News

It’s the topic on everyone’s mind; how bad will the outbreak become and how at risk am I? Panic buying is rife, and events are being cancelled or else are expected to be significantly quieter than their usual attendance. MIPIM, due to be held at the end of the month has already been postponed and attendees are scaling back their participation overall. Six Nations fans will have to wait to see France play Ireland, yet other events are soldiering on despite the concerns.

With land to build new homes at a premium and the resistance to building on greenbelt, the drive to find suitable brownfield sites continues. Increasingly, in many of our urban areas, industrial land is protected in planning policy. For example, the London Plan sets out a process that could allow residential development on Strategic Industrial Land (SIL) as long as there is no net loss of industrial floor space. However, it is often asked whether it is actually possible to effectively accommodate both land uses together and transport is often cited as the main issue.

The New London Plan, due for adoption early in 2020, are now already being applied by many authorities following the recent report from the Inspectorate. This includes significant changes to cycle parking standards, including that 5% of all long-stay provision should be accessible to adapted cycling. But what is this?

(Original Article published Kathimerini newspaper 18th July 2019) 

“Markides Associates have been commissioned by Strovolos Municipality to undertake a study of Tseriou Street despite the fact that a lot of work has already been undertaken by the relevant authorities on traffic analysis of the street - including movement, congestion, road safety and link-related issues of Tseriou Street.

The problem with new planning rights for home-owners

Last week’s announcement at the Conservative Party conference by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick, to allow two-storey rooftop extensions to detached apartment buildings and private houses under wider powers of permitted development, is significant in many ways.

What's Preventing Better Railway Stations?

Considering that a good transport interchange is one of the most obvious characteristics of an integrated transport system, this article seeks to ask the simple question: what is stopping us from achieving more good transport interchanges, particularly at major nodes, such as railway stations?  In other words, why is there a patchwork of interchanges and how can we do better?

 Is Now the Time to Future Proof New Development?

 Autonomous vehicles (AV’s) are a topic that is constantly in the media as the way to make driving more efficient and however we imagine it, I think we can all see a future with AV’s becoming the norm, whether that be ordered via an app from your phone to travel in our city centres or platooning in convoy along our motorways. However, most of our built environment still assumes someone is going to drive and park. Whilst ideologically this means that we will eventually be able to turn our car parking areas into parks, potentially reduce our road widths and expand our pedestrian and cycle areas, it needs to be done with a plan or else the true potential of these areas could be lost, resulting in them turning into unloved, uncared for spaces that bring little long-term benefit.