CPA Blog: Call to Action – Unsustainable Development Must Be Acknowledged! And Who Pays?
The number of groups on our map confirms that inappropriate development in our communities is rising and that growth is not meeting the Community Planning Alliance (CPA) definition of sustainable development. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has told us that monitoring remains an essential part of the planning system and […]
Guest Blog: Back to the future? The Civil Society Covenant: a new era of civic values or business as usual?
Authors: Prof Gavin Parker and Dr Mark Dobson, University of Reading On the 17th July 2025 the UK Government announced their policy for a ‘Civil Society Covenant’, setting out a ‘new principles-based arrangement for re-setting the relationship between UK Government and civil society’. This centres on a commitment to value a range of inputs made […]
Guest Blog: Notes from the frontline – “How can we stop the Government’s War on Our Countryside?”
Author: Andrew Jenkins – a former Corporate Sustainable Development Specialist Ed Milliband’s actions to approve three massive solar factories (Mallard Pass and Gate Burton in Lincolnshire and Sunnica in Suffolk) in the first week of his tenure as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has highlighted the broken nature of our planning […]
Guest Blog: Consultation law and community campaigning – what you need to know
Author: Rhion Jones, The Consultation Guru For communities and campaigners who are anxious about plans and projects, it is may be a consolation to hear that, here in the UK, we have one of the most robust public consultation frameworks in the world. There are many reasons for this. Our democracy has often been more consultative […]
Guest Blog: Programme to develop Community-led Health Impact Assessments for Planning
Author: Josh Artus – Healthy Places & Urban Strategy Lead, Centric Lab With thanks to fundings from the Community Knowledge Fund we’ve now formally launched the Community Health Impact Assessment peer-to-peer learning programme, starting in the new year – www.urbanhealthcouncil.com/programs/chiat. Health Impact Assessments (HIAs) should be more powerful with community voices shaping planning based on health needs. Existing legislation and guidance ‘advise’ […]
Guest Blog: Balancing development with the protection of sensitive wildlife
Author: David Smith – Eastern Region Director at Ecological Planning & Research Is wildlife and the natural world an escape from your routine? Is it part of your everyday? Is it a means by which you connect with the landscape around you? Perhaps a way to connect with people too? For me, it’s all the […]
Guest Blog: The True Cost of Freeports
Author: Rhiannon Fearn – Freeport Resident Action Group The Government’s Agenda Eight Freeports were announced by the Government last Year. Most recently they have been promoted in the Levelling-up White Paper, released Feb 2nd, as a way to increase prosperity and investment in the more deprived areas of the UK. (Picture: The proposed site for […]
Communities join a (non-polluting) journey to improve air quality
Author: Marj Powner We all recognise air pollution is a threat to the health of both humans and wildlife. And we know action is needed to introduce policies and measures that will reduce the harmful effects we are facing every day. The burden on the NHS, our economy and nature’s recovery is very visible. With […]
Urban and rural green spaces – saved by a thousand actions?
Author: Rosie Pearson The Community Planning Alliance was founded on the back of conversations between campaigners from all over the UK who saw their local green spaces threatened by development (of all kinds). We realised that we needed to understand the national, cumulative, scale of these many separate threats. And that is why our Grassroots Map was […]