Because of course these four wickets are directly attributable to me waking up for this session #ashes

Cricket wow #ashes

They’re fucked now #ashes

Oh hope you sweet mistress #ashes

Ahh ok we’re fucked now. #ashes

Only managed a 0520 wake up….and yeah this is such an unsurprising position…. #ashes

It’s an omen… #ashes #iftheashescantgetmeblueskyingnothingwill

I was looking at some English placenames recently and thought they all sounded made up, and thought it would be fun to make a thing that makes up English place names — so that's exactly what I did. Introducing: A place in England places.projects.alextorrance.co.uk

Kicking off UKREiiF with @tpximpact.com - talking across industry and government about the new generation of new towns

Exciting being at the second ever hackathon on planning 😉 #plantech @euanmills.bsky.social - few more people here this time…

(New) New Towns are pure nerdgasm for me. Learning from my Thames Gateway days and getting excited about the potential opportunities for focusing cross-gov digital activity on a few places.Also a nice way to get people excited about the long term vision.some words... www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

(New) New Towns are pure nerdgasm for me. Learning from my Thames Gateway days and getting excited about the potential opportunities for focusing cross-gov digital activity on a few places.Also a nice way to get people excited about the long term vision.some words... www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Great to see the work of the planning data team at MHCLG and the incubator for ai getting coverage www.gov.uk/government/n... worth noting that this kind of work is only possible with well designed data standards and human focused content-designed guidance to guide the ai.

I honestly just thought that there was a fight going on in my garden - then realised neighbours must be Utd fans 😂

Drove through Blackwall tunnel for the first time post charging and my life why is the TfL website user experience so goddam directgov level of shite.

I wonder/worry that this will target the wrong parts of the civil service www.theguardian.com/technology/2... the policy making class _should_ be the most at risk…

Roy Ayers and James Taylor Quartet - Southport Weekender 98 - still in my top 3 gigs of all time. youtu.be/3MAUFNX6ZxQ?... RIP Roy 🎼

Enjoy my newest listed building blog… yes really! #MHCLG #Planning mhclgdigital.blog.gov.uk/2025/02/20/b...

Had great fun talking planning, evidence and mysteries (and numbers) with @mikerose.co.uk and Christopher Argent open.spotify.com/episode/6yYr...

La ritournelle. Still the best tune ever

The law society taking about AI in property whilst charging conveyancers to download a pdf TA6 😂🫠 communities.lawsociety.org.uk/property-com...

More positive pro-growth noises today in terms of cracking down on spurious JR but still dealing with the ‘shit out’ problem. Our antiquated system of opaque planning processes and rules provides far too many footholds for ‘spurious’ challenges.

Yup it’s AI hype week so why not join in. I have fears but also some optimisim that it _could_ help level the playing field - between experts and citizens and councils and planning consultants - but it needs government to fix the data and make rules clearer www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1902...

Yup it’s AI hype week so why not join in. I have fears but also some optimisim that it _could_ help level the playing field - between experts and citizens and councils and planning consultants - but it needs government to fix the data and make rules clearer www.planningresource.co.uk/article/1902...

Looking at the process (#notaservice) to register a public right of way with a local council (www.oss.org.uk/need-to-know...) it’s no wonder there is an unmanageable backlog.

Proper balling. #age #christmas #gavandstacey

Since the HS2 bat tunnel is back in the news (turns out it may actually kill the bats), time for one more story. Which came first – HS2 or the bats?🚄🦇🧵

Coterminosity and alignment bros, we are so back.

Started my career in a district council some 24 years ago. Even then they felt like a strange relic. I get the feeling that unitaries reduce democratic connection but districts have so few powers now, what are you connecting with?

Hope everyone is safe and all that but thanks #stormdarragh for the lie in #kidsfootballoff

Bloody loved Prescott. We’ll never see his like again. Only non-traditional route into politics now is grifting (left and right). Listening to this in his memory RIP open.spotify.com/track/6bDC6R...

It’s Sunday morning so as per, I’m taking son to football in the wilds of Bromley. There are SO MANY football pitches in this borough, often next to some kind of light industry 🧵

Right it’s crack-pipe-o-clock. What a week. Lots of great news but also SO MUCH gnarly stuff to work through. Going to celebrate by going IKEA to get a new toilet seat 🤘

How do we accelerate change? Lots of pockets of good practice so how do we design the fora or institutions to get people talking, sharing experience, designing patterns together…

There are no shining stars or leaders in the housing sector, which might be ok as people are being honest about their maturity, which then leads to more collaboration

Sheldon Ferguson from MHCLG talking about how to build the community of councils, housing associations and suppliers to work together to standardise the right data that makes life easier for everyone in the system

Ami Davies from Magna Housing talking about a (more) optimistic vision for housing providers - understanding customer more deeply, exploring opportunities for innovation with Building Information Models and AI, mapping services (with @tpximpact.com) to design better services for customers

Michelle Hannah from Cast Consulting acknowledging the incremental change that is happening with MMC (not the revolution that many hoped for) but how do we shift more housing construction offsite? By measuring performance more with data

Thomas Oliver from Peabody taking about how data can help with making the case for investment around the wider benefits of quality affordable housing, design and deliver more efficient services to resident and improving the right homes in the right way

Kicking off the @tpximpact.com digital forum on housing providers and how digital might help them with dealing with new regulatory requirements, getting to net zero and building new homes

🎉Happy 🌎World 🏘️Town Planning day! God I love planning but boy that love has been tested this week (mainly due to the world of procurement and contracting 🫠)

Well, at least LFC are top of the champs and premier league. #gottaholdontosomething

The funding boost for housing in the budget is welcomed but Housing Associations are struggling to manage regulatory requirements on existing stock. How might more design-led and digital approaches help them increase their capacity to build? Sign up here pages.tpximpact.com/en-gb/digita...

That feeling when designers get so into #planning they make memes about it ❤️ @katetaylor5584.bsky.social

Talking to planners about data is a lot like talking to fish about water…I think this was something @euanmills.bsky.social said about 8 years ago. It’s defo getting better but maybe data needs replacing with content design…

“Working in the open” are there checklists, frameworks, spectrums I can learn from? Often it seems a theory without practice…

I’m assuming the cost of the regulatory innovation office is far less than just hiring a load of content designers to rewrite all the existing BS regs? www.gov.uk/government/n...

Eeeek #lifeinatruck

Everyone is in bed. Now is the time…

Gills and Liverpool top of their leagues and at a friends birthday party. The best of times.