Category: Planning

countryside, Planning

Ascot: Green Today, Gone Tomorrow?

BY LIZZIE PEAKE When planning policy spirals, what’s left of our green spaces? Labour’s planning reforms are the most radical in a generation. The revised National Planning Policy Framework, which came into force in August 2026, introduces “automatic planning permission” around station hubs and weakens the ability of local authorities to refuse development. The new “grey belt” designation opens up swathes of green belt land … Continue reading Ascot: Green Today, Gone Tomorrow?

countrysquiremagazine
Planning

Reduced to Turkish Barbers and Vape Shops

BY LIZ HODGKINSON When I was invited back to my hometown at the end of 2024 to give a talk about my latest book, A Mink Coat in St Neots, I could not believe what confronted me. I had not visited the place for perhaps 30 years, when it still retained some semblance of a small rural town. Now, it was completely unrecognisable from the town … Continue reading Reduced to Turkish Barbers and Vape Shops

countrysquiremagazine
countryside, Planning

White Paper, Whitewash & Hypocrisy

BY ED PEMBERTON Some seventy years ago this country had some of the worst slums anywhere, and cities devastated by aerial bombing.  There was a real need for new housing and it was met by something that used to be known as Planning. But Planning seems to be a dying art. Places such as Thornbury, a historic market town in South Gloucestershire, already overwhelmed by … Continue reading White Paper, Whitewash & Hypocrisy

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