Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

All the best for 2012 - let's hope it is better than is being predicted!



Birmingham's Transport Strategy

The transformation of New Street Station, Metro extension and plans to ‘transform bus travel’ were just some of the exciting projects discussed at a seminar on Birmingham’s Transport Strategy yesterday.  Lucy Walsh and Penny Taylor attended the event which featured guest speaker Alex Burrows, Head of Strategy at Centro. 

Alex described Centro’s role in shaping the strategic vision of passenger transport and the vital importance of investment in transport infrastructure.

It was refreshing to hear that the projects discussed are imminent and will be on the ground by this time next year, giving Birmingham a much needed boost to its economic and social vitality.

The projects are part of Birmingham’s ‘Big City Plan - Vision for Movement’, published in November 2010.  The plan seeks to ensure ‘people can arrive into and move around the city efficiently within an attractive, safe and welcoming environment.’

To read more about Birmingham City Council’s objectives for movement within the City Centre please follow the link below:

http://bigcityplan.birmingham.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Birmingham-City-Centre-Vision-for-Movement.pdf

Many thanks to WWIC and WiP for organising the event and Shakespeares for providing an excellent venue.

A Few Facts About Us

Here are a few facts about us:-

• We provide an effective and high value service with a focus on achieving  client aspirations. We offer a complete range of skills for landscape architecture and environmental services.
  
• We have proven experience of a very diverse portfolio of work including housing, historic landscapes, renewable energy, schools and colleges, highways, public realm, Suds, waste transfer, canal marinas
  
• We have worked with a diverse range of clients across the public and private sector including community groups, private landowners, developers, local authorities, contractors, Government Agencies, architects and engineers.
  
• No project is too large or small – with a portfolio of schemes ranging in value from a few thousand, to over a hundred million pounds in the case of major infrastructure
  
• We have a track record in landscape design at all stages from inception to implementation of work on site and long term management
  
• We have expertise in Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment for a wide range of projects, including sensitivity and capacity studies
  
• As managers of a long established multidisciplinary team of environmental specialists we are able