Constructive Criticism

It’s very easy to criticise, and – with the wisdom of hindsight – it’s always very easy to complain after the event. This must be kept in mind throughout this section of the website.

Learning new ways to make urban improvements can only be achieved by learning from past mistakes. And it is clear that we must find improved ways of meeting the needs of our changing communities.

If you plan and build an infrastructure which protects and values the heritage of a community whilst giving that community a sense of belonging, you stand a very good chance of bringing people together. People’s welfare and livelihoods are critical to any master plan whenever addressing the requirement for a business, leisure, or residential development. This remains true no matter where the location. The planning must "tick all the right boxes"; not for the benefit of the developer or the local planning authorities but for the benefit of the people who will eventually live and work there.

• How many new housing developments have houses built with a garage that won’t accommodate the average family car? Maybe deciding not to squeeze one more last plot onto the site would have got around that issue.
• Or what about visiting a brand new retail park – often with more parking than an airport – but with only one road to get in and out?

We really do need to start thinking "out the box" with new and innovative ways of getting our city and rural areas to meet possible future requirements.

Businesses

When an expanding business is planning a new building then, of course, quotations are first obtained for the estimated cost of that new building. This due process ensures that there are adequate funds available with which to pay for it. Why is it therefore not possible to obtain an estimated cost for the rates which will be levied on that new building before it is actually built? If this was possible then the new building could be carefully designed to suit the yearly rateable charge and therefore offer maximum value for money to the business. The business would be made perfectly aware of the potential running costs of their new building before committing to constructing it.

Is it really fair that rateable values are actually based on what the rentable value of the property is thought to be? What incentive does this give to build a good looking, high quality building? No wonder our cities are being filled with ugly metal boxes! The only half decent buildings are those which are exempt from rates; public buildings, town halls, colleges, universities, libraries etc.

Hull University is a perfect example of how modern construction can blend in with
traditional architecture.

How can we inspire our communities when the character and identity of our surroundings is simply disappearing? Gradually, our buildings are slowly being replaced with a mass-produced blueprint for cheapness and mediocrity which is being passed from city to city.

Take retail parks, leisure complexes, industrial estates and residential areas. The days are numbered for these types of labels. We need to stop working from a rule book that is supposed to "fit all" and start looking at a project or major development for what it will mean to that area and how it will bring out its full potential.

Nightlife

Setting the right balance of a city’s nightlife is critical to good social behaviour. This is certainly one of the UK’s biggest failures. Closing down a club because of a drug problem or excessive alcohol consumption does not solve the problem; it simply moves it out onto the streets and puts even greater pressure on the already hardpressed police. Our city centres need a more varied choice of activities and entertainments – and this needs to be spread across the full week; not just on Friday and Saturday nights. The current tendency of relocating cinemas and restaurants to outside the city centre only tends to aggravate a drink culture which is already present within the centre of the city. Nightclub design needs to change to address these issues. Facilities need to cater for a broader range of age groups and offer varied venues to help break down a fixed culture. The enjoyment then becomes the actual venue; not the drinks – or even the drugs.

Planning a nightspot within the proposal of a master plan as never been done before so it comes as no surprise that this highlights just how out of touch urban planners are with the needs of young people. This story is told in the following video.

Our Neighbourhood

People don’t really want a street named after a famous person or a sculpture from a well known artist. They want to feel safe within their community. They want ways of becoming a part of their community without their own space being infringed upon.

It’s a fact that more and more people work from home now than ever before, so why not create a business facility right in the middle of a housing development? A sort of Residential Business Centre featuring office space, some meeting rooms, a seating area. Install free highspeed WiFi internet access points within the building. Most business people have laptops, so instead of being sat at home, they could choose to work from the Residential Business Centre for the day or evening. It would be a fantastic way of meeting neighbours and networking.

Some people who run a business from home may have the need for holding occasional meetings which may be difficult accommodate within the space of their home. Or they might just want a more businesslike environment in which to impress new clients. Again, the Residential Business Centre would be ideal; it could even offer these facilities as a chargeable service. For example, rent an office for a few hours or a day; maybe an AV room for a presentation.

Wouldn’t it be great to think that, for example, if you were struggling to do something in Word™ or Photoshop™, you could drop in to your Residential Business Centre with the chance that one of your business neighbours would probably know the software inside out and could help you to solve your problem? Maybe be even the local police could use part of a Residential Business Centre as a remote base to help with local policing. Whatever the needs, it would be a fantastic facility which could bring people together using Wi-Fi internet technology.

We now live in a society with too much red tape and too much talk!

It is hardly surprising that any new developments lack the wow factor. The slow and painful path of consultation overpowers the creative process. You would think that, after all this consulting, the end result would be absolute perfection!

We only need to look around the rest of the UK to see projects that fail to meet community expectations:

• Perfectly good old buildings demolished and replaced with quickly-built new ones built without the pride and level of craftsmanship of their predecessors.
• Buildings that have taken up tax payers’ money for compulsory purchase to be flattened and replaced with an unimaginative park bench and maybe some hedging. If you were able to carry out an audit on decisions like this then you would account for the cost of some landscaping and a bench at maybe a couple of thousand pounds. But when you expose community relocations and demolition fees it runs into hundreds of thousand pounds. So this type of master planning leads to some very expensive green field areas and a lot of tax payers’ money wasted.
• Or maybe the time when an area was bulldozed flat, removing a 150-year-old pub to make way for 3 car parking spaces. When the development was complete it was then discovered that the pub could have been worked into the scheme with no effect on the new development at all.
• How many times have we seen a building demolished, its occupants relocated and an office development built in its place – and then watched it stand empty, waiting for the “right tenant” to come along? Would it not be far better to find out first what the area needs as a priority and then make a master plan around that local brief?

Being able to navigate competently across what is nowadays an ocean of technical, environmental and health & safety requirements is difficult for any organisation. From the viewpoint of a small builder, having to deal with all this red tape puts them at a huge disadvantage over big, multi-national construction companies. This is probably why local contractors tend to miss out on large local contracts. And this could be one of the factors as to why many cities do not get the end result they expected. Again and again, community expectations are being missed.

With all the so-called "skills" now available you would think that our little urban jungles and our neglected coastal towns, not forgetting our vandalised streets, would all now be on the path to a more positive, brighter future. Wouldn’t you?

Our Mission Statement:

"Working towards achieving inspired, empowered and affluent communities. Encouraging all social sectors to come together, regardless of age, gender or faith. Designing a better, safer environment for everyone. Building respect for the authorities who manage our communities."

Does corporate profit come before delivering the right results within our communities?

Room to breathe: A residential development with houses built too close together negatively affects our quality of life.

Do you really think that this grey box warrants a second glance?

Doesn't the building below make you wonder how it was built?

How can I create a wow factor with all this red tape restricting me.