"Language matters. You cannot drive national renewal while speaking as if nature is the problem" - @paulmcnamee.bsky.social from @lcefuk.bsky.social on the tension between Government rhetoric and what they're trying to do through the Environmental Improvement Plan. labourlist.org/2025/12/envi...

BLOG The drainage, flood control & sea defence we urgently need provide both a big need and and an opportunity for planned investment (in the public sector) + growth. Meanwhile, however, the PM continues to fantasise about house building and deregulation. tinyurl.com/2nsvnaff

With the government’s backing, the extension of the DLR to Beckton and Thamesmead will go ahead. It will help deliver up to 25,000 new homes & 10,000 jobs. My joint statement on the future of this major project with Secretary of State for Housing Steve Reed: www.gov.uk/government/p...

At today’s National Emergency Briefing, Chris Packham delivered a clear message: act now. Decision-makers must step up and tackle the climate crisis before it’s too late. Add your signature to the open letter to Keir Starmer. #climatecrisis #neb2025 #netzero www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-keir

Urbanists of the world, rejoice—The Line, the most absurd development project on planet earth, has collapsed under the weight of its own fantastical claims. What other grand schemes in this age of unreal promises may soon unravel? www.samholden.jp/p/the-line-w...

The proposed "Forest City" is a threat to sustainable development, including #FoodSecurity. tinyurl.com/565kyxrr

People are all too well aware that builders might be willing to put up lots of high-price houses in #NewTowns, but they won't pay for even basic facilities like shops or doctors' surgeries. #viability tinyurl.com/2uda5cxm

This petition will be mentioned in Parliament now that it has reached over 10,000 signatures. Please keep signing and sharing it, the more people who sign, the more attention it will garner for possible debate. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

More emphasis on brownfield first in the new NPPF and NDMPs? Though as most areas aren't able to meet their housing targets so greenfield development can get approval anyway this may be purely academic.

Not necessarily if it's a genuine #BrownfieldFirst system that ensure developers actually USE brownfield sites first (i.e. they don't just talk about it). But we've been here before - ministers promising to "encourage/make better use of" and then leaving viability provisions to undermine brownfield.

I see all of the Walmart and similar parking lots, where this would be a great idea!

Lords end their attempts to amend the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. One last vote on chalk streams didn't pass, and promises from Government on environmental delivery plans.

Results are in for Iowa City’s two-year pilot of free public transit… www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...

Such an important book by @sgoodyear.bsky.social @naparstek.bsky.social @douggordon.bsky.social ! Moreover, beyond revealing how deeply automobility has harmed our societies and cities, it’s simply a joy to read. Here’s to moving toward a healthier and more widely beneficial post-car era.

How can planning help communities adapt to societal & spatial consequences of #climatechange? Why is #resilience relevant to sustainable planning in the context of adaptation to accelerating environmental risk and how can it be ‘built’ into formal planning processes? www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstr...

Fantastic news for London: the DLR Extension to Thamesmead is going ahead with backing from the Government. It’s something I’ve long called for, and will create jobs for Londoners and help deliver tens of thousands of homes in London.

What is motonormativity? I'm on my way to an air pollution event in a city centre and the organisers have put the driving directions ahead of the public transport directions in the email

BLOG MHCLG ministers couldn't even wait to get their wretched Planning & Infrastructure Bill through before launching another destructive attack on #planning. All this one will achieve is to make any houses built pricier, more car dependent & more destructive. smartgrowthuk.org/blog-2025/an...

Some questions about these destructive ideas: 1. How will they be imposed? 2. Will any stations be excluded? - e.g. in Footnote 7 areas? - in other scenic areas? - on heritage railways? 3. How will minsters cope with furious objectors to 150-home sites? tinyurl.com/yrv2m5a4

People of Monmouth still struggling with consequences of record flood levels that went over newly constructed defences. There are limits to how damage of climate change can be mitigated by building flood defences. Better to reduce CO2 whilst we still can. www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...

The extension of the DLR in South East London would be a fantastic opportunity for our city. Government backing in the Budget wouldn’t just support the project, it would mean new jobs, thousands of new homes, and a boost to London’s economic growth.

Here's our response to the government announcement that housing developments near railway stations will be given a ‘default yes’...

The @CommonsEAC report on environmental sustainability and housing growth makes uncomfortable reading for those still pushing the Government attack on planning. Its headline is that nature isn't a block to building. Many other important messages too. tinyurl.com/4ubpxae5

Further extension of Northumberland Line mooted. tinyurl.com/mtts2mhz

Here’s something that’s really important for everyone to understand. If we design our cities just for cars, they fail everyone, including drivers. If we design our cities with many great CHOICES in how to get around, they work better for everyone, including drivers. Spread the word.

