Wishing everyone a happy new year, a successful 2025!

Another year draws rapidly to a close. It's certainly been an eventful one, hasn't it? I hope you've enjoyed success in 2024 and are ready and raring to go for 2025.

For ActivePlanning, 2024 has brought continuing and new projects and a new associative partnership. Read to the end to find the secret word (made up from single bold letters) and you'll find my own "January Sale"!

I am honoured to say I am still a member of three Design Review Panels with the amazing and highly recommended Frame Projects . It really fills me with pride when I see developers and their consultants responding positively to our constructive critiques, including my specialist inputs on active travel and vision-led transport planning. The panel has made me realise just how important it is for both local planning authorities and developers to benefit from a bit of third party input, because otherwise it's all too easy to get bogged down in design and process minutiae and not see the bigger picture of opportunities. Ultimately what we all want to see are great places that are enduringly popular and which create a worthwhile future heritage.

The Council of the Isles of Scilly appointed me to assist their initial designs for a new cycleway connecting Hugh Town and the Five Islands Academy, and sketch concepts for Hugh Street. Hugh Street is the main point of access from the Scillonian Ferry to the rest of St Mary's Island and a 'waiting area' for ferries going to the other islands. However, this situation causes conflicts between motor vehicles and pedestrians on a very narrow street. The suggested solution was to create a single-lane street with passing places.

Luton Borough Council asked me to support the design of new cycleways on Leagrave High Street, Bedford Road and Leagrave Road. As a result of my inputs, the council was able to attract additional funding from Active Travel England to develop detailed designs for the schemes and - fingers crossed - achieve an even higher capability score once at least one has been implemented. Go for it Luton!

Hart District Council awarded ActivePlanning and City Infinity a really interesting project to develop designs for "Route 150" in Fleet. The route was identified and numbered in the town's Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (Sustrans), and is certainly a challenging space in which to provide safe conditions for cycling. Our proposals set out to make the best possible use of the very narrow highway envelope, a typical "difficult place". we work well together as Mark is the multiple-Fellowship design guru with extensive knowledge about accessibility issues and "engineering myth-busting" around walking and cycling, and I provide lots of ideas, constructive "user-centric" critiques to which Mark responds with surprising good grace, and enthusiastic narrative that ties it all together.

ActivePlanning was appointed by a local campaign group to write evidence in opposition to a proposed site allocation for 2,000 homes in Mid Sussex, a site that was isolated from public transport, active travel networks and services and therefore "unsustainable" with reference to the National Planning Policy Framework. We found the emerging Local Plan had an excellent policy around 20-minute neighbourhoods and the potential to bring the Oxfordshire Velocity concept to rural areAs, focusing new development around existing services and active travel networks instead of just roads. With her opening suggestion that the 20-minute neighbourhood concept would make an excellent Local Plan strategy, the Inspector appeared to agree - and we await the outcome.

The Mid-Sussex project and a separate prospecting meeting with CREATE STREETS has really got me "into housing", which is rather timely given the imposition of challenging targets. To this end, I have explored Create Streets' / Sustrans' really seminal and important example masterplan on the eastern edge of Chippenham which reduces car-based sprawling development to just 40% of its planned size by increasing its density and making it walkable. This is probably the most important demonstration project of its time and everyone should take a look: https://www.createstreets.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Road-to-Nowhere-110324.pdf

UK Atomic Energy Authority asked me to prepare sketch designs for an improved access for cyclists and pedestrians to their Culham headquarters. This small but prestigious project would bring Dutch-quality cycle infrastruCture to the many people who choose to cycle to work in spite of a lot of traffic danger. The scheme has now been taken forward by Hegsons Design Consultancy Ltd .

In July, Hegsons Design Consultancy Ltd and ActivePlanning forged an associative partnership to expand and diversify what we both have to offer. As I contribute my typing skills :-) I am pleased thaT I now have the backing of civil engineers, CAD / GIS operatives and a highly experienced project manager to take initial feasibility schemes to detailed design and construction standards, which also suits our other partner, City Infinity whose expertise I continue to seek for outline design concepts and technical engineering advice. The association has brought work from the Republic of Ireland, including masterplanning inputs, concept designs and mobility plans for various market towns and individual development sites across the Republic.

