Impacts of AirBnB regulation in New York
New York has long been a money spinner for AirBnB. In January 2023 there were 38,500 listings. As…
Planning a Refugee Camp
In 2010 the Commonwealth Association of Planners held its first Student Essay competition. The winners were Jeremiah Atho…
Kes Revisited – The welfare state and community in the late 1960s
Ken Loach’s film, Kes, was released in 1969. What does it tell us about life in a coalfield…
Place Identity, Participation and Planning
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Regional and Local Economic Development
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Cliff is a freelance consultant, researcher, author and trainer. He was the Chair of the Cockburn Association 2016 – 2023.
He is Professor Emeritus of Planning and Spatial Development at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
He is a Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and of the Commonwealth Association of Planners.
He is a past Chair of Built Environment Forum Scotland.
He was awarded the O.B.E. in the 2016 Birthday Honours.
Books
Some articles fromall categories:
The State of China’s Cities
I have referred to Chinese urbanisation several times in these blogs, but make no apologies for returning to the topic. What is happening in China should be of interest to planners, urbanists, environmentalists and economic development professionals everywhere. In part this is because of the sheer scale of the changes – a rural to urban…
Why civic trust is draining away
This blog was published in March 2016. Civic pride and civic trust are important for community cohesion and well-being, but are being eroded by austerity and a centralised system of planning and local government. This was a central theme of the inaugural Scottish Civic Trust Annual Lecture which I delivered in Edinburgh on 2 March.…
Why do we need to mainstream the historic environment?
Why do we need to mainstream the historic environment? http://www.befs.org.uk/news/84/49/Why-do-we-need-to-mainstream-the-historic-environment/d,Blog 25 November 2013
A creeping privatisation of public space?
This blog was first publised in August 2017. Might plans for a make-over for Edinburgh’s West Princes Street Gardens lead to a partial privatisation of an iconic public space? West Princes Street Gardens in the centre of Edinburgh are an outstanding feature of the city. They sit below the spectacular castle. A bandstand is at…
What makes a region attractive to its residents and visitors?
The idea of making your town more attractive has been central to the Trans-in-Form INTERREG project in which several IC members are partners. Now an ESPON Report from the “ATTREG” project has researched this project and published its findings. It points to the fact that some of the places that have been seen as being…
Shaping Places
The idea that place is important – economically, socially and environmentally – has gathered pace in recent years. Therefore the new book Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and Development is welcome. It is written by David Adams and the late Steve Tiesdell, colleagues at the University of Glasgow before Steve’s untimely death in 2011. …
Ten messages from Scotland for Planners around the World
On World Town Planning Day 2019, I was part of an event in Dundee organised by RTPI (Scotland) with the theme “Through the Years, Across the Globe”. Discussion during and after prompted me to ponder Scotland’s messages to an international audience of planners and urbanists. For a small country, Scotland has contributed significantly to thinking…
The global initiative for resource efficient cities
One of the positive outcomes to emerge from the Rio+20 summit last year was the UN Environment Programme’s Global Initiative for Resource Efficient Cities (GI-REC) In trying to plot a way towards sustainable urban development it aims to reduce pollution and infrastructure costs while improving efficiency in cities across the world. The GI-REC will work with local…
How to make urban growth boundaries work
Keys to making urban growth boundaries work as a planning tool for controlling sprawl in US cities were identified in a session in the recent American Planning Association conference. Examples of urban growth boundaries were presented from Portland, Oregon; King County, Washington; and Denver. Messages were that the boundaries are flexible and negotiable; they succed…
Zlin – Conserving a classic of functionalism
Zlin is an outstanding example of a town inspired by 20th century functionalist architecture. This classic company town was a product of the Bata shoe company, its “home town” that the company then mimicked across the continents. It survived Communism, and now a finely balanced conflict is taking place between conservation and consumer capitalism. The…