Postcard from Cambridge April 2013July 2025 Cambridgeshire has been leading the way in the UK in putting its spatial growth plan into effect. My presentation to a conference on the National Planning Policy Framework for local authority councillors and officers allowed me to explore the links between infrastructure and development.Permission has been granted for the first phases of the new town…
Postcard from Havana Cuba March 2013July 2025 In looking round the Old Town in Havana, an area of 14 hectares where some 70,000 live in very crowded conditions, I was impressed by how Cuba is tapping tourism to help fund urban regeneration. The key has been joint ventures with foreign hotel groups. The strategy since 1993 has been to restore the main…
Postcard from Paris February 2013July 2025 A study tour by planners and developers from London revealed how Paris is regenerating areas that have lost industry through companies set up for the purpose. Looking around the 130 hectare Paris Rive Gauche area which bridges over the railway lines out of the Gare de l’Austerlitz I saw how local authorities can lead high…
Postcard from Oxford January 2013July 2025 On to Oxford where BMW assemble the Mini from parts that come by road from all over Europe. A seminar; Oxford Futures organised with the Oxford Civic Society and the City Council revealed the conflicts over whether our historic cities should grow in what is the least affordable city in Britain. It raised the difficulties…
Postcard from Leipzig January 2013July 2025 Being driven by a planner in an electric car out to a modernised sewage works and a converted cotton mill that housed creative businesses showed me how much East German cities have changed since the Berlin Wall came down two decades ago. At the time Leipzig, Germany’s fourth largest city, lost 90% of its manufacturing…
Postcard from Copenhagen November 2012July 2025 Cycling safely around Copenhagen with transport planners and engineers from West London (and the Danish Cycling Embassy) in the rain and twilight on smooth cycle ways contrasted with a return ride over potholed roads where you fight for your life. Copenhagen has got its priorities right in giving cyclists precedence over cars, and as a…
Postcard from Kochi, Southern India March 2012July 2025 If you want a peaceful holiday in India, it is hard to beat the backwaters of Kerala, where you drift by ancient villages in a state that has the highest literacy and life expectancy rates. But it is also well worth spending time in nearby Kochi City, with its fine waterside heritage from the Dutch…
