{"id":3167,"date":"2009-11-17T20:26:09","date_gmt":"2009-11-17T20:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2015-07-28T20:30:50","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T19:30:50","slug":"comment-on-the-landscape-aspects-of-the-mayors-london-plan-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/comment-on-the-landscape-aspects-of-the-mayors-london-plan-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Comment on the landscape aspects of the Mayor&#8217;s London Plan 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3170\" style=\"width: 785px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/17\/comment-on-the-landscape-aspects-of-the-mayors-london-plan-2009\/fullscreen-capture-17112009-192417\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3170\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3170\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3170\" title=\"2009-10-mayor-london-plan\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fullscreen-capture-17112009-192417.jpg\" alt=\"Thames Area Strategy zones from the 2009-10 Mayor's London Plan\" width=\"775\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fullscreen-capture-17112009-192417.jpg 775w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fullscreen-capture-17112009-192417-300x171.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fullscreen-capture-17112009-192417-768x438.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/fullscreen-capture-17112009-192417-624x356.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 775px) 100vw, 775px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3170\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thames Area Strategy zones from the 2009-10 Mayor&#8217;s London Plan<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You can <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london.gov.uk\/shaping-london\/london-plan\/docs\/london-plan.pdf\">download the .pdf<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london.gov.uk\/shaping-london\/london-plan\/your-say\/\">comment the draft of Mayor Boris Johnson&#8217;s London Plan 2009<\/a>.\u00a0 The most interesting chapters, for me, are Chapter 6 on <em>Transport <\/em>and\u00a0 Chapter 7 on <em>London&#8217;s Living Spaces and Places<\/em>. The Gardenvisit website has<a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/landscape_architecture\/london_landscape_architecture\/landscape_planning_pos_public_open_space\"> a historical analysis of previous Open Space Plans for London<\/a> and I have a special interest in Boris&#8217;s plan because he is the only politician I have ever voted for who has been elected. Briefly, my comments on the 2009 draft of the London Plan are as follows.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The section on <strong>Cycling <\/strong>is very welcome &#8211; and Boris won my vote by supporting this cause. I hope I live\u00a0 long enough to ride into the capital on a Cycle Super Highway, but since Ken Livingstone promised something similar when he was first elected I am maintaining a healthy skepticism. The policy that &#8216;to bring about a significant increase in cycling in London, so that it accounts for at least 5 per cent of modal share by 2026&#8217; is insufficiently ambitious. &#8216;In 2003 fully 36% cycled to workplaces in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walkandbikeforlife.org\/Articles\/Copenhagen%20City%20Of%20Cyclists.pdf\">Copenhagen<\/a> whereas only 27% drove to work&#8217;.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Blue Ribbon Strategy<\/strong>, also introduced by Livingstone, is very wise and very welcome. But it needs some tough political muscle behind it.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Walking Strategy<\/strong>, based on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/landscape_architecture\/london_landscape_architecture\/landscape_planning_pos_public_open_space\/towards_a_green_strategy_for_london\">1992 Green Strategy for London<\/a>, is supported by Boris as it was by Ken, with thanks to them both.<\/li>\n<li>The plan for a <strong>Hierarchy of Open Space<\/strong> in London is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/landscape_architecture\/london_landscape_architecture\/landscape_planning_pos_public_open_space\/draft_greater_london_development_plan_gldp\">as irrelevant today as when it was first advanced by the GLC in 1969<\/a>. I can only think that it survives because there is standard textbook a Town and Country Planning which supports this kind of absurdity.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land<\/strong> ideas are supported for the very good reason that there would be a public outcry if they were not supported. The fact that they have no obvious affect on planning decisions scarcely matters.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Biodiversity Strategy<\/strong> is welcome. But there should also be a strategy for the diversification of open space types. London has far too much generalized public open space and not nearly enough specialized public open space. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/02\/urban-parks-pos-and-landscape-architecture\/\">blog comment on Urban parks, POS and landscape architecture<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The introduction of <strong>Thames Policy Areas<\/strong>, based on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thames-landscape-strategy.org.uk\/\">Thames landscape strategy<\/a>, is welcome but does not go far enough. The Thames needs a Scenic Quality Appraisal and then zoning to show (1) zones where there should be a presumption in favour of conserving the existing character (2) zones where there should be a presumption in favour of changing the existing character &#8211; because the scenic quality is low. See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/10\/is-the-millennium-london-eye-a-good-thing-or-a-bad-thing\/\">blog comment on the Millennium London Eye.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.landscapearchitecture.org.uk\/all-london-green-grid\/\">All London Green Grid <\/a>became a supplement to the plan in 2011-2012<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>CONCLUSIONS ON THE LANDSCAPE SECTIONS OF THE MAYOR&#8217;S LONDON PLAN<\/h3>\n<p>1) The 2009 London Plan is qualitatively inferior to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/landscape_architecture\/london_landscape_architecture\/landscape_planning_pos_public_open_space\/1943-44_abercrombie_plan\">1943 Open Space Chapter of the Abercrombie Plan<\/a> for London. The latter is obsolete in most respects but it had the great merit of taking a simple, clear and idealistic view of the problems and the opportunities. Abercrombie was a member of the Institute of Landscape Architects and had a deep understanding of the subject.<\/p>\n<p>2) If the Greater London Authority is unable to afford the cost of expert landscape consultants, I modestly point them to the\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/landscape_architecture\/london_landscape_architecture\/landscape_planning_pos_public_open_space\/towards_a_green_strategy_for_london_turner\">Green Strategy<\/a> I prepared for the London Planning Advisory Committee in 1992. The Mayor&#8217;s London Plan is over halfway to adopting the principle of a series of overlapping green networks (for Rivers, Walks, Cycling, and Habitats). These layers should now be INTEGRATED\u00a0 on a Londonwide basis.<\/p>\n<p>3) Town planners should not have responsibility for landscape and open space planning unless they also hold professional qualifications in landscape architecture. I do not know who wrote the landscape sections of the 2009 Draft but they do not read like the work of imaginative, well-educated and influential landscape planners.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; You can download the .pdf and comment the draft of Mayor Boris Johnson&#8217;s London Plan 2009.\u00a0 The most interesting chapters, for me, are Chapter 6 on Transport and\u00a0 Chapter 7 on London&#8217;s Living Spaces and Places. The Gardenvisit website has a historical analysis of previous Open Space Plans for London [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,19,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10778,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions\/10778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardenvisit.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}