I need a Director - Development +Future Mobility.

Development Planning. Where are we? What do we need and how should it be done…

…and is anyone doing it?

The thoughts of an outspoken recruitment consultant.

I may be doing myself a disservice. Yeah, I’m a recruiter, but I’ve been working in transport planning for 22 years in this marred world of hiring. But two things happened recently and it got me thinking. I’m writing this for my audience, for future transport planners and for those who think they can make a difference.

Check out the picture above.

I live in one of those grey blocks (house). That green bit in the middle of this South Manchester suburban sprawl is my local golf course. I love it there. It’s a lovely 9-hole course which prevented me and my kids losing out minds in the pandemic. It is the course I walk over to drop my kids at school and it is home to the infamous 2nd hole, the hardest golf-in-hole. (Those who know, know).

A few years back, the members decided to do a few things but to cut a long story short, they wanted to stop all membership and sell the course to the highest bidder so they could all run off into the sunset laughing. New members meant they would dilute their takings and so money into the club ran dry and they assumed that the planning process would go ahead without too much trouble or protest.

They were wrong. It was denied and now it’s shutting because they have run it into the ground. In fact, they have just announced that by closing it, their appeal to the Secretary of State stands a better chance of success. This is maddening and wrong.

But whilst it is of course, morally unhinged and the members should be run out of town, I want to talk about why it was wrong from a planning perspective.

Around that course are numerous villages and towns which are part of the South Manchester urban makeup. Manchester Airport is 3 miles away. Manchester 8 miles away. Stockport 4 miles away.

Basically, it’s a busy ol’ place and there are bottle necks and traffic jams everywhere you look. And round there, people love their cars. It is quintessentially suburban, middle-class bliss.

And there is a big bit of green right in the middle of it.

The developers (I will leave their name out of it), thought that it was such a shoo-in that they thought they could pretend an urban park and a cycle path would be enough to counter the enormous loss of habitat and greenery. The impact to the transport network? Who cares? Sustainability was, and still is, an afterthought. Future mobility and how people might want to live, travel, work and play was completely ignored.

Where was the thought around EVs, micromobility, transport hubs, shared transport schemes, public transport? Did it occur to them that there was an opportunity to create something that was actually decent? That would do something for the betterment of the communities around this development and consider decarbonisation and net zero strategies (for future generations)? Clearly not.

They thought it was so nailed on, that all of this was just ignored. Poor, if you ask me and rightly it was rejected. Shit planning. Shit proposal. Well done councillors.

Then last week a client phoned me. A development planning consultancy involved with much bigger developments than the one above. We talked about their thoughts on development and how the planning process, when dealing with developers and Local Authorities had to take future mobility and Places into account. If a development is going to be successful (in every regard) then it has to consider what we may or may not be driving / riding / sharing; it has to consider the development as a Place and not just another development. How we travel, but also how the development can influence the transport decisions of those who live there. Can we look at behavioural science with regards to transport issues in development planning? Can that actually be a thing? They believe so.

Not only do they already do this, but they want to be the leaders in this. And so do their clients, who want to pay them to be advised on these things. It is win-win all round, and had this consultancy been advising on Gatley Golf Course, then things might be very different now.

If you are a transport planning leader and want to get involved in this sort of advisory then I am keen to speak with you. It is where all development needs to be headed, not just for the sake of hitting housing targets and getting rich from it.

Reach out. The good developers know what they are doing, and I am working with one of them right now.

Viva Gatley Golf Course!!