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Or, why getting your homework checked and listening to feedback is really important, Keir

“Many of the areas designated for the fourth generation of new towns are not actually standalone new towns at all – they’re modest expansions of existing communities, and some are regeneration projects within existing towns and cities. So the challenge will be to bring the prosperity, the excitement and the vision.” – Lee Shostak

From Bournemouth to Milton Keynes to Adlington… from cronyism to new town corporations to protests… what the heck is going on with planning at the moment?

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch…

#futureplaces #newtowns #newtownstaskforce #designcodes #affordablehousing #socialhousing #poole #bournemouth #miltonkeynes

Or, the thing that’s blatantly obvious by its omission

“Freedom is having a choice of different things, not just having one really bad choice. Freedom is living in a city like here, where you can breathe clean air and choose your lifestyle.” – Zorana Jovanovic Andersen

A quick look at the revised NPPF with only a mug of weapon’s grade coffee and some ulcer-inducing trepidation between me and the transport planning elephant in the room.

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch… 

#placemaking #walking #cycling #activetravel #newyearresolution #urbandesigngroup #udg

Or, making the case for active travel

“There are issues on our roads. I obviously spend a lot of time thinking about this in relation to the work that we’re doing in developing the road safety strategy, and some of it is about trying to create that culture of mutual respect between everyone using our roads.” – Lilian Greenwood, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport

It’s about time that active travel was given an equal helping of funding to bring it in line with road and rail.

Here’s to safer streets for all!

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch…

#activetravel #walking #cycling #waronthemotorist #manualforstreets

Or, what the winter months can teach us about placemaking

“Every year when the clocks go back, women everywhere see their world get smaller – not because they want to, but because they don’t feel safe going out after dark.” – Kate Dale, Marketing Director at Sport England

Night culture is something that tends to get completely overlooked in the race to provide homes and employment areas, but of course, it’s just as important to creating a rounded place that caters for everyone.

You may have your executive five-bedroom house, but if there’s nowhere to go in the evening and it’s a drive to the nearest pub, might you just decide to stay in and rue the fact you’re living in an overpriced open prison?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#nightculture #culture #newtowns #activetravel #sustainability #culturalquarter #manualforstreets

Or, how do we keep the placemaking dream alive in the harsh reality of the real world?

“There is something going wrong between the masterplan and what happens on the ground.” – Katja Stille

When it comes to placemaking will the wheelie-bin operators continue to have the final say, ensuring that a vehicle that visits a place once a week is given more prominence in decision making than the people who will actually live there?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#place #placemaking #vision #masterplanning

Or, how we have to start collectively planning for infrastructure if Steve Reed’s housing dream is going to become a reality

“The planning figures today are unacceptable. I will leave no stone unturned to build 1.5 million homes so families have the key to a decent home in their hands.” – Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government

When it comes to the government’s proposed new towns, even engineers are now calling for joined up working, placemaking and a recruitment drive for built environment professionals.

But are they just fuelling the war on the motorist?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#urbandesigngroup #newtowns #placemaking #cykelslangen

Or, dare we prioritise design for walking and cycling even if a tabloid reader might get mad?

“Road lanes across the country are to become narrower to stop cars overtaking cyclists as part of a new war on motorists” – Mail on Sunday

Will prioritising safe cycling really worsen traffic jams? Or is traffic congestion actually the result of too many cars on the road rather than cyclists riding in the primary position?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#motonormativity #walking #cycling #activetravelengland #officeforplace #LTN120 #waronthemotorist 

Or, how to be polite on the sidewalk

“The world is so disconnected. We’re just consumed by our phones and our AirPods. You think it’s just gen Z and gen Alpha, but it’s everyone now. Age is not even a defining factor. But doing what I do, it’s a way of getting out, an activity, so I’m walking with purpose.” – Cameron Roh

Who do we want to invite in our cities? 

Here’s to all the walkers and the roller-skaters – provided they stay in their lanes, keep off their phones and don’t exceed 6km/hr.

Get all the juice in this week’s Sketch…

#walking #cycling #scootering #rollerskating #skiing #pavementetiquette #walkingetiquette

Or, having missed one big opportunity to encourage walking and cycling, is another now on the horizon?

“First life, then spaces, then buildings – the other way around never works.” – Jan Gehl

Are we going to sell out the good people of Tempsford and build yet more car dependent tat? Or are we now going to walk the talk and actively start designing for walkers and cyclists of all ages and give them a mixed use, walkable place to live?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#jangehl #walking #cycling #activetravel #copenhagen #activetravelengland

Or, do we have the skills to deliver new towns that are safe enough that women don’t feel the need to walk around clutching their phones?

“That’s what girls have to think about all the time.” – Saoirse Ronan

What are we doing, as placemakers, to deliver a public realm where everyone – not just women and girls – feel safe to be there at any time of day regardless of gender, age, disability, race or religious belief? Not much. And what does this mean for the new towns?

Find out in this week’s Sketch…

#saoirseronan #marinahyde #guardian #amirite #placemaking #placemakers #newtowns