Picked up my bike from the otherwise completely empty bike storage in my building. Dropped it off at the half empty bike storage at work. Lovely sunny day. Are we subsidising a not particularly popular form of transport too much?
4/ The whole system is broken.
Shoreditch Works is the kind of project the planning system should make easy: popular, broadly supported, and improving a scruffy site. It’s taken years, countless meetings, and thousands of pages of paperwork and it still can’t even start.
3/ One person can really damage the process.
The chair repeatedly stopped councillors from questioning the developer directly. The tone was rude and biased. After “legal advice”, she said councillors weren’t allowed to vote to approve the scheme at all.
2/ Regulations are often unclear to everyone involved. Much of the meeting was taken up arguing about the meaning of a rule on “affordable workspace”. The rule was so badly written I have no idea who was right, and neither did the councillors.
Something has gone badly wrong when the councillors who write the rules and the planners who apply them disagree this strongly.
1/ Planners aren’t just out of step with the public on architecture. They’re out of step with councillors too. We already knew the public loved this scheme. Even councillors who ultimately voted against the scheme thought the design was great. The planners hated it.
I went along to the planning committee for this project and learned a few things
The Shoreditch Works application has taken 4 years and 9,000 pages of documents. Hackney Council has concluded what this project needs is… more documents.
The council decision on this was last night. After 9,000 pages and 4 years the decision was to......defer. More documents, more delay.
This process has taken four years.
And it still isn’t over.
Tonight, Hackney’s planning committee can overrule the officers. They should.
It is impossible to comply with all the policy requirements at once. The refusal says the building is:
• Too tall
• Doesn’t have enough office space
• Doesn’t have enough housing
What would be allowed is never explained.
Best/worst of all the development was criticised for casting a shadow.....on itself. Buildings are literally required to be scared of their own shadow.
The developers are trying to comply with many policies that achieve the exact opposite of what they intend. Climate policies which increase emissions. Affordable workspace rules white reduce affordable workspace. Affordable housing rules which reduce affordable housing.
Their verdict?
The building doesn’t follow the “grain” of surrounding buildings. This is the kind of thing panel members design.
Local support was overwhelming. Hackney received 64 letters. 61 were in favour, including the local councillor @anyasizer.bsky.social. But what really matters is the view of planners and the 'Design Review Board'.
To get this far, the developer submitted 9,054 pages of documents.
That’s longer than War and Peace, all 7 Harry Potter books, and the Bible combined.
The Shoreditch Works development would deliver:
• 40 new homes
• 4,150 new jobs
78% of people prefer the new design to the existing building.
Would you say a 9,054-page planning application for an office block and some flats is:
A) Too long
B) About right
C) Not long enough
If you answered C, congratulations! You could work at Hackney Council.
Are supermarkets, industrial estates, and railway sidings 'brownfield land'?
The answer is no.
At least that's what the Government's definition for a new tax on housebuilding says.
Our campaign director Sam Richards explains.
It doesn't mean we need to give up on net zero, but these are difficult realities we have to think about. The one big clean tech exception is nuclear, where we have already broken away from China.
If we go further back in the supply chain who do we find there? China!
UK Wind turbines are usually not made in China but China produces:
~80% of global wind gearboxes
~82% of power converters
~73% of generators
The UK’s Net Zero transition is very dependent on China. Over 80% of our solar panels come from China because China makes almost all the world's solar panels.
Labour spent ages arguing that the railways should be nationalised.
They appear not to have spent much time figuring out what we can learn from the best nationalised systems.
catchingmice.substack.com/cp/180687006
Britain can't reach Net Zero without Chinese supply chains.
What are the risks and what should we do about them?
This, from my colleague Michael Hill, is the best thing I've read on Britain's reliance on China to reach Net Zero.
www.samdumitriu.com/p/china-the-...
NEW: Labour just announced the biggest change in planning policy in 80 years.
My breakdown of the key measures and whether they will succeed.
www.samdumitriu.com/p/labour-are...
Seem to be struggling to message you on linkedin but my email is mhill@britainremade.co.uk
