30th June Workshop

Further details and additional workshops to be confirmed.

09.00-10.00

Workshop 7 - Wind energy and the planning process

Sponsored by RenewableUK

This seminar will take you through the development of an onshore wind farm, from the work involved in site selection through to community engagement and the submission of the application and Environmental Statement. After an initial introduction by Steve Salt, Planning & Development Director at West Coast Energy, the seminar group will be split into development teams of 8-10 people. Participants will be asked to identify the best location and approach to delivering wind energy development in a given area and will be asked to identify possible constraints to development.

The seminar will provide participants with a fuller understanding of wind energy development, and provide an insight into the processes involved.

Workshop 8 - Working with the IPC

Sponsored by the Infrastructure Planning Commission

The Infrastructure Planning Commission is the independent body that examines, decides (or makes recommendations to the Secretary of State) applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). The IPC was set up to make the application process for NSIPs faster, fairer and easier for people to get involved in.

A vitally important part of this process is the pre-application stage where applicants carry out the community engagement that helps to shape their project. The Commission actively encourages applicants to engage with communities at an early stage.

As part of the pre-application stage, the IPC have created an outreach programme which will allow communities, local authorities and other statutory consultees to be fully involved in the process.

This workshop will help you to find out how and when to get involved in the process, and how the IPC's outreach programme can assist you.

Chair:
Robert Upton, Deputy Chair, IPC

Workshop 9 - Planning for Low Carbon:

Sponsored by URS Corporation Ltd

Understanding Technologies, the Rural to Urban Continuum, Policy Incentives and the Economic Development Effects

The carbon abatement curve sets out the relative costs of different low carbon technologies in reducing carbon. This seminar will focus on a number of factors to be considered beyond this picture, including:

• Where current technologies offer different opportunities depending on whether the context is rural, suburban and urban
• What the range of national and European incentives and funding opportunities are associated with these different low carbon technologies
• How to understand the potential development opportunities of the low carbon economy
• Why low carbon planning must be sensitive to context and savvy with current policy

From Anglesey to the City of London, from heat pumps to CHP, from RHI to JESSICA, this seminar will review case studies in effective low carbon planning with respect to PPS1, PPS22 and the Code for Sustainable Homes.

Chair: Adam Lubinsky, Associate Director, Economics and Development
Speakers: Rory Brooke, Managing Principal, Economics and Development
Ivan Rodriguez, Technical Director, Building Sustainability Unit
Alan Davis, Associate Consultant, Building Sustainability Unit

Workshop 10 – Greenbelts, countryside around towns: towards a greener future

CPRE and Natural England, supported by the RTPI Rural Planning Network

Planners will be central to maintaining and increasing the benefit the public gets from Green Belts and the countryside around towns. There is strong political commitment and public affection for the Green Belt. The vast majority of it is likely to remain undeveloped for the foreseeable future.

This workshop will summarise important new evidence on the environmental condition of Green Belt and countryside around towns that do not have Green Belts, and on how the public would like to use these areas in the future. We will discuss how planners can act on this evidence and make our urban fringes better places for people and nature.

Speakers: Paul Miner, Senior Planning Officer, CPRE and Joanna Russell, Principal Specialist (Planning & Transport), Natural England.

Workshop 11 - PINS' future: The way we are working

Sponsored by The Planning Inspectorate

This session will explore the way The Planning Inspectorate (PINS) is working to develop high quality services that are proportionate, customer focused and efficient. The session will look at PINS' new lower cost services including the Householder Appeals Service, determination of procedure and recent changes to the Development Plan system. The seminar will highlight "what an inspector wants" to enable constructive and effective appeals and development plan examinations. It will draw together recent publications such as PINS' Procedural Guidance, Good Practice Advice Notes and Learning from Experience.

Speaker: Rynd Smith, Director Policy, Quality and Development Plans

Workshop 12 - Planning for what communities want vs what they can have - who decides?

Sponsored by Land Use Consultants

Development that takes from the environment increases environmental pressure elsewhere, but current housing demands mean we need to find another way: smart planning for the future that enables sustainable development.

This workshop will tackle ways to combine multi-benefit planning with localism - reconciling what people want and need with planning for a changing climate, all within environmental limits.

