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:
Challenges for urban and regional development – Riga and Latvia’s National Development Plan
My previous visits to Riga were in the winter. Fading light on gloomy afternoons, sleet and snow chilling the soul, forcing me to seek the refuge of a warm bar or café. Now I am here in vibrant springtime, with a crescent moon in a crimson night sky after a day of warm sun. Suddenly,…
One Belt One Road – spatial planning at global scale?
This blog was first posted in January 2018. At an Innovation Circle Network conference in December 2017 I spoke about China’s One Belt One Road vision. This blog sketches and comments on this ambitious transnational project. In January 2017 the East Wind arrived in London. The freight train’s journey had taken 16 days and covered 12,000kms from…
Informal development reaches Harare’s leafy suburbs
Informal development is now penetrating the formerly exclusive suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe’s main city. lLike many colonial cities the early planning of Harare sought to segregate areas by class and ethnicity. However, urbanisation and poverty are now resulting in green spaces in low density suburbs becoming the focus for informal housing that brings the poor…
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…
Urban post-2015 UN sustainable development goal update
Posted September 26, 2014 by cliffhague The ‘urban’ goal remains in the list that the UN general assembly is considering this week. As long as it gets through, then adoption next year should be a formality, unless some country really wants to make an issue about it. As not much information is available about this, and it is an issue…
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…
EU briefing on their Urban Agenda
The European Parliament has issed a useful briefing note explaining the background to moves to deveop an Urban Agenda for the EU, and also sketching out some of the political tensions that the move is generating. Some 70% of EU citizens live in urban areas. In addition, most EU policies have some impact, direct or…
Bait movie – Nautical gentrification
The British film Bait, released in 2019, should be of interest to planners and urbanists internationally for the issues it raises about community and economic development. Bait is set in a fishing village in Cornwall, one of the poorest regions in England. After 20 years of regional development funding from the EU, GDP per capita remains only 68% of…
Comparing Scotland’s towns
This morning I attended the launch of a new open-access web tool that lets you analyse and compare towns in Scotland. It is easy to use and has great potential. Understanding Scottish Places (USP) is designed for use by both professionals and citizens. it covers the 479 places in Scotland with populations of 1000 or more, and…
A unique international oral history of planning ideas and practices
Posted March 28, 2014 by cliffhague In May in Vienna there will be a unique event. It will bring together sixteen people who have been leading figures in the academic development of planning over the past decades – or fifteen and me to be more accurate! The Evolution of Planning Thought project seeks to collect an oral history of…