[Reposted from Nov 2014] "Developers aim high with Brent Cross plan" (Tower blocks of maximum-profit height are okay with Barnet Council, then)

"We knew the world would not be the same.
A few people laughed, a few people cried.
Most people were silent.
I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita;
Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty,
and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says,
'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'
I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

"THE owners of North London’s Brent Cross shopping centre have abandoned plans to extend the scheme in favour of a more ambitious 1 million sq ft development to include homes and leisure facilities, as well as retail space.

"Hammerson, the property developer, and Standard Life, the insurer, which jointly own the centre, propose to submit the new plans to Barnet Council within the next six months.

"The change of strategy comes after a four-year battle to win approval for the project. The proposal to extend the centre was initially rejected by planning inspectors in April 2000, but the Government has still to give its final verdict on whether the extension can go ahead.

"However, John Richards, chief executive of Hammerson, yesterday said that regardless of the Government’s decision, Hammerson would submit the new proposal to the regulators. He said:

"Development fashions have changed. The Government is set against the creation of another stand-alone shopping centre like Bluewater, and as far as they are concerned, a straightforward extension of Brent Cross would be in that fashion."

"The extension was initially rejected by the local authorities because the owners failed to establish a 'need' for the proposed new shops, a requirement for shopping schemes located outside of town centres.

"The Government has created a virtual blanket ban on shopping centre developments located outside of town centres, particularly those that rely on heavy car use, because it believes that this sort of development harms trading at neighbouring town centres.

"However, far from giving up on building new shops at Brent Cross, under the revised scheme, Hammerson and Standard Life propose to add about 290,000 sq ft of shopping space, an amount similar to the original proposal.

"Mr Richards said that it would be easier to show the 'need' for more shops at Brent Cross if the centre were bolstered by a much more comprehensive development, including homes and offices.

"Under the revised plan, the total amount of new development on land next to Brent Cross will almost quadruple. The new scheme will include a mix of affordable and luxury homes, hotels, offices, bars, restaurants and shops.

"Hammerson has been at the forefront of the Government’s city centre regeneration initiatives. Working closely with local authorities and communities, the developer is currently working on new projects to rebuild the Bull Ring in Birmingham, as well as schemes to create new city centre shopping developments in Bristol and Sheffield.

"Mr Richards said:

"From a property developer’s perspective, the benefits of mixed-use schemes are enormous. If we have homes, offices and hotels next door to Brent Cross, we will have even more loyal local residents. People will not drive to Bluewater or Central London if they have the facilities they need on their doorstep."

"Although Hammerson and Standard Life will build the commercial aspects of the new development, they are likely to form a joint venture with a housebuilder to develop the homes. Brent Cross shopping centre opened in 1976 and became the first US style air-conditioned two-tier shopping mall in the UK. At the time of its opening, there was much scepticism about whether the scheme would ever be a success and whether shoppers could be persuaded to travel to shop there rather than relying on their local high street.

"Rents at the centre have increased tenfold since then, to about £400 per sq ft.

"Ironically, the Government is now being forced to try to wean consumers off shopping at large malls — which protect them from the vagaries of the weather and allow them to take their shopping home by car — back on to high streets."

'The Times': 3 January, 2003.

(Image is of Hammerson's Jonathan Joseph,

Barnet Planning Committee, January 2014)

(Barnet Times, Nov 2009)

The Guardian: "Our roads are choked. We’re on the verge of carmageddon"

"Car use takes a huge toll on our health and on the planet. We need to kick our addiction to driving"

Link to web site

"It was a mistake – a monumental, world-class mistake. 'Cars for everyone' was one of the most stupid promises politicians ever made. Cars are meant to meet a simple need: quick and efficient mobility.

"Observe an urban artery during the school run, or a trunk road on a bank holiday weekend, and ask yourself whether the current system meets that need. The vast expanse of road space, the massive investment in metal and fossil fuel, has delivered the freedom to sit fuming in a toxic cloud as your life ticks by.

