Vlognotes #11 Weeknotes S3 Eps 11 Snow, Economic Thoughts and Workshoptastic….

Vlognotes #11 Weeknotes S3 Eps 11 Snow, Economic Thoughts and Workshopped out….

Vlog at the bottom for those who would rather watch me waffle….

GC Local Plan Workshops and Public Webinar

• Some really good and engaging sessions but really highlighted the difficulty in having meaningful sustained dialogue over a digital format when trying to keep to the kind of accepted ‘no longer than 2 hrs’ format.
• Laid bare the challenges in improving wider constructive participation in complex systems issues such as plan making and Economic/Environmental/Social interrelationships which require a lot of time for participants digest information in advance.
• Simplifying through images/visuals helps but can be too reductive to describe complex relationships how complex relationships and choices/challenges can be articulated.
• Link to the web recording (its not live yet) will be here and the document library has all the information and studies we were talking about here.

London Stansted Cambridge Consortium (LSCC) Planners Forum

• Great to meet the group and see John (McGill; Director of LSCC)
• The focus of the meeting was intended to be on what planners can do with a granularity on the ‘grey area’ where planning and economic development overlap to get the local high streets economies moving. Bill Grimsey (Grimsey Review) report can be found here.
• Message of society transitioning from 2020 to 2030 in 3 months, my views are this is not just limited to consumer behaviours but a paradigm labour market shift, all be it slightly behind the consumer curve which had progressed some time before Covid.
• This is critical as labour markets shape urban centres, cities, towns and high streets. Henceforth we really have to (quickly) build evidence (from live data) on labour market movement within both city and town centres and hinterlands (or further afield). Noted that there is currently an 80% drop in town centre investment.
• Comments from the Grimsey Report that place leadership needs to step up and look radically .I have discussed this in a previous blog/vlog and i agree, however unlike the more ‘progressive’ areas in local government such as service design/transformation/tech, place leadership is preferentially skewed toward a ‘safe pair of hands’ due to the political volatility and public scrutiny that urban planning and place making invites. This needs to evolve (and swiftly).
• Exclusivity of planning = poor rates of engagement (we all know this)=limited demographic participation = limits innovation which is diverse and resilient.
• Policies devised by planners which often rolled from the past and cannot facilitate change at the rate it is required in the 21st century.
• Disconnect between master-planning (regulatory) and urban economics (live agile). What alternate models/frameworks could supplement/replace rigid policy/regulation to facilitate bottom up change?
• Financial/Political disconnect between multiple tiers highways/social care/education/skills/planning = Governance and responsibility must be addressed with a coherent and singularly accountability.

Institute of Economic Development (IED) Director Appointment

Really chuffed to be on the IED board (see link below). Had some really lovey messages including from existing board members and enjoyed a Friday AM economy chat with existing board Director Richard Cairns which was great and super insightful. Now work begins…

Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service senior leader appointed to Institute of Economic Development board | IED — Institute of Economic Development

Vlog here ======Happy Friday……