Reacting to today’s speech by Eric Pickles MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, CPRE’s Senior Planning Campaigner Paul Miner said: ‘We are glad to see the Conservatives state their support for the Green Belt as a green lung. This is particularly pleasing as recent pronouncements of a think-tank close to the party have given us cause for concern. We also welcome the clear statement that a Conservative Government would abolish the proposed Infrastructure Planning Commission, which will be unelected, expensive, ineffective and unnecessary.’

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2 October 2008
© CRDP

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has welcomed much of the recently published regional strategy to guide development in the North West. The Plan sets out where and how much new development there should be for housing, transport, energy, waste, retail and jobs. But the CPRE is worried that the Government’s open-ended approach to house-building may derail its good intentions. CPRE’s Regional Policy Officer, Andy Yuille, said: ‘It’s great to see strong policies on tranquillity and landscape. These are the things that people value about our fantastic countryside. And we’re pleased that the Government has listened to the people of the region and pulled back from plans to re-focus development priorities on towns and cities in the M6 corridor. This will promote the regeneration of Manchester and Liverpool and protect the character and heritage of historic cities like Chester and Lancaster. It shows the importance of respecting local knowledge and experience. A number of other policies have also been strengthened to improve the outcomes for the environment and communities’ quality of life.’ However, the Government has taken the cap off the number of houses that can be built in each district over the next 15 years, and removed the policy on housing density. With no limits on development and no policy on using land for housing efficiently, it is hard to see how councils will be able to stick to these aims.

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1 October 2008
© CPRE

The Ethical Property Foundation, a charity committed to empowering charities and community groups to make the most of property, and to improving the social and environmental performance of the commercial property sector, is calling for communities to become equal partners in the planning obligations’ process with the recent publication of its new community guide to planning obligations. The Foundation’s ‘No Pain Guide to Gain: A Community Guide to Planning Obligations’ sets out a seven point manifesto for community involvement.  Key of these is the inclusion of local people in pre-applications discussions between the council and developers to ensure that community needs are taken into consideration ‘up front’.
 
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15 September 2008
© Creating Excellence

A scheme designed to encourage the growth of businesses in rural areas has won a regional award. The Rural Planning Facilitation Service (RPFS) was set up by the Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency back in 2001 and has been running successfully ever since. During the last seven years, it has acted a mediation service between local authorities and businesses in northwest England. As a result, the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has recognised the initiative by giving it the Northwest Best Rural Planning Project Award.
 
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15 September 2008
© England’s Northwest

Countryside campaigners CPRE welcome the decision by Mr Justice Collins to carry out a judicial review of the Government’s eco-towns programme. Kate Gordon, CPRE’s senior planner, said: ‘This situation could have been avoided had the Government thought through its eco-towns programme properly to start with.  The way the Government has gone about designating eco-towns, by-passing established planning procedures, we believe to be fundamentally flawed. It is worrying that the Government appears to have little confidence in local communities or in its own planning system.’
Kate Gordon concluded: ‘We look forward to the High Court’s decision later this year.’

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12 September 2008
© CPRE

The National Credit Union Foundation (NCUF), in partnership with World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), has launched a new international designation in its popular Development Education (DE) program. The new program, first announced at WOCCU’s World Credit Union Conference in Hong Kong, will certify its first class at WOCCU’s 2009 World Credit Union Conference, scheduled for July 26-29 in Barcelona, Spain. Charles Sim, a director with Scotwest Credit Union in Glasgow, Scotland, plans to be among the first to receive this designation. The retired firefighter and longtime credit union volunteer views the new program as a way to promote and enhance global credit union development, as well as further extend the DE program’s reach to other countries. “After seeing WOCCU’s field work ‘at coal face,’ as we say in Scotland, I value the importance of WOCCU’s programs to the developing world,” said Sim. “I am looking forward to being in the first group to receive this certification and I’ve already begun work on my independent study project.” The DE program, which links U.S. credit union advocates with the movement’s philosophical roots through interactive group presentations and experiential learning, has always supported credit unions’ global initiatives through volunteer projects and international exchanges. Now by formally expanding the U.S. DE program to include international opportunities, the partnership with WOCCU will build on the program’s foundation of cooperative values as U.S. DE participants gain more exposure to fellow students and credit union movements from other countries.

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11 September 2008
© WOCCU/National Credit Union Foundation

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) hopes to be able to welcome much of the new development plan for the North West, to be published in early September. The Plan will set out where and how much new development there should be for housing, transport, energy, waste, retail and jobs. But CPRE is worried that late changes to the plan imposed by Whitehall against the wishes of people in the region and the advice of experts may derail its good intentions.
CPRE’s Regional Policy Officer, Andy Yuille commented: ‘It’s great that Government and the regional agencies have listened and agreed to the need for strong policies on tranquillity and landscape. This is what people value about our fantastic countryside. But if central Government takes the cap off the number of houses to be built in the next 20 years, it’s hard to see how councils will be able to stick to environmental targets.The Government have also signalled their intention to impose entirely new growth plans on the M6 corridor. These weren’t examined or tested at any point in the long consultation process.’

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29 August 2008
© CPRE

Preliminary plans for the redevelopment of the Dog Lane area of Bewdley are set to be unveiled in the town on Monday 1st September 2008. The proposed development will see a range of new and improved services for the community including a new medical centre, fire station, community hall, library, residential units (including affordable homes), retail premises and new public toilets. The scheme is being developed by a steering group of representatives from Wyre Forest District Council, Worcestershire County Council, Advantage West Midlands, The Community Housing Group, Worcestershire Primary Care Trust, Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, St Georges’ Hall Trust, Bewdley Medical Practice and developers Matrix Medical.

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28 August 2008
© Advantage West Midlands

The massive regeneration of Leith Docks was today granted outline planning permission by city councillors. The unanimous vote in favour followed a mammoth planning committee meeting. The scheme - one of the biggest planning applications ever to come before the council, is designed to create thousands of jobs, generate billions of pounds in investment and make Edinburgh’s waterfront a “world-class” destination over the next 20-30 years.

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27 August 2008
© Johnston Press Digital Publishing

The green belt is “not sacred” and should be built on to allow more affordable housing, a think tank has said. Policy Exchange said even the term itself is misleading and the Government should tackle the “myth” that land is a scarce resource in England. It said the debate around the green belt should be conducted in a “less emotional” tone and local communities should be given more power to decide where homes are built. Policy Exchange said most people were unaware that 90 per cent of England is undeveloped. Its chief economist Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich, writing in Total Politics magazine, said: “Why is there such a gap between perception and reality? Perhaps because people have been told again and again that open land is disappearing. England has no lack of open space. Even if urban areas were expanded by 10 per cent this could be achieved by using less than one per cent of the total land mass. That would still leave 89 per cent of the country untouched by development.”

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© Telegraph Media Group Ltd 2008

22 August 2008