Case Studies + Good Practice

Strategic infrastructure frameworks: helping transport to support the growth agenda

Ministers want local authorities and the business community to work together to deliver transport investments that foster economic growth. Andrew Forster, Local Transport Today, spoke to Martin Tugwell, Oxfordshire’s deputy director for growth and infrastructure, about the county’s plan for a Strategic Infrastructure Framework to prioritise investments

Smart funding models and partnership working in challenging economic times: partnership building to unlock benefits

In terms of transport, says Alexander Jan, Head of Transport, Transaction Advice, Arup, transport issues are perceived by many business leaders as a key barrier to growth. Should we be looking at more modest, incremental, value-engineered projects because they are more viable in the current climate?

Joined up design: strategic guidance across local authority borders and multiple town centres in North Staffordshire

Localism means starting from the place, rather than from administrative boundaries. The new joint Urban Design Guidance for Newcastle under Lyme Borough Council and Stoke-on-Trent City Council shows how a strategic urban design approach and cross-boundary working help realise the potential for local distinctiveness. By Jane Dann and Katje Stille

Dimensions of the sustainble city: the value of compact, higher density and mixed use urban forms

Are more compact, higher density and mixed use urban forms more environmentally sound, more efficient for transport, more economically viable and more socially beneficial?

Following five years of detailed analysis across five UK cities, the CityForm consortium came up with rather surprising insights. Professor Mike Jenks of the CityForm consortium explains its findings

Learning to love shared space: facilitating civility

Five years ago in Ashford, Kent, an innovative public realm and traffic management scheme was set in motion. In late summer 2010, as the scheme ‘beds down’, lead designer Whitelaw Turkington revisits the project to celebrate successes and consider the practical lessons learned. By Juliana O’Rourke

A world class waterfront: design quality in public space

By Rosey Paul

In 2008, Liverpool celebrated its year as European Capital of Culture. Public waterfronts, squares and streets transformed by quality design have helped to attract £1.6 billion of visitor spend to a now thriving city with international appeal

Delivering a carbon neutral community, with amenities managed by a Community Development Trust

By Marcus Adams, Urban Initiatives

Graylingwell Park will be the UK’s largest carbon neutral development, located on the site of a former hospital near Chichester. Set within 85 acres of parkland grounds, it will provide around 750 new and converted homes along with a range of new community amenities, managed by a Community Development Trust.

Demystifying design appraisal: helping stakeholders to make better-informed and more thoughtful design decisions

By Rob Cowan

A new emphasis on localism suggests that a wider range of people will become actively involved in decisions about development, with direct impact on design quality. The Qualityreviewer toolkit can help stakeholders to make better-informed and more thoughtful design decisions. By Rob Cowan

Creative and critical: beyond boundaries in Bristol

By John Richfield

John Richfield is a traffic engineer with Bristol City Council

A great opportunity and the will to go beyond custom, practice and precedent – a new shared space scheme in Bristol shows that creative planning and effective risk management can result in the making of a popular and accessible public space.

Whilst working on traffic management plans for the Cabot Circus area in Bristol, my colleagues and I realised that we had the potential to turn a complex, messy area of small service roads, clogged with through traffic, from a challenge into a great opportunity: the creation of an attractive new public space, park and walking and cycling routes. Tucked in behind a hotel development close to the new Cabot Circus retail complex in Bristol city centre, the historic, but little-used, St Matthias park had been bisected in Victorian times by St Matthias Park Road, and subsequently cut off from the inner city by the post-war inner circuit road.

Natural play: adventures in landscape

A community adventure playground set within an historic park is providing space for natural play in an adventurous, exciting and imaginative setting
An innovative new play space in Devonport, Plymouth, is helping to inject a new lease of life into an attractive but once under-used historic city park. Following a detailed consultation process with local stakeholders, the landscape team from Atkins has created a natural play area that is attracting families and inspiring young people from across the city.
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