John Thompson Speaks at the Parliamentary Launch of Collaborative Planning for All
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John Thompson Speaks at the Parliamentary Launch of Collaborative Planning for All

Published on 13 February 2015

John Thompson spoke at the Parliamentary launch of ‘Collaborative Planning for All', produced in partnership with Civic Voice (formerly the Civic Trust), the national charity for Civic Societies in England, on Wednesday afternoon.

The document forms part of the new Civic Voice strategy, which, in the run up to the general election, is lobbying political parties to commit to give all citizens opportunities to actively shape the future of their place through participatory ‘charrette' processes and make improving the quality of the public realm in our cities, towns and villages a priority.

John Thompson welcomed the publication of Collaborative Planning for All and said, "A structured participatory process enables the community, the private sector and the local authority to work together in a creative way which ultimately adds value at all levels - physical, social, economic and environmental - leading to healthier, happier and more sustainable places."

Brandon Lewis MP, the Planning and Housing Minister, and the Shadow Planning Minister, Roberta-Blackman Woods MP, also spoke at the meeting stressing their belief in the importance of early and meaningful community engagement in planning.

Freddie Gick, Chair of Civic Voice said "While Civic Society members across the country recognise the need for extra housing and have considerable experience to bring to bear, they are often faced with very limited opportunities to respond to consultations on unsustainable plans that are not right for their areas. We want to see a new approach in which local authorities are required to demonstrate that local planning decisions can be made only after it has been demonstrated that there has been active participation in the process by members of the local We are calling on all political parties to adopt ‘Collaborative Planning for All' and we look forward to sharing our ideas with policy makers in due course".

'Collaborative Planning for All' is available to download as a PDF here or obtained as a hard copy by contacting Charles Campion by email: cc@jtp.co.uk