Memorandum by Newcastle City Council (CAB
09)
In response to the ODPM Committee press notice
of 15 September 2004 the City Council respectfully would like
to submit the following evidence for consideration by the Committee
in its inquiry into the role and effectiveness of CABE.
Newcastle City Council has worked with CABE
since its inception in 1999. In that period we have benefited
from the design review service; the enabling service; the training
and presentation events; the themed publication and wide ranging
direct engagement with both staff and Commissioners.
From the City Council's perspective we have
found CABE to more than live up to its current values of providing
energy, challenging and sharing its evidence based learning.
Prior to 1999 the City Council had also engaged
with the former Royal Fine Art Consortium and whilst respecting
the design advice mostly found the organisation and its activities
remote even in its latter years.
CABE's services to us have always been very
approachable, easy to contact and to meet, very ready to travel
outside its national London base and from a north east perspective
quickly established an influential presence and activity particularly
after the introduction of regional representatives.
The championing of sound innovative urban design
rather than just architecture has been far reaching and coincided
with the City Council's own investment in this activity. The addition
of CABE Space with its focus on soft and hard public realm spaces
is welcomed by the City endorsing our own investment in producing
a Parks and Greenspace Strategy for Newcastle.
The City Council have benefited enormously from
CABE support and input in areas like master planning; new retail
development; contemporary design in historic areas; sustainable
housing communities both new and existing; tall building policy
and guidance; raising design quality in PFI (schools, library,
hospital and related health); Pathfinder and Design Coding. CABE
have organised fact finding tours to the region and introduced
local stakeholders to commissioners and design staff and crucially
engaged in mutually advantageous dialogue and subsequent initiatives.
CABE also found time to take part in the City's Lord Mayors Design
Awards judging panel.
With regard to the Committee inquiry and the
areas identified in the press release for specific examination
the City Council would observe as follows:
1. CABE's overall priorities for investment
and development—we have benefited hugely from CABE's focus
towards regions and major towns and cities on a wide range of
activities and would hope this would continue.
2. Specifically on the Design Review:
(a) Present criteria is fine encompassing widest
range of projects and enabling the City to benefit from comparison
with similar generic schemes in other places eg tall buildings,
retail developments.
(b) We have no concerns with consistency in
criteria and its application—the Panel and Design Review
staff "tell it like it is" and are accordingly highly
respected by the City Council and in our view by developers and
their architects as well.
(c) Again we have no issue with choice of schemes
reviewed—it is clear from the broad themes publicised by
the Panel what is likely to benefit from their advice. Even schemes
not taken for formal design review benefit from follow up letters
or verbal advice from the Chair or Director of Design Review which
are invaluable in assisting the City in formulating its own responses
through the statutory planning process.
3. CABE's relationships with other national
and local agencies—from City perspective we again have benefited
from good joint working relations with CABE and North East English
Heritage with ability to coordinate input from both, usually at
the same meeting and this is again highly valued by developers
and architects. This extends across all of CABE activities not
just design review and we are currently benefiting from the Regional
Design Champions programme put together by CABE in association
with Northern Architecture and ONE North East. Northern Architecture
are also benefiting from CABE's funding of their activities. As
one of the first Pathfinder areas Newcastle Gateshead have been
heavily involved with CABE—Enabling both here and in liaison
with the other Pathfinder areas facilitated by CABE (including
the Pilot Design Coding Projects with ODPM). The CABE local representatives
appear at a wide range of regional training and CPD seminars which
the City and neighbouring authorities benefit from.
4. With regard to the future role of the
organisation the City Council simply wish to acknowledge the great
benefit it has derived from the first five years of CABE's activities
and are greatly encouraged by the continuity and innovation set
out in the Corporate Strategy for 2004-07 "Transforming Neighbourhoods".
The title encapsulates for us the direction and its relevance
to the challenges facing us here in Newcastle.
We are confident that urban design quality has
improved markedly in the past 10 years in the City and a key factor
to this achievement has been the support and advice of CABE since
1999. For that reason we are very keen that CABE continues its
work and is supported by ODPM.
I hope this is of use to the inquiry and look
forward to a positive endorsement for CABE from the Committee's
findings.
Steve Dunlop
Director of Enterprise, Environment and Culture
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