Chair:
Jeremy Owen, Land Use Consultants

Speakers:
Lyndis Cole, Land Use Consultants
David Payne

11.50-13.00

Workshop 13 - Using the Planning System to Reduce Road Transport Emissions

Sponsored by Low Emission Strategies

From London to Liverpool and from Leeds to Leicester and Lewes, authorities are implementing Low Emission Strategies through the planning process, to tackle road transport emissions of greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants that affect human health. Formed by the Air Quality Beacon Councils and the UK Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon, the Low Emission Strategies Programme (www.lowemissionstrategies.org) recently published best practice guidance with Defra and CLG: ‘Low Emission Strategies – Using the Planning System to Reduce Road Transport Emissions’, which illustrates how innovative policies and practices are being utilised to accelerate the uptake of cleaner vehicles, fuels and technologies, as part of both the operational and construction phases of development.

This workshop will demonstrate how planners and developers can work together to tackle climate change and poor air quality, caused by road transport emissions.

Workshop facilitators
Andrew Whittles - Low Emission Strategies Programme
Steve Merryfield - Low Emission Strategies Programme
Tanya Murat - Senior Planner, Greenwich Council

Workshop 14 - Planning and mediation: looking to the future

Sponsored by Planning Aid England and PAL

The Killian Pretty Review (2008) recommended that "greater use of alternative dispute resolution approaches should be encouraged at all stages of the planning application process where this can deliver the right decisions in a less adversarial and cost effective way". In response, the previous Government asked the Planning Inspectorate to work with CLG and others to investigate "the role of mediation in reducing the need for planning and enforcement appeals and/or reducing time and effort in determining such appeals". This workshop reports back on the recent PINS/NPF 'Mediation in Planning' project and the RICS Planning and Environmental Mediation Service experience and includes an exploration of some of the challenges through a real case study example along with a discussion surrounding funding issues.

Chair: Barry Pearce, South West Planning Aid
Speakers: Leonora Rozee, Chair of the NPF “Mediation in Planing” study group
Martin Burns, Planning and Environmental Mediation Service, RICS

Workshop 15 - Children and Communities - Making Spaces Playable

Sponsored by Mouchel

This session looks at the importance of green infrastructure in providing opportunities for children to play. Most of us will have had our first experience of play in the outdoors - experiencing nature and using our imaginations. But the reality for many children is that their opportunities for play have been constrained, geographically, physically and culturally. The boundaries for experiencing play are increasingly tightened, but as placemaking professionals we all have a responsibility to make our public spaces and green assets as playable as possible for our children.

We will consider how, through careful design and early forward planning, open spaces, parks, footpath networks, streets, and wider public realm spaces can all become much more 'playable' and open to children and young people. From masterplanning to specific scheme design, we will work through the pivotal role of green infrastructure to deliver refreshing opportunities for play - enabling children to think and behave more creatively in their local environment.

Speakers: Jon Harris, Director of Smarter Choices, Mouchel Ludovic Pittie, Landscape and Urban Design Team Leader, Mouchel

Workshop 16 - Signposting local leadership for local infrastructure

Sponsored by the Politicians in Planning Association (PIPA)

Addressing the issue of planning for economic recovery in times of severe financial restraint is going to be a major challenge for local political leadership. This is most presciently so for the provision or renewal of local infrastructure to support investment and positively underpin local forward plans. This break-out session will hear from two local Councillor leaders with vision and experience to share on ways forward that work and opportunities that should not be missed. A delivery-focussed planning system needs such local leadership and this session aims both to illuminate the subject and inspire.

Speakers: Cllr Edward Lord JP, City of London
Cllr Jim Harker, Leader of Northamptonshire Council and Vice-Chair of the LGA Regeneration and Transportation Board
Andrew Matheson, PIPA

Workshop 17 - Transport management for the next decade

Sponsored by Transport for London

Planning professionals have an important role to play in ensuring new developments encourage long-term sustainable travel. Guidance on development-related travel planning (Department for Transport, April 2009 and Transport for London, March 2008) has provided advice on securing, monitoring and implementing effective travel plans. This workshop will cover issues associated with ensuring a ‘fit for purpose’ travel plan is produced for all new developments, outlining roles of both officers and applicants in the process. It will focus on ensuring delivery of sustainable transport through effectively securing and enforcing travel plans, drawing on a number of best practice case studies.

Workshop facilitators will include individuals involved in producing both the national and London guidance.

Workshop facilitators:
Matthew Prince, Transport for London
Lisa Buchanan, Steer Davies Gleave
Sheila Holden, Addison & Associates

Workshop 18 - Viability – do you know enough?

Sponsored by the Planning Advisory Service

If you are a local government planner working on either local development frameworks, infrastructure planning or site specific proposals, you need to understand economic viability. If this is an area where you need to know more, come along to a short presentation on the issues, terms and models that are available and used. Then test your wits in the viability game. Prizes available.

Workshop facilitators:
Jackie Leask, Planning Advisory Service
Gilian MacInnes, Planning Advisory Service