Winner announced

The judges are delighted to present the 2008 George Pepler International Award to Rachel Bland, Planning and Affordable Housing Officer at South Hams District Council in Devon.   

Rachel plans to visit Canada to investigate the delivery of affordable housing through longer established Community Land Trusts.   Rachel said in her submission "most planners know little if anything about CLTs and those that do, find the accompanying technical, legal and financial information very complex to say the least.  This results in what appears to be some reluctance amongst practitioners to embrace CLT concepts".

The judges look forward to reading the results of her research.

A second smaller award was presented to Hannah Keren Griffiths who is a postgraduate teaching assistant at UCL.   Hanah will be visiting Vietnam under the auspices of an internship with the Urban Environmental Planning Programme in Vietnam and will be assisting on the redevelopment of the undergraduate degree course in Urban Planning at HCMC's University of Architecture.   She will use this opportunity to carry out personal research on climate change.

Congratulations to Rachel and Hannah.

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This biennial Award is awarded to young people under the age of 30 who wish to undertake a short period of study on a particular aspect of spatial planning.   It is open to candidates living in the UK who wish to visit another country and to overseas candidates wishing to spent some time in the UK.

Candidates have to provide a statement describing the nature of the study that they wish to undertake together with an itinerary.    The Institute will nominate three judges and the successful candidate will be awarded £1,500 which will be paid in two instalments, two-thirds being paid before the visit and the balance after the visit and on submission of a report.   The award is not confined to members or students of the RTPI.  However, it is not meant to provide finance for postgraduate studies or those working for a doctorate.

The next award will be in 2010 with a closing date of  31st March.  For queries please contact awards@rtpi.org.uk.   Phone: 020 7929 9473.

Details for applicants

The judges will need to know;

1.    That the project has been properly thought through;

2.    That the programme of work can be properly carried out in the time proposed and with the funding available;

3.    That the itinerary is practicable and will allow the work to be carried out efficiently

4.    That the itinerary is relevant to planning practice or research in this country or elsewhere.

Applications that are not specific or are very broad in scope are not likely to be successful.   The way in which the application is presented is important both in terms of its content and its clarity. (Allowance will be made, as necessary, for candidates' lack of familiarity with the English language)

Previous award winners are:

    2002        :  Jane Healey for "Planning Performance : Lessons from Australia"

    2004        :  Tanya Davies for "Delivering Wind Power : the Spanish Experience"

    2006        :  Joint winners:  Louise Duggan for "Evaluating successful Public Realm",                         (report here) and Carol Schulz for "Urban Design for Sustainability : Learning                           from Helsinki".( See here.)

Copies of previous reports can be obtained on temporary loan from the RTPI at awards@rtpi.org.uk

Author:

Judy Woollett

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

13-May-08

Categories:

 

Sections:

Events, Awards & Networking

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