Cliff Hague

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:

New Zealand’s planning system faces change

This was first posted in 2016. New Zealand’s right-wing minority government is amending the legislation that defines the planning system, to address what it calls problems with “cumbersome planning processes”. The Minister, Dr Nick Smith called it “a moderate reform Bill that will reduce the cost and delays for homeowners and businesses”. He introduced the…

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An unlikely City of Culture

Cliff Hague, Professor Emeritus, urban and regional planner, academic, theorist and author of the ICN blog recently went to Cyprus where he visited Paphos, European City of Culture 2017. But according to Cliff Hague Paphos is a rather unlikely City of Culture. One that is worth to have a closer look at. 2012-12-07 I am…

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Covid 19 in rapidly urbanising countries

UN Habitat has published its response to the serious problems posed by the pandemic in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Arabic countries. Over 95% of Covid 19 cases are in urban areas. There are 1 billion people living in informal settlements, and 2.4 billion people lack adequate access to safe water and sanitation.…

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Western Balkans Realities

In the early 1990s Yugoslavia began to disintegrate, triggering a series of vicious wars as ethnic groups contested territories. I have been doing some work looking at current development in the countries of the Western Balkans. Although conditions have certainly improved over the past decade, and the World Bank now rates them as “upper middle…

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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…

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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:

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Best ways to enhance Edinburgh

I gave the Cockburn Association annual lecture in Edinburgh on 27 October 2016. I have now written it up and you can read it. The Cockburn Association was formed in 1875 and can claim to be the oldest civic association in the world. It is a pleasure and an honour for me to be its Chair and…

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Women’s Safety in India

The death of the 23-year old physiotherapy student after she was gang raped on a New Delhi bus has commanded headlines around the world. This appalling and tragic event has focused attention on the failures of the Indian authorities, and Indian society more generally, to tackle long standing problems of sexual assault and harassment. The…

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