Culture, sport and the planning process

Arts Council England

Funded by Arts Council England, ixia is the public art think tank. It provides guidance on the role of art in the public realm. Through its activities, ixia identifies and challenges restrictive practices which result in limited and missed opportunities for artists working in the public realm. It carries out research, supports events and delivers practical training.

CABE

Published by CABE, Actions for housing growth identifies ten actions for local government and delivery vehicles that are seeking to create high-quality places in areas of housing growth. It details what is needed to make places where people want to invest, live and work.

Design at a glance is a CABE wall-chart that brings together the most important design related policy statements and guidance. The quick reference guide helps planners create new developments that meet the highest design standards.

English Heritage

Managing change effectively means understanding the significance of historic buildings, landscapes and buried archaeology. To help with this, English Heritage has produced guidance on managing and protecting the historic built environment. It includes planning tools, details of advisory bodies and available grants.

Planning and Development in the Historic Environment is a charter that sets out the steps English Heritage is taking to improve the services available to people involved in changing the historic environment. The charter is for people who own a historic site, local planning authorities, and developers.

English Heritage has joined with the Countryside Agency, English Nature and the Environment Agency to produce Environmental Quality in Spatial Planning, which sets out guidance on making sure that Regional Spatial Strategies and Local Development Frameworks incorporate high environmental standards and make full use of the benefits offered by the existing natural environment.

Following consultation, English Heritage produced Policy and Guidance on Enabling Development and the Conservation of Significant Places. It reflects on practical experience, changing legislation, and some Planning Inspectorate decisions, to set out ways of enabling development whilst valuing heritage assets.

Museums, Libraries & Archives

MLA has developed an improvement and performance management resource to give advice and guidance on museum, library and archive service improvement. It identifies clear outcomes to work to, and explains the role of Local Area Agreements (LAAs).

The LAA toolkit was commissioned by South East Partners (GOSE; SEEDA; LSC; CSE; ACE SE; MLA; EH; TSE Screen South and Local Govt) and includes guidance on embedding culture in LAAs. For more information about the LAA toolkit, visit the South East page.

MLA has put together a resource to help museums, libraries and archives meet national performance framework requirements, with schemes on Museum Accreditation, the Library Benchmark and the Archives’ Framework of Standards.

Public Libraries, Archives and New Development: A Standard Charge Approach is a report prepared for the MLA by Martin Elson, Emeritus Professor in Planning at Oxford Brookes University. It explores the standard charge approach, as recommended by the MLA, for libraries and archives.

MLA South East has published a number of resources relating to developer contributions. These include:

• Museum, Library and Archive Provision and New Development in the South East, focusing on developer contributions as a source of income in the context of predicted growth for the region.
• Presentations from the seminar Paying for Growth: Developer contributions and planning for growth in the South East, held on 21 June 2005.
• Securing Developer Contributions for Museum, Library and Archive Facilities in the South East – a guidance note which alerts local authorities to the opportunities represented by planning obligations to help secure resources for capital improvements and examines how an effective framework for the delivery of planning obligations at a local level can be created.
• In Brief: South East Regional Growth, Developer Contributions & the MLA Sector summarises MLA’s work in funding cultural and community infrastructure to accompany the rapid growth proposed in the South East region by the use of developer contributions for the sector.

South East cultural observatory

Thames Gateway North Kent Cultural Planning Toolkit is an initiative is aimed at developing access to a range of cultural activities and opportunities in the Thames Gateway. It was produced by a unique collaboration between the South East Cultural Agencies; the Department for Communities and Local Government; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; Local Authorities; Local Regeneration Partnerships; SEEDA; the Regional Assembly; Government Office South East; National Lottery distributing bodies, and others. For more information on the Toolkit, visit the Thames Gateway page.

The South East Cultural Observatory provides a range of resources for sustainable communities. One of these is Living Spaces, a consultation document on guidance for Local Delivery Vehicles. It was produced by the Milton Keynes and the South Midlands Environment and Quality of Life Culture Task Finish Group, which is chaired by Culture South East.

Sport England

Sport England has produced detailed design guidance for a range of sports and recreational facilities.

Planning for Sport – sets out guidance on the role of Sport England and the promotion of sport and active recreation within the planning system. This guidance covers all aspects of the planning system and how sports needs can best be accommodated. It looks at the policy context, developing policy for sport and putting policy into practise.