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Good news, and a great opportunity!

But may I offer 3 suggestions to the powers that be?

First, that the word people most strongly associate with “garden cities” or “garden suburbs” is DELIGHT – that all-important 3rd pillar of Vitruvius’s sacred trinity. Therefore this quality should be put at the very apex of the agenda from day one of the planning process, and control every decision.

Second, that the public should be directly consulted on what they regard as ‘delightful’ architecture. This entitlement is laid down in the Localism Act 2011. On page 12 of the Government’s "Plain English Guide to the Localism Act", published in November 2011, the then Minister for Decentralisation, Greg Clarke, stated that “Neighbourhood planning will allow communities … to say where they think new houses, businesses and shops should go – and WHAT THEY SHOULD LOOK LIKE" - my capitals.

Third, that traditional design should explicitly be on of the agenda, should that be what the public say they mean by "delightful architecture". If I may quote from the document “Summary: This Way to Better Residential Streets", published by Cabe Space 2009: "Ideas for new streets should come from streets in our towns and cities which have proved successful over time. There is a range of recognisable street types based on a variety of standard patterns, such as Georgian streets and squares, mews, and Victorian and Edwardian terraced grids”.

Read also, in this connection, Hank Dittmar’s article “When will Stirling laureates be allowed to quote from Wren?” (BD 20 October 2015), which sets out the arguments better than I could do.

Let's get it right this time!

Maritz Vandenberg

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