Design and access statements as an assessment tool to promote quality sustainable development: reflections on practice in NE England

Planners play an important role in seeking sustainable urban design solutions, including making critical decisions on planning applications. Design decisions in planning have frequently been controversial and criticised as being subjective and too interventionist. Decisions on the design element of proposed developments are arrived at, by local planning authorities, using information provided by the applicant/developer, consideration of relevant local and national policy, observation by planners on site, views from the public and statutory consultees, negotiation between developers and planners and finally views of local councillors. This is a complex set of information and ways to clarify and expedite such decisions are needed. One recent attempt by the government to do this followed the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, 2004. Regulations came into force in August 2006 requiring developers to submit a Design and Access Statement (DAS) with most applications. A DAS is intended to assist design decision making in the planning process by clarifying the design approach of the applicant from the outset, so facilitating greater common understanding by all concerned. It appears the government is currently supporting constructive intervention by planning authorities on design issues, and so reinforcing the legitimacy of democratically accountable design decisions. The government hope that DAS will make the process and outcome of decision making more open, rigorous and sustainable. This paper seeks to briefly chart the background to government intervention in design decision making through planning. It then specifically investigates whether DAS are in fact perceived as improving decision making from the local planning authority perspective, as well as the developer perspective, using primary data from NE England. Comparisons are made with a recent national study by the Planning Advisory Service on DAS. This reveals different viewpoints on the extent to which the introduction of DAS is helping the design decision making process. Developers are more critical than LPAs, but all perceive some value in the process and offer views on potential improvements

Briefing: Blue Carpet, Newcastle, UK: public realm design decision making from a user perspective

Public realm design decision making can be complex and variable with unpredictable results. Analysis of decision making, including the principles applied and the role of key players can help clarify ingredients for success. Crucially, assessment of the potential use of public realm space together with seeking various user views is essential. A public realm case study in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, known as The Blue Carpet is analysed with reference to these factors. Conclusions indicate that employment of a city-wide public realm strategy, based on character analysis and urban design principles is likely to provide a sound basis for decision making. In addition, potential user views must be taken on board and project management requires a strong and consistent coordinator with a holistic remit covering design, use and maintenance

Community Land Trusts: NEcase studies

Lack of affordable housing is recognised as a problem in most urban and rural areas in the United Kingdom today. It is one of the issues that gives rise to social exclusion of disadvantaged individuals and can contribute to weakening of community cohesion overall within a local community, mainly through people leaving to seek housing elsewhere. Arthurson, K and Jacobs, K (2003) note the concept of social exclusion is a difficult one, as cause and effect of social exclusion are almost impossible to evaluate clearly. The concept does, however, highlight the relativity of the phenomenon as exclusion implies there is something to be excluded from – in this case access to local housing that does not consume an unreasonable proportion of income. There are clearly degrees of social exclusion as Somerville, P (1998) states, expanding to make the point that some may be excluded from rented housing as well as ownership and some may be excluded only from ownership. Fundamentally Somerville puts the case that the effect of exclusion is to deny certain social groups or individuals control over their daily lives, or impairs enjoyment of their wider citizenship rights

Design and access statements: NE England case study

Since August 2006 planning regulations require developers to submit a Design and Access Statement (DAS) with most applications. A DAS is intended to assist design decision making in the planning application process by clarifying the design approach of the applicant from the outset. The aim is to facilitate greater common understanding by all concerned by making the process and outcome of decision making more open, rigorous and sustainable. This paper seeks to investigate the background of government intervention in design decision making through planning. It then specifically investigates whether DAS are in fact perceived as improving decision making from the Local Planning Authority (LPA) perspective, as well as the developer perspective, using primary data from NE England. Comparisons are made with a recent national study by the Planning Advisory Service on DAS. This reveals different viewpoints on the extent to which the introduction of DAS is helping the design decision making process. Developers are more critical than LPAs, but all perceive some value in the process and offer views on potential improvements

Urban design and the national planning policy framework for England

In this paper, the potential of recovering waste heat from the fryer section and exhaust stream sent to the stack of a typical potato crisps or chips manufacturing plant and using the heat to drive an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system for power generation has been presented. Five different ORC system Options (A, B, C, D and E) were considered. The first two options (A and B) make use of the waste heat from the foul gas and exhaust to stack respectively for power generation using a single ORC system each while the third option (option C) makes use of a novel dual heat source single ORC system where the low temperature waste heat from the foul gas is used to provide preheating and the high temperature waste from the exhaust to the stack used to provide the evaporation. Option D also shows a dual heat source ORC system where the high temperature waste heat to the exhaust stack is used to provide the preheating while the lower temperature foul gas is used for the evaporation (reverse of option C in terms of waste heat usage) while option E makes use of a reheat cycle where the waste heat from the foul gas is used to provide the reheating of the working fluid exiting the turbine. In terms of waste heat usage, the combination of options A and B can be compared with options C, D and E. The simulation result shows that in terms of net power generation, cooling water requirement, and working fluid (R245fa) requirement, the combination of Options A and B gives the best power generation result and this is similar as the result produced by Option C. Following option C is option E which gave a better result than option D. The entropy generation analysis showed that the entropy generation is inversely proportional to the power output. It was also observed that the net power generation for the ORC configuration adopted in this paper (option C) meets the average daily power requirement of the crisps manufacturing process as well as 98.58% of the daily peak power requirement