As a Brit, looking from the outside in - I just can’t see how they haven’t already been doctored to suit Trump’s narrative. I hope Ro Khanna etc have receipts from the Epstein estate to cross check what’s been released.
It’s time we held schemes - and those who assess them - accountable to the standards BfHL was designed to uphold. Otherwise, good design will continue to be the exception rather than the expectation.
BfHL is a valuable framework. When applied properly, it helps create places that are safe, connected, and enjoyable to live in. Misuse, however, risks turning it into little more than marketing material. It certainly makes me yearn for the days of independent assessors.
This isn’t just an isolated oversight. It highlights a recurring problem: some housebuilders are treating BfHL as a box-ticking exercise rather than a genuine tool to guide better design. When the assessment is used to claim excellence where it doesn’t exist, it undermines the credibility of BfHL.
More out of morbid curiousity, I've been looking at a recent Building for a Healthy Life assessment submitted for the Southlink site in Oldham. A site I know well.
According to the submission, the scheme ticks 12 Greens. In reality? At best, in my opinion, it achieves 5.
Even as a Brit - you can see what’s coming. They’re going to be camped outside polling stations for the mid-terms and heaven forbid the loss of the presidency in 2028 - he’s got his own private army now. Loyal to him. Not just a rabble like on Jan 6th.
You didn’t happen to see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse today?
Is he trying to cosplay Legolas from LOTR?
I don’t doubt that Howe can improve any player, he’s just never impressed me. Will have to wait and see obviously!
Who would you go for at this stage of the window? I hope we don’t go for Jackson…
They could do a lot worse than re-opening a load of old lines in the North (mind you, that didn’t help Labour/Tories in Northumberland). As a lad from the banks of the Tyne, the fact that the NE is entertaining the right wing is horrific.
It’s depressing isn’t it? Even with a Labour government, they’re still left to fend for themselves. And yet the money continues to pour in to the South East. For reasons it seems. You’d think the Northumberland Line success might turned a few heads in Whitehall.
He’s a nasty piece of work like, isn’t he? Still, this is what happens when you’ve got a Labour Party that will do or say anything other than raise taxes.
Wouldn’t expect anything less. I’m guessing that they wouldn’t meet out design standards in the UK though?
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! Just responding to an application for a new industrial estate and well, you can imagine how the streets and junctions are designed…
Thanks!
Looking for some good examples of junction design on industrial estates that prioritise cycling/pedestrians? Would anybody have any images or drawings that I could use as an example? @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social?
Incredible timing as Sky News throw to Katie Barnfield in Newcastle just seconds before Newcastle United score.
Couldn’t make it up.
Yep. Meanwhile, you’ve put a money laundering, Russian asset dinosaur in charge, who reckons you can keep on churning out notoriously shitty fuel efficient cars and still compete with China.
Wish I could be a fly in the wall at MHCLG towers when the letter lands. Bet they’ll be pissing themselves laughing. We all know it’ll be the government that gets blamed, just so that they can try and take power at the next elections.
He’s the cause of most of this man. He’s the one that decided to play politics with the Supreme Court, he’s the one that refused to get the Senate to impeach Trump - both times. He’s like the worst. Just the worst person to start opining.
Bit late to find a spine now.
If we’re serious about tackling the housing crisis, we need to move beyond populist soundbites and have an honest debate about how planning, investment, and service provision actually work. /End
#UrbanPlanning #PlacesForEveryone #Oldham #HousingCrisis #PlanningReform
Strategic planning exists for a reason. Withdrawing from it doesn’t make housing targets disappear—it just makes the problem worse, leaving communities with more speculative, unplanned development and less certainty. 8/
We’d get better-designed places and more genuinely affordable housing as a result. But until the system changes, local authorities have to work with the tools available. 7/
This is simply the system we work in. Would I prefer a more Dutch, German, or Scandinavian model—where the LPA compulsorily purchases land, masterplans it, develops a design code, and sells off plots to fund infrastructure? Absolutely 6/
Even now, they’re realising that Green Belt release is inevitable to meet their housing requirement. 5/
If they really want to understand what withdrawal looks like (even though it won’t be allowed), they only need to look at Stockport. Pulling out of PfE has meant their housing numbers have jumped from around 1,000 a year to over 1,900 a year. Oh and who forced that change - oh yes, the Lib Dem’s. 4/
And let’s be honest—whatever letter the Council writes to the Secretary of State, Angela Rayner will just say no. That refusal will give the Lib Dems and Tories exactly what they want: another leaflet blaming Labour for everything, while ignoring the reality of planning. 3/
Using housing numbers as a scapegoat for GP waiting times and a lack of dentists, as if these services were somehow funded per new home rather than through general taxation. 2/
