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
Link to buy
Regional and Local Economic Development
Link to buy
Leading Change: Delivering the New Urban Agenda through Urban and Territorial Planning
Link to download for free
Cliff is a freelance consultant, researcher, author and trainer. He is the Chair of the Cockburn Association.
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:
Review of the Scottish Planning System
The planned reform of the planning system in Scotland will end in tears. I have an article in the newspaper The Scotsman. It draws on the responses to the consultation on the proposals by the Scottish Government to review the planning legislation. My article argues that an opportunity is being missed. Instead of looking internationally for…
Best ways to enhance Edinburgh
I gave the Cockburn Association annual lecture in Edinburgh on 27 October 2016. I have now written it up and you can read it. The Cockburn Association was formed in 1875 and can claim to be the oldest civic association in the world. It is a pleasure and an honour for me to be its Chair and…
Would you buy a Frank Lloyd Wright house to demolish it?
The Booth Cottage, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1913, which is in Glencoe, Illinois, could become the third of his buildings to be demolished since 2004. The 882 square foot cottage may be tiny, but it sits on a large lot in an affluent Chicago suburb, which I passed through earlier this month. It’s…
What is a just city and how do we make it?
A free downloadable book explores the idea of a Just City. The Just City Essays: 26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion and Opportunity aims to inspire ideas and practices to tackle the deep inequalities that mark our urban settlements. The team behind the venture invited 24 authors to address two questions: What would a just city look…
Spatial Planning in Europe – the last 100 years
The European Council of Spatial Planners has just published a book to mark “A Centenary of Spatial Planning in Europe”. It is a compendium in which the Introduction is followed by 32 chapters that range far and wide in their concerns and approach. What does the book tell us about where planning in Europe has come from…
Bids invited for 900,000Euro research on planning in Europe
ESPON is inviting bids for seven new applied research projects, including one on comparing the spatial planning systems across Europe. The new ESPON programme has announced the first seven major research projects that it will fund. Amongst them is a comparative study of territorial governance and spatial planning systems in Europe. The brief points to the…
Job opportunity – Commonwealth Projects Coordinator
Exciting job opportunity – closing date 3 November 2019. Are you interested in a 12 month job, working on sustainable cities and human settlements, with opportunities for interenational travel? 2020 is going to be an important year. In February the 10th World Urban Forum will be convened by UN-Habitat in Abu Dhabi. There will also…
Nexit? Netherlands exit – and an unconsidered worst case-scenario
How might Brexit impact on the EU? Will the Netherlands be next? David Evers scratches the scabs. This Guest Blog is contributed by David Evers from the Netherlands Environmental Protection Agency. The views expressed are his own, and not those of the Agency or of ESPON, for which he is the Dutch National Contact Point.…
Why are national urban policies needed?
A wide ranging international review of national urban policies highlights the importance to national development of coordinated planning and well-functioning urban areas. Urban planning is seen as an economic imperative. “The argumentthat well-functioning urban areas can help to unleash the development potential of nations is more persuasive than the argument that urban policy is about…
Community involvement in valuing and managing historic buildings and sites
Community involvement in valuing and managing historic buildings and sites http://www.befs.org.uk/news/100/49/Community-involvement-in-valuing-and-managing-historic-buildings-and-sites/d,Blog 30 January 2014.