GCHQ for planners

The times they are a’changing, in planning as in world security.  The future of the Five Eyes Intelligence system has been in the news and it got me thinking: what’s the planner’s equivalent?

There’s a clear and present danger in being too reliant on any one big player, so here’s 5 sources to spread your ‘planning intelligence’:
    1. excellent news and comment on planning by well-known barristers
    2. spatial information on a range of freely accessible maps
    3. the planning inspectorate’s webinars, advice and statistics
    4. housing needs and delivery essential facts & figures
    5. fresh ideas coming from interviews with non-planners

All 5 are represented on our new(ish) Resources page. Ok, it might not quite be GCHQ, but it does provide a wide range of information on planning from many sources.

Fresh ideas about collaboration and planning

A great example of #5 above was in the last episode of ‘Have We Got Planning News For You’, which featured an interview with the world-renowned architect Niall McLaughlin. Bizarrely, his chosen theme was the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney, pictured below:Photo by Stevekeiretsu

This man-made structure is not a building, but it’s nevertheless a construction which has been carefully planned and developed with great effort by the people of the day. Archaeologists have discovered evidence each individual stone was locally quarried by their respective community and brought to the circle. Stones from many different places were carefully arranged in a shared effort by many different communities.

The Ring of Brodgar is inspiring as a physical representation of collaborative effort. Was it the Stone Age equivalent of the Five Eyes Intelligence network? Maybe we planners need something similar, by sharing information and perspectives.  That’s the whole point of Appeal Finder’s Resources page.

Do let me know if there are more resources we can all share - email Helen at info@appealfinder.co.uk. Thanks!