"The primary aim has become snarled up with other, implicit objectives: the sense of autonomy, the desire for self-expression through the configuration of metal and plastic you drive, and the demand for profit by car manufacturers and fossil fuel producers whose lobbying keeps us on the road rather than moving along it."

The Guardian: "What the Southwark Aylesbury estate Compulsory Purchase Order ruling means for the future of regeneration"

"Sajid Javid's refusal to allow the compulsory purchase of flats by Southwark council adds some welcome humanity to a savage process that forces people not just from their homes, but from their communities. But is the decision enough?"

Link to web site

"According to Jasmin Parsons, a leaseholder at the West Hendon estate in Barnet, some leaseholders were offered just £90,000 for a one-bed flat and £130,000 for a two-bed maisonette when the council applied for the first in a series of compulsory purchase orders.

"This offer was later increased after the leaseholders employed a surveyor to act on their behalf, but still fell far short of the amount required to buy an equivalent home.

"... Last week, however, the picture changed dramatically, when Sajid Javid, the secretary of state for communities and local government, refused to allow the compulsory purchase of flats on the latest phase of the Aylesbury estate's redevelopment, citing concerns about the way Southwark council was dealing with leaseholders.

"The decision does not end the government’s support for the controversial policy of 'estate regeneration', and will bring little comfort for those who have gone through the financial brutality it often creates, but it may give some protection to those facing eviction in the future."

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Architects for Social Housing: "Financial Compensation for Human Rights: The Aylesbury Estate"

"A lot has been written already about Friday's decision by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid, to accept the Government Inspector’s recommendation not to confirm Southwark Labour Council's Compulsory Purchase Order on the homes of leaseholders on the First Development Site of the Aylesbury Estate regeneration. But in the understandable excitement at this rare victory, not all of it has been accurate.

"... the power of leaseholders over their homes has been greatly increased, which definitely makes this decision a victory for those fighting the demolition of their homes. But we should be clear about exactly what that victory is based on, which is the property rights of leaseholders, not what some of us mistakenly understand by human rights. If nothing else, the increased compensation leaseholders can demand might make developers and housing associations like Notting Hill Housing think twice about getting councils to issue Compulsory Purchase Orders.

"But potentially the most useful part of this document is the long section on Public Sector Equality Duty (paragraphs 23-33). Here the considerations of the Secretary of State this duty gives rise to are only sited in the context of the leaseholders who made their objections to his Department; but there is an argument to be made that the negative effects of being moved away from community support networks are just as applicable to tenants, and that simply re-housing them elsewhere doesn’t mitigate those effects.

"This is, perhaps, where the real victory lies in this decision by the Secretary of State: not in the property rights of leaseholders, but in the potential for articulating the human rights of all residents whose homes are threatened by estate demolition schemes."

2016-09 Southwark CPO Decision_Letter_Final by scribdstorage on Scribd

Evening Standard: "Dutch-style cycle route in Enfield will be a 'disaster,' say businesses" (oh no it won't, say some in the comments)

Link to web site

"Construction is about to begin on a controversial cycle path that local businesses claim could be a 'disaster'.

The cycle highway between Enfield town centre and Palmer's Green, part of the £42 million Cycle Enfield project, will see segregated bike lanes on both sides of the A105.

"Transport for London has provided £30 million in funding to transform four busy streets into routes with Dutch-inspired cycling lanes. Enfield Council said "future generations will thank us for these visionary proposals'."

Evening Standard: "Build the homes that people want to solve our housing crisis"

Link to web site

"Is London's housing now just a commodity or still the essential fabric of a community? It's strange how slowly the issue of housing in London, and its lack of affordability, has become a major political issue. It has been clear for decades that the current model of new housing in the capital doesn't work in the best interest of communities, and yet nobody has apparently been able to do much about it.

