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:
Shaping Places
The idea that place is important – economically, socially and environmentally – has gathered pace in recent years. Therefore the new book Shaping Places: Urban Planning, Design and Development is welcome. It is written by David Adams and the late Steve Tiesdell, colleagues at the University of Glasgow before Steve’s untimely death in 2011. …
Self-build City: How Aleppo is growing and why security of tenure is needed
This blog was first published on the Planning Resource website on 25 February 2011. Aleppo has made it to the UNESCO World Heritage List. A historic crossroads location on trade routes that criss-crossed the Middle East and connected it to Asia and Europe generated the wealth to invest in the built environment. The result is…
Planning on the West Bank (2): Land, water and people
Posted September 11, 2014 by cliffhague & file Today I have been to Nablus and followed the River Jordan down to Jericho. I have spoken to a conference, eaten falafel in the bazaar, talked with the most remarkable mayor I have ever met, and come to better understand the significance of water and land in this arid regions. The…
Governance in metropolitan regions
A new publication that can be downloaded for free sets guidelines for how to plan and manage metropolitan development. Unpacking Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Development argues that new governance structures are needed in metropolitan areas. It looks at at how and why metropolitan regions work – or not – and how effective metropolitan governance can be…
A World Viewtime-line of planning over the past century: Part 2
This second half of my World View Timeline for planning globally over the past century covers the period 1964-2013. The first part, 1914-1963, was covered in an earlier blog. It highlighted the ideas and practices that shaped 50 years of planning – from Patrick Geddes’ “Cities in Evolution” to Jane Jacobs’ “The Death and Life of…
Smart Cities, governance and urban transport
This item was first posted in 2017. How can cities in the rapidly urbanising world benefit from Smart City approaches to urban management? I am just back from my second visit to Luanda, the capital of Angola. I was running a workshop there that was wrapping up a Smart Cities project that is part of…
Lord of the (Pineapple) Rings
In a week when my term of office as President of the Royal Town Planning Institute came to a close, I also faced being made redundant. This largely inconsequential article that I wrote in 1997 is redeemed by the photo of me wearing my Eric Cantona T-shirt while meeting a pirate. It also provides some…
Expect more migration in future, report tells EU
This blog was first posted in April 2016. The pressure for migration into Europe will not go away, says a new report. The ongoing war in Syria is just one factor in the surge in the number of people seeking asylum in Europe, estimated by the UN to total 1 million in 2015. Looking across…
UK projects
Planning Aid for Scotland Planning Aid for Scotland (now PAS) is a social enterprise that seeks to build active citizenship. Welsh Assembly Government UK projects while at Heriot-Watt University Cliff was part of research teams that delivered a number of practice-oriented reports for policy-makers. These include: