Replace all central planning requirements on local government and use the Comprehensive Planning Assessment to monitor performance. This is the key recommendation from a study commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The authors of the report, Portico Consulting and the New Policy Institute, believe that any less radical approach would lead to departments across Whitehall, who commission the plans, arguing that they had a special case to maintain their plans. The report excludes Best Value Performance plans and community strategies from this new approach.The report argues that councils and their partner organisations should still be required to plan their services and initiatives, but the planning process would become a locally managed activity. It would be necessary to develop local planning processes to replace the current centrally mandated ones in some cases. Central government would still require councils to include specific subjects in their local plans, and to respond to specific national policies, objectives and targets. Central advice on planning would continue, but it would become good practice and would not be mandatory.

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Five Scottish councils and one police force have won this year’s Excellence Awards in a scheme run by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to recognise outstanding quality of service to the public.North Lanarkshire, Dundee City, Dumfries and Galloway, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian Council took first place in the five main categories. North Lanarkshire Council won the award in the Customer Focus category for its Supported Employment Initiative and then took the Best Team Award for the Carers as Partners scheme run by its social work department. West Lothian Council also took two awards – first in the Innovative Technologies section and then the Chair’s award for its education service social inclusion partnership.

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By Hugh Barton, Marcus Grant and Richard Guise,The book provides detailed advice on the practicality of retrofitting towns and cities so that the needs of everybody are recognised, while ensuring sustainable resource management and economic vitality. Many people no longer live their lives locally, and the development trends of the last thirty years have undermined health and quite literally built unsustainability into the fabric of settlements. Sedentary and car-based life styles are being fostered by pedestrian-unfriendly environments and the closure of local facilities, posing a long-term threat to children’s health from growing obesity and inactivity. The new book is a practical guide for all those involved in the development of both rural towns and urban neighbourhoods. It advocates collaborative approaches to decision-making which marry rigorous analysis of problems and potential solutions with proper acceptance of responsibility by all parties.

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