East Side strategy
Sneinton Wholesale Market
A453-M1 link
The Historic Environment - Government paper
Forum on the Nottinghamshire Heritage
Planning: delivering a fundamental change - Government
Green paper
150th Anniversary of opening of the Arboretum
Ken Brand's Diamond Jubilee
Members of the Environment Committee have continued their vigilance on your behalf concerning our local environment and all the factors likely to affect it, both good and potentially not so good.
As always, members have kept a careful eye on planning and development issues and many of us have been involved in consultation meetings regarding issues, which have particular local relevance and others which are more far-reaching regionally and nationally.
Local initiatives upon which we have been consulted include the East Side Strategy, which involves consideration of the regeneration, future use and development of the eastern border of the City Centre, running from the top of Huntingdon Street down to Sneinton Market. The feeling is that this is an area which greatly needs regenerating, both from the point of the expansion of the prosperous City Centre and from the point of view of the present users and residents of the area. Clearly, this is a more than acceptable aim, but the plans must, we feel, have respect for the existing character and streetscape, in particular the area around Sneinton Market and the Victoria Baths: the intrinsic value of many of the early twentieth-century buildings along Lower Parliament Street and elsewhere in the East Side needs to be acknowledged and respected.
The 'top end' - the Huntingdon Street/Mansfield Road triangle of nineteenth-century houses, currently surrounded by scaffolding - may be in danger of being lost or replaced by new build, and Huntingdon Street itself could become part of the new through route to take traffic away from the City Centre. Obviously the Committee is watching these proposals carefully.
At the 'bottom end', there is some concern about the future of the former Sneinton Wholesale Market buildings, which again are interesting and attractive examples of commercial architecture of the last century: the Committee has got its ear to the ground on this issue, too. One corner of the East Side, which we feel could definitely do with a facelift as one of the city's eastern gateways is the bottom end of Carlton Road, and we shall press for positive planning for this area to be the subject of specific attention. All in all, the East Side Strategy is a much-needed initiative and can bring new life and prosperity to an area which has previously been over-shadowed by its West Side neighbour. In all this, however, the community and the character of the area must never be forgotten or ignored.
In a more city-wide, county and regional framework, the Society has been consulted regarding both the Midland Station Masterplan, which involves the development of the Station as a major transport centre, possibly with a hotel and other building developments (but which does not involve the loss of the existing building), and the new proposals for the M1-A453 link to the city. This latter multi-modal study, in which the needs of commercial, public and private transport have been considered, was the subject of the recent forum attended by a Committee member. At the time of writing, it seems that a route, which would involve the dualling of the A453 from the M1 and creating a by-pass around the Clifton Estate is the most favoured of three suggestions. The pros and cons of this include the fact that the route would not involve the disruption of residents on Clifton Lane, but would encroach on green-belt land. Clearly, there is no perfect solution to the problem of this access route, but it is also obvious that the city needs a swift and safe access route, not only for the hundreds of private commuters and visitors to the city, but also for efficient public transport services and commercial access to help ensure the economic health of the city.
Looking at still wider issues, Committee members have been involved in discussions and information sessions related to national issues: the Government paper The Historic Environment: a Force for our Future, and the Government Planning Green Paper Planning: delivering a fundamental change.
The former included many points that could prove helpful to all of us who are involved or interested in the welfare of our historic environments. Particular points of interest included the following:
local authorities encouraged to appoint 'champions for the historic environment*
English Heritage to produce a report on the state of the historic environment in 2002
possible introduction of annual Historic Environment Week
increasing importance attached to preventative maintenance on historic buildings
Government commitment to 'the maintenance of an effective framework of statutory protection for all elements of the historic environment'.
These points will obviously be helpful to the aims of the recently convened forum on the Nottinghamshire Heritage, where representatives of the public, private and voluntary sectors met to discuss how best to promote and protect the county's heritage. Among aspects discussed were conservation; the possibilities and inhibitors created for developers wishing to work within the heritage structure; the need and desirability of providing educational opportunities regarding the environment both within schools and colleges and for a wider public audience; and the most effective ways of promoting the county's heritage for personal leisure interest, both for local inhabitants and for visitors.
The Planning Green Paper is perhaps not to be quite so unequivocally welcomed, although it does have features which can be welcomed by most of those involved at any level in the planning process. The following are a few of the issues that have most concerned the Environment Committee at recent meetings:
a new system of Local Development Frameworks to replace the Local, Structure and Unitary Development Plans; this would seem to reduce county influence in favour of regional planning and very localised plans, and may not reflect local knowledge and local needs
a speeding-up of the planning process, particularly to help businesses in moving along more readily
more pre-planning consultation with communities (though we feel that there must be objective input from the Local Authority to prevent any risk of, albeit unintentional, indoctrination by interested parties). We feel that this proposal may be difficult to reconcile with the 'speeding-up' proposals
the creation of 'business zones' where planning permission for certain developments would not be required: this, we feel, could create opportunities for unacceptable or inappropriate developments and could set unfortunate precedents.
While the Society accepts that the present Planning system has become very bureaucratic and unnecessarily slow and ponderous, the feeling is that the structure remains sound and that it is the practice, which needs to be overhauled and sharpened up. We also consider that local structures involving counties have valuable local knowledge and that while regional bodies are valuable in relating the area to the wider view of region and country, county-specific skills and knowledge should still play a significant part in the overall planning process. The Society has responded in these terms and this response, together with those of all other interested parties, will be taken into consideration before the White Paper stage.
On a lighter note, I hope that everyone has remembered that this May we shall celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Arboretum. It is hoped to mark this with a special day of events and activities in the Arboretum organised by the City on Sunday 12 May, so keep an eye open for the publicity. It should also provide an opportunity to see how the restoration work is getting on, and possibly to see 'our' benches in situ.
While we are talking about celebrations, I feel that we must mention the fact that this is Ken Brand's Diamond Jubilee - in Newsletter terms. At a recent Society Executive Committee meeting it was suggested that Ken should have our Mark of the Month for having edited 60 Newsletters, and I'm sure that all of us, readers and contributors alike, would agree with that. Thank you, Ken, for all the hard work, persistence, patience and inspiration which you put into every issue.
Hilary Silvester
Vice Chair/Environment Secretary
March 2002
*Members might have seen a report in the Evening Post on the appointment of Councillor Malcolm Wood as Nottingham's "champion for the historic environment." He indicated he would enlist the help of the Civic Society. Your Society has written to assure him of our help.
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