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:
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 in so many cities the boom in short-term lets coincided with an increasing squeeze on the normal rental market, exacerbating housing problems. It’s a familiar story, starting with people renting out a spare bedroom, serious investors sniffing…
Grid-based plans for urban extensions
This blog was first posted in 2016. A simple grid plan for urban extensions should be the basis for managing rapid urbanisation says a new UN-Habitat report. The value of a grid as an organising structure for new development is demonstrated through historic and contemporary examples from different continents. UN-Habitat’s report concludes that “The main virtue of…
Climate change and its impacts on a small island state: Tuvalu
Tuvalu from the air (photo courtesy of Dr.Julia Edwards) This blog provides a front line report from Tuvalu, a small island state in the Pacific. Tuvalu is going through urbanization on a scale it has never experienced before, and is also struggling to adapt to the impacts of climate change. This remote and tiny place,…
Is Polycentric Development still a recipe for Territorial Cohesion?
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 24 October 2011. The idea of polycentric development has been a cornerstone of European spatial planning for over a decade. But what does it mean? What does it imply for practice? How can we measure it? Is it now past its “sell-by date”? The…
Growth and the commercialisation of public space in Edinburgh
This item was first posted in November 2019. A major controversy has developed in Edinburgh over a huge development that was allowed to go ahead in the World Heritage Site without planning permission. The London-based event organisers Underbelly have a contract with Edinburgh’s city council who are paying them a reported £800,000 to stage a…
The Maldives – Challenges for Sustainable Development in a Small Island State
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 13 February 2012. Last week’s forced departure of the President of The Maldives has brought global attention to this small country. It is one of 29 small island developing states (SIDS) listed by the UN Commission on Trade and Development, though there is no official…
UK Launch of “Leading Change” book
A conference at the University of Birmingham on 22 March, 2018 on “Planning Challenges in the Commonwealth” was the venue for the UK launch of the book “Leading Change” My co-authored book, “Leading Change: Delivering the New Urban Agenda through Urban and Territorial Planning” had its UK launch at the conference “Think Planning – Think…
African politicians don’t grasp importance of cities
Despite the pace of urbanization and the economic importance of cities, many leading politicians in Africa are still focused on rural areas. Reuben Abraham, the head of a leading Indian think tank on urban issues, says that leaders of some developing countries are simply failing to undersand the importance of urbanization. Speaking in Jakarta at a New…
Dark Age Ahead – Europe and the EU 2030
In 2004, David Evers, Ed Dammers and Aldert de Vries wrote a “doomsday scenario” for a disintegrating EU in 2030. It was never published. It is now. David Evers, Ed Dammers and Aldert de Vries wrote this dystopian scenario in 2004 as part of their work in a spatial scenarios project exploring futures for Cohesion Policy. It…
“This project will be a good one!”
This blog was first posted in February 2015. Young Eyes is a new IC project. It looks to me like it will be a good one. I was at the kick-off meeting in a cold and misty Warsaw in January. All the partners were there – Jelgava and Rauna from Latvia, our Polish friends from…