infrastructure programme prospectus and is inviting bids for the financial elements of this initiative. A £1bn Local Infrastructure Fund is available alongside planning and technical help to steer schemes of at least 1,500 new homes from conception to planning approval. This scheme will run until 2020.

International design, architecture and planning consultancy AECOM has been chosen to draw up a master plan for the Government’s flagship garden city at Ebbsfleet in Kent. Public consultation will begin next month and the strategy will be published next year.

View the guidance

Tesco sites deal

Retail giant Tesco is selling off more than a dozen sites in London, the South East and Bath that it no longer wants to develop to property firm Meyer Bergman as part of a £250m deal which could see the land used for residential-led mixed-use schemes which could provide up to 10, 000 new homes.

The deal includes sites in Bath; Epsom, Surrey; London (Fulham, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Lewisham, New Barnet, Tolworth and Woolwich) and St Albans.

View more information about the London Paramount project

Chinese investment targets

Chinese investment group SinoFortone has unveiled plans to invest more than £5bn in the UK focusing on waste power and food facilities in Holyhead and Port Talbot, Wales and the Paramount London TV and film theme park proposed for an extensive site at Ebbsfleet, Kent. The deals coincide with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Britain this week.

Horley CPO

Reigate and Banstead Borough Council has agreed in principle to compulsory purchase over 68 hectares of land at Balcombe Road, Horley, near Gatwick Airport for a business park.

Anfield regeneration

Consultation on the latest plans for the regeneration of the Anfield district in Liverpool has begun. The plans include the final phase of the restoration of Stanley Park. The move is part of a £260m scheme that includes expanding Liverpool FC’s stadium as well as creating new homes and offices.

View more information on the project

Two more local plans make the grade

Two more local plans have been approved by planning inspectors subject to modifications. East Staffordshire District Council’s development plan provides for 613 dwellings per annum during the plan period 2012-2031.

Meanwhile Torbay Council’s strategy covering the so-called English Riviera has passed muster on the basis of 8,900 new homes over a shortened plan period of 2012-2030

View more information about the East Staffordshire local plan

View more information on Torbay Council’s local plan

Grantham homes approved
Proposals from Gladman Developments for a scheme of up to 300 new homes on the western edge of Grantham have been approved in outline by South Kesteven District Council. The site was allocated for development in the district council’s approved core strategy.

Buckinghamshire crematorium re-run

Re-submitted proposals for a crematorium on the edge of Bierton near Aylesbury have approved by Aylesbury Vale District Council, after the original scheme’s approval was quashed by a High Court judge on the grounds the officer dealing with the application blundered over the treatment of Great Crested Newts affected by the project.

The facility is planned by the Chilterns Crematorium Committee made of three neighbouring local authorities, Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern and Wycombe District Councils.

View more information on the development

Corrie curtains

The former Coronation Street set in Manchester is to be demolished, despite a campaign to save it. Developer Allied London bought the Quay Street site in a joint venture with Manchester City Council and plans to build flats, shops and offices there.

The ITV soap was filmed there from 1982 until January 2014, when production moved to MediaCity UK at Salford Quays. Manchester City Council’s planning committee voted to approve the redevelopment last week.

Threatened heritage assets

An Edwardian swimming baths and an 18th century country mansion in south Yorkshire are among the most under-threat buildings in the world, according to a heritage group.

Moseley Road Baths in Birmingham and Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham, Yorkshire, are listed on the 2016 World Monuments Watch.

View more information on the 2016 World Monuments Watch

Stirling Prize winner

Burntwood School, a large comprehensive girls’ school in Wandsworth, south west London, designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM) has won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2015 for the UK’s best new building.

Roger Milne

Government publishes landmark Housing and Planning bill

View more information on the Housing and Planning bill

The Government published its landmark Housing and Planning bill on Tuesday when the 119-page legislation had its introduction in the House of Commons without debate.

Among the provisions in this wide-ranging bill is the statutory framework for the Government’s ‘Starter Homes’ scheme which includes a new legal duty to be placed on councils to guarantee the provision of 200,000 starter homes on all reasonably sized new development sites. These will be offered to first-time buyers at a 20 per cent discount on market price.

