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:
Urban growth in Ghana – opportunity or great danger?
Ghana’s urban population has grown from 4 million to 14 million in 30 years. This has underpinned economic growth, which has on average increased by 5.7% a year since 1984. Can this continue, or is the urban future bleak? A new report by the World Bank says that urbanisation has reduced urban and rural poverty and enabled…
Listen to the “Rural Voice”
“The planning system has a significant role in supporting sustainable economic growth in rural areas.” This statement is from the Scottish Government’s Planning Policy. However, planning decisions in rural Scotland can often be very controversial, as Cliff Hague explains in his new blog post. 2013-02-05 There are a range of development pressures on the Scottish…
Grid-based plans for urban extensions
This blog was first posted in 2016. A simple grid plan for urban extensions should be the basis for managing rapid urbanisation says a new UN-Habitat report. The value of a grid as an organising structure for new development is demonstrated through historic and contemporary examples from different continents. UN-Habitat’s report concludes that “The main virtue of…
Nowa Huta – Town Planning and Heroes
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 28 November 2011. Nowa Huta was a showcase development by the communist government in Poland in the 1950s. Today, on a bright, cold central European winter afternoon, I took the bus from the old town of Krakow, and rode out to see the place…
What does the election of Trump mean for planning and the profession?
Guest blogger Klaus Kunzmann shared his thoughts from Potsdam on what a Trump presidency could mean for planning and planners in this blog from 2016. First Brexit, then Trump. The liberal elites in Europe and beyond are shocked. In a brief statement in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine on 10 November Saskia Sassen has expressed her concerns…
World Urban Forum 9 – A missed opportunity for UK
World Urban Forum 9, in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, was an opportunity to show UK engagement with urbanisation as a global issue. It was missed. Here is the blog I posted from that event. The UK remains myopic about the opportunities and challenges of the urbanisation of the planet. We may fret about the lack…
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…
Sri Lanka plans “Megapolis” to boost growth
The Sri Lankan government recently created a new ministerial post – Minister of Megapolis and Western Province Development. The brief is to oversee the creation of a huge urban area roughly 95 kms long with the capital Colombo at its heart. The $300billion project will involve new development and urban renewal on a scale never…
Town Planning and Planners in Bangladesh
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 15 March 2011. By 2030, one in every two urban residents in the world will be in Asia. Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, brings this dramatic urban transition into focus. Faced with a constant battle against water, inadequate infrastructure and sanitation, endemic traffic congestion and…
