Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 1d

I worked at Coventry in the early 90s for the last city architect/planner Harry Noble. I’ve also worked for 20 years for the university of Warwick, whose campus was originally master planned by Arthur Ling in the mid 60s. They were indeed a thing, now at best a design champion or panel

Dave 'Him Over There' Proudlove 🏴‍☠️ @daveproudlove.bsky.social · 2d

City architects used to be a thing. They still should be

#MyBackPages

1 3

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 1d

So now we’re intimidating care workers. I thought we were just raising the flag to be patriotic 🤔, but it’s really just a rising tide of racism. Who do they think will care for our elderly if we scare everyone off, or worse, end up mass deporting them?

1 2 6

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 2d

Liking my quote:

“Not all of Green Belt is green

And very little grey belt is grey”

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 3d

If you need to get to sleep tonight, my soporific tones on this podcast talking about Green Belt should do the job.

Always great to listen to @catrionariddell.bsky.social though!

50 Shades of Planning @50shadesofplanning.bsky.social · 3d

Episode 150 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now.

The Amazing Technicolour Green Belt

🍎: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/5nQy...

2

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 3d

Includes my mention of @grindrod.bsky.social’s book Outskirts

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 3d

If you need to get to sleep tonight, my soporific tones on this podcast talking about Green Belt should do the job.

Always great to listen to @catrionariddell.bsky.social though!

50 Shades of Planning @50shadesofplanning.bsky.social · 3d

Episode 150 of 50 Shades of Planning is available now.

The Amazing Technicolour Green Belt

🍎: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

🎧: open.spotify.com/episode/5nQy...

1 2 3

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 4d

No, there’s every reason not to call Birmingham Airport after Ozzy. We’ve got a tram already and that’s enough.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

No reason not to name Birmingham Airport after Ozzy Osbourne, campaigner says

A fan says airports have been named after John Lennon and George Best, so why not Ozzy Osbourne?

www.bbc.co.uk

1

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 7d

Our minerals strategy involves waiting so long to make decisions that coal will become diamonds

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 7d

I’m sure Jenrick knows that the Balti was invented in Birmingham and therefore is British food, that we are rightly proud of.

7

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 7d

Well said the Bishop of Birmingham - we are a proudly diverse city and many communities work hard to unite, not divide.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 7d

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

2

Reposted by Mike Best

Omar Khan @omaromalleykhan.bsky.social · 7d

I know statistics are poorly understood and are misused. But facts matter

Between the 1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021 Census *every* ethnic group in the UK has become *less* geographically segregated and *all* groups, majority and minorities, are more likely to interact with people not like them

37 650 1.9K

Reposted by Mike Best

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 8d

If he wants truly integrated places, why doesn’t he start with letting poor people live alongside rich people. Or maybe his view is entirely about non-white people and not really about integration at all.

1 2

Reposted by Mike Best

Chris Grey @chrisgrey.bsky.social · 7d

This really needs to be said and understood. What makes it worse, if possible, is that it is not coming out of any genuine crisis or emergency. It is a deliberate attempt to whip up anger and grievance in order to capitalise upon it & in Jenrick's case purely to advance his leadership ambitions.

Tanja Bueltmann @tanjabueltmann.net · 8d

I say this with the bluntness it requires: they will get people murdered if this continues. This is not just populism anymore either: it’s completely unhinged and a deliberate choice that does endanger lives. I am not saying this lightly at all.

Screenshot of an Express article; it says: Robert Jenrick lists 30 'activist judges' he vows to axe in war on UK's open border

In a bold move, Robert Jenrick is set to unveil a controversial plan targeting what he calls 'activist' judges, at the Conservative Party conference.

8 97 180

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 8d

If he wants truly integrated places, why doesn’t he start with letting poor people live alongside rich people. Or maybe his view is entirely about non-white people and not really about integration at all.

1 2

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 14d

There’s a crisis in the acquisition of completed affordable homes

Which means there’s a crisis in the delivery of affordable homes

Which means there’s a false promise in promoting affordable homes

This needs swift action otherwise the government’s laudable affordable housing programme will fail

Home Builders Federation @homebuildersfed.bsky.social · 14d

Just how much impact is the lack of bids from Registered Providers having on housing delivery nationally?

With anecdotal reports from members that the issue shows little sign of abating, we undertook an FOI exercise to determine if any progress has been made.

Here’s what we found 👇

1 2

Reposted by Mike Best

Ruth Watson @ruthwatson.bsky.social · 15d

This.

JazzReads📚 @jazzreads.bsky.social · 16d

So exhausting..

11 23

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 15d

Proactive and often area-based planning, site assembly, remediation, public sector intervention (i.e. funding), creating markets where there are none, accepting affordable housing will be negligible - one site at a time. Look at places like Port Loop in Birmingham - 25 yrs in the making

1

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 15d

It’s brownfield Groundhog Day again.

I’ve been in this game almost 40 years and if any government had genuinely set out to develop every possible brownfield site “first” it would have dwarfed the cost of HS2 ten or twenty times over. It would bankrupt us as a country

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 16d

"There are other questions the CPRE does not ask. Chief among them: if there is so much brownfield land available in the middle of a housing crisis, then why on Earth aren’t we already building on it?" Everything continues to be awful so I've returned to my comfort zone.

No, brownfield land won’t solve the housing crisis

Brownfield building sounds too good to be true – and it is

www.newstatesman.com

1 3 16

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 17d

Don’t start me on ‘grey’. There’s @50shadesofplanning.bsky.social grey!

The report talks about potential for additional homes. It’s allocated for 10k in the local plan which is about to be adopted. It’s currently just a parkway station.

1

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 17d

As per the brief. It’s incredibly difficult to establish entirely new towns so maybe this is the right way. And Worcestershire Parkway (which I’m working on) is standalone too, so 4 out of 12.

1 3

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 17d

Maybe it’s time for

youtu.be/kZssy0IiyMA?...

A New Career in a New Town (2017 Remaster)

YouTube video by David Bowie - Topic

youtu.be

1

Reposted by Mike Best

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 17d

Plan to build 12 new towns in England to be unveiled at Labour conference

Housing secretary is set to announce initiative modelled on Clement Attlee’s postwar ‘housing boom’ The government is expected to announce on Sunday a programme to build 12 new towns across England in a bid to address the country’s housing crisis. The housing secretary, Steve Reed, will unveil the initiative at Labour’s annual conference as it begins in Liverpool. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, described the proposals as “national renewal in action”. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

17 10 51

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 17d

Add that to his other crimes against humanity

The White House Rose Garden

1 5

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 17d

That would be a nightmare anyway!

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 17d

OoO!

1

Mike Best @bestlaidplan.bsky.social · 18d

I attended a big local authority conference on Midland Main Line electrification on my first ever day at work in 1986. I retired this year before it has been delivered.

Remind me what makes Britain Great?

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 18d

Spending a decade watching a dedicated high speed railway between several of the UK's largest cities get repeatedly downgraded to what can now be described as an "electrified link" (currently being delivered on the existing line and delayed since the early 1990s) is radicalising.

3 13 46