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
Link to buy
Regional and Local Economic Development
Link to buy
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:
Cities of tomorrow – towers or tents?
Young people from Germany, Norway, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Scotland attended last week’s international youth summer school in Benmore, Scotland. The event was put on by Planning Aid for Scotland and by Innovation Circle. The theme was “Cities of Tomorrow”. I was asked to lead the introductory session. I started with a Powerpoint showing visions from 1913 and…
Scotland’s Living Heritage(s)
This blog on the inaugural lecture by Professor Máiréad Nic Craith, given at Heriot-Watt University on 29 May 2013, was first posted on the website of the Built Environment Forum Scotland on 4 June 2013. The appointment of Professor Máiréad Nic Craith to a chair in the School of Management and Languages promises to add…
Ten messages from Scotland for Planners around the World
On World Town Planning Day 2019, I was part of an event in Dundee organised by RTPI (Scotland) with the theme “Through the Years, Across the Globe”. Discussion during and after prompted me to ponder Scotland’s messages to an international audience of planners and urbanists. For a small country, Scotland has contributed significantly to thinking…
A week in Czechoslovakia July 1989
This piece was first published in Planning 21 July 1989 and is reproduced by kind permission of Haymarket Publications. Because it ran over 2 pages it has to be reproduced here as two separate items The “Diary” tells of a week spent in meetings with planners in what was then Czechoslovakia. It was written just…
Climate change and its impacts on a small island state: Tuvalu
Tuvalu from the air (photo courtesy of Dr.Julia Edwards) This blog provides a front line report from Tuvalu, a small island state in the Pacific. Tuvalu is going through urbanization on a scale it has never experienced before, and is also struggling to adapt to the impacts of climate change. This remote and tiny place,…
Buildings of Empire
Posted September 1, 2014 by cliffhague & filed My summer holiday reading has been “Buildings of Empire” by Ashley Jackson. As the title suggests, this is a grand tour around landmark examples of the built environment legacy of the British Empire. Twelve fluently written chapters take us from Dublin Castle to the iconic Raffles Hotel in Singapore, before returning the…
Migration, gender and development in Europe
How has the economic crisis impacted on migration patterns across Europe? This question is addressed in a new four-page ESPON Evidence Brief. The theme was also a central feature of the ESPON seminar in Vilnius on 4-5 December. Migration has been a priority concern of the Lithuanian EU Presidency. This is not surprising, given the scale…
WUF10 – Disasters waiting to happen
This is my third blog from the 10th World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi in February 2020. Today has not been a disaster! Far from it, there have been some really good stories to hear at the World Urban Forum. But I want to put the theme of disasters at the heart of this blog.…
Is Polycentric Development still a recipe for Territorial Cohesion?
This blog was first posted on the Planning Resource website on 24 October 2011. The idea of polycentric development has been a cornerstone of European spatial planning for over a decade. But what does it mean? What does it imply for practice? How can we measure it? Is it now past its “sell-by date”? The…
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 in so many cities the boom in short-term lets coincided with an increasing squeeze on the normal rental market, exacerbating housing problems. It’s a familiar story, starting with people renting out a spare bedroom, serious investors sniffing…