Category Archives: Sector NewsBlog

The Royal Town Planning Institute(RTPI) has welcomed the findings of the report published by the National Audit Office(NAO), Planning for New Homes, which flagged up many critical issues, includes highlighting the fall in spending by local authorities on planning functions … Continue reading →

Glasgow City council may move its office buildings from city centre to ‘key regeneration areas’ in order to make best use of its land estate, as it is thought the move would allow effective delivery of council services and also … Continue reading →

Friends of Highgate Cemetery called a recent attack on Karl Marx’s London grave a ‘particularly inarticulate form of political comment’.

Martin Shapland, Policy Manager to The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) has highlighted how the pressure is on to protect the construction industry from Brexit, in a piece reproduced by Designing Buildings Wiki (DBW), host platform for the IHBC’s own … Continue reading →

Local Government News magazine has relaunched The Street Design Awards, celebrating innovation and best practice in street design schemes across the UK, with a deadline for submissions of 28 February 2019.

The most contentious planning cases could be decided up to 5 months faster, and some in half the time, giving certainty to communities about future developments, argues a major review led by Chair of Atom Bank, Bridget Rosewell CBE. image: … Continue reading →

Each year millions of visitors walk through the cobbled streets of Prague’s Old Town – without realising, most likely, that many of the stones below their feet have been looted from what was meant to be sacred ground. The BBC’s … Continue reading →

Bath Preservation Trust (BPT) has launched a crowdfunding campaign to establish a ‘legal fighting fund’ to enable it challenge poor or irrational planning decisions in Bath as and when they occur.

The Scottish Government has published an analysis report on the Culture Strategy for Scotland. 

Council spending on cultural resources such as museums, libraries, and the arts has been reduced by almost £400m over the last eight years of austerity, new research by the County Councils Network (CCN) has revealed.

Ashford Borough Council’s Cabinet has approved the introduction of an undergraduate work placement and bursary scheme.

Following a year of consultation and development by the National Heritage Science Forum (NHSF), a new strategic framework for heritage science in the UK UK 2018 – 2023 was launched at an event at the Tower of London in 2018.

In 1980, a group of preservationists won permission to renovate the lighthouse and take over its maintenance, while the local inn now pays for the upkeep of the lighthouse and other structures, and recently the current operators, Che Rodgers and … Continue reading →

The BBC has highlighted how more than 100 years ago acoustic mirrors along the coast of England were built with the intention of using them to detect the sound of approaching German zeppelins, while their development continued until the mid-1930s … Continue reading →

Two men will have to pay more than £20,000 after pleading guilty to demolishing a Grade II (GII) listed building in Chorley, Holt Farm, without permission, following a successful prosecution by Chorley Council in which the judge highlighted the ‘public … Continue reading →

The Consultation Institute has updated on how planning bodies have submitted strong objections to government proposals to further relax permitted development (PD) rights – including changes to allow commercial buildings to be demolished and redeveloped as housing – with the … Continue reading →

The Scottish Government has issued guidance for public bodies covering the purchase of products or services where negative heritage impacts may be of concern, or where there are opportunities to enhance heritage.

Many manufacturers looking to export to the EU may be still in limbo with the government unable to say if British standards would be recognised in the event of a no-deal Brexit, but contractors, architects and product manufacturers can breathe … Continue reading →

The Council of the European Union has agreed its position (partial general approach) on the regulation establishing the Creative Europe programme for 2021-2027.

A man was caught ‘attacking the heritage’ of Norwich by stripping £4,000 of lead from the roof of a city church.

A collaboration between researchers at the University of Stirling, the University of Sheffield and mySociety (a not-for-profit social enterprise) has produced a report on an attempt to understand spatial patterns of citizen reporting on local issues though mySociety’s FixMyStreet app … Continue reading →

Established in 1919, in the wake of World War One, Germany’s Bauhaus art school brought a radical new approach to design and aesthetics which would eventually go on to help inform modernist architecture around the world, and in its centenary … Continue reading →

Communities across England have been invited to bid for up to £50,000 to help business into local areas. image: Open Government Licence v3.0

The BBC has reported on how the A-listed, modernist St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross has been described as an ‘albatross around our neck’ by the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), as it said it could not even give it away.

The 1,000ft (305m)-high Tulip tower which has been proposed for London fails to comply with planning guidelines, the mayor has said.