Another key measure provides ministers with powers to intervene to ensure that all councils have local plans in place by 2017.

In addition, the legislation introduces the requirement for local authorities to keep registers of brownfield land, an extension of the right-to-buy discount to some housing association tenants and a duty on local authorities to sell their most expensive vacant homes.

The bill also provides for automatic planning permission in principle on brownfield sites and introduces planning reforms to support small builders by placing a new duty on councils to help allocate land to people who want to build their own home.

Furthermore the legislation includes measures to simplify and speed-up neighbourhood planning, reform the Compulsory Purchase Order regime, extend the use of the planning performance regime to smaller planning applications and provide the Mayor of London with additional planning and housing powers.

Also stipulated is a new requirement that “prescribed financial benefits which might accrue to the local area as a result of granting planning permission” are recorded in reports by planning committees and the planning authority itself.

In a separate but related move the Government has announced that local authorities will be able to bid for a share of a £10m Starter Homes fund (part of a £36m package to accelerate the delivery of starter homes) by helping councils prepare brownfield sites that would otherwise not be built on for starter homes.

Roger Milne

Office-to-residential PD to be made permanent

Planning and housing minister Brandon Lewis has announced that the temporary office-to-residential permitted development (PD) right, that was due to lapse at the end of May 2016, will be made permanent.

The minister said that, in addition, the new permanent right would allow office buildings to be pulled down and replaced with new residential buildings.

He also confirmed that those who already have permission to convert offices to homes under the temporary PD right will have three years in which to complete the change of use.

In addition, new permitted development rights will enable the change of use of light industrial buildings and launderettes to new homes.

Those areas that are currently exempt from the office to residential permitted development rights will have until May 2019 to make an Article 4 direction if they wish to continue determining planning applications for the change of use.

The rights to allow for demolition of offices and new build as residential use will be subject to limitations and prior approval by the local planning authority. Further details are to be provided in due course.

The new permitted development rights for the change of use of light industrial buildings and launderettes to residential use will be subject to prior approval by the local planning authority. Further details are promised.

Roger Milne

Housing scheme element slotted into DCO regime

View the Housing and Planning bill (pdf)

The Government this week clarified how it plans to implement its promise to allow an element of housing in schemes requiring Development Consent Orders (DCO) under the planning regime for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

The Planning and Housing bill, published this week, contains a clause which specifies that homes will be allowed to be included in DCOs under the proposals in the bill long as they are “wholly in England” and “on the same site as, next to or close to” the relevant NSIP or “otherwise associated with” the NSIP.

The explanatory note accompanying the bill said further guidance would set out the amount of housing that could be granted consent as “related housing development” under this new arrangement.

The expectation is that a limit of 500 homes is likely to be imposed under the guidance, that the limit will not depend on the size of the proposed development and that related housing will be able to be included in an NSIP even if it is not in the relevant council’s local plan.

Infrastructure planning specialist Robbie Owens from law firm Pinsent and Owens said: “This is a sensible and welcome addition to the NSIPs regime.

“However, we expect some scrutiny to be given to the expected 500 dwellings limit given the difficulties that some large housing developments experience in terms of delivery which the NSIPs regime can effectively overcome, particularly in terms of land assembly, multiple consents and numerous complex project components.”

Roger Milne

Survey highlights under-resourced planning departments

Some of England’s major cities are taking well over six months to determine major new planning applications with both developers and local authorities highlighting resource-strapped planning departments as a key barrier to development, according to an influential and authoritative annual survey.

The majority of developers polled in the fourth Annual Planning Survey by the British Property Federation and GL Hearn, part of Capita plc believe higher planning fees could be part of a potential solution, helping local authorities shorten waiting times and improve performance.

The survey found that the average submission to determination time for a major planning application is 32 weeks across London, Greater Manchester and Bristol and the surrounding area, over double the Government target of 13 weeks. In addition to this, and despite a worsening housing crisis, the overall volume of major applications determined in London fell by 26 per cent.

Other key findings included that the average submission to determination time is 27 weeks in Greater Manchester, Bristol and the surrounding area while the volume of major planning applications determined has fallen by 26 per cent in London, increased by 19 per cent in Manchester, and stayed the same in Bristol and the surrounding area.