"City Hall estimates that we need to build an additional 50,000 new homes a year, a figure that we’re only halfway to reaching. Faced with such a shortfall in housing supply, it’s no wonder house prices have been going up and up, pricing more and more people out of the city.

"To afford your average London home, £526,000 in today's market, the average Londoner will need a 266 per cent pay rise, according to the National Housing Federation. Only those earning in excess of £100,000 are currently able to buy a home in more than half of London's boroughs.

"If the industry were able to ramp up supply by building new homes, which always seems impossible for some reason, then house prices may stabilise or even drop. But by restricting the supply of new homes, house prices stay high, valuations stay high and house-builders’ profits stay high in return."

Sun 9 Oct: Totteridge Walk

Forgotten Footpaths 9-10-16 FINAL by scribdstorage on Scribd

Proposed boundary changes: Hendon constituency swallows Brent Cross south of the North Circular Road

The Guardian: "Everyone loses out when corporate governance falls by the wayside" (we know that at Brent Cross Cricklewood, don't we?)

"Companies that put shareholders first disregard their impact on others, as the Deepwater Horizon disaster demonstrates"

Link to web site

"Many companies, particularly smaller ones, will tell you they exist for their employees and customers, as much as for shareholder gains. Yet those who want to serve a wider base of stakeholders may find themselves hamstrung by a legal system that appears to put shareholder interests centre stage. For all their willingness to do good, is it not the primary duty of company directors to create value for shareholders?

"... But campaigners for a different kind of capitalism say it does not have to be this way. A growing movement is putting forward a new model, where directors answer to a range of stakeholders, such as employees and the environment, not just investors. Those pushing for change may dare to hope their calls will be answered now that Theresa May is vowing tackle corporate irresponsibility and 'reform capitalism so that it works for everyone not just the privileged few'.

"The good news for the prime minister is that a simple amendment to company law could make a big difference."

Drapers: "Brent Cross, the UK’s original regional shopping centre, turns 40"

Link to web site

"Forty years ago Brent Cross shopping centre first opened its doors. The development not only changed shopping for the residents of north London, it spurred a new brand of regional shopping mall that took the UK by storm.

The 898,000 sq ft centre opened with established names such as John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Fenwick – all of which still have stores at Brent Cross – along with brands that have fallen by the wayside including Radio Rentals, C&A and fashion brands Lady M and Lord John.

"Stephen Springham, head of retail research at property agent Knight Frank says it broke new ground. 'It was the UK’s first truly modern covered shopping mall. It may be hard to believe now, but back in 1976, the mainstay of the UK retail scene was still traditional high street shops,' he says.

"... 'Brent Cross brought the world's best brands to north London and gave people a place to shop that was undercover, where they didn't have to battle the elements or dodge cars,' Brent Cross general manager Tom Nathan says. He adds that Brent Cross' accessibility was critical to its success. It is served by the North Circular, A1 and M1, a tube station and is home to the third busiest bus station in London.

"Jenny O'Donoghue, regional director of department store Fenwick, says free parking was also a unique selling point for consumers and continues to be the case today."

PBS (from 2014): "Navigating the Robot Economy"

Link to web site

" 'Technology has always been replacing jobs, and it's always been creating jobs,' Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Initiative on the Digital Economy at MIT, says. This time might be different, though. 'Recently, we’ve been seeing more of the replacement, more of the automation, and less of the complementing and creating of new jobs.'

"David Autor, a professor of economics at MIT, argues that, unlike the transition that occurred in the Post-War boom, automation is hollowing out the workforce rather than fattening it. Middle-class jobs are being replaced by robots and computers. As workers are forced out of good-paying factory and clerical positions, many take what they can find, maybe working as a janitor or preparing food at McDonalds.

"Those jobs never paid very much to begin with, and the oversupply of applicants depresses wages further, reinforcing the hollowing out. For now, many of those low-wage jobs appear safe. Cleaning office buildings and cooking and serving food is currently hard to automate, at least with the level of service people demand. But as robots get better, those jobs could be in jeopardy, too. Eventually, we’ll all have to find some skill that can’t be substituted by automation."

