The UPG are holding a free Climate Change and the Urban Agenda event at Biocity, Pennyfoot Street, Nottingham on January 19th 2010.
The event will play host to some of the region’s leading experts on Climate Change and showcase examples of the regions’ best practice in the changing climate. The event will provide a platform for discussion and learning surrounding climate change and urban spatial planning, whilst looking at how cities can grow under the consideration of its varying impacts, codes and standards.
Speakers include: Helen Chadwick and Paul Bland from EMRA and Professor Richatrd Dawson from Newcastle University not including the best practice examples from accross the region.
The event will run from 9:30- 12:50 with a networking lunch to enhance existing networks to follow. For more information and to register please contact Deborah Booth on deborah@regenerationem.co.uk
CABE release new document entitled ‘Who should build our homes?’
With the current downturn in the housing market the debate concerning who should be building our homes has come up again. Should we be looking at multiple housing suppliers to be constructing our homes hoping that this will keep prices low but up quality or should we be looking towards new models of home creation?
Who should build our homes? presents six essays by experts across the sector offering their own ideas and challenges to the ‘norm’.
Click here to go to Who should build our homes?
Released by (primarily) the Audit Commission, the first results of Comprehensive Area Assessment. Here you can see how local public services are performing in England, if they provide value for money and where they could improve. There are red and green flags used - red indicating that the authorities in that area need to improve something, green that they are excelling at something and that this practice could be shared.
See here
I was pleased to represent Opun at the recent Building for Life Awards in London.
Whilst no schemes from the East Midlands received an award – it provided a useful benchmark to the level and quality of design that the East Midlands region should aspire to.
For more information on the award winning schemes visit: http://www.buildingforlife.org/awards
JC
As ever, packed full of the latest news and projects from Sustainable Centres of Excellence (including REM) from around the country:
Opun were pleased to deliver a Building for Life training day at the Jury’s Inn in Nottingham on Thursday 19 November.
Building for Life is a set of 20 questions that all new housing developments should seek to answer to deliver great places to live, and is the national standard for well designed homes and neighbourhoods.
The training was attended by 43 Planning and Design Officers from Local Authorities across the East Midlands. Following the successful completion of an assessment exercise the delegates will become accredited Building for Life Assessors .
Delegates busy undertaking a mock Building for Life assessment
In conjunction with CABE, Opun have now ensured that almost all of the authorities within the East Midlands have taken up the offer of free training. Additionally we are pleased to report that some authorities have already recognised the value of the assessment to their decision-making, and Annual Monitoring Report recording, and have sought to invest further in additional trained assessors for their authorities.
As an acreddited BfL assessor myself, I wish all those who attended training the best of luck in their assessment work that is the next step to full accreditation. I also look forward to building working relationships with the network of assessors in the East Midlands region and to further developing the support role that Opun is uniquely placed to provide.
For more information on Building for Life visit www.buildingforlife.org or contact James Carpenter, Design Support Services Manager at Opun.
JC
Regeneration East Midlands were pleased to welcome Martin Willey, the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute to its offices on Tuesday 17 November.
Martin took the opportunity to meet with REM staff, and to hold discussions with James Carpenter and Dharmista Patel about their roles as Chartered Town Planners working within the Design Team at Opun. Martin joined key staff from REM and members of the Board for a roundtable discussion about the role of REM assisting the built environment and planning sector.
The President was particularly keen to hear of Opun’s work on Regional Design Review and the Building for Life programme; applauding the teams efforts to raise design quality and skills in the East Midlands he stated that “its about time that we stopped allowing poor design to be approved and built under the guise of the current recession” .
As the Manager of the Design Support Service at Opun I am keen to carry this message forward, and look forward to holding discussions with local authorities accross the region as to how best Opun can support them in delivering this ambition.
JC
DECC have spotted some errors in the CO2 data published in September for use with NI186. The dataset has now been revised with noticeable effects only on High Peak, Melton and South Holland, causing a small change in the overall emissions figure for the region.
DECC have issued a brief overview of the revisions and the reasons behind them.The revised dataset is here.
For an overview and easy explainer of the various CO2 statistics available, check our previous blog post.
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment is to launch a public debate on connecting green space within our urban areas. On November 11th 2009 CABE are due to launch a public debate into shifting funding and skills from grey to green infrastructure within urban centres.
The project is to draw attention to the available green infrastructure but to note that it only has real value when it is connected and networked properly. To do this we need the right people with the right skills managing the landscapes of our towns and cities.
CABE stated “This green infrastructure is a powerful weapon in the fight for stronger communities, healthier lives and a sustainable future.”
The launch is in London from 5.30 – 8pm on 11 November. If you would like to attend, please contact Nicola Gillam on 020 7070 6757 or email ngillam@cabe.org.uk.
Opun saw a successful start to the week by hosting a busy Building For Life Awareness Raising event on Monday 19th October. The event was held in both Lincoln and Derby and aimed to get people interested and motivated in becoming a Building For Life Assessor.
The East Midlands has been falling behind as a region with hardly any assessors within local authories when compared to the rest of the country. Working with CABE, Opun is striving to change that, targeting two accredited assessors per local authority by Christmas.
The Training day is due to take place on November 19th in Nottingham, venue tbc. If you would like any more information on Building for Life, please visit the website www.buildingforlife.org and if you would like to be involved in becoming an accredited assessor then please contact James Carpenter at Opun, REM on 0115 9792333 or jc@regenerationem.co.uk
Warren Pearce
Hazel Mitchell
Nicola Underdown
Evan Rees
James Kirkpatrick
Melissa Riches
Janet Currie
ndofficer
Lindsay Durham
Chris Hunt
James Carpenter
Jonny Gutteridge
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