Smart Growth UK
@smartgrowthuk.bsky.social
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"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
"Government of the developers, by the developers, for the developers, shall cause the Earth to perish" - ministers
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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...
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
Monmouth flood major starts fundraising page which saw it's target smashed
Monmouth's major is appealing for donations for flood-hit residents whose homes and businesses have been ravaged by devastating flood water
www.mirror.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 11:04 AM
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...
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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.
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.
No DLR extension to Thamesmead would be 'missed opportunity'
Business groups say DLR extension is
www.bbc.co.uk
November 18, 2025 at 1:10 PM
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.
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.
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
Here's our response to the government announcement that housing developments near railway stations will be given a ‘default yes’...
November 18, 2025 at 7:48 AM
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
Its headline is that nature isn't a block to building.
Many other important messages too.
tinyurl.com/4ubpxae5
tinyurl.com
November 16, 2025 at 9:21 AM
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
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
Hopes Northumberland Line will expand to Newbiggin
Rail campaigners welcome council support for extending the line to Newbiggin.
tinyurl.com
November 15, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Further extension of Northumberland Line mooted. tinyurl.com/mtts2mhz
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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.
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.
November 15, 2025 at 9:14 AM
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.
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.
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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...
Learn more and get your tickets while they're still available! ⤵️
t4america.org/transportati...
TransportationCamp DC
Join us on Saturday, January 10, 2026, at Catholic University's Pryzbyla Center for another year of TransportationCamp DC.
t4america.org
November 13, 2025 at 6:19 PM
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...
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
tinyurl.com/yprdecj8
Liverpool council going to court over developers' unpaid £1.5m
Liverpool City Council is to take firms to court over cash promised as part of planning deals.
tinyurl.com
November 11, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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
tinyurl.com/yprdecj8
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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.
Surely there are some better arguments on the pro landlordism side of the debate than implying that if a landlord doesn't own the house, the house ceases to exist??
November 9, 2025 at 4:09 PM
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
"Government of the developers, by the developers, for the developers, shall cause the Earth to perish" - ministers
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 AM
"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
"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).
November 8, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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).
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
Cutting home insulation funding will imperil UK’s climate goals, Reeves told
Cutting home insulation funding will imperil UK’s climate goals, Reeves told
Energy firms and charities urge chancellor to avoid short-term fix that could also harm low-income households
Rachel Reeves has been told that cutting funding for home insulation at the budget would risk the UK’s climate goals and hurt low-income households in a joint intervention by energy firms, fuel poverty charities and environmental groups.
In a letter to the chancellor, more than 60 groups and companies urged Reeves not to take such a damaging “short-term fix” to slash funding for more energy-efficient homes to pay for a reduction in energy bills. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:07 AM
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
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
Unnatural England – Smart Growth UK
tinyurl.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:04 PM
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
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
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
New set of forest towns to be built between Oxford and Cambridge
Communities in the middle of new national forest to show how housebuilding can be delivered alongside nature
tinyurl.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:48 AM
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
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.
Serious questions now need to be asked as to why ministers are taking orders from the house building industry.
November 4, 2025 at 7:20 PM
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.
Serious questions now need to be asked as to why ministers are taking orders from the house building industry.
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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
Next is Lords Third Reading on 10 November
November 4, 2025 at 1:35 PM
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
Next is Lords Third Reading on 10 November
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
📢 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
The Convention protects your right to:
✅ Access environmental information
✅ Have a say in decisions that affect nature
✅ Seek environmental justice affordably
November 4, 2025 at 10:17 AM
📢 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
The Convention protects your right to:
✅ Access environmental information
✅ Have a say in decisions that affect nature
✅ Seek environmental justice affordably
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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 & steve.reed.mp@parliament.uk what you think. GUTTED.
November 3, 2025 at 11:42 PM
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 & steve.reed.mp@parliament.uk what you think. GUTTED.
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
“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
When Bikes Outnumber Cars: What Scotland’s Cycling Surge Can Teach North America
Scotland’s largest city reached a milestone that would make any transportation planner in Portland, or Montreal do a double take.
momentummag.com
November 3, 2025 at 3:05 PM
“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
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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.
This highly unusual gambit left diplomats shaken after the meeting.
US accused of threatening EU diplomats during bid to kill green shipping rules
Negotiators at shipping talks in London were told both they and their countries could be punished unless they voted with the U.S.
www.politico.eu
November 3, 2025 at 8:11 AM
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.
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
Please fill in as much of the form as you can and submit it.
tinyurl.com/yrczfc6h
Grey Belt Tracker
The Green Belt is at great risk under the 'grey belt' rules.
We want to keep an eye on countryside and farmland that is being designated as 'grey belt'.
Originally, when Sir Keir Starmer promised to p...
tinyurl.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:34 AM
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
Please fill in as much of the form as you can and submit it.
tinyurl.com/yrczfc6h
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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?
On #WorldCitiesDay, what's your favourite city for its transport network?
October 31, 2025 at 9:01 AM
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?
On #WorldCitiesDay, what's your favourite city for its transport network?
Reposted by Smart Growth UK
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
Blog: markavery.info/2025/10/30/g...
#peat #bog #turbines #renewable #climate #walshaw #hebden #haworth #floods #petition #PIB
October 30, 2025 at 6:31 AM
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
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
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
Government set to miss 1.5m target, housebuilders warn
Housebuilders tell the government's budget watchdog the new homes target for England is too optimistic.
tinyurl.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:01 AM
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
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