[Reposted] The Brent Cross Gyratory: Hammerson's 21st Century low-impact design for the North Circular Road. (Part of. There's more.)

New Scientist: "Mall tales: an artist’s take on modern retail psychology"

"Shopping malls are hot property in the Arab Gulf states, but Sophia Al-Maria doesn't exactly warm to them in her new video installation"

Link to web site

"The Gruen transfer was once a uniquely American phenomenon. Named for Victor Gruen, the Austrian-born architect who designed the first indoor climate-controlled shopping mall, the Gruen transfer occurs when people, entering a space designed to be visually disorientating, are confused into a state of unplanned consumption.

"Their desire to purchase one thing, say, a birthday card, has been transferred, against their will, and in a deliberate, even predictable way onto a slew of entirely different items. An iced caramel mochaccino. A pair of trainers. A rubber Totoro smartphone cover. While shopping malls aren't necessarily thriving now in the US, the mall concept has spread around the world, and the Gruen transfer with it. It’s not stretching the definition too far to see it at work on the landing pages of shopping websites like Amazon.

"It's as a direct response to the malling of the Arab Gulf states that the Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria has created her video installation Black Friday (pictured above), on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City."

[Reposted] The Observer: "The death of neoliberalism and the crisis in western politics"

"In the early 1980s the author was one of the first to herald the emerging dominance of neoliberalism in the west. Here he argues that this doctrine is now faltering. But what happens next?"

Link to web site

"The western financial crisis of 2007-8 was the worst since 1931, yet its immediate repercussions were surprisingly modest. The crisis challenged the foundation stones of the long-dominant neoliberal ideology but it seemed to emerge largely unscathed. The banks were bailed out; hardly any bankers on either side of the Atlantic were prosecuted for their crimes; and the price of their behaviour was duly paid by the taxpayer.

"Subsequent economic policy, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, has relied overwhelmingly on monetary policy, especially quantitative easing. It has failed. The western economy has stagnated and is now approaching its lost decade, with no end in sight.

"After almost nine years, we are finally beginning to reap the political whirlwind of the financial crisis. But how did neoliberalism manage to survive virtually unscathed for so long? Although it failed the test of the real world, bequeathing the worst economic disaster for seven decades, politically and intellectually it remained the only show in town. Parties of the right, centre and left ... all bought into its philosophy."

BusinessDay: "JSE gets a new property leader in Hammerson"

Link to web site

"Hammerson, a FTSE 100 retail property powerhouse became on Thursday the largest listed property company on the JSE. The company, which has a market capitalisation of R91.6bn, has joined the bourse, as it looks to add another geographic area to its wide shareholder base.

"It relegates Intu Properties, which owns shopping centres in the UK and Spain, to second spot in terms of JSE-listed property companies by market cap. Intu’s market cap is R81.6bn.

"CEO David Atkins said:

"This is an important event for Hammerson, as our shares are admitted to the JSE, and we further broaden our global investor reach and deepen the liquidity for all shareholders.

Our business is in great shape [sic] and this listing will allow a wider pool of investors to participate in the company's future returns. We look forward to building long-term relationships with existing and South African investors."

[Reposted from Feb 2012] Westfield White City (John Lewis mega-site) approved [2015 update: John Lewis announces no new store at Brent Cross]

Link to council web site

"Major regeneration and development plans for White City were approved on 16 February, by Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s planning applications committee.

"The £1billion scheme by shopping centre owners, Westfield, includes plans to build up to 1,522 homes, a new public green, offices, and an extension of the existing shopping centre in Wood Lane with new restaurants, cafes and a leisure complex.

"The development, which has been scaled down since it was originally submitted in August, is made up of accommodation, ranging from four to 12 storeys in height, with one feature building that is 20 storeys high. There will be 250 affordable homes and more than 59,000 sq ft is devoted to a new mall with a large ‘anchor store’." [With 'John Lewis' on the outside?]
 

