Worcester Bosch – The Longbridge Option

July 10, 2009 at 3:18 pm (Environment/Planning, Government/Politics, Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy, Transport/Road Safety)

It was trouble in the underworld below M5 Junction 6 and environs which led to the creation of The Witch of Worcester’s Blog – please see the December 2006 E-Pantomime @http://janetmackinnon.blogspot.com – and it is to the planning problems of those parts that I must now return.

In short, the company known as Worcester Bosch and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands are due to submit a planning application for a new manufacturing facility to the east of M5 J6. This application was delayed, incidentally, so as not to become subject matter for the recent West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy proposed Phase 2 Revision Examination-in-Public (now closed).

From what was said at the above Examination, it is understood that the subject of ancillary development will form part of the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy “Options” and “Site Allocations” process.

The option of Worcester Bosch relocating to Longbridge – where there is plenty of land available- was, however, raised at the WMRSS EIP session on South Worcestershire, but procedural constraints prevented a real discussion of this, which was a shame because some very real development constraints exist in the area of M5 J6, notably transport related.

In the meantime, what is happening at Longbridge ? Not a lot by all accounts, although an Area Action Plan was recently approved. Greenfield sites are so much more attractive, it seems.

However, I would caution those involved in the M5 J6 proposals, including landowner Spetchley Estates, against thinking that they have a done deal, even with planning authorities so supine as those in South Worcestershire; and recommend that full alternative location and site options appraisals (including environmental assessments) are undertaken. Better safe than sorry, as they say !

More information about Worcester Bosch can be found @

 
 
An Artist’s Impression of the Future for Longbridge – Source BBC Images
Artist's impression of proposed Longbridge town centre

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THE SURVIVAL OF THE FECKLESS

May 12, 2009 at 2:38 pm (Culture/Literature, Government/Politics, New Paradigm/Health, Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy)

Reflecting on the “Big Stuff” recently, I had to acknowledge that there might be something in the notion of “intelligent design”. Whilst no creationist myself, Darwin’s theory of natural selection and the survival of the fittest, although it may apply to Nature in general, I find deficient in explaining the evolution of the human species, in Britain anyway. For with regard to our own Nationals, it seems to me that it is the survival of the feckless which offers most evolutionary insight at the present time.

Take for instance the issue of Government-funded allowances, whether to cover the living expenses of Members of Parliament, or those of lesser citizens who rely, in ever increasing numbers it seems to me, upon state benefits to fund their lifestyles, regardless of whether or not they actually need such allowances. By contrast many hardworking people, including small business proprietors, are unable to access any kind of state support. Meanwhile, they observe that the life of the feckless is well-rewarded, and wonder whether they too should pursue it.

Is some “intelligent design” at work here, I wonder ? Or is it that the state benefit system, including its funding of MPs allowances, is just supremely stupid ?

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On the Parallel Universe inhabited by West Midlands Planners

October 7, 2008 at 3:22 pm (Environment/Planning, Government/Politics, New Paradigm/Health, Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy)

Mr Anthony Johnson has just drawn my attention to his blog @ http://selfbuild.wordpress.com in response to my post of 24 April 2008 which deals with a (welcome !) market-led housebuilding moratorium and looks forward to better regulation : this includes planning !

2 major planning consultations are currently underway in Worcestershire, with reference to the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy and further proposed Revisions to the West Midlands Spatial Strategy. In fact, neither of these exercises is appropriate in the present economic context. However, West Midlands planners appear to inhabit a parallel universe, along with key members of the present Government, and the likes of the National Planning & Housing Advisory Unit.

However, it is interesting – syncronistic even – that Mr Johnson has also drawn my attention to another website : www.solvingstonehenge.co.uk. I would, in turn,  direct readers to the parallel universes of my E-Pantomime “Carry on Communities” @ (http://janetmackinnon.blogspot.com) and of my (much darker !) satyre “The Court of the Red Tar” @ http://janetrocco.blogspot.com whose action moves towards its climax with events at Stonehenge.

Returning to the real world, might I suggest that all parallel universe dwellers (particularly planners !) read the Financial Times “Property – Special Report” of 6.10.2008, and note just how fast the times are a-changing ! On page 7, Claer Barrett writes that “German banks are amongst the only institutions in Europe willing to finance real estate deals”….and one of these is Hypo Real ! So Get Real Folks  !

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Feline Station Masters needed for Worcester’s Railways ?

October 6, 2008 at 2:25 pm (Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy, Transport/Road Safety)

Could feline station masters hold the keys to the regeneration of Worcester’s two railway stations and provide a much needed boost to the city’s visitor economy ?

