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:
How to tackle the challenge of place branding?
Place brand management is the theme of an article in the current issue of Town and Country Planning, the excellent little magazine produced by the Town and Country Planning Association. Its authors, Sonya Hanna and Jennifer Rowley, stress the need to involve stakeholders in the process. This means not just local residents, but also visitors and businesses. They…
Europe’s Neighbourhood from a Territorial Perspective
Europe’s Neighbourhood from a Territorial Perspective, Report from the ESPON Internal Seminar in Paphos, Cyprus 5-6 December 2012 (2013) https://www.espon.eu/news-events/espon-2006-2013-events/espon-2013/internal-seminars/espon-internal-seminar-0 . Co-author.
Capacity crisis is hitting urban development in Pakistan
This item was first posted in October 2019. Pakistan is suffering from chronic underinvestment in urban planning. The leading newspaper in the Punjab has run a story about unfilled professional planning posts, noting some of the negative consequences. The article in Dawn, states that “Many professionals working in the public and private sectors have either left…
Can innovation save town centres?
Town centres are dying. The economic crisis has highlighted the malaise. There are empty shops, as people head to the edge of town supermarket. Internet shopping replaces the trip to the store downtown. Prominent buildings once used for public functions such as town halls, post offices or churches stand empty too, as services have been…
The Housing Market Crisis in Sun-Belt US Cities
his blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 14 June 2011. After spending a month in the USA (the reason for the lack of recent blogs) I have really begun to grasp the scale of the housing market crisis there. The sub-prime US mortgage market triggered the global economic crisis in 2007-8.…
Territories finding a New Momentum
Territories finding a New Momentum: Evidence for Policy Development, Growth and Investment, Third ESPON Synthesis Report (2014) Co-author. https://www.espon.eu/topics-policy/publications/synthesis-reports/third-espon-2013-synthesis-report
The 20 minute neighbourhood: trap or opportunity?
The idea of a 20-minute neighbourhood has been grasped by urban planners and designers internationally. Guest blogger Emeritus Professor Klaus Kunzmann casts a critical eye on the concept. Recently, the 15-minute city concept has found enthusiastic supporters among planners in Europe and beyond. In Scotland’s Draft National Planning Framework 4 it is slightly adapted to be the…
2011: A Review
Urban This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 16 December 2011. Looking at planning and economic development from a global perspective, 2011 was a year that posed more questions than it answered. At the level of headlines, there was little to raise the spirits or to make you confident that the…
Luanda: The transformation of an African city
In November 2016 I visited Luanda, Angola’s capital, to deliver workshops on sustainable development and urban planning. I was able to gain a first hand experience of the dramatic and controversial changes in the city, which I recorded in this blog. At something over 5 million people, Luanda is now one of Africa’s major metropolitan…