---

Link to

"Westfield White City (John Lewis mega-site): Consultation extended",

and link to

"Property Week: Extension of Westfield White City. [Has John Lewis given up on Brent Cross?]".

---

Link to HOME (see all posts).

Create Streets: "Green wedges - are there alternatives to greenbelts?"

"Greenbelt land should be built on, but only in certain areas where the transport conditions are good. Meanwhile the footprint of buildings should be confined within a distance to the metro stations with relatively high density. In that case, the greenfield land will be preserved and the total spatial cost will reduce."

Green Wedges Mingfei Ma Create Streets July 2016 (2) by scribdstorage on Scribd

ECF: "Watch out for laws that demand cyclists get out of the way of driverless cars"

Link to web site

"The past can tell us a lot about the future, and the past tells us that we’re very poor at predicting the next transport revolution. 18th-century folk thought canals would last forever. Early 19th-century folk thought the same about turnpike roads. And for those who grew up in the 'railway age', the only future imagined was of steel rails and steam trains. Few predicted the motor car's eventual dominance, and it’s reasonable to assume that the same inability to accurately predict the future afflicts us, too. As 'car age' people, we tend to extrapolate into the future of transport using what we know, and that's car-shaped objects on roads.

"Driverless cars – known to futurist wonks as AVs, autonomous vehicles –  are not, in fact, the disruptive technology that many think it is. I’ve been using driverless cars for a great many years, cars which scuttle away and hide when not needed. I can summon one with an app when in a meeting and it will appear outside and whisk me to wherever I want to go. I’m talking about taxis. When I use taxis, including Uber, I can kick back and let the driver – a silent automaton if I so will it – worry about the road ahead.

"Where autonomous vehicles might change the world – if we let them – is over who has priority on roads. Currently, driverless cars are programmed to avoid cyclists and pedestrians. In a city full of cars driven by onboard computers it will be a great game to ride or step in front of them, safe in the knowledge they’re programmed not to touch you."

The Observer: "Forget ideology, liberal democracy’s newest threats come from technology and bioscience"

"A groundbreaking book by historian Yuval Harari claims that artificial intelligence and genetic enhancements will usher in a world of inequality and powerful elites. [Like Barnet, then.] How real is the threat?"

Link to web site

"... Determinists ... believe that technology drives history. And, at heart, Yuval Noah Harari's new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow is .. determinist too. The author writes:

'In the early 21st century, the train of progress is again pulling out of the station – and this will probably be the last train ever to leave the station called Homo sapiens. Those who miss this train will never get a second chance. In order to get a seat on it, you need to understand 21st century technology, and in particular the powers of biotechnology and computer algorithms.'

"He continues:

'These powers are far more potent than steam and the telegraph, and they will not be used mainly for the production of food, textiles, vehicles and weapons. The main products of the 21st century will be bodies, brains and minds, and the gap between those who know how to engineer bodies and brains and those who do not will be wider than the gap between Dickens's Britain and the Madhi's Sudan. Indeed, it will be bigger than the gap between Sapiens and Neanderthals. In the 21st century, those who ride the train of progress will acquire divine abilities of creation and destruction, while those left behind will face extinction.'

"This looks like determinism on steroids. What saves it from ridicule is that Harari sets the scientific and technological story within an historically informed analysis of how liberal democracy evolved. And he provides a plausible account of how the defining features of the liberal democratic order might indeed be upended by the astonishing knowledge and tools that we have produced in the last half-century.

"So while one might, in the end, disagree with his conclusions, one can at least see how he reached them."

