The following information is taken from the Department for Transport’s website

Station Champions – Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall

Summary

An independent report by the Station Champions, Chris Green and Sir Peter Hall, advising the Government on ways to improve stations, focussing on getting the basic facilities right as well as considering the broader role of stations in the future.

Only two thirds of customers are satisfied with Britain’s stations. This is a mediocre result, and a demanding service industry should be seeking to lift this to at least the Overall Satisfaction level of 80%. The passenger’s first priority is clearly the journey itself; but a smart, modern station is an important adjunct which can make or break the public transport experience. The customer requirement is for easy access through a safe and pleasant station environment. The cause of the dissatisfaction is not face-to-face service – which is highly rated when provided – but the physical station facilities, which are only scored at 50% satisfaction. If stations are to be improved, the solution must lie in finding affordable ways of bringing their facilities and environment up to a consistent modern standard. We recognise that additional funding will be very limited up to 2014 and we propose that the time is used to introduce minimum station standards into every new franchise and exploit all existing funding channels to prioritise the problem stations highlighted. Beyond 2014, we propose a ten year catch-up period for stations to bring them up to the standard of the modern train fleets.

Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman QC MP

From The Press Association 20 November 2009

The Crown Prosecution Service said that Ms Harman, the Labour deputy leader, will be charged with driving without due care and attention and driving while using a hand-held mobile telephone following the incident last July in Dulwich.

Driving without due care and attention carries a maximum fine of £5,000 and an endorsement of up to nine points on your licence.

Ms Harman has several previous driving convictions.

She was banned from driving for seven days and fined £400 after admitting speeding at 99mph on the M4 near Swindon, Wiltshire, in January 2003. She was said to be taking her son back to Bristol University after the Christmas break.

She was also fined £60 and given three penalty points for exceeding a temporary speed limit in Suffolk in April 2007.

The law banning driving with a mobile phone was introduced in 2003 when Ms Harman was the Solicitor General.

In my 29 October post  entitled “The War of Traffic” @ http://janetmackinnon.blogspot.com I highlighted the importance of road safety issues, as well as other collateral damage caused by road traffic.

The following information is taken from the BBC website :

“Some of the world’s poorest countries are to receive a cash injection of £1.5m from the UK government to help improve road safety. Road accidents are now a bigger cause of death than malaria in developing countries, with one person dying on the roads every 30 seconds.  The funding will pay for pedestrian crossings and better road markings. It was announced at the first ministerial global road safety summit, which was held in Moscow” this week.

The Russian President & Prime Minister

Yesterday’s “State of the Nation” address by the Russian President should be noted by David Cameron and the Conservative Party.

In this address, Mr Medvedev stresses the need to transform the Russian economy and to tackle corruption.

Whilst Britain and Russia are very different countries, these challenges also apply equally here.

In short, Britain needs to reduce her dependence on what might be called the speculative economic sectors : namely, key parts of the financial services, property and construction sectors.

The “New Soviet” legacy of not only of the present government but also Conservative-controlled councils whose local “states” have swelled unsustainably  in recent years must also be tackled, along with the monopolistic and anti-competitive practices contributing to the rise of Tescograd.

It should be noted that Mr Medvedev’s colleague, Mr Vladimir Putin – seen in front in the above picture – describes himself as “conservative”, and presided - in his former role as Russian President – over the growth of large monopolistic enterprises.

With regard to corruption, Mr Cameron may well have to consider demoting and jailing  a few British oligarchs, as happened during Mrs Thatcher’s time in office. Mrs Thatcher was, of course, a friend of Mr Gorbachev, as a man she could do business with !

Finally, with regard to the police, I would like them to drive more carefully when not attending an emergency : perhaps a new driving manual is required, along with the 93 page document they have been issued on cycling – a tome of which I’m sure any old Soviet bureaucrat would have been proud.

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 !

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 !

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.

Whilst doing a little surfing (of the net rather than the sea) yesterday, I came across a web  ”community” for scientists called Network Nature – www.network.nature.com/groups/futures I was delighted to find a forum on this called “Fight the Future !”, moderated by Nature (the highly regarded scientific journal) writer Henry Gee, and, even more pleased to note that one of the latest forum topics is science fiction.

Now I have to confess to being something of a science sceptic – I know this isn’t fashionable just now ! – and to regarding many “scientific” environmentalists as suppressed technocrats with strong top down planning inclinations. So Mr Gee’s Fight the Future ! Forum, and, indeed, his personal blog, is most refreshing.

