The Times, Ben Webster Environment Editor, 5 August 2014

The Times, 5 August 2014

Influential urban planner who shaped London’s Docklands and conceived a transport revolution

The left-leaning town planner Peter Hall and Michael Heseltine, the secretary of state for environment, were unlikely partners as together they surveyed derelict swathes of East London with a vision of their economic transformation at the beginning of the 1980s.

Hall was a slightly scruffy, unconventional figure, who had co-written a book with an anarchist; Heseltine was an impeccably coiffured patrician Conservative minister charged with reinventing Britain’s inner cities after the riots of the early 1980s. The ripples of their seismic decision-making are still being felt in the vast hinterland east of Tower Bridge, where Canary Wharf has grown into a financial powerhouse to rival the City.

Hall’s status as the key government planning adviser of the Thatcher years got off to an inauspicious start. As a member of the South East Economic Planning Council (SEEPC) in the 1970s, he had called for an orbital motorway for London, a new airport at Stansted and an enterprise zone to kickstart development of London’s Docklands. Thatcher abolished the SEEPC in 1979. “As soon as she shut us down she rapidly implemented all three ideas,” said Hall.

As Britain’s most influential postwar planner, Hall was the father of enterprise zones, where property taxes and planning regulations would be relaxed in order to attract investment. He was inspired by the effect of such deregulation in Hong Kong. His big experiment was London Docklands where the concept was wrapped into an urban development corporation with powers to rapidly shape the landscape. There were similar plans for several British cities, although the government backed away amid criticism that the system was anti-democratic.

However, overseas investment came flooding into the Docklands, notably from the Canadian Reichmann brothers whose marque development at One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, catalysed the area’s development into a world-class financial centre. Major banks, such as HSBC, moved into the area’s skyscrapers. The Corporation of London became so alarmed that it reversed its own strict planning constraints and started approving office towers within the Square Mile, such as the “Gherkin”, “the Cheesegrater” and the “Walkie-Talkie”.

When Heseltine returned as secretary of state for environment in John Major’s government in November 1990, he again summoned Hall. The pair came up with a vision for an expanded development along London’s Thames Estuary corridor, which became known as Thames Gateway. The plan was given impetus by the building of the High Speed 1 rail link, from St Pancras.

After Labour returned to power in 1997 Hall became a member of the Urban Task Force led by Richard Rogers which aimed at fostering a vibrant “cappuccino culture” in regenerated inner cities, with some success. Hall was an uncomfortable member alongside people he regarded as “town crammers” and felt that John Prescott had been hijacked by an agenda to increase housing density in city centres. He thought the postwar London plan of Lord Abercrombie, of low density housing with vast green spaces, and which he much admired, was under threat. From early in his career, he had advocated catering for the baby boom with New Towns such as Peterborough and Milton Keynes.

Hall championed long-term planning of big transport infrastructure and found a kindred spirit in the Labour transport minister Andrew Adonis. He influenced the government’s decision to go ahead with the Crossrail tunnel from Liverpool Street to Paddington and he was one of the main cheerleaders of a north-south high-speed rail link. He believed the next big development in London will centre around a major transport interchange at Old Oak Common in west London where HS2 will connect with the Great Western Line and other services. His most cherished idea in recent times was a network of garden cities in the southeast to cater for massive population growth.

As an admirer of the garden city movement, it was apt that Peter Geoffrey Hall was born in Hampstead in 1932. His family moved north and he was educated at Blackpool Grammar School and at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, where he studied geography and completed a PhD. Hall later became a professor at Reading University and took the chair of planning at the Bartlett, University College London.

He became one of Britain’s most popular authors on cities. In London 2000 (1963) he predicted congestion charging in London. Walking around cities was his hobby. Books, articles and objects collected from these wanderings filled his home in Ealing, before his wife persuaded him to have a cull. He could often be seen, a wiry figure with a shock of white curly hair, jogging around the London suburb. Hall’s knowledge of London’s transport system was encyclopaedic and colleagues travelling with him were amazed at how he knew exactly the right point to get on and off to save precious minutes.

He was married twice, first to Carla Wartenberg in 1962. He married Magdelena Mroz in 1966. She survives him. There were no children from either marriage.

Hall was a genial man with a wry sense of humour. His lectures were so popular that students would sit on steps and spill out into corridors. He remained sprightly in old age, even after treatment for prostate cancer. Hall recently attended a conference in Liverpool and cut his head after falling on a pavement. After waiting in A&E for two hours he could bear it no longer and returned to deliver his speech with a plaster haphazardly covering his cut.