In November, kindly sponsored by Hegsons, I attended Landor LINKS Ltd excellent New Era of Housing Development transport visioning seminar. It was bursting with information surrounding the then draft National Planning Policy Framework and how consultants and developers should deVelop and deliver vision-based transport outcomes that give first priority to walking, cycling and public transport. There was / is some criticism that the NPPF doesn't go far enough (and latterly some criticism on LinkedIn about the idea of a 'vision') but it seemed to me the room was on the same page about the need to reduce car dependency and promote healthier and more sustainable modEs of transport.

Apart from all this, I have been involved in writing various tenders with exciting partners including, among others, Hegsons Design Consultancy Ltd , City Infinity , Snug Architects as well as work to do by myself. Of course, this has meant lots of meetings and opportunities for me to talk too much and get over excited about the prospect of a better future for everyone :-)

So, what of 2025? I'm considering this. A recent YouTube video (from Simon Bartlett / Diary of a CEO) has prompted me to think about my strengths a bit more and consider how to harness them. I'm certainly good at typing / writing and strategic thinking, and have used this to good effect with past funding bid narratives (￡30m for RB Kingston, ￡6.5m for The Highland Council and countless smaller bids). It occurs to me I could offer urban design and architecture practices my services for a low fee plus either involvement in a project or a percentage of any won work. I will only offer this for projects that I'd be passionate about.

I would also like to do more masterplanning - getting in where I'm strongest, at the early visioning and principles stage, probably on a masterplanning 'board'. I used this to good effect in 2022 when, armed with my knowledge of active travel and transport related to urban design, I helped EcoResponsive Environments towards their double-prize winning Heath Park Masterplan. At about the same time I was sub-contracted by Hegsons to provide active travel inputs to market town masterplans led by Turley (Ireland). I developed a concept of 'merit-based transport choices' during a competition entry led by Tibbalds in which the more sustainable (or least adversely impactful) the mode, the more convenient it would be to access within an urban extension to Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation (this competition was won by the outstanding EcoResponsive Environments).

January sale!

I've hidden a word in amongst the text above (single bold black capital letters) which are your key to accessing some super-attractive fees for my work. My target commercial day rate is ￡600 which is reduced to ￡350 for community organisations.

For those finding the hidden word, I'll reduce the day rate to ￡300 and ￡250 respectively for work commissioned in January only. That's an immense discount!

Furthermore, I will continue to offer my "￡5,000 non-technical Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans" which prioritise a thorough on-site, cycled / walked investigation of networks and potential infrastructure over endless data and modelling... These are perfect for smaller authorities looking to secure funding or larger authorities looking to get going with LCWIPs and have proved their worth in places like Buckden and the Isles of Scilly. Note - I have asked around a few estate agents about sponsoring such LCWIPs and not yet had a "no". So you could have one free of charge!

I will also continue my up-to ￡4,999 "direct award" work for local authorities looking to reduce their procurement burdens - this can be for piecemeal work and does not need to be fully spent. Just set up a PO to hire ActivePlanning as and when needed, and I'll set a rate at my January Sale price so you get more bang for your bucks. Use this to try me out. The sorts of projects you could consider include:

• Small concept design projects including local infrastructure 'problem solving' which needs a bit of independent thinking.
• Non-technical LCWIPs (energy focused on network exploration and infrastructure ideas).
• Design review and support for candidate Active Travel England funded cycling schemes.
• Planning "consultations" - review and comments on proposals for active travel elements.

To gain your January Sale discounts, simply DM me initially via LinkedIn or my website with the hidden word included and let's see where we go from there :-)

All the very best for 2025

Richard.

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Richard Lewis MRTPI MCIHT MTPS

Principal, activeplanning

activeplanning.co.uk