LSE: "Creating communities in London's new villages"

"LSE London and Berkeley Homes have been working in collaboration to produce a report on creating new communities in London. This film looks at the report's main findings. We identified six characteristics of a new London village:

1) It's small and intimate and can be comfortably covered on foot,

2) It's unique, and has an identifiable centre with its own atmosphere and sense of place,

3) It's designed for social interaction with plenty of public and green space, and places for community events,

4) It's locally driven and locally responsive, and residents are involved in decisions,

5) It's functional; well served by public transport and with good access to core services like a doctor's surgery, food shops and schools, and

6) It's mixed – the community has a mix of ages, backgrounds and tenures; there are long-standing residents as well as new arrivals."

CityMetric: "Why other cities should copy Nottingham's revolutionary parking levy"

Link to web site

"Since the 1980s, there has been a dispiriting narrative in transport in some UK cities. Bus deregulation in 1986, and the loosening of planning controls permitting new out of town shopping developments, was followed by significant growth in car ownership and use.

"Since then, there has been a tendency in many cities to equate development and progress to increased car use, roads and car-based development. Cuts in government spending have been a further disincentive to promoting or funding public transport projects or other alternatives to car use.

"Plenty of cities are doing good things on transport, however. The new Urban Transport Group, which brings together the urban transport authorities in London and other cities, is helping showcase what is happening on the ground and lobbying for the powers and funding to improve things.

"But one city stands out as having achieved huge amount in this area. Nottingham is a medium-sized city of some 300,000 people (though the wider urban area is over 700,000).Yet it has some of the highest levels of public transport use outside London."

TED: "How the blockchain is changing money and business"

What is the blockchain? If you don't know, you should; if you do, chances are you still need some clarification on how it actually works.

Don Tapscott is here to help, demystifying this world-changing, trust-building technology which, he says, represents nothing less than the second generation of the internet and holds the potential to transform money, business, government and society.

(4) Brent Cross Cricklewood CPO3 - objections accepted until 25 Aug.

(3) Brent Cross Cricklewood CPO3 - the latest DCLG guidance

2015 CPO Updated Guidance for Publication FINAL2 by scribdstorage on Scribd

(2) Brent Cross Cricklewood CPO3 - the DCLG rules

Compulsory Purchase Procedure by scribdstorage on Scribd

(1) Brent Cross Cricklewood CPO3 - the order was made on 28 July 2016 (ish)

SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT - AGENDA ITEM 14 Brent Cross Cricklewood Compulsory Purchase Order No. 3 and[1] by scribdstorage on Scribd

Sat 17 Sep: Clitterhouse Farm's First Mini Arts Fest

Newcastle Chronicle: "Brexit vote is impacting North East architects' work in London"

Link to web site

"The director of expanding North East architecture business Space Group has told how the Brexit vote is impacting the industry, just after the firm has recorded its most successful year to date.

"... 'We are working on a few projects in central London and they have now been paused. ... We don’t know what that means - if the projects will start up again or if they have just been paused for now - but London has definitely been affected and the market was red hot there.'

"... Meanwhile, the BIM Technologies arm of the group is working on Wimbledon court No 1, the Imperial War Museum, The London School of Economics, Brent Cross Station, Chelsea Barracks, Kings Cross station, as well as projects at the Google HQ and Facebook’s HQ in Fitzrovia, West London."

Create Streets: "Want to build homes? Get local people on board"

Link to web site

"Is the fulcrum of power re-balancing between London developers, politicians and residents? Possibly. Boris is banished to the Foreign Office. Sadiq is impressively self-assured in City Hall. Edward Lister haunts the HCA. James Murray shouts ‘affordable housing’ from the rooftops. And several landmark schemes (including Bishopsgate Goodsyard and the Paddington Pole) have been pulled in the face of public revolt and political self-doubt.

"So is it a question of 'all change please' or of 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose'? Developers' websites and publicity boards certainly want you to believe that all is new and lovely. Like well-fed monks leaving the refectory, most are bloated with protestations of 'community consultation' and 'public engagement.’

