JUST THE AGE OF STUPID….OR SOMETHING MORE SINISTER ?

Yesterday, I reflected on the great bicycling London Mayor’s rescue of  “The Age of  Stupid” film director from a girl gang, and my own encounter with a real person who was like a character from the film. Incidentally, I sympathise with the damsel in distress, as I was attacked whilst recycling bottles at a curbside station, and my nose broken by a teenage girl cycling on the pavement,  shortly after New Labour were elected in 1997, something I took to  be a bad omen. Nevertheless, despite some horrific bruising, I made a swift physical recovery.

Very sadly the same can’t be said for the 7 female cyclists who have been killed by lorries in London this year, but their deaths  also remind me of why I diverted my own journey the other day. Although I mentioned mud and potholes – the latter contributing to a buckled wheel earlier in the year – on a country lane, the cause of these has little or nothing to do with farm vehicles. No, these ”holes” are a direct result of one of the worst examples of  “planning”  – or, more accurately, the absence of this – that I have come across in my 25 years in the promotion and prevention of development. In brief, there is an enormous vehicle storage depot along the narrow Church Lane, not far from M5 Junction 7, which is growing ever larger as lorry loads of material – quite alot of which falls on to the road, but alas not into the ruts ! – make their way to extend it. This is a classic case of inappropriate development, so classic in fact that I’m wondering whether I should contact “The Age of Stupid” director to ask her to make a film there.

However, does this matter really go beyond stupid planning, I wonder ? In fact, is it people like me who are the stupid ones ? For I’m constantly told by “real” people these days that local and central government is corrupt and this is precisely why we’re in the state we’re in. Until recently, I’ve tended to ascribe bad decision-making in this country’s public sector to stupidity, of systems if not of individuals, but now I too am beginning to wonder if something more sinister is afoot. Indeed so rattled am I, and not just by lorries passing too closely on country lanes, that I’m even considering a change of direction and the prospects of work in tackling corruption, both direct and that enabled by poor regulation and management practices in the public and private sectors. Other environmentalists might want to give more thought to this too….if we’re not to be thought as stupid ourselves !

WHY THE WEST MIDLANDS & OTHER REGIONS NEEDS TO GET ON THEIR BIKES

London Mayor Boris Johnson

I would put the statistical likelihood of a damsel in distress being rescued by a senior West Midlands politician on his bicycle as being about the same as winning £45 million on the Euro Lottery. However, if anyone has other views on this possibility, please feel free to contact me.

The fact is that West Midlands folk like their cars and, as far a I can make out, an executive vehicle automatically confers executive status no matter how lacklustre the individual in question : so whist I’ve encountered few cycling politicians hereabouts, I’ve encountered plenty of lacklustre ones.

The result, unsurprisingly, is a lacklustre region as demonstrated by a recent report for the West Midlands Regional Assembly and Advantage West Midlands (AWM) on the problems of the region’s economy, which boasts the highest unemployment levels in the country. Could the Longbridge debacle have happened any where else I wonder ?

When I suggested to a local politician that his council officers would do well to get on their bikes to arrive at a realistic view of the amount of empty property, derelict sites and, indeed, unutilised planning consents assigned for so-called employment land in their area, I could tell that this didn’t go down well.

I might have added, of course, that some of his colleagues would be doing the region a favour if they followed Norman Tebbit’s advice, and got on their bikes in search of alternative employment. I mention “Stormin” Norman because my reference is to Conservative-controlled local authorities, or the Regressive (some might say “Retarded”) Right.

For “regressive” – even “retarded” – is precisely the description I would give to much economic development and planning policy for the West Midlands Region. In short, I would suggest that the region is 25 years behind London in implementing transport policies to support sustainable regeneration in the Major Urban Areas (MUAs)

Moreover, I seriously question whether most senior decision-makers, whether in the private or public sectors, ever use public transport, let alone their bicycles. Indeed my overwhelming impression is of a region of car-driving executives semi-detached from the real world.

A case in point concerns the release of additional land for employment outside the MUAs as part the Revision of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy process. This process, incidentally, has created unprecedented levels of speculative land-banking in the region, which have only been dampened by the present “Great Recession”.