This helps me put in perspective the likes of the self-proclaimed leading think-tank on sustainability issues Forum for the Future – www.forumforthefuture.org.uk- which seems to have increasingly become a haven for techno greens and all their science-based visions of the future, based on, I would suggest, a fetishism for forecasts which many more down-to-earth folk might want to fight.

I received notification yesterday that the Planning Inspectorate Panel  Report on the proposed West Midlands Spatial Strategy Phase 2 Revision had been published – Please see link to : www.gos.gov.uk/gowm/Planning/515750/panelreport09/

A full and proper reading of this document by me will have to await my return from a conference – not the Conservative Party’s ! - next weekend at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Macynlleth, Wales. Please see : www.cat.org.uk

The CAT conference is entitled “Power & Place” and its subject is that much talked of (and rather less actioned) theme : locationally appropriate sustainable energy from renewable sources, from which might, incidentally, be derived the rather elegant acronym, LASERS…of which more later.

Returning to the WMRSS Phase 2 Panel Report, I note this refers to “Semantics”, with reference to my own submission, and “Uncertainties” with particular reference to the economy, and to which might be added “political”. However, the key question is whether the Panel’s recommendations are sustainable, according to the various meanings of the word.

Now I have to confess to enjoying the occasional semantic skirmish, and readers of my other blog @ http://janetmackinnon.blogspot.com may see that I was both tickled and tantalised (as the late Ken Dodd might have said) by Lord Mandelson’s use of the words “Flibbertigibbet” with reference to Tory Party Leader David Cameron.

In own humble opinion, however, it is former Deputy Prime Minister, and before that Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions – both roles carrying the burden of the planning portfolio – John Prescott  who really conjures up the qualities of a “Flibbertigibbet”.

Partly as a consequence – civic servants and others must still carry some of the can  - quite  a lot of “Flibbertigibberish” (as they might have called it in Diddyland*) has found itself into New Labour planning policy, particularly where issues of sustainability are concerned, and must be cut through (as with LASERS – see above).

* Ken Dodd’s sustainable community for Diddymen

The following article is taken from “Inside Housing” (25.9.2009).

“The 2008/09 accounts for English Partnerships – quietly posted in July on a website that has supposedly been defunct since December – reveal the financial devastation visited on the agency in its last eight months of existence, as it posted an operating loss of £492.2 million. It was so badly hit by the house market collapse it had to seek an extra £67 million of funding from the Communities and Local Government department to continue trading.

Its two divisions – the Commission for the New Towns and the Urban Regeneration Agency – were both absorbed by the Homes and Communities Agency in December. Each organisation prepared separate accounts.

The URA, the main land holding division, was particularly badly hit by the housing market downturn.

It was forced to wipe £263.7 million from the value of its land. Its operating deficit more than doubled from £200 million in 2008 to £406 million in 2009. The agency always ran at a deficit because of the way it was funded.

The Commission for New Towns made a £56 million write-down. It lost £12.6 million in a land deal after a developer which owed it £15 million became insolvent. It got the land back but its value had dropped to £2.3 million.

Overall, the value of the URA’s £719 million land bank in 2008 was slashed by a third over the eight months from 1 April to 30 November, leaving it £481 million of land assets to transfer to the HCA on 1 December 2008.

Communities secretary John Denham will face a barrage of questions over the revelations.

Conservative shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, said: ‘When Parliament returns I will be lining up a series of questions for the secretary of state to uncover the truth behind what looks like a very murky situation. When you find out these things months after the event it becomes difficult to hold the quango to account. Why weren’t we told about this at the time?’

The accounts raised a ‘host of questions’ about how EP assets were transferred to the HCA, he added. ‘I was critical of setting up a mega-quango because it is very difficult to track what is going on.’

An HCA spokesperson said the housing market downturn had left EP with ‘a deficit between anticipated receipts and spending commitments’.

‘This was constantly monitored by EP and the CLG,’ he added. ‘To ensure EP did not breach its allocated budget, additional capital budget cover was requested.’

The extra £67 million of funding was approved at the end of last year. The spokesperson said EP had ‘short-term budget issues’ which the HCA had inherited. ‘Short-term operating budget pressures are not the same as technical insolvency. EP passed £1.8 billion of assets to the HCA on 1 December so was clearly not insolvent.’ A link to EPs’ accounts was posted on the HCA’s website.