His vision of an offshore airport in the Thames Estuary to replace Heathrow seemed too big a goal even for him, but Boris Johnson has taken it up enthusiastically and it may yet become a posthumous legacy of Hall’s vision.

Professor Sir Peter Hall, town planner and geographer, was born on March 19, 1932. He died on July 30, 2014, aged 82

Saturday 8th November 2014

A conference being organised by the Trustees of the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust (MSMT), entitled ‘How to Self-Publish a Transport-Themed Book’ is being held in the Lecture Theatre of the National Motor Museum’s Collections’ Centre, Beaulieu, on Saturday 8th November 2014.

For those wanting to publish a specialist motoring or transport book it is not easy to find a traditional publisher that will take it on, self-publishing is an interesting alternative. However, for many authors and prospective authors, there is considerable confusion and a lack of understanding about what is involved in self-publishing, and how best to proceed.

The conference will offer a unique opportunity to meet and intermingle with personalities and companies working within the self-publishing worlds and will be an ideal day out for authors thinking about the best way to publish, or already involved in self-publishing, their work.

Whether you are going it alone or using a self-publishing company, this conference will offer an exciting itinerary of interesting lecturers, outlining recent advances in the self-publishing scene and offering ideas for book layouts, sourcing images and financial considerations.

As well as highly qualified session speakers, a number of self-published authors will display their books in the foyer, and will be on hand to discuss their own self-publishing experiences. It is hoped to include those people who have already published with assistance from a service supplier, people who have published on their own without professional assistance, and those who have published with the support of the MSMT.

The day is designed to be informal, providing first-hand experience of self-publishing theory and practice, and encouraging discussion and an exchange of views and experience. Each session will encompass time for questions and discussion. Other features will include:

– Self-publishing providers and their merchandise.
– Hand-outs from the M.S.M.T., marketing services and publishers.
– Facilities open to authors and potential authors of all types of transport literature.
– Examples of book-styles, paper varieties and cover types available.
– Trade stands.

Full details of the conference and booking forms can be found online at www.michaelsedgwicktrust.co.uk.

The chairman for the day will be Graham Robson, well known motoring author, after-dinner speaker and commentator. The cost of the conference is £65 per person, to include tea, coffee and lunch.

The Motoring Picture Library has just added 5,000 images from the National Motor Museum Trust’s Bill Brunell Photographic Collection to its website www.motoringpicturelibrary.com, a valuable addition which will be of great interest to the motoring enthusiast and professional researcher alike.

A professional photographer, Bill frequently competed in rallies and trials, most famously partnering the Hon. Victor Bruce in 1926 when they became the first Englishmen to win the Monte Carlo Rally. His daughter, Kitty, who features in many of the photographs, also took part in many motoring events including the Monte Carlo Rally of 1929, driving the Talbot 14/45 that she had designed the body for and which became known as the Sportsman’s Coupe. Talbot was so impressed, both with her driving and design skills that it built another car for her for 1930, known as ‘Kitty II’.

Motoring Picture Library Manager, Jon Day said: “Brunell’s photography, shot mainly on glass plate in the 1920s and 1930s, is an evocative reminder of the golden age of British motoring, capturing perfectly the mood and spirit of the era. From street and social scenes to events, trials and rallies throughout Great Britain and Europe, Brunell’s images are an important historical record with artistic merit in their own right.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-28440730, 31 July 2014

The building has been up for sale for 18 months

Historic tram and trolley bus sheds could become a new cultural centre for the Welsh capital.

The Grade II listed buildings in the Grangetown area of Cardiff were put on the market 18 months ago.

The council has confirmed its received offers for the Victorian buildings, and is looking for a “viable and sustainable solution” for the site.

Local politicians say arts and culture must play a part in any new development.

A deadline for interest parties has now ended and the council has confirmed bids have been received.

A spokesman said the council was now looking to “see the building fully refurbished in line with its listed status, including potential community uses”.

It is understood one of the bids involves a mix of business and living space.

The building at Pendyris Street, which is on the edge of Grangetown, is across the river from a new enterprise zone which is seen as key to the city centre’s regeneration.

Artist impression of how the sheds might be developed

The building was a venue for three exhibitions as part of the Diffusion festival

Conditions of the sale for business use have been to include a community room, with hopes also of potentially developing arts and dance studios, an auditorium or cinema, alongside small businesses and work units.

The building was formerly earmarked as a contemporary art gallery as part of the city’s failed European City of Culture bid more than a decade ago.