Now when I worked in the corporate property business during the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was widely accepted that those companies who had embarked upon ambitions development schemes, for new headquarter buildings and the like, were amongst the most likely to hit trouble.

In the West Midlands, this lesson was borne out again only yesterday, when Swedish company Eriksson announced the loss of some 700 hundred jobs from its glossy new offices just outside Coventry, which had been developed with the support of AWM, and were used by them as an argument for additional employment land designation in the region during the WMRSS Phase 2 Revision Examination in Public earlier this year.

Even more annoying, this kind of regional policy is dressed up as sustainable ! So I was relieved yesterday to encounter a plain-spoken and un-reconstructed motorist from “The North” as a consequence of separate diversions to our mutual journeys :  his to avoid a traffic jam on the M5, and mine to avoid mud and pot-holes on a country lane.

Frankly, this experience was even better than being rescued by Boris Johnson, for I was able to regale said individual on the opportunities for demand management, whether with regard to roadspace, energy use or land banking, as well as  the economic competitiveness, not to say social and environmental, benefits thereof, as Londoners have long known !

COAL & POWER – SOME GOOD NEWS AND SOME BAD…

The decision by power company EON to postpone construction of the proposed Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent  - New Kingsnorth coal plant delayed‎ - provides some good news, at the same time as the Government’s decision to allow UK Coal to develop an open cast mine in Shropshire provides some bad  : www.cpre.org.uk/news/view/630

Both decisions point to the inadequacy of sustainable energy planning in Britain, and indeed, the need for a UK-wide strategy in the context of devolved planning in Scotland and Wales, together with the prospect of Single Integrated Regional Strategies or SIRS  for the English Regions, albeit that these may not survive a change of government.

Key to such a national strategy will, of course, be the evidence-base, including forecasts and future scenarios. As someone opposed to both the nuclear option and indefinite dependence upon non-renewal resources, I nevertheless accept that there may be a transitional period between the present situation and a “clean energy” end state.

The key questions for me relate to the main components of this transitional period, it’s likely timescale and, most importantly, the likely spatial implications of these including remedial measures. I don’t sense that this information currently exists in any meaningful,coherent and accessible form, and therein lies another problem for energy planning : a rather more serious one in my view than so-called Nimbyism.

WMRSS Phase 2 Revision EIP CLOSING SUBMISSION

My written closing submission is provided below :

This submission comprises 2 parts :
1. Summary of Key Points made to the Examination
2. A New Mercian Hymn (for WMRSS) based on A Re-Construction of the opening to Geoffrey Hill’s Mercian Hymns*

1. Summary of Key Points made to the Examination

My original response to the WMRSS Phase 2 Spatial Options Consultation (2007) identified the need to align the development of options with Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), and expressed scepticism about the potential scale of housing-based growth, even prior to the subsequent economic downturn.

In the event, the issues of SEA compliance, in relation to the development of spatial options in both the West Midlands Regional Assembly’s Preferred Option and subsequent work for the Government Office by Nathaniel Litchfield and Partners, have been highlighted during the Examination Process.

2. A New Mercian Hymn (for the Regional Spatial Strategy)

King of the West Midlands Heritage, Local Distinctiveness :
Overlord for Sustainable Transport : Architect of
Renaissance in the Major Urban Areas and Telford,
Regeneration in the North Staffordshire Conurbation :
Master of the Strategic Flood Risk Assessment :
Protector of Natural Habitats : Contractor to Location
Appropriate Place-Making in the Shire Counties :
Financier : Manufacturer : Commissioner for Rural
Communities : Friend of the Social Landlord, the Old
And New Economies.

“I like that” said Offa, “SEA EU again”.**

* In the original poem a metaphorical King Offa is part-humorously invoked as the Genius Loci of Mercia/the West Midlands Region
** My poem is also an invocation to Offa, this time re-constructed as Contractor for Eco-Logical Infrastructure and Low-Carbon Development, and, indeed as “Sewer King” – re-calling the Fisher King of Ancient British and Anglo-Celtic Arthurian Myth – to allay the Welsh Assembly’s and others’ concerns about “Water Issues”.

