Month:

Finally, after much backwards and forwards among the campaigning groups, and with marvellous lawyers, the Judicial Review of Camden Council’s ‘fettering of its discretion’ is under way. the phrase is quaint but in effect it means that the proper democratic procedures were suppressed. Lots of detail at www.kxrlg.org.uk
18th February:
One of the Labour Councillors at Camden, Theo Blackwell, clearly one of those very committed to Argent’s scheme and proud of the S106 agreement, has written a quite strong attack on the campaign in his own blog which is here I posted a short personal comment and I hope he’ll permit it to appear. (Next day: he did.)

Massimo just gave me a copy of the last issue of The Land number 3 – journal of TLIO This Land is Ours. It contains some fine trenchant material on Barker, well-reasoned and viewing it quite explicitly as part of a strong neo-liberal push. The objections are mainly to the anti-environmental and anti-democratic dimensions of her proposals. I am trying to find if there is an online version but in the mean time you can order it by sending £2 for one issue or £10 for three to TLIO at The Potato Store, Flaxdrayton Farm, South Petherton, Somerset TA13 5LR.

Incidentally there is now stuff on the pnuk web site…… www.pnuk.org.uk

[Has new bits pasted in below, as well as comments – to Feb 6 2007]
Interesting evening 25 January lecturing at Milton Keynes Gallery www.mk-g.org as the first speaker in their series of 4 talks entitled ‘What is Contemporary Architecture?’, presented in association with their new Project Space exploring art, architecture and the urban environment. I said my piece to a good-sized audience – pulled by this publicity blurb:
In his first job he worked on the original master plan for Milton Keynes and has since then watched the development of the town which, in his opinion, has led to a much less sustainable place than could (and should) have emerged. He argues that it is not too late and that a number of policy changes could turn the story round, leading to better bus services, stronger local shopping, more housing diversity and an end to getting lost on the grid.
Lots of strong resistance – mostly from men my age, some of whom I learned were the people I was attacking – and some support, much but not all, from women. Some very open-minded discussion too.

Continue reading “What went wrong at Milton Keynes?”