Northern Architecture - Promoting better places in the North East

The Place Station: Transform your local area The Place Station introduces owners of land and buildings across the UK to people or local community groups with ideas for transforming their local area. The Place Station allows users to: · Search for land and buildings · Add a place you'd like to see owned and managed by the community · Add an idea for transforming local services · Propose new uses for available land and buildings · Establish community support to aid the prioritisation of assets of community value on formal lists held by local authorities · Comment on and offer to support an idea or proposal for a place

Design now has an even stronger role to play in the planning system, both in terms of plan making and decision taking. While the Government has announced a strategic review of guidance documents, there is a wealth of expertise and evidence on how best to achieve good quality design outcomes which are still relevant today. Design Council Cabe has commissioned a short ?wayfinding? document to help planners and others make the case for good design. This document is supported by the Planning Officers Society, RTPI, RIBA, and Landscape Institute. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), published in late March, makes it unambiguously clear that achieving design quality is an important part of good planning. The NPPF is deliberately short and has swept away other policy guidance, particularly PPS1, on design that has informed and influenced development plans and decisions on applications. In future planning authorities, applicants (and their advisers) and local communities will be expected to take responsibility for securing good design, and for taking the opportunities available to improve an area. The Design Wayfinder provides help for authorities, developers and communities. It identifies the main sources of guidance and best practice on good design, on robust local plan policies on design, and the type of analysis required to decide whether proposed development is acceptable.

Since April 2012, local communities are able to lead in the future planning of their area through the preparation of neighbourhood development plans. Whereas local authorities have led plan-making in the past, community development plans will be adopted if they receive a 50% 'yes' vote in a public referendum. This guide gives a concise summary of the process of neighbourhood planning together with suggestions for best practice.

The National Planning Policy Framework sets out the Government?s planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied. It sets out the Government?s requirements for the planning system only to the extent that it is relevant, proportionate and necessary to do so. It provides a framework within which local people and their accountable councils can produce their own distinctive local and neighbourhood plans, which reflect the needs and priorities of their communities.

The way we think about our living environments as we age is changing. The word ?home? no longer defines a building where older people go to end their days; it is now a place where older people go to make the most of the next phase of their lives. Older people want homes that give them independence, choice and the ability to maintain their friendships and family contacts. They do not see their homes simply as a place where they receive health or social care. The pressures on planners, commissioners and designers are huge as the ageing population increases. In recent years, the number of people aged 65 or over has risen by 2 per cent a year and the fastest-growing age group is people over 80. People who need care support generally want to stay in their own home and this is a view that carers and commissioners have come to accept. However, some people will need specially designed buildings and it is these buildings that we focus on in this publication.