You are here Design: Helping Local People Choose Good Design
96% of local planning officers say that there are benefits from including design review in the planning system. Of these, 67% say that access to specialist expertise was the main advantage.
These findings are part of a new report, Helping local people choose good design, which marks the end of the first year of the design review network - a unique affiliation between CABE and the eight leading design review panels across England. The South West Design Review Panel run by Creating Excellence is part of this network.
Despite the recession, the number of schemes coming to design review remained high. The network carried out 676 reviews. The report also states that the cost of design review is only 0.005 per cent of the value of the development reviewed, and that the service is most beneficial early in the design process.
Richard Simmons, chief executive at CABE, said: ‘The Decentralisation and Localism Bill will give local people much more influence on planning decisions. So if decision-making is being devolved to the local community it is vital that it has the design advice it needs.'
In August 2009, the South West Design Review Panel and seven other regional panels affiliated with CABE to form a network. The panels work together on schemes and funding. And they collaborate on a combined annual report. Helping Local People Choose Good Design is the first one since the network was formed.
It was published by CABE in August: see http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/helping-local-people-choose-good-design
Peter Clegg, Chair of the South West Design Review Panel, comments: 'We are delighted that we are affiliated with CABE. The new network allows us all to share information on a regular basis and decide in partnership which panel should review what schemes. We are independent from CABE and take a regional perspective but share the same remit in that we use design review to improve the quality of the built environment.'
Timothy Cantell, Manager, South West Design Review Panel, adds: 'It's great to be part of the CABE family. Everyone using the South West panel sees the CABE network logo and so knows they'll get a good quality design review. This new report shows the value of design review up and down the country.'
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