South East

Kelvin MacDonald's insider guide to town planning

Planning is all too often seen as a battle field.

Planners are trying to do their best for their local area by negotiating better designs, seeking agreements by developers to contribute towards improvements in roads and other facilities and trying to achieve a better mixture of housing, shops, jobs and leisure.

Developers will always need to have an eye to the bottom line - the profitability of the scheme.

If they didn't, they would soon go out of business and they will have to balance any extra cost of higher quality against whether they can sell the houses or rent out the offices for more to make up for this.

Local people and community groups don't like change unless it really improves an area - and why should they?

Economic challenges

The current economic position brings huge challenges and huge difficulties - particularly for those who are stuck in the housing market.

But it does give us all a chance to change the relationship between all those involved in planning and development from one of conflict to one of partnership.

An insider's guide - Kelvin Macdonald.

It would be such a waste if we came out of this recession in four of five years time and took up our old entrenched positions again.

The slow down in development may mean that planners and councillors can step back from the immediate pressures of piles of planning applications waiting to be decided.

However, this may well also mean a reduction in the fees from planning and building applications that will put local authority budgets under pressure.

Local councils have been working on new local plans for their areas (local development frameworks is the jargon phrase) for the last three years but some have made slow progress.

Now is the time to put resources into finishing these plans and doing more detailed plans for those parts of their area that are under threat or where change is needed.

This would mean that when the economy picks up, the Council has a very clear and agreed vision against which to judge new schemes.

Kick-starting development

Secondly, local councils will increasingly be looking at their own assets including sites and buildings.

This is not, it is hoped, just to sell them off for the highest price - and it is a myth that they are required to do this by law - but as a key part of re-thinking their roles in the local area.

Building to meet future demand.

Councils need to look at whether they can form partnerships - using their land and powers as a bargaining tool and as a means of kick-starting beneficial development.

We may well see more smaller developers operating in the market and they may be more willing to, and be more adept at, work in partnership with others.

Above all, we need to realise that what is good for your local area and its communities is often good for a developer.

We all know that good schools increase local house prices, that being next to a park or water increases the value of a development and that house buyers will look at whether there are doctors, shops and bus stops near by.

If we really want to improve areas and not simply preserve everything as it is, then we can develop mutual interests in an area.

Property market slowdown

The slow down in the development market may seem like a godsend to local groups and individuals who are fighting what they often see as the destruction of their area.

It can give them the chance to go on the front-foot and not to have to react to each new scheme as it comes along.

Striking a balance - bricks or greenery?

The government itself is encouraging local communities to do their own plans so that groups are clear and open about what they do want for their area - and not simply what they don't like.

Such plans are best done with the involvement of the local authority and, ideally, should feed strongly into the council's own plans.

You can take the whole process a step further and look at ideas such as community land trusts.

This is where the community itself has a stake in the development and, thus the ultimate power to decide what happens on a site.

It's good to talk...

Do talk to your local councillors.

One of the myths of local government is that councillors cannot talk to objectors in case they show bias.

They can - within certain guidelines - and you should encourage them to do so.

After all, it will be the planner that recommends what to do about a scheme in your area but, in contentious cases, the councillor who actually decides.

Lewes - development questions.

Make sure that you know what you can and cannot object to.

For example, frustratingly for some people, you cannot object to the view out of your window being changed.

But you can object if the new development means that your light is taken away or that someone can overlook you.

Finally, here is more help out there than you may realise.

For example, the Government has funded the Royal Town Planning Institute to provide a Planning Aid Service in every region in England.

This is free for groups and individuals who cannot afford a consultant.

There is a very comprehensive website that provides examples of communities getting involved in development and advice on how to go about it.

Help at hand

There is also a hand guide to the planning system produced by the Urban Forum and Planning Aid.

You can read this at the Urban Forum website listed below.

If you can afford it, do think about employing a consultant, they may be able to give you enough advice in one meeting to save you hours of toil and worry.

Credits

Kelvin MacDonald FRTPI is an independent planning adviser and an Affiliated Lecturer at the Department of Land Economy, Cambridge.