"There are some welcome changes but it's nearly all hot air. The current British planning and development system is a very odd one historically and comparatively. It very imperfectly mediates between what people like and what gets built. The recent transmogrification of the Paddington Pole into the Paddington Box is a fascinating example. Forced into a rethink by overwhelming public opposition Irvine Sellar has come up with a better scheme. It cares more about Praed Street, connects East better and removes the threat of a Bayswater Shard glowering over West London. The developer has even run some carefully structured (though brief) consultation sessions.

"To read the blurb the Paddington Box would appear to be the natural consequences of such engagement. Nothing could be less true. In reality, the over-supply of London's luxury housing market has driven the change of use to commercial and the box is then a natural, greedy, attempt to maximise the space in a given site. It is nothing more than a huge glass box, spreadsheet architecture at its worst."

Washington Past: "The people who are truly harmed when cities say no to new housing"

Link to web site

"The small community of Brisbane, Calif., just south of San Francisco, has a rare opportunity that advocates argue could help ease the region's massive housing crisis.

"The town is home to a 684-acre plot of former industrial land. A developer wants to clean it up and build a mixed-use project, with public parkland, that could include more than 4,000 new units of housing. And the site surrounds a stop on the regional rail line that connects workers to jobs in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

"It's exactly the kind of flat, spacious, hard-to-find place where you'd want to drop new housing in the Bay Area without displacing current residents or exacerbating traffic. But many Brisbane officials and residents prefer a plan for the land that would include no new housing at all."

The Observer: "Council planners must 'inspire public sector development' in Brexit aftermath." (Not the, at times, corruption of Barnet Council over Brent Cross)

"Fears are paralysing private construction projects, according to new report from Royal Town Planning Institute"

Link to web site

"Strong leadership is urgently required by council planners to inspire public sector development as post-Brexit uncertainty continues to paralyse private developers, a new report warns.

"Compounding the message are the findings of a new poll showing that three-quarters of planners believe cumulative changes to the planning system have seriously eroded their ability to deliver quality developments.

"The report, published by the Royal Town Planning Institute, says budget cuts and changes in planning policy over the last 30 years have undermined the powers of public sector planners to perform strategic leadership.

"The RTPI, which represents 23,000 professional planners, says the situation is most acute in England where the changes have created a complicated and uncertain system that has undermined the potential for new developments to be well-planned and connected to transport infrastructure, alongside a reduced number of affordable properties to rent or buy."

[Reposted] 'Housing Problems' (1935) and 'Housing In Our Time' (1930s)

Housing Problems (1935) from bifurcaciones on Vimeo.

The Observer: "Superhighway to cycling heaven – or just a hell of a mess?"

"As London’s network of cycle lanes takes shape, we ask whether Boris Johnson's transport revolution was blue-lane thinking or a convoluted mistake"

Link to web site

"They are 'doing more damage to London,' said the former chancellor Lord Lawson in the House of Lords, 'than almost anything since the Blitz.' In the same spirit of absurdist hyperbole, they might be said to be the most transformative public works since Joseph Bazalgette built London's sewers and river embankments.

"They are not, but they do have the potential to change the spirit and character of the capital and of other cities that follow the same path, as well as making its transport cleaner, healthier, safer, more efficient and better able to deal with growing pressure of numbers. They might even prove that the city’s former mayor Boris Johnson was capable of doing something right.

“ 'They' are the cycle superhighways, the most conspicuous of several measures promoted under Johnson. They add up to an unprecedented plan, which is to make the sprawling, awkward, inconsistent city of London bike-friendly. The places most often cited for the exemplariness of their cycling provision – Amsterdam, Copenhagen, more recently Manhattan – were already more ordered, compact and coherent in their layout. In London, the street pattern changes moment by moment, straight to winding, leafy to truck-thronged, wide to narrow."

"Bullring and Brent Cross retail park owner Hammerson rebrands to 'enter public consciousness'." (It already has. And not in a nice way.)

"European retail and shopping centre developer Hammerson has introduced a new identity as it looks to strike a deeper brand association with shoppers.