Commenting on the findings, Shaun Andrews, GL Hearn’s head of investor and developer planning, said: “This year’s survey shows that the planning system needs investment and that requires action across the board.

“For their part, developers need to speak with a single voice and make it clear what levels of service they need and how much they are prepared to pay for it.”

Melanie Leech, chief executive at the British Property Federation, said: “This report shows quite clearly that local authority planning departments are struggling to cope as a result of the efforts to find savings across the public sector, and that this is having a negative impact on local authorities’ ability to deliver a timely and efficient service .”

Roger Milne

Developer who challenged Solihull local plan wins appeal

A developer who successfully mounted a legal challenge over a west Midlands local plan which deleted sites which had been safeguarded for housing in a previous unitary plan and which also changed green belt boundaries has finally succeeded in an appeal over a 190-home residential development originally refused by Solihull Metropolitan District Council.

The outline application for new homes and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) was proposed for land at Tidbury Green Farm in the village of the same name.

Developer Lioncourt Homes, together with Gallagher Homes, had gone to court and successfully challenged elements of the approved Solihull Local Plan 2013.

The subsequent ruling quashed some of the green belt changes and parts of the local plan in respect of the housing land provision target, its justification, the housing trajectory and whether or not the council met the five year housing land requirement of the then newly minted National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

The scheme was re-determined as a recovered appeal. Following the court case the planning authority accepted that the majority of the site was no longer in the green belt and it did not have an adopted housing target for the plan period against which to assess its five year supply of housing land.

The inspector recommended the scheme should be allowed. The Secretary of State agreed, his decision letter stressed that the SUDS operation was an appropriate activity for a green belt location and noted that no built development was proposed for the three hectares of the site designated as green belt. The fact that the scheme would provide 40 per cent affordable housing also weighed heavily in favour of the proposals.

View the correspondence

Roger Milne

Planning round-up 15 October

Local plan reform panel calls for submissions

The panel set up by the Government to propose ways of streamlining the local plan regime has issued a call for evidence. It has insisted that panel members have “no preconceived ideas about the extent or nature of any changes to the plan making system that it might recommend.”

However the panel has spelled out the topics it particularly wants submissions about. These include tie content of plans, the plan period, their spatial detail and their relationship with the National Planning Policy Framework.

Also of particular interest to the panel is the nitty gritty of plan preparation and whether the regulations and statutory requirements remain fit for purpose.

Not surprisingly given the problems already experienced, the panel wants to test the water over the tests of soundness, the terms and implications of the duty to co-operate.

In addition the panel is seeking views on strategic requirements and the methods for calculating objectively assessed need.

Submissions should be addressed to LocalPlans@communities.gsi.gov.uk and should be received no later than close on Friday 23 October.

Call to use land value uplift for ‘public good’

Both the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Town and Country Planning Association are among a coalition of groups who are signatories to a letter in the Guardian this week calling on the Government to ensure some of the increase in land values after planning permission is ploughed back into the so-called ‘public good’.

The letter argues that public spending shouldn’t be the only source of funding for the social, environmental and physical infrastructure needed alongside new homes.

“It is time to look for additional funding from the windfall in value which goes directly to private landowners when public investment in infrastructure is made, or planning permission is granted on a piece of land.

“There needs to be a fairer way of sharing this land value uplift between landowners and the community, to fund the housing and infrastructure the country needs.

“As a coalition we are asking for the UK government to put in place a mechanism whereby a proportion of this increase in land value is used to fund public goods. It’s time to tap into this source of additional public funding”, says the letter.

“It’s time for a fair deal on land.”

London round-up

Developer Greenland Group has submitted plans to east London’s Tower Hamlets Council for a 67-storey tower that would provide 869 new homes on West India Quay at Canary Wharf. If built the scheme would be Western Europe’s tallest residential building at 241 metres.
Proposals for a 110-metre high rocket-shaped skyscraper near the capital’s South Bank inspired by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin has failed to lift off after Southwark Council decided the scheme was too “alien” for the borough.
West London’s Hounslow Council has amended its process for major and minor planning applications to require applicants to submit a viability assessment which will be made publicly available online. The requirement will apply to full and outline planning applications and to applications for the approval of reserved matters, but not to applications for change of use.
London’s deputy mayor for planning Sir Edward Lister has said that the mayor will not intervene over Queens Park Rangers FC’s plans for a new training facility earmarked for land designated as Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) in west London.