Please see http://janetrocco.wordpress.com

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A Regeneration Tsar for the West Midlands ?

December 12, 2007 at 11:13 am (Government/Politics, Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy)

New job for Vladimir Putin ? Perhaps I’ll write to him.

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A Combined Nuclear Power Station, Waste Processing Facility and Eco-Town ?

November 29, 2007 at 12:07 pm (Environment/Planning, Government/Politics, Pantomime/Satire)

Could this be an option for the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy ? Perhaps I’ll put together a proposal with a view to making a bid for central government funding !

On a serious level, there may be some merit in the “option” of an “Eco-Town” at Throckmorton, near Pershore in Worcestershire.

However, central government’s promotion of this has been nothing short of a disaster, causing adverse reaction and preventing a proper objective consideration of the option.

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ALL FORECASTS ARE EQUAL, but Some Forecasts are More Equal than Others….

July 21, 2007 at 4:00 pm (Environment/Planning, Government/Politics, Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy)

Gordon the Pig had for many years lived under the shadow of a goat called Tony, but when Tony was sent into retirement, Gordon came to rule the roost. The roost in question was a pleasant, if rather decaying, farmyard (The Farm), owned by a couple called the Market-Forces. Now Gordon knew that the Market-Forces were minded to sell The Farm to a housing developer who wanted to build some nice new executive homes in the countryside. Some of the other animals who lived on The Farm, notably Prudence the Horse and Janet the Cat, were opposed to this plan, but Gordon and his New Gang (namely the other Porker, Ed, and Yvette the Sheep) were in favour of the Market-Forces plan.

It should be said that Gordon and Prudence had once been good friends, but their relationship had declined when Prudence noticed that, under the influence of Ed, Gordon had aquired a habit of telling “porkies”. Gordon called this habit being “economical with the truth” (“As you know, Prudence, I’m a great Porker with economic matters. In fact, Ed and I have aquired worldwide renown for our knowledge of Economy.”) Matters became worse when Ed introduced Gordon to Yvette the Sheep. “Now Yvette knows a great deal about Land Economy”, grunted Ed to Gordon one day. “Indeed, I do”, bleated Yvette, “and my friend Kate knows even more than I do”….. 

Observing the machinations of Gordon and his New Gang, Prudence expressed her unease to Janet the Cat. “I’m very worried, and not just about the future of The Farm”, she said. “You know that our friend Piers the Plowman met with a long serving official of the Shire (the county in which they all lived) a while ago. Well, apparently this local council officer had been told that by a government agency that the Shire might experience extreme climate scenarios, ranging from severe flooding to drought”. Janet nodded, she too had heard about these forecasts. Like Prudence, she also knew that the Market-Forces, along with Gordon and the New Gang, were minded to downplay both short and longer term weather forecasts….

“We’re far more concerned with housing forecasts and economic growth !”, grunted Gordon and Ed. “We want to work with the Market-Forces and build lots more houses in the countryside”, bleated Yvette and Kate. “We won’t be constained by what you and your friends call “environmental capacity”, by which we take you to mean things like climatic and air quality conditions, topography, propensity to flood, existing and future investment in infrastructure. Frankly, Prudence, we don’t know much about these  matters, and we don’t want to”. “No, we don’t want to !” Ed grunted; and Yvette and Kate again bleated : “We’re only interested in housing forecasts  and economic growth !”.

Now Piers the Plowman had been a silent observer of the antics of Gordon and his New Gang. “This ‘All Forecasts are Equal, but Some Forecasts are More Equal than Others’ ” ideology concerns me greatly, especially when it has such a strong grip on regional planning policy, like the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy. It is time for me to compose a “New Vision of Piers Plowman”, a re-working of my Malvern ancestor’s medieval poem, in a contemporary form, such as a blog. That’s it I’m going to blog “The New Vision of Piers Plowman” in readiness for the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy Preferred Option Examination in Public next year !”. Prudence and Janet guessed at Piers’s plan, and they whinneyed and miawed loudly in support of it.

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Harry Potter to be Prime Minister ? (and “A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-ups”)

July 18, 2007 at 2:41 pm (Environment/Planning, Government/Politics, Pantomime/Satire)

I have to confess to never having read a J K Rowling novel : so much to read, so little time and all that… However, since reading in the Weekend Financial Times the other week that Ms Rowling is to be made a “cultural ambassador” by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, it has struck me that a number of government ministers bear more than a passing resemblence to the screen Harry Potter ( Yes, I have watched one or two of the films), albeit in a more mature, even middle-aged, mould. I’m thinking, for instance, of Hilary Benn (note the spectacles), the Miliband brothers, and the new Minister for the West Midlands, (?) Liam Byrne. Incidentally, if David Miliband is to be a future prime minister, I’m sure the actor who plays Harry Potter could perform his part very well. Oh, and I sincerely hope I’m not blurring (or should that be “blairring”) the boundaries between fantasy and reality in expressing this view.

