North East Awards 2013

RTPI NE Regional Awards 2013

Guidance for Entrants

Closing Date – Friday 19 April 2013

The Royal Town Planning Institute North East Region is pleased to announce the launch of its 2013 Regional Awards for Planning Achievement. All types of planning work are eligible for an award, and entries can be submitted either by the organisation responsible for the work concerned, or by someone else. It is FREE to enter for a regional award, and entries can be submitted electronically.

This year there is an extra RTPI NE Special Regional Award, for the entry which best exemplifies the Innovative Use of the Planning Process.

Introduction

Since 1986 RTPI North East and its predecessor, the RTPI Northern Branch, have organised annual awards schemes to recognise and celebrate planning achievements in the region.

Distinguished winners over the period include the River Tees Barrage, the C2C Cycle Route, the Hadrian’s Wall Management Plan and Grainger Town. The first winner, in 1986, was Blyth Valley Council’s Planning Committee Agenda for 20 August 1985, whereas last year’s winners were the Toffee Factory (in the Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle) and Newcastle City Council’s Developer Guidance Notes.

The 2012 Chair’s Award was on the theme of Rural Planning, and went to Northumberlandia, entered by the Banks Group.

Organisations submitting successful entries over the years have included local authority planning departments, regeneration partnerships, community groups, planning consultants, architects, landscape architects and developers.

In most recent years the RTPI NE Regional Awards have been closely linked to the RTPI’s National Awards scheme. The closing date for the 2013 RTPI National Awards for Planning Excellence was Friday 22 February, and all national entries from this region will automatically be referred to RTPI North East, for consideration, separately, for a Regional Award. If you entered for a national award this year, you don’t need to do any more for your entry to be considered regionally as well.

Alternatively, entrants wanting their entry only to be considered for a Regional Award during 2013 can submit a direct regional entry. (If they wish, 2013 Regional Entrants may also enter separately for a National Award in 2014.) The closing date for submitting a regional entry in 2013 is Friday 19 April.

RTPI NE Regional Awards 2013

RTPI awards celebrate the diversity of planning achievement, whether in urban or rural areas, whether large or small in scale, whether involving new development, regeneration or conservation, and whether promoted by the public, private or community sectors.

The awards look beyond purely physical outcomes to recognise innovative plans, processes, techniques, information systems, programmes of community involvement and improvements to public services. All types of planning achievement are eligible for an award, but in 2013 there is an additional Special Regional Award, for the best example of the Innovative Use of the Planning Process. (More information on the Special Award is given later in this document.)

It is intended that the results of the RTPI NE Regional Awards 2013 will be announced at the RTPI NE Annual Dinner in October, where commemorative certificates will be presented by the RTPI President, Peter Geraghty.

Who can enter for a Regional Award?

• A local authority planning or relevant department;
• A consultant or agent;
• A developer, partnership, organisation or community group;
• An individual professional; or
• Any member of the public.

An entry can relate to work done by the entrant, or you can enter a planning project or achievement which you particularly admire, which was the responsibility of another planner.

Judging

Decisions on regional awards and commendations will be made by a panel of invited independent judges. The panel will have complete discretion to make such awards and commendations as they think fit. Commemorative certificates will be presented to all winners of awards or commendations. Media coverage of successful entries will be encouraged.

Criteria

1. The schemes, actions or plans to which entries relate must be located within the North East of England, comprising Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Tees Valley (Darlington, Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough, and Redcar and Cleveland).

2. The judges will be asked to give particular attention to the following criteria:

• Originality;
• Sustainable benefit to the community and/or environment;
• The relationship of the entry to the surrounding area, and/or the policy context;
• User and/or community involvement;
• The quality of the professional work involved;
• The role played by the planner working in partnership with others;
• The extent to which the entry may serve as a model of "best practice" for work elsewhere; and
• Particular relevance to the North East of England.

3. All types of planning activity are eligible, including plans, processes, projects and completed schemes.

2013 RTPI NE Special Award for the Innovative Use of the Planning Process

In addition to the awards normally made each year by RTPI NE, in 2013 it has been decided that an additional Special Award should be made to the entry which best illustrates the Innovative Use of the Planning Process.

The 2013 Special Award is open to any aspect of the planning process which produces positive results, including plan making, such as statutory plans, neighbourhood plans or other strategies, and the development management process, including examples of successful collaborations between applicants (and their agents), the community and planning authorities.

The winner will be selected from amongst all the entries for an RTPI NE 2013 Award.

How to enter

To save administrative expense, we would prefer to receive regional entries by e-mail to northeast@rtpi.org.uk.

However, if this is not possible, entries should be sent by post to

Chris Clarke, 22 Newbrough Crescent, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 2DQ. If you are submitting anything by post, please send two copies of each item. Some well-illustrated entries can produce very large computer files, in which case it may be more practical to submit the entry on a memory stick or CD.

In any event, entries must be received on or before Friday 19 April 2013.

Entries must include the following:

1. Name, address, telephone number and e-mail contact details for entrant;
2. Brief title of entry;
3. 3. Its address or location, if relevant; (This must be sufficiently detailed for a judge to find and identify the scheme, on the ground. A location plan may well help.)
4. Firm, agency or other body responsible for entry;
5. Contact name (if relevant);
6. Relationship of entrant to responsible body, if any;
7. Description of entry;
8. Ways in which the entry meets the criteria which the judges will be considering;
9. Other agencies or partners involved in the scheme;
10. . If you feel that your entry merits consideration for the 2013 Special Award, please explain how it demonstrates the Innovative Use of the Planning Process.

If appropriate and available, preferably in electronic format, supplementary information may also be submitted, such as

• Before" and "after" photographs;
• Documents, preferably in pdf format;
• Web-site references.

However, it is the quality and relevance of documents submitted which is important for the judges, not their volume!

The answer to question 8, above, will be particularly important for the judges’ assessment of the entries. To answer it, entrants will need to refer back to the list of criteria, earlier in this document.

RTPI North East

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI for short) is the professional body representing town and country planners throughout the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. RTPI is a dynamic organization, leading the way in the creation of places that work, now and in the future.

RTPI North East represents over 825 planners throughout Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and Tees Valley. It runs a comprehensive programme of Continuing Professional Development, publishes newsletters and e-bulletins, plays a full part in regional activities with fellow professions in the built and natural environment, supports Planning Aid, and promotes the involvement of young planners in the activities of the profession.

For further information about RTPI North East, visit the web-site www.rtpi.org.uk , e-mail Kay Lough at northeast@rtpi.org.uk  or write to her at RTPI NE, PO Box 116, Ponteland, NE20 9YN (telephone 01661 871 719).

The Registered Address of the RTPI nationally is 41 Botolph Lane, London EC3R 8DL, and its Registered Charity Number in England and Wales is 262 865, and in Scotland SC 037841.