Thursday 25 July 2013

Wales coastal path

In 2013, the Wales coastal path won the national planning award.  Quite an achievement! 

I might get told off already as there's already a plan for members of the RTPI to walk the path jointly as part of the centenary celebrations of the RTPI.

It's very early days in the planning, but we are delighted to announce Pete's commitment to walking the coastal path in its entire length- all 820 miles or thereabouts in 2014.  

You are invited to join him and, ok I'm lying in bed typing this, so lets stick a  finger up and say he wants to raise at least £20000 for charity. That's £25 per mile... 

Challenge out there...  

Thursday 18 July 2013

Carl Sargeant Speech - 17 July 2013

An imaginatively titled blog if ever there was one. 

For those of you who don't know, or prefer not to care and perhaps simply don't care, Carl Sargeant is the Minister with main responsibility for Planning here in Wales.

Yesterday he gave a speech to Cabinet setting out his proposals to 'stimulate' housebuilding here in the principality.  Some of the fine detail is yet to emerge, and as soon as it is we will let you know.  The key points are:

  • Stimulating house-building across sectors.
  • Changing C02 emissions requirement under Part L of the Building Regulations from 40% reduction on 2010 levels to 8% of same.  Some detail  here.  We note it 'giveth' on one hand and taketh on the other (requiring minimum standards of insulation on new domestic extensions and requiring conservatories to be neither heated nor cooled.) 
  • Implementing the Domestic Fire Safety Measure 2011 from April 2014 in care homes, hostels, halls of residence an similar schemes. New and converted houses and flats from April 2016.
  • Bringing forward a shared equity (help to buy Cymru) scheme later in 2013 and working to deliver a HomeBuy Cymru scheme.
  • Reviewing the content (and need for) TAN 22.
  • Revising householder PD rights from end of September 2013 (we cant yet find the draft SI)
  • Requiring LA to update LHMA's by April 2016 - it would help perhaps for some to have vaguely completed one even now!
As ever, actions speak louder than words and we impress on WG and LPA's the need to ensure sufficient permissions and land supply is in place to allow viable delivery, not least as recent research shows a significant shortfall against the required 5 years supply.  

Pete

Wednesday 3 July 2013

The Power of Advertising

Some time back we tweeted about a client who asked for our view on mounting a pink Cadillac on the roof of his premises.  Its purpose being to draw attention to his business in a tourist area.  A somewhat rare instruction perhaps and we gave him pretty 'robust' advice on the need for consent and his prospects.  Hearts might have sank when we received a call from one of his staff about the letter he'd had from planning department drawing attention to the unauthorised advertisement he had erected.

Always up for a challenge we were almost disappointed that he'd opted for a more conventional free standing sign that was slightly oversized to benefit from deemed consent. An application has been  lodged and we await a positive outcome.

Its also made us think; 

Firstly: about the extensive rights which exist for the display of of adverts without formal permission  whether they fall outside the scope of the Advertisement Regulations at all or because they benefit from something called deemed consent - or the risks of unauthorised advertisements. 

Under-estimating the extent to which your business can attract new custom and possibly even secure income from carefully placed and designed adverts is something that seems woefully overlooked by   many of our clients. We can undertake assessment of advertisement potential for your site for a relatively modest cost against the potential value it could create.

Secondly, an email out of the blue on Monday has resulted in an instruction to submit an application for community clubrooms for  Conwy Borough Football Club - a new client. When new clients come to us we always ask how they found us as we like to know how effective our advertising is.

We tailor advertising so that google searches find us but focus our main advertising on the RTPI Consultant Directory and social media.  The Football Club told us they asked the LPA how they would wish a Planning/DAS to be approached and were given some examples, including a copy of one we have produced for another sports development - they liked our approach and no doubt our ability to react quickly to their requirements.   

It goes to show that once again that the reputation of the practice and quality work we produce brings  new instructions.   

Many thanks to Darren at Conwy Borough FC for the instruction.  We too are delighted with your imaginative approach to structuring fees and look forward to supporting the club and seeing our advertisement board alongside the pitch in the forthcoming season.