24 June 2009

Further posts (3 & 16 June)  on King Offa & Mercian Hymns can be found @ http://witchofworcester.wordpress.com

Need for “SEA” Change amongst Sustainability & Environmental Activists

Now that the United States President and his First Lady have declared themselves “Activists”, the activist is once again a respectable member of society; and it is from this respectable position that I want to reflect on the relationship between sustainability and environmental activists.

On the radio recently – I think in the context of Severn Barrage Saga – the Chairman of the UK Commission for Sustainable Development (who support a barrage), Sir Jonathon Porritt, distinguished himself from “environmental activist” organisations like the Royal Society for the Protection of the Birds (who oppose a barrage), as, primarily, a “sustainability” activist.

For my own part, I have noticed a great many “sustainability suits” – many of them stuffed ! – in recent years and, I would suggest, quite a number of these work for and with the good Sir Jonathon, although I would not include him amongst them.

The fact is that those of us who are genuinely concerned about the future of the planet – and who are acting locally, as well as thinking globally – need to be both sustainability and environmental activists. A good starting point for this is some understanding of Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment or SEA.

An Olympic-sized Saving : End of the Road for Thames Gateway Bridge

Transport for London scraps plans for six-lane road bridge

London Mayor Boris Johnson scraps scheme amid strong opposition from environmental campaigners

• John Vidal and Dan Milmo
• From The Guardian, Thursday November 6 2008 11.48 GMT

One proposed design for the six-lane east London crossing

Boris Johnson, the London mayor, has shelved £3.5bn of transport schemes in the capital, including the Thames Gateway bridge, as part of multibillion-pound cost cuts.

Johnson said today the move ended the “deception” of his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, who had ordered officials to draw up plans for the Thames Gateway project amid strong opposition from environmental campaigners.

“I am stopping the deception of keeping hopes alive when there is no funding for these schemes,” said Johnson….

The Role of Licensed Activists

Whilst my previous blog may have seemed critical of “licensed activists”, I also believe that these can have an important role in influencing government policy, at home and abroad, as well as the conduct of large corporations, including those in public ownership

Ken Livingstone is probably the politician most adept at deploying political and community activists to his own political ends, and against one another when its suits him. However, some good policies have resulted from the former approach, particularly in the latter days of the Greater London Council (abolished by the Conservative Thatcher Government in 1986 – for those too young to remember, or old enough to forget).

The GLC’s transport policies – ie support for public transport, walking and cycling, and restraints on private car use and polluting vehicles – are a case in point. Over 20 years on, and some urban authorities in the regions and shires are only just catching up. Licensing a few more transport and environmental activists may be the best – including most cost-effective – way forward. Not that I’m saying the Mayor of London’s policies are perfect !

The Importance of Unlicensed Activists

I was once described by 2 representatives of a former consultancy client (and a very good one too !) as “subversive” and “an anarchist”. However, far from feeling affronted at these descriptions,  I took them as compliments. The client was a deeply political organisation (with a large and small “p”) and my unwillingness to adopt their politics, I regard as a consultancy strength, rather than a fault. Unfortunately, not all clients understand that some consultants are in the business of providing independent advice and professional services, and are not part of the monstrous regiment of yes people.

Now, having got that one off my chest I’d like to move on to the importance of unlicensed activists. The New Labour Government of Britain, like the current – but soon to be former – President of Russia, both support the work of licensed activists. By “licensed activists”, I mean people and organisations generally “in line” with the thinking of ruling elites. However, the government of Mr Putin tends to make this “policy” much more explicit than that of Mr Brown. This may in turn be a reason for some commentators identifying our Prime Minister’s “shadow side” with one of the Russian President’s predecessors.

Neither Mr Brown nor Mr Putin like “unlicensed activists” – and Mr Putin even less than Mr Brown by all accounts – by which I mean independent thinkers who challenge the thinking and values of ruling elites and their enactment in government policy. These gutsy girls and guys are those people beyond the “clientalism” of government funding and the likes. Yes, it does take guts to be domiciled outside this comfort zone, but the ethical, and, dare I say even spiritual, rewards can be great…for society. And yes, I do believe in the existence of society, unless you had the misfortune to live in Stalinist Russia, of course.