Forthcoming events:
18 July - Cotswold Water Park - Planning, Pizza and Paddleboarding
September - Cheltenham Walking Tour
Recent events:
Great way to start off the Gloucestershire Young Planners events this year with a talk around the process of emerging Local Plans at our Strategic Planning Breakfast Seminar on the 8 February.
This was a a key topic area noting the Local Plan consultations that have recently been released in the area:
- The Strategic and Local Plan Regulation 18 consultation (deadline of 12th March 2024)
- Cotswold Local Plan Update Regulation 18 consultation (deadline of 24th March 2024)
Key take home messages were:
- Providing a greater understanding to landowners/clients about the promotion of their land for development through the Local Plan process can be challenging, but with the recent emphasis from the Government to streamline and encourage Local Plan making, this has become increasingly important.
- The Local Plan consultations held for each stage are important, however, it is the representations submitted to the Regulation 19 consultation that Inspectors will review, and therefore it is at this stage that technical detail should be undertaken and submitted to support proposed allocations.
- Challenging a Local Plan can be only be undertaken once the Local Plan is adopted and up to 6 weeks following its adoption. It can then be a lengthy process if it is accepted that the challenge can go to the High Court.
A huge thank you to Hcrlaw.com for sponsoring and hosting the event, and a special thanks to key speakers Rosalind Andrews, Claire Bromley Daniel O'Neill and Hannah M. for enabling a thought-provoking discussion.
The Gloucestershire Young planners held their inaugural (hopefully soon to be annual) Christmas Quiz on 30th November at Bottle of Sauce in Cheltenham. It was a great start to the festive season with some fantastic Christmas jumpers on display.
Full of Pizza and wine, the competitive spirits set in, and it was a battle of local consultancies to see who could remember their GCSE geography lessons (anyone remember an Oxbow lake?) and more importantly testing their planning knowledge.
The event was sponsored jointly by Carrington West and Rappor, a big thank you to them for helping to create a fantastic evening.
In September, Gloucestershire Young Planners together with Wiltshire Young Planners took to the waters at Cotswold water park. The event began with a walking tour and talk at Lake 16 with speakers from SF Planning who will discuss recent planning appeals on site within the Waterpark. Afterwards they then took part in some water based activities. Not everyone managed to stay dry, but all enjoyed the opportunity.
In July, we met in the City of Gloucester for a regeneration walking tour on what may have been the month's only day of sunshine. Expertly guided by Adam Sheppard from the University of Gloucestershire, the walking tour explored projects at various spatial scales, each with its own approach, budget and complexity but all playing an important part in shifting and shaping the perception of the City. Thanks to Adam for sharing his passion for the City and to Zesta Planning who sponsored the event and post-walk lunch. Attendees were really positive about the event and we are considering another similar event in 2024
In June, the 'Ecology and BNG in practice' breakfast seminar welcomed key speakers, Aidan March (CSA Environmental), Ed Gant (Lichen Studio's) and Rosalind Andrews (Harrison Clark Rickerbys) to share key insights on the forthcoming mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain. The Q&A session delivered healthy provocation and insight into some of the challenges of delivery, including how the development management process must reconcile the scale of nature recovery required with the fuzzy geography of administrative boundaries. The speakers highlighted the importance of early consideration of BNG matters in the development process to ensure the most appropriate strategy is secured. Thank you to Harrison Clark Rickerbys for sponsoring the breakfast and hosting the event in their Cheltenham Offices. Feedback has been really positive and we are consdiering a similar event in Jan/Feb 2024.
