Call for Evidence - Britain's Best and Worst Streets
11/20/21 • 2 min
Episode 56 will be alone soon, but, in the meantime, Sam Stafford would appreciate your help with preparations for a future episode that he has in mind. This, if you will, is a 50 Shades Call for Evidence.
Create Streets recently tweeted a photograph of Grey Street in Newcastle and asked whether it is Britain’s best street.
It was considered to be one of the best in 2002 when Radio 4’s Today programme and CABE set out to identify Britain’s best and worst streetscapes. Grey Street, High Pavement in Nottingham; Buchanan Street in Glasgow; New Street in Birmingham and the Water Street/Castle Street area of Liverpool were considered the best. Streatham High Road in London; Cornmarket in Oxford; Drake’s Circus in Plymouth; Maid Marian Way in Nottingham and Leatherhead High Street in Surrey were considered the worst.
Twenty years on, one wonders (or rather friend of the podcast Ben Castell wondered on Twitter and Sam has pinched his idea…), do they remain Britain’s best and worst streets? Where now might be considered better, or even worse, and why?
Sam would like to invite you, the 50 Shades listenership, to submit your nominations for Britain’s best and worst streets and the most popular submissions will feature in an episode that will consider what makes for a great street and the factors that affect change over time.
Please send all contributions to [email protected] before the end of the consultation period on 31 December 2021.
Some accompanying listening (whilst essentially a teaser trailer this is still technically an episode and so deserves some accompanying listening).
Streets of Your Town by The Go-Betweens
50 Shades 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'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
Episode 56 will be alone soon, but, in the meantime, Sam Stafford would appreciate your help with preparations for a future episode that he has in mind. This, if you will, is a 50 Shades Call for Evidence.
Create Streets recently tweeted a photograph of Grey Street in Newcastle and asked whether it is Britain’s best street.
It was considered to be one of the best in 2002 when Radio 4’s Today programme and CABE set out to identify Britain’s best and worst streetscapes. Grey Street, High Pavement in Nottingham; Buchanan Street in Glasgow; New Street in Birmingham and the Water Street/Castle Street area of Liverpool were considered the best. Streatham High Road in London; Cornmarket in Oxford; Drake’s Circus in Plymouth; Maid Marian Way in Nottingham and Leatherhead High Street in Surrey were considered the worst.
Twenty years on, one wonders (or rather friend of the podcast Ben Castell wondered on Twitter and Sam has pinched his idea…), do they remain Britain’s best and worst streets? Where now might be considered better, or even worse, and why?
Sam would like to invite you, the 50 Shades listenership, to submit your nominations for Britain’s best and worst streets and the most popular submissions will feature in an episode that will consider what makes for a great street and the factors that affect change over time.
Please send all contributions to [email protected] before the end of the consultation period on 31 December 2021.
Some accompanying listening (whilst essentially a teaser trailer this is still technically an episode and so deserves some accompanying listening).
Streets of Your Town by The Go-Betweens
50 Shades 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'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
Previous Episode
The Coastal Path
The Chief Medical Officer, in their annual report, presents to Government information or ‘surveillance’ about the health of England’s population, offering recommendations to both government and individual organisations as to how to improve the public health system.
In his 2021 report, published in July, Chris Whitty chose to report on health in coastal communities. It concluded that:
There are many reasons for poor health outcomes in coastal communities. The pleasant environment attracts older, retired citizens to settle, who inevitably have more and increasing health problems. An oversupply of guest housing has led to Houses of Multiple Occupation which lead to concentrations of deprivation and ill health. The sea is a benefit but also a barrier: attracting NHS and social care staff to peripheral areas is harder, catchment areas for health services are artificially foreshortened and transport is often limited, in turn limiting job opportunities. Many coastal communities were created around a single industry such as previous versions of tourism, or fishing, or port work that have since moved on, meaning work can often be scarce or seasonal.
Physical and natural environment? Demography? Housing? Transport? Employment? This, Sam Stafford thought, sounded like a good subject for exploration on a town planning-based podcast. What are the particular issues associated with planning for coastal communities? What distinguishes a successful coastal town from a less successful one? And what role does the planning system have in determining these outcomes?
Sam puts these questions to Louise Wood (@LWood_Cornwall), Service Director for Planning at Cornwall Council; Christopher Balch (@balchplyuni), Emeritus Professor at the University of Plymouth and Non-Executive Director at the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust; and Warren Lever (@ShapeThePlace), Senior Conservation & Design Officer at New Forest District Council.
Some accompanying reading.
Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2021: health in coastal communities
'Imagination is key to the revival of Britain’s seaside towns'
Levelling up: The seaside town debating what change is needed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58248594
Select Committee on Regenerating Seaside Towns and Communities - The future of seaside towns
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201719/ldselect/ldseaside/320/32004.htm#_idTextAnchor008
Higher education enables graduates to move to places with better career prospects – but this leads to brain drain from the North and coastal areas
https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15621
Trusting the People: the case for community-powered conservatism
https://www.newlocal.org.uk/publications/trusting-people-community/
Blue Deal For Coastal Communities
https://neweconomics.org/campaigns/blue-new-deal
Some accompanying viewing.
Councillors Ray Cox and Roy Evans discuss efforts to regenerate Marine Way in Aldington-on-Sea
Some accompanying listening.
The Coral - Take me back to the summertime
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IREwDVoh558
50 Shades 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'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. ...
Next Episode
The only constant is change
Sam Stafford gets back to 50 Shades basics and enjoys in this episode a gently meandering conversation with some of his friends about planning.
Sam could not though resist a typically verbose introduction...
""It is commonly observed”, said Samuel Johnson, “that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm."
One could make a case that when two English planners meet, their first talk is of planning reform.
In the former case, it is perhaps that, whilst the weather is changeable, the English temperament is not, and passing the time with such platitudinous pleasantries avoids, heaven forbid, the need to have a conversation about anything important.
In the latter case, constant talk of reform seems almost like a similar communal comfort blanket. It relegates responsibility for meaningful change to a higher power to enact at some point in the future, absolving the individual, be that an individual political or an individual planner, of responsibility for change in the here and now.
And what would Dr Johnson make of the language of reform? ‘Fixing’ or ‘solving’ something are absolutist terms being applied to something that is not only manifestly subjective, but also, in the case, of housing and the built environment, a function of an entire culture rather than a single regulatory regime. One supposes though that there is not many votes in ‘improving’ the planning system or ‘alleviating’ the housing crisis...
We need to talk about reform, but not for what it might mean in the future. For the impact that incessant talk of it is having in the present..."
Shelly Rouse, Principal Consultant at PAS (@Rouse_Shelly); Vicky Payne, planner and urban designer at URBED (@Victoria_Payne); and Paul Smith, Managing Director at Strategic Land Group (@Paul_SLG) try to make sense of that.
Some accompanying reading.
Vicky's report of the first Common Good event
The RTPI's recent consultation responses
https://www.rtpi.org.uk/new-from-the-rtpi/?contentType=Consultations
'Beware of ‘Policy Intern Brain’ – the source of so many bad ideas' by Anya Martin
https://capx.co/beware-of-policy-intern-brain-the-source-of-so-many-bad-ideas/
Some accompanying listening.
Round and Round by King Creosote and Michael Johnston
https://soundcloud.com/m-j-789958593/02-round-and-round
Some accompanying viewing.
How policy is formulated in Westminster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_AM1W5rHGA
50 Shades 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'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com/2021/07/50-shades-of-planning-t-shirts.html
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