On January 10, join us and @t4america.bsky.social at #TCamp26 to discuss how we can create a transportation system that works better for all. 🚌🚶🧑‍🦽🚴 Learn more and get your tickets while they're still available! ⤵️ t4america.org/transportati...

Would that be some of the developers who @naturalengland.bsky.social is now being told to stop regulating and become a "partner and enabler" with? tinyurl.com/yprdecj8

Do not look for any intellectual depth there. Anyone who takes a look at the planning brief and thinks it can be summarised in a slogan that can fit on a hat is out of their depth.

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth" - Abraham Lincoln "Government of the developers, by the developers, for the developers, shall cause the Earth to perish" - ministers

Not a good moment to further undermine #WaterSecurity by announcing plans for further building in the already water-stressed Oxford-Cambridge Corridor (or whatever the Arc's called this week).

Cutting home insulation funding will imperil UK’s climate goals, Reeves told

BLOG The @naturalengland.bsky.social quango has announced that it's no longer a regulator but is now a partner and enabler. Inevitably that partnership is with the Goverment's obsession - house building. So it's time to ask if the quango is any longer fit for purpose. tinyurl.com/yv3rs4zf

Three very obvious questions:- 1. How to make good the resultant huge hit to the UK's already inadequate food production? 2. Where would an area already short of water find it? 3. Why increase the disparity in economic activity between north and south? tinyurl.com/wfdasdcf

There's something deeply wrong with a Government that whips 102 (mostly elderly) peers to vote against an amendment at 11pm on an utterly innocuous conservation measure. Serious questions now need to be asked as to why ministers are taking orders from the house building industry.

No government defeats in the Lords last night in the final night of report stage for the Planning & Infrastructure Bill. Even swift bricks didn't manage to get over the line (vote below). Next is Lords Third Reading on 10 November

📢 40+ NGOs have written to the PM urging him to uphold the Aarhus Convention – the cornerstone of environmental justice The Convention protects your right to: ✅ Access environmental information ✅ Have a say in decisions that affect nature ✅ Seek environmental justice affordably

BAD NEWS! Should the swift brick vote have taken place earlier today we would have won. Tories whipped YES but by the time of the vote, support had gone home just like 2 years ago. It is an AGONISING reality. Tell your MP & [email protected] what you think. GUTTED.

“In May 2025, Scotland’s largest city [Glasgow] reached a milestone that would make any transportation planner in Portland or Montreal do a double take: during the morning rush hour, there were more bicycles than cars traveling along Victoria Road, a major artery…” Via @momentummag.bsky.social

European negotiators were personally targeted by their American counterparts during a brutal negotiation over green shipping rules, European Commission officials told POLITICO.  This highly unusual gambit left diplomats shaken after the meeting. 

The Community Planning Alliance has launched a tracker to record every piece of countryside that is being rated #GreyBelt under the Government plan to destroy the effectiveness of green belt protection. Please fill in as much of the form as you can and submit it. tinyurl.com/yrczfc6h

Ghent in Belgium has a car-free city centre, a modern tram and bus network, and plentiful walking and cycling routes. On #WorldCitiesDay, what's your favourite city for its transport network?

Guest blog - Blanket bogs and windfarms by @green--jenny.bsky.social Blog: markavery.info/2025/10/30/g... #peat #bog #turbines #renewable #climate #walshaw #hebden #haworth #floods #petition #PIB

Yes, we know. Developers don't want to build them. Not enough workers or materials. Financiers don't want to invest. Sprawl-type development is highly destructive. But... ministers have sold their souls to Tufton Street's #YimbyLobby. Time for a rethink. tinyurl.com/4up9bc73

Be interesting to see the response from @miattafahnbulleh.bsky.social.

🚨In response to the government's publication of their Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery plan this afternoon, our T&E UK Director Anna Krajinska has the following response [A thread]

A blog musing on (and not on) Walshaw Moor markavery.info/2025/10/29/o... "If there were a fan club for Walshaw Moor then I’d be a member, despite never having set foot on it." #wuthering #hebden #haworth #peat #daftwindfarm #floods #publicland #grouse

📢 Call for Tender We’re commissioning digital media research on how deregulation and disinformation are undermining EU environmental laws. Help us defend #nature and democracy online. 🌍 🗓️ Deadline: 11 Nov 2025 👉 More info: eeb.org/digital-medi... #HandsOffNature #ItsOurNature

So much for "boosting growth". All this vandalism will do is leave us with devastated ecosystems, fewer green spaces, worse quality of life, while neither solving the housing crisis (because the problem IS NOT AND NEVER WAS "bats and newts") nor creating "growth". www.theguardian.com/environment/...