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:
WUF10 – Global Planning Aid
This blog was posted ahead of the tenth World Urban Forum, in Abu Dhabi 8-13 February 2020. Despite many endorsements ofthe idea for Global Planning Aid at the WUF, it proved not possible to raise the pump-priming funding required to set up a pilot project in Banjul, The Gambia. The CHOGM planned for 2020 was…
How setting national climate budgets obscure the need to really tackle the climate emergency
This item was first published in July 2019. Why is the French Government failing to meet its own goals on limiting CO2 emissions? A blog by Pierre Calame provides insights into why France is not meeting its targets on energy and the climate emergency. The messages apply to many other countries too. Calame points out that successive…
Participation?
How to have your say in the planning system. A scandal has broken out over a controversial decision by the English planning minister. As has been widely reported in the UK, the Minister, Robert Jenrick, overturned the recommendations of the independent Planning Inspector and awarded a consent for a £1billion 1,500-apartment, 44-storey development in London.…
How to save town centres
In smaller towns across the UK and many other countries, the town centres are struggling. Julian Dobson, has a barrowful of ideas of what to do about it. His book How to Save Our Town Centres is the best starting point I know for those who want to combine analysis with action. It is well researched, well-informed and…
2021 Awards for Planning in the Commonwealth
Calling all planners in the Commonwealth! The awards are administered by the Commonwealth Association of Planners. They have been running since 2018 and have attracted some impressive examples of the work of planners. The first winner was the Bay of Plenty Regional Policy Statement in New Zealand. The project showed how risk in relation to natural hazards had…
New housing floorspace will be the area of the Netherlands by 2025
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 17 July 2012. The next generation is going to witness a staggering amount of new urban development as the world’s economic centre of gravity shifts towards Asia. Cities in both developed and rapidly urbanising countries need professional planning if they are to prosper. Companies…
Territorial Dynamics in Europe: regions integrating Land and Sea
Territorial Dynamics in Europe: regions integrating Land and Sea, ESPON Territorial Observation No.8 (2013) https://www.espon.eu/topics-policy/publications/territorial-observations/territorial-dynamics-europe-regions-integrating Co-author.
Brexit – Why and what next?
Why has Brexit happened and what happens next? I am writing a few hours after the result was declared and before all the detailed analysis that will surely follow. But in some respects that does not matter – indeed, one of the themes of the referendum campaign was that “facts” from “experts” were not to…
Force Majeure movie review: Explosions in a landscape
The film Force Majeure focuses on the tensions within a marriage, but it also depicts the tensions between people and the natural environment. The original Swedish title of Ruben Östlund’s internationally acclaimed film Force Majeure is Turist, which is “Tourist”. The pivotal drama in the film is the moment early on when an avalanche of snow threatens to bury the winter…