Returning to J K Rowling, I believe she is a fan of the writer and Oxford don, C S Lewis, whose work I also very much admire and enjoy. Having read the “Chronicles of Narnia” as a child, I’m now following “The Cosmic Trilogy” :  well, not quite following as I read the final book of the trilogy, “That Hideous Strength”, first. Lewis himself describes this book as “A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-ups”, and if I describe the story as inhabiting a world somewhere between that of Harry Potter (as reflected in the film versions) and  George Orwell, I hope people might get the gist.  “That Hideous Strength” ( about a power more terrible even than that of the “Big Clunking Fist”") is set somewhere in the West Midlands. Lewis suggested some similarity between the City of Durham and the locus for his book. However, when its fictional residents escape to Birmingham and Worcester (yes, Worcester !) following a highly localised, but rather violent, tectonic shift (remember that Prescottism ?) towards the end of the story, a university town in somewhere like Warwickshire comes to mind. I’ve no hard evidence base for this, but nevertheless…

Anyway, I strongly recommend “That Hideous Strength”, published in the mid-1940s, and therefore around the time of a previous new Labour administration, as summer reading, particulary for government ministers, Harry Potter lookalikes or not, but for ordinary people too. Evidence-based types will find its “National Institute for Co-Ordinated Experiments”, or NICE,  very interesting indeed (if not very nice !).

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“McJob; MacJob” : Alternative Meanings

May 26, 2007 at 3:06 pm (Government/Politics, Pantomime/Satire, Regeneration/Economy)

I gather that former Confederation of British Industry chief, Sir Digby Jones, has proposed that there should be a campaign against the word “McJob” being included in the English dictionary. There has also been a flurry (or should that be “McFlurry”) of correspondence in the Financial Times newspaper on the subject of  the “McJob”. I do not have the dictionary definition of this to hand, but gather a “McJob” refers to a low-paid, low-skilled job, probably in the service sector, of which the economy has produced a great many in recent years. Oh, and the term may have something to do with a well-known fast food chain brand too (no”McLibel” intended, of course).

For my part, however, I had laboured under the misapprehension (I’m sure the current Deputy Prime Minister would know what I mean) that a “McJob” was something entirely different (as different as New Labour from Labour, in fact). I thought that a “McJob” was a well-paid position in an English quango, non-departmental public body, or other “Jobs 4 The Boyz R Us” organisation, occupied by someone from Scotland with close connections to the New Labour Government. The new super-quango, Communities England, is a case in point. This amalgamation of  the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships will be headed by the current chair of the latter quango, not surprisingly a Scotswoman.

This brings me back to Sir Digby Jones, an inspiration for the character of Sir Digby de B’rm in my E-Pantomime “Carry on Communities” (see E-Pantomime @ www.janetmackinnon.blogspot.com). In this, Sir Digby is charged with the creation of an English Parliament in Birmingham, after the Midlands is cleansed of quangos by, amongst others, the Witch of Worcester. Now there’s a MacJob for me ! Meanwhile, in the real world, Scottish voters have shown what they think of New Labour and the prospect of its  Chancellor Gordon “McJob” Brown becoming British Prime Minister, and given the “MacJob” of governing their country to the Scottish National Party. 

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A Stalinist Tendency in British Government ?

March 20, 2007 at 11:10 am (Pantomime/Satire)

The Financial Times newspaper today says of the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer :

“Gordon Brown has exhibited a ‘Stalinist ruthlessness’ in government, belittling his cabinet colleagues whom the Treasury treats with ‘more or less complete contempt’, according to the man who was Britain’s top civil servant until 2005. “

The theme of a “Stalinist Tendency” in the government of Tony Blair has been taken up by a number of commentators in the UK.  Personally, I think it is a theme which merits some metaphorical treatment, and, therefore, my earlier blogs have given it some !

Please see www.janetmackinnon.blogspot.com (Category : E-Pantomime/Blog title : Carry on Communities) and www.janetrocco.blogspot.com (Category : Satyre/Blog title : The Court of the Red Tar).

Any typological errors should be put down to the Gremlins which have brought about the relocation of my blog (See my Welcome) and are currently awaiting correction !

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