Autumn School: Making Places - Strategies for Managing Major Traffic Routes through Historic Towns and Villages

This Autumn School in Hertford is an opportunity to look at how cities, towns and villages can rethink busy traffic routes. Public consultation held earlier this year by Hertfordshire County Council looked at proposals for the major east-west A414 road corridor, which runs from Hemel Hempstead and Watford in the west to Harlow in the east, linking the M1, A1(M) and the A10 motorways. Along this transport corridor is the attractive county town of Hertford, which sees a large proportion of through, between town and local traffic. 

·         develop their own ideas for Hertford which will be transferable elsewhere.

PROGRAMME - DAY 1 – Monday 2 December

9am           Tea and coffee on arrival
9.30am       Welcome, Louise Thomas, HTVF Director
9.45am       Introduction to the A414 and Hertford, Rupert Thacker, Head of Highways Strategy and Implementation, Hertfordshire County Council

10.15am     Streets for People - Why Making Better Places For People Matters, Nicholas Boys Smith, David Milner, Robert Kwolek, Create Streets

10.45am     The Climate Change Imperative, John Duncan, Extinction Rebellion East Herts
11.15am     Q&A followed by tea and coffee
11.45am     Enabling and Designing for Different Travel Choices along Urban Corridors, Phil Jones, Phil Jones Associates
12.15pm     Guided Busways – Cambridgeshire’s Success Story, Graham Hughes, Executive Director, Cambridgeshire County Council
12.45pm    Q&A
1pm           Lunch
1.45pm      Hertford: The Opportunities to Make Better Places from Spaces, Tim Hagyard, former Planning Team Leader and Urban Designer, East Hertfordshire District Council
2.15pm      Site visit - Walkabout in groups led by local experts
4pm           Tea and coffee
4.15pm      Workshop 1: First Impressions and Priorities
4.45pm      Learning from Elsewhere – Making Radical Changes to Traffic Networks, Stephen O’Malley, Civic Engineers
5.15pm      Q&A and Close of Day 1 seminar
7.30pm      Optional dinner at local venue
               
DAY 2     – Tuesday 3 December
9.30am             Tea and coffee on arrival
Welcome and plan for Day 2, Louise Thomas, HTVF Director
9.45am       Herts Orbital Transit: quality travel across central Hertfordshire, Reg Harman, independent transport consultant
10.15am     Better Planning, Better Transport, Better Places - for people, Lynda Addison, Chair of the CIHT Sustainable Transport Panel and Immediate past Chair of the Transport Planning Society
10.45am     Q&A followed by tea and coffee
11.30am     Making Connections and Restoring Links in Historic Towns: Rochester, Duncan Berntsen, Medway Council
12pm         Workshop 2: Weighting for decision-making: what are the priorities for Hertford and the A414?
12.30pm    Workshop 3: What is your Vision for Hertford and the A414?
1pm           Lunch
1.45pm      Workshop 4: Developing Options
3pm           Tea and coffee
3.15pm      Presentation of ideas: – groups voice ideas generated with audience of invited local authorities’ and organisations’ representatives
4.15pm      Discussion & Next Steps:  How do we balance our Place and Movement needs and expectations?
5pm     Close of Autumn School

This Autumn School is supported by Hertfordshire County Council and the Urban Design Group.
 

Buxton: Resilient Cultural Heritage & the Role of the Visitor Economy

 

 

Whitchurch Silk Mill in Basingstoke. Photograph by Simon Burchell

Writing Supplementary Planning Documents & Strategies for the Historic Environment

York: Keyhole Surgery

Increasing the Capacity and

Performance of Historic Centres

_{​ https://htvf-in-york2.eventbrite.co.uk, Tickets £35-155}

_{Inserting large scale mixed-use development into historic centres requires understanding, imagination and confidence. The all-embracing, all-or-nothing master plan can work, but too often results in uncomfortable juxtapositions, poor economic performance or complete failure.  Intelligent master planning allows corrections and adaptations over the implementation phases to accommodate evolving understanding, exploit unexpected opportunities and respond to changing circumstances and expectations. All without undermining viability, compromising design quality or harming heritage assets.}

_{York’s rich history represents centuries of urban evolution that continues today. This seminar and site exploration will interrogate the city’s plans for the future the development these are stimulating.
Participants will hear from the City's Archaeologist, City officers leading the renovation of the Guildhall and Castle Gateway major projects and the masterplanners of Castle Gateway and York Central.  They will learn how community representatives have come together to define community briefs for new places. The walking tour, led by City officers, will set these places firmly in their historical context.}

_{The Guildhall is part of York’s most prestigious and historically significant complex, comprising Grade I, II* and II listed buildings built around the 15th century hall and riverside meeting room. It has been the seat of civic governance since the 1200s, and yet has seen minimal maintenance since 1942 bombing raids. A renovation project will bring the Guildhall’s historic role into the 21st century with new office space, greater community use and green technology.}

 
_{Castle Gateway is described by the community conversation platform My Future York as "... an opportunity to identify new future uses, buildings and public space with the overall aim to create a part of York that is valued, well-used and loved."  Regeneration will create retail, leisure and residential facilities, to complement and reinforce the vitality of the city centre. It will also enhance the setting of Clifford's Tower and the quality of public space and accessibility throughout the area.}

<sub>York Central, west of the city’s railway station and contained by rail lines, is one of the largest brownfield regeneration sites in England. With the National Railway Museum, private housing and businesses, the new neighbourhood has been designated a UK Government Housing and Enterprise Zone.  

