Real Men Don’t Ride Motor Bikes

Yes, I’ve recently become convinced of this with a apparent increase in motor bike mania on Worcestershire’s roads…and why is it that you can never find a police person when you want one, I wonder ?

Where have all the Worcestershire Politicians gone ?

I’m glad that Londoners elected Boris Johnson Mayor. Ken Livingstone had served 2 terms, enough in my view, and he could still stand for election again in 2012. Now Mayor Boris strikes a lively cosmopolitan figure, especially on his bike, and also takes a keen interest in sustainable transport planning. Goodness me, the politics of the West Midlands, and Worcestershire in particular, could do with more like him !

Now take the matter of the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy (a mouthful, I know) or SWJCS. Next month, the City of Worcester hosts an important event on this with a panel, on which – you guessed ! – there does not appear to be one local politician, or Worcester City MP Michael Foster. I wonder why. SWJCS not proving popular with the local electorate perhaps ? I think we need an Elected Mayor.

The Regeneration of Historic Worcester

“Let’s take something straightforward and make it as complicated as we can” seems to be motto of much urban and regional planning in “Middle” England, at any rate. No wonder so many people say they want to live in the country. But, sorry folks, you’ll soon learn that rural planning is little or no better.

To illustrate the situation, let’s take the example of Worcester and environs. It is obvious to all that much of Historic Worcester, by which I mean those areas of the city with a distinct built and “green” heritage, is in need of regeneration : by which I do not mean re-development ! 

Let’s take the case of the areas around Worcester’s 2 existing railways stations, which the city is extremely fortunate to have. Unfortunately, these stations have been decaying ever since I first visited Worcester in the mid-1980s, and for rather longer by all accounts.

The main reason for such decay is the local obsession (apparently shared by central governments) with the city’s outward expansion into the surrounding countryside, and with infrastructure to support this, notably roads, but also with a rail parkway.

Worcester’s “Growth Point” status is the current craze. This is a central government programme which identifies some 10 000 houses being constructed within and around the City (ie South Worcestershire) between 2006-2016. Yes, I know this is daft in the context of the current housing market !

However, one useful – if perhaps premature – proposal to come out of the “Growth Point” programme is for a new railway station, together with park-and-ride facility to the West of the City. Whilst this has my provisional support, most of what would come with it does not !

Returning to the regeneration of Historic Worcester, the City Council urgently needs to produce a strategy for the “fringe” area between the 2 railway stations, which addresses their mutal roles as well as other key transport and sustainable development issues

As for the much talked of “Gateway Station” – this is not Foregate Street, certainly not Norton Parkway or for that matter a new station to the West -but Shrub Hill railway station, up to which Worcester’s central activities zone (to use a bit of jargon) should one day extend.

My guess is that for something like this to happen, Worcester will need a Heritage Regeneration Partnership as the City Council has shown lack of leadership to date, partly – but by no means exclusively – due to Worcestershire County Council’s role in transport planning.

Finally, as for the complications of the South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy, West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy Revision/Review etc etc, I would suggest that much of what is contained in these “proposals”, and particularly housing-led growth, just will not happen in the short-medium term

Let us, therefore, concentrate on much needed regeneration in the period to 2016, not only in Worcester, but most particularly in the major urban areas of the West Midlands and North Staffordshire Conurbations.  It is here, anyway, that growth should be focussed, and not in places like Worcester.

The Grass is Not Always Greener But…

This week’s Country Life magazine reports that 80 of people in England want to live in the countryside. Personally, I would like to be a professional show jumper, but in the unlikely event that I succeeded in my aspiration, I might not enjoy it. So with country living, a lot of people who realise this “dream” find out that it is not the rural idyll they imagined, but more “Rural Noire”.

Having said this, the quality of urban/sub-urban life is obvously deteriorating for many people : a major problem which, as Country Life also points out, needs to be tackled as a matter of urgency. Much urban and suburban development is lacklustre at best, often poorly designed and constructed, and without the investment in amenities required by different types of household.

Nevertheless, the major urban areas still have fundamentally better infrastructure than their provincial/rural counterparts, as many people found out during last year’s flooding in Worcestershire.

A Countryside for All – The Future of Rural Britain*

A few years ago I purchased the above titled ex-library book from Pershore Library. Clearly, this book was for sale because it had been taken out only 2 times during its “shelf life”.

Published in 2001, “A Countryside for All” is a collection of writings on rural themes from a centre-right perspective. Nevertheless, it offers a balanced perspective of “the future for rural Britain”, ranging from conservationist/ interventionist positions, particularly on planning, to more deregulated approaches to agriculture, other land-based industries and countryside management

In the meantime, the “Rural Debate” – if something so coherent actually exists – has become increasingly dominated by single issues, and notably a fixation with housing, an issue which fits well with the Government “Agenda” (including that of many non-Labour local authorities) and the “Angst” of which certain rural/ countryside interests are apparently custodians.

What is needed is a much more rounded consideration of rural issues. However, the difficulty will be engaging a broad interest in this. The book’s proposal of a “Department for the Countryside” may be one way of re-engaging people, if it were to be developed as a policy by the Conservative Party. However, personally I would favour a Countryside Ministry as part of a “joined-up” Department for Land Economy.

Please see also “A Department for Land Economy” at http://janetmackinnon.blogspot.com  *”A Countryside for All – The Future of Rural Britain” is edited by Michael Sissons and published by Vintage