"The 70-year old brand owns 59 different retail sites across Europe, including the Bull Ring in Birmingham and Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London, but has remained in the background unlike its competitors.

"Hammerson worked with Pentagram to create the new brand identity, and tasked the agency with two goals; to make the brand more visible whilst staying true to its supportive personality, and to create a master brand that could to be adaptable, to be used for investors, communities, back of house and as part of centre identities.

"The masterbrand is centred on the logotype’s hidden H, that gives Hammerson a strong presence, whilst still giving individual centres and surrounding communities a sense of ownership.

"The H is both a logotype and symbol, which is adapted for all asset brands and new branding has been created for each centre and retail park, featuring an invisible H next to the centre name, with the location beneath it. This creates continuity throughout all the centres, without imposing Hammerson’s name of [sic] them.

"In addition to the new graphic identity, Pentagram created a verbal identity and advertising campaign for Hammerson, with the new strapline 'where more happens', which has been adapted for B2B and B2C applications."

The Criminal History of Brent Cross Shopping Centre (some of it, anyway)

Mirror Photos: "Cruiser weight boxer George Walker doing a head stand at the weigh-in November 1957"
(as you do).
Link to Daily Mail

"... Only months after the split, it was revealed he was in a relationship with Sarah, Marchioness of Milford Haven. A judo fanatic, Sarah — whose marriage to Prince Philip’s cousin the Marquess of Milford Haven ended in the Nineties — came from a very different background.

"Her father was George Walker, a former prize-fighter, gangster’s minder and Billingsgate fish market porter who was jailed for two years for his part in a warehouse robbery. On his release, he immersed himself in the property trade, and eventually floated the firm he founded, Brent Walker, on the Stock Exchange.

"Such was his success that he created Brent Cross in North London. Walker lived as a tax exile in Switzerland and died in 2011."

The Guardian: "Without a radical overhaul of transport, UK suburbs face poverty"

"Too many cars and poor public transport services linking outlying areas to city centres have increased poverty and social isolation in the suburbs"

Link to web site

"As places to live, the suburbs may not have much cachet, but that has never been their appeal. Out-of-town developments tend to be places city dwellers move to when they have a family. To manage the rent or mortgage, plus the cost of bringing up children, it’s always been essential that travel back to the centre remains quick and easy.

"But not all is well in our suburbs. In many outlying areas, it’s becoming more difficult in many places to reach centres of growth and employment. A new report by the Smith Institute has found that many once aspirational, or at least affordable, areas of family housing are falling behind city centres in terms of their ability to offer a decent quality of life.

"Central to that decline is a failure to provide frequent, well-routed, affordable and sustainable methods of travel."

Argent Related: Brent Cross Cricklewood may have FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) but Tottenham is all systems go

Link to Construction Enquirer

"Developer Argent Related has signed a deal with London’s Haringey council to lead the £1bn development of Tottenham Hale.

"The partnership will build 800 homes around the Tottenham Hale transport hub alongside Victoria line, National Rail and future Crossrail 2 services.

"Alongside the new mixed-tenure homes, there will be new shops, cafes and restaurants and community facilities, including a health centre.

"The redevelopment of Tottenham Hale will also mean improved green spaces and better access to both the new Tottenham Hale transport interchange and the Lee Valley Regional Park."

Hammerson Half-Year Results. (All jolly hockey-sticks, but London is a bit of a downer.)

(Look at the bloody camera)

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Reuters: "Hammerson says UK property market facing uncertainty after Brexit vote"

"Shopping centre landlord Hammerson Plc said the impact of Britain's decision to leave the European Union on property valuations was still unknown, but the lettings and investment markets were facing a period of uncertainty.

The company, which partly owns the Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London, said its external valuers had said that the probability of their valuations exactly matching the price achieved if Hammerson sold its assets had reduced after the Brexit vote.

Concerns have risen that prices for commercial properties may fall after the vote, with some investors worried that international retailers and banks may move some operations to other EU locations, hurting demand for property." [more]