1/17/2024 0 Comments Mini motorways houses per building![]() ![]() Local Authority planners have been similarly unsure about how to proceed. Our planning system has been in a state of uncertainty, reflecting the recent political turmoil nationally. TfNH adviser Stephen Joseph gave a presentation to Leeds City Council, in which he set out the origins of 15-20 minute neighbourhoods and some of the issues to consider. In some cases councils and developers are measuring the 20 minutes by straight lines (as the crow flies) rather than by real roads and footpaths, and there isn’t much of a check on the quality of those walking and cycling routes, or indeed access to public transport. This is very laudable in principle, but as TfNH has been pointing out is far from the reality in many of the places it has visited. One much discussed topic recently is the idea of “20 minute neighbourhoods”, the idea that people will be able to access all the services and goods they need within a 15 or 20 minute journey on foot or bike. Land and property within 1km of the construction of a new metro, light rail or heavy rail station increases in value and developers are keen to build once they know that new infrastructure and services are coming soon. Six stations are proposed on the line, and Northumberland Park passengers will be able to change onto the Tyne and Wear Metro. This approach appears popular with land owners and developers. We were delighted to have George Hazel speak at our Manchester event on the success of the Northumbria Line. One way of achieving this is with land value capture. As part of a ‘zero carbon’ solution we seem to favour development off new roads instead, but a different model is possible.Ī better way of building is along new or improved public transport corridors. It seems that we have missed out in England on choosing sites for new development integrated with mass transit systems, either existing or extended, and development of small and large brownfield sites. A better model: t ransit-oriented development We found a large new ‘cowpat’ housing estate in the making, just next to a bypass, and took a photo. The problem is so widespread that the 2021 census now shows that our urban areas are losing population to rural and mainly rural areas, in the south west, south east, midlands and eastern part of the country. This was primarily a conference for campaigners against road schemes but we showed another aspect of major road construction, which is that it lays the foundation for greenfield development, opening up land for hundred of thousands of new homes in car-dependent estates. On this theme, Transport for New Homes ran two workshops at the Transport Action Network conference in Birmingham. A different more modern approach is needed, much less orientated around the car. The ‘cowpat’ developments then results, built around new roads and car-based living, an english interpretation of US-style car-based sprawl. In an ‘upside down geography’ world, we build new homes according to algorithms that place very high housing in rural places, where the car ends up the only way of getting about, and where employment, education and other services are in short supply. Yet this often claimed to be ‘sustainable development’ and ‘new zero’. Road building and urban sprawl is so often the way we are building today. Instead, achieving local authority housing targets has led to a dispersed pattern of development that is very difficult to serve by public transport or other sustainable modes of travel. Locations for new housing are not considered in terms of sustainable transport, access to services, employment or environmental impact. The geography of planning has become upside-down because of a failure of national strategy. Over the summer Transport for New Homes presented ‘ Upside-down Geography‘ at events in London, Birmingham and Bristol. ![]()
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