Over the last year, pop-up photographic exhibitions have been held as part of a city-wide festival, as well as a dance and animation event to showcase the building’s potential.

The depot was used to house trams, which ran in the area from the early 1880s, and then trolley buses until they stopped running 60 years ago.

The building had been used for repairing council vehicles over recent years but its redbrick facade with arches is listed.

David Drake, director of Ffotogallery – which is looking for a new Cardiff home – has met with universities, arts organisations and innovations group Nesta, about a partnership to develop the building.

He said it was good news a credible developer had come forward and he was keen to speak to them once negotiations with the council were complete.

“We think it’s a fantastic space and we’d love to do something again there with the Diffusion festival next year,” he said.

“With the BBC’s plans for the front of the station, that whole area will be changing in character and it would bring the Tramsheds back towards what’s going on in the city centre.

“It’s also a very interesting building with a lively residential community in Grangetown and Riverside nearby and it would be fantastic to develop community and cultural provision for that area.”

Local councillor Ashley Govier said he was encouraged there had been interest.

“I still want to see a cultural centre, similar to what you see at Chapter but reflecting the different cultures in this area.”

The Courier, 28 July 2014. Contributed by Philip Kirk, who knows about these things – “I don’t know who has more to learn from all of this: the company, the driver or the omnibologist!”

A Dundee bus driver whose rude gesture at a bus spotter was seen on BBC’s Have I Got News For You was unfairly dismissed.

An employment tribunal has ruled that National Express Dundee was wrong to sack Scott McDonald for raising his middle finger at the enthusiast who was photographing his vehicle.

The incident should have been treated as a “one off” and although the driver’s behaviour was stupid he should not have been sacked.

Mr McDonald, 29, was driving one of the company’s new hybrid buses in Commercial Street in August last year when the omnibologist took the picture. The driver gave him the “bird” sign by raising his middle finger.

The spotter reported the episode to the company, whose acting assistant operations manager Philip Bowen called Mr McDonald to a “fact-finding” meeting.

Mr McDonald said he had made the gesture because he didn’t like his photograph being taken by strangers. He admitted his conduct was not befitting that of a professional PCV driver and he had tarnished the company’s image.

He said he would not repeat the incident. Mr Bowen told him he was being suspended on full pay and that the matter was being referred to the disciplinary procedure.

At a meeting on August 23, Mr McDonald said he was suffering from issues outside work, had been feeling edgy and the incident was a stupid mistake.

With the company’s assistance he had attended a counselling session but felt he needed more.

He apologised for the incident, was remorseful and pledged there would be no repeat, and said he would apologise to the complainant if necessary.

Mr Bowen decided to escalate the case to a level where it would be considered by a manager with the authority to dismiss.

He was later told by a friend the photograph had appeared on the BBC’s satirical quiz show featuring Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.

At the higher level hearing on August 29 conducted by Paul Clark, then operations manager, Mr McDonald referred to his personal issues and said he was “pushed over the edge”.

Unite branch chairman Robert McKelvie, who accompanied Mr McDonald, referred to a similar case in which a driver who had given a passenger a V-sign was sacked but later reinstated after an appeal.

Mr Clark adjourned the meeting to check McDonald’s employment file and learned that he had not attended further counselling, although there was a doubt about him having received a letter about such sessions.

He reconvened the meeting and said Mr McDonald had brought the company into disrepute and was being dismissed. Mr McDonald appealed on grounds of excessive severity but managing director Phil Smith ruled that the dismissal would stand.

Tribunal judge Ian McFatridge said Mr McDonald’s behaviour had been unacceptable but the company’s disciplinary policy did not specify that making hand signals at drivers or pedestrians would be viewed as serious or gross misconduct leading to dismissal.

Mr Smith was incorrect when he stated Mr McDonald’s gesture could be categorised as “violence towards another person during the course of their duties or while attending work”.

Mr McFatridge said the fact that Mr Smith had given evidence to this effect indicated “he had to some extent lost any sense of proportion over the incident”.

The gesture was unacceptable and stupid but not at the most serious end of the spectrum.

Mr McDonald should have been subject to some disciplinary penalty but dismissal was outwith the band of reasonable responses.

Mr McDonald has since gained another job and the tribunal ruled that his compensation should be reduced to £5,516.47 because of his contributory actions.

He said at the weekend: “I am happy that I won my case and that I’ve got back everything I lost in the last year.”

A spokeswoman for National Express Dundee said the company were aware of the judgment.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/dundee/have-i-got-news-for-you-dundee-bus-driver-shamed-on-tv-unfairly-dismissed-1.494366