Local plan moves

Central Bedfordshire Council has announced it is withdrawing its draft local plan. This was already on ice pending legal proceedings following the decision of the planning inspector examining the strategy that the council had failed the duty to cooperate test. The council is now preparing a new housing strategy in line with latest population projections. It has ditched legal action. It now anticipates having a new plan drawn up in time for consultation in September and October 2016 with formal publication of the plan by April/May 2017, to meet the Government’s new deadline.
A new six-week consultation has begun on the latest (and hopefully final) proposed changes to the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP). The SWDP is being jointly prepared by Malvern Hills District Council, Worcester City Council and Wychavon District Council. Some sites originally proposed for the plan are being removed while housing numbers on other sites are being adjusted.
Meanwhile Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council (NBBC), one of six local authorities within the Coventry and Warwickshire Housing Market Area (HMA), has declined to sign a memorandum of understanding under which it had been allocated an additional 73 homes per year to help address neighbouring Coventry City Council’s shortfall. NBBC said it was still working on its own strategic housing land availability assessment and would not commit to cover Coventry’s shortfall until its consultation process was complete.
The planning inspector examining Horsham District Council’s draft local plan has endorsed the West Sussex planning authority’s strategy now the local authority has accepted a higher level of housing provision than it originally proposed. This will see 800 new homes provided over the 20-year plan period. Although the proposal by developer Mayfield for a new ‘market town’ between Henfield and Sayers Common has been rejected the inspector argued it would be premature to rule out in principle any potential for a new settlement to meet future needs. The plan is due to be formally approved in a month’s time.

Power project proposals

The Scottish Government has announced a moratorium on Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) development while Professor Campbell Gemmell, former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, undertakes an examination of the issues and evidence surrounding the activity. Cluff Natural Resources has proposed a scheme under the Firth of Forth at Kincardine.
Members of Ryyedale District Council in North Yorkshire have voted for a five-year moratorium on fracking schemes.

Neighbourhood plans progress

Three more neighbourhood plans have been voted through in local referendums. This means the number of neighbourhood-level development plans has now passed the 100 mark. Voters backed a neighbourhood plan for Balsall Heath, Birmingham, with 89 per cent of votes in favour on a 22.3 per cent turnout. The neighbourhood plan is the first in England’s second biggest city to make the grade.
In Woking, Surrey, a neighbourhood plan for Hook Heath received a 94 per cent ‘yes’ vote on a 39 per cent turnout. Woking Borough Council said that the neighbourhood plan will be formally adopted at a council meeting on 22 October.
Meanwhile, residents of Coton Park in Rugby voted by 93.3 per cent in favour of the Coton Forward Neighbourhood Plan on a 25.3 per cent turnout.

Hull gears up as culture city

A number of development projects planned for Hull’s year as UK City of Culture in 2017 have been approved by the city council. The schemes include a pedestrian and cycle bridge across the A63 and extensions to the city’s art gallery and theatre.

The bridge will cost £11.5m and will link the city centre with Hull’s waterfront, which is being redeveloped. The Ferens Art Gallery will get a £4.5m facelift ahead of it hosting the Turner Prize in 2017.

Welsh language requirements

The Welsh Language Commissioner is issuing notices to local councils, the Welsh Government and national parks on the standards they will need to meet in respect of ensuring that those who wish to use the Welsh language are catered for.

This covers all plans, communications with planning departments, planning applications, websites and material for planning consultations and public exhibitions of planning proposals etc.

View more information on the regeneration proposals

Derbyshire EZ moves

D2N2, the Local Enterprise Partnership for Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, has announced it is bidding for enterprise zone status for the 31-hectare derelict former Coalite works site at Shuttlewood in Derbyshire. The site is heavily polluted.

