Seminar on the Localism Bill and NPPF

I attended an interesting seminar on Wednesday 21 September 2011,  on the new Localism Bill and National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), at the County Ground in Bristol, presented by Rob Duff of Pegasus Planning Group .  I have in the past read numerous Planning Policy Guidelines (PPG’s), but claim no expertise in the area.  Now we will all have to get to grips with a New Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), albeit in a new condensed format and with fewer prescriptions.  It appears that there are both threats and opportunities to our landscape. 

In brief, Rob’s excellent talk started off with a description of the Bill and new NPPF and what it will do.  It is a wide ranging reform of local government and quite radical, with changes to finance that re-introduce the link between local government finance and housing.   Funding will be become a material consideration in planning applications.

I am not going to repeat Rob’s talk and slide show – you’ll have to contact him for that, but a couple of fellow attendees and I discussed the Bill after the talk and as I understand it, (and I may be wrong – I have more reading to do) the threats to our landscape may be considered the presumption in favour of development with the aim of increasing housing provision and growth (there is a massive waiting list for council housing).  With less prescription and detailed guidance in the framework, it will be up to local government and communities to interpret the Framework.  It seems that so long as the local community are with you, one might be able to promote the development of one’s own assets.   Local communities may be swayed to permit development on greenbelt or agricultural land, leading to expansion and perhaps abandonment of urban centres.

Opportunities exist for local communities and councils to promote development and benefit from community infrastructure levy and new homes bonus – money that could be invested in local parks and infra-structure.  The Bill will also allow give local communities the right to buy local assets such as a pub or swimming pool.   The framework also gives top priority to promote sustainable economic growth, jobs and sustainable development (local plan led).   There is continued protection of AONB, National Parks, wildlife, heritage and biodiversity (in line with European legislation). 

I shall be following the debate in the papers and trade journals, to get a balanced view. In the meantime, I am now off to the Communities and Local Government web address below for the online documents: http://www.communities.gov.uk/planningandbuilding/planningsystem/planningpolicy/planningpolicyframework/.

Website Updates

Check out our recently updated website for news about current projects and recent awards.  You can now also download our regular postcards, showcasing AFLA projects. 

Knowle Park Primary School project

The foundation stage playground has been completed during the summer holidays and the children are now able to enjoy this magical new space.  For further information about this project, and many more, please visit our website http://www.afla.co.uk/ and check out our Education projects.  If you would like to receive the new postcard which is shortly being sent out, please email kim@afla.co.uk so that you can be added to the mailing list.  Enjoy!

AFLA staff

We are very pleased to announce that Shaun Lyons has joined AFLA as a year-out student.  He started with us on Monday 5 September as a Graduate Landscape Architect.  He has recently graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Landscape Architecture with Ecology and will be returning to Sheffield University in September 2012 to complete his Masters in Landscape Architecture.

In praise of blueberries

Blueberry or bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and I go back a long time, at least forty years.  Some of my earliest memories are of eating wild blueberries in the Tartra Mountains in the South of Poland.   Famished on a cold war diet (and we were only visiting mind), we gorged on the fresh fruits gleaned off the mountain side.  In my teenage years we found berries on Surrey heathland.  These were the wild species with fruit of just 5-10mm diameter.  It took ages to gather a bowl full.  In more recent years, our young children were fed blueberries whilst being carried up King Hereford’s Tump in the Black Mountains.  We also found blueberries all over the mountains of Assynt.  Looking for the next patch of berries lured the children up and then down mountains, in good humour.  Berries and clear mountain air now go hand in hand with the next generation.

Our first attempts at growing blueberries were in patio pots but with a North facing garden, the yields were low.  I think we celebrated just 10 berries in the first year.  These plants were the Highbush variety, derived from Vaccinum corymbosum, the American wild blueberry.  We moved house, purchased more bushes for the children to raid, though we have to stop them from picking unripe berries. 

We had long realised that plants in pots are a pain in the backside in terms of watering and feeding.  Our original plants looked thin and weedy, yielding few fruits.  So last autumn, I finally put into action our plan for a bed of super fruit outside the kitchen door.  A brick edge was laid to form a South facing bed about 1m wide by 5m in length.  There had been concrete slabs and granular stone over the area before, laid over the original topsoil.  This poor exhausted topsoil was skimmed off to a depth of 20cm or so and put to one side.  I then dug out 40cm depth of heavy clay subsoil, which went to the council recycling yard.  The topsoil was broken up and mixed with any organic matter I could get hold of:  from our own compost bins, old plant pots plus some locally made stuff.  I also added lots of horticultural grit, all to get the soil well drained and to try to modify the original clay nature of the soil (we’re on limestone).  The beds were left fallow over winter and planted this spring with our four blueberries: ‘Patriot’ x 2; ‘Rubel’; ’Duke’.

In winter I pruned out the oldest growth from the original two bushes and this has rejuvenated the plants splendidly. The blueberries in our garden are now providing dozens of fruit a day for eating.  The three varieties ripen at different times, which spread the yield through July and August.     In the long term we shall continue to added compost and grit and flower of sulphur to acidify the soil.

In my professional capacity, we use blueberries in planters on roof gardens and patios at elderly care homes and in primary schools.  The plants provide super-fruit ripening at the end of the summer term for children to pick plus there is glorious autumn colour.

New to the AFLA website

Our recent appointments have included numerous housing projects, information about these can now been found on our website.  Visit our website, http://www.afla.co.uk/, to see more!   If you would like to receive our regular postcard mailings showcasing exciting and interesting new projects, please email info@afla.co.uk.  We'd be delighted to include you in any future postcard and email mailings.

Ash trees - May 2011

We found a fabulous old ash tree at Batcombe Vale camp site, hollow in the centre and large enough to climb through, up into the crown of the tree.  Which is exactly what our kids did, inspired no doubt by ‘The Faraway Tree’. 

How old was the tree I wondered?  I am no tree expert, so a little on-line research found an old Ordnance Survey map dating to 1886.  There on the map was a line of trees, just where our specimen is.  So at least 125 years old but probably much older.   Companions to this tree can be spotted around the coombe where the camp site lies. 

The tree has been pollarded in the past – now the management appears to be crown reduction, to keep the weight of branches down.  With a hollow centre, large branches could break the tree apart.

The children and I loved climbing the tree.  Height gives a different perspective of the world and it is always fun to call out to people whilst hidden up a tree.  After the ash tree, the children then climbed some conifers and got really high off the ground.  They enjoyed the sensation of the tree swaying in the wind but didn’t like the scratchy branches so much.  They did report an empty nest though which reminds me of stories my dad told of tree climbing and egg collecting in the 1940’s.  According to his brother (my uncle) he had gibbon like qualities and would climb the highest trees, carving his name at the top as proof of the ascent.    His brother would climb the tree in disbelief, only to find AIF carved in a neat Roman script.

Which brings me to my last thought – is it ok to carve your name in bark?  I suppose if you own or  grew the tree it is.  But at other times?  Sometimes, it interesting to see old initials and hearts carved into bark (beech appear to be favourite canvasses) but raw lettering in a messy script much less romantic.