Programme</sub>

_{9.30am            Tea and coffee on arrival}

_{9.45am            Welcome, David Warburton, Head of Regeneration Programmes (York Central and Guildhall complex), City of York Council & Timothy Crawshaw, HTVF Vice-Chair}

_{10am               York: A Unique Heritage Context, Peter Gouldsborough, York Civic Trust}

_{10.30am          Hungate and major city centre projects, John Oxley, City Archaeologist, City of York Council}

_{10.50am          The Significance of the York Guildhall project, David Warburton, City of York Council}

_{11.10am          The Origins of the York Castle Gateway project, Andy Kerr, Head of Regeneration Programmes (Castle Gateway and City Centre), City of York Council}

_{11.30am          Q&A followed by tea and coffee}

_{12pm               Drawing out the meaning of place: The Castle Gateway Masterplan, Francis Glare, Head of Urbanism, BDP}

_{12.30pm          York Central, Jason Syrett, Partner, Allies and Morrison}

_{1pm                 Q&A followed by lunch}

_{1.45pm            Community Engagement: My Future York, Dr Helen Graham, Leeds University and Phil Bixby, Constructive Individuals}

_{2.15pm            Walking tour around York city centre}

_{4.30pm            Close}

_{This event counts as 5 hours of CPD. Join the HTVF now and save money - see http://www.htvf.org/Join/ for details.  This event has been kindly supported by City of York Council.}

 

 





Abode, Great Kneighton, Cambridge, designed by Proctor & Matthews. Photo by Tim Crocker



Character, Quality & Design in Neighbourhood Planning and beyond

Tuesday 26 November 2019, Kellogg College, Oxford

_{Tickets £35-155​}    https://htvf.eventbrite.co.uk 

 

This seminar-workshop on design quality is for communities and professionals alike, and will explore the role of design in Neighbourhood Planning and other policy-making contexts. As so many Neighbourhood Planning groups go through a learning curve consulting their neighbours, analysing and allocating sites, and finally writing policies, design quality is often understated.

 

Yet the quality and layout of new development makes a great difference to the future character of settlements. In the past some communities have prepared Village Design Statements to capture the local character and start to set out design parameters, and so this seminar-workshop will look at how to bridge the gap between identifying local character and specifying design quality in various ways. Delegates will hear about:
 

• Locality's new Toolkit Achieving well-designed places through neighbourhood planning, and the funding support available for greater design aspirations
• How to make your Neighbourhood Plan much more environmentally efficient
• The role of pattern books in moving from seeing character to identifying design policies to deliver it
• How top housing architects are responding to the challenge of housing growth and local character, especially in large developments - the Distinctively Local campaign
• Best practice in writing design policies for neighbourhood plans with a strong heritage and design backdrop, and
• a hands-on workshop session to explore the issues on the day.

 PROGRAMME

9.30am        Tea and coffee on arrival

9.45am        Welcome, Louise Thomas, HTVF Director
 

10am           Neighbourhood Planning & Design Quality the story so far, Jeff Bishop, Executive Associate, Place Studio
 

10.45am      Supporting Design in Neighbourhood Plans – the new Locality Toolkit, Ben Castell, Director, AECOM

11.15am      Q&A followed by tea and coffee

11.45am      Lessons for Neighbourhood Plans: How Green is your Plan?  Dan Stone, Project Manager, Centre for Sustainable Energy
 

12.15pm      From Local Character to Pattern Books and Design Policies, Lisa Jackson, Jackson Planning
 

12.45pm      Q&A

1pm             Lunch
 

1.45pm        Distinctively Local – Responding to the Government's Building Better, Building Beautiful campaign, Simon Bayliss, Managing Partner, HTA Design
 

2.15pm        Introduction to Workshop: Defining the Essential Criteria for a Design Code, including site visit to Norham Road, Louise Thomas, HTVF
 

3.30pm        Tea and coffee
 

4pm            Successful Community-led Policy-making in Historic Settings: Rob Lloyd-Sweet, Historic Places Adviser, Historic England
 

4.30pm        Discussion
 

5pm            Close
 

_{This event counts as 6 hours of CPD. Join the HTVF now and save money - see http://www.htvf.org/Join/ for details and www.htvf.org for more details of our work.} 
 

Spatial planning is intended to determine what and how much development should be located where; yet a key part of the UK planning system encourages land owners and developers to propose specific sites for new development. Given the pressure on local authority resources, time constraints on determining planning applications, and the need for more housing development, place-making is not always at the top of the list of factors being considered.

• The significance of smaller settlements’ historical form, function and setting
• Whether the HELAA process makes spatial or ‘place’ planning more of a challenge
• Alternative ways of planning for change that relate to a place’s identity
• The type of criteria to consider and their relevance
• A live case study to debate and test factors that matter, and
• Case studies of how plan-making and neighbourhood planning can draw upon alternative evidence to influence outcomes.

 
Managing Contemporary and Historic Design and Development - Cambridge

This event will be useful to local authority officers and councillors with planning and design portfolios, conservation officers, developers, architects, urban designers and planners in private practice, town and parish councillors, and civic society members.  The benefits of attending this seminar are:

 Optional visit en route to the station (depending on daylight):

Pin-pointing what makes one settlement different to the next is about identifying common characteristics, but also the variations between them due to topography, natural features, boundaries, links to elsewhere, materials and building types, and more. Without this detailed appreciation of context, how can we ensure that future development does not dilute local distinctiveness?   

In this seminar, we will look beyond architectural pastiche and 'stick-on' architecture features to explore what makes one place different to another.  Finding ways to capture this distinctiveness and convey it to others is the key to sustaining a sense of place.

• Why local distinctiveness matters
• How developers view local character in drawing up proposals
• What makes local distinctiveness or the features that identify local character
• How to inform plans for change and influence new proposals 
• The mechanisms to capture local character in the design and planning process.