Bolsover District Council has granted outline permission to Bolsover Land Ltd to remediate the brownfield site and develop it for industrial, warehousing and associated activities.

Role mooted for water firms over flood prevention schemes

Water regulator Ofwat Chief Executive Cathryn Ross has opened the door to water companies taking on responsibility for co-coordinating and implementing flood defences.

Speaking to trade magazine Utility Week, Ross said water companies were “in the frame” for taking over from the Environment Agency on delivering flood defence schemes.

She said: “I’m really conscious that having created a regulatory regime focused on outcomes, that does put water companies in the frame for thinking about things that deliver outcomes that lie beyond the boundaries of the traditional water company. I think flood defence and flooding issues are one element of that.

“I can envisage a situation in which water companies could perform useful functions around flood protection and flood defences.”

View the news story on the Utility Week website

Bristol community conversion plans for empty offices

A campaign group has started work on converting disused office space in Bristol into affordable housing. Abolish Empty Office Blocks (AEOB) raised nearly £300,000 through a Community Share Offer to buy the former business in Battens Lane in St George. The redundant workspace is due to be refitted and extended to create six flats, housing up to 10 people.

New goal for Reading FC

Reading Football Club has unveiled proposals for a mixed-use residential-led development of up to 600 new homes on land next to its existing Madejski stadium.

The scheme would also involve a convention centre, an ice-rink, restaurants and a public park, the championship club revealed.

Durham redevelopment

The £30m redevelopment of the Gates shopping centre in Durham city centre has been given the go-ahead by the county council. The proposals include a cinema, 23 refurbished shops, a new riverside promenade featuring 3,252 square metres of restaurant floor space and accommodation for 253 students. The university had opposed the proposals after arguing the city faced a glut of student bed spaces.

Green light for Gloucestershire quarry makeover

South Gloucestershire Council has approved plans to convert a working limestone quarry into a nature reserve. Members also voted to approve outline plans for a warden’s lodge, greenhouse, poly-tunnel barns, workshops and offices at Wick Quarry. The project will be vetted by Communities Secretary Greg Clark as the quarry is in a green belt location.

Peak District conservation project

A Derbyshire project, MoorLIFE 2020, has received funding to protect moorlands in the Peak District and South Pennines. The project plans to conserve 9,500 hectares of active blanket bog with the aim of providing breeding habitats for wildlife, improving water quality and increasing carbon retention to help combat climate change.

Some £9m of the funds were provided by the EU’s LIFE fund, with three water companies also contributing to the scheme’s £12m total.

Legal round-up

Lambeth Council in south London has secured a £382,000 confiscation order against a landlord who converted a property into flats without planning permission following a hearing at Croydon Crown Court.
A second legal challenge to plans for two wind turbines at a Borders beauty spot has been rejected.
A man campaigning against Yorkshire Water’s proposals to cover an historic Victorian waterway with concrete is taking his fight to the High Court. Poet Simon Armitage is backing the campaign.

Bend it like Geller bloomer

A bent spoon sculpture erected by TV illusionist Uri Geller in Sonning, the Berkshire village where he lived for 35 years, needs planning permission the local planning authority Wokingham Borough Council has insisted. Geller has been told he can apply for retrospective planning permission.

US urban experiment with no people…

In the arid plains of the southern New Mexico desert, between the site of the first atomic bomb test and the U.S.-Mexico border, a new city is rising from the sand.

Planned for a theoretical population of 35,000, the city will have a modern business district and rows of terraced housing in the suburbs. It will be supplied with streets, parks, malls and a church.

The CITE (Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation) project is a full-scale model of an ordinary American town. It will be used as a petri dish to develop new technologies that could shape the future of the urban environment.

The $1bn scheme, led by telecommunications and tech firm Pegasus Global Holdings, will see 15 square miles dedicated to ambitious experiments in fields such as transport, construction, communication and security. However there will be no-one living in the new “settlement”.

RTPI vice-president voted-in

The Royal Town Planning Institute has elected Stephen Wilkinson as its new Vice-President. Wilkinson, Head of Planning & Strategic Partnerships at the Lee Valley Regional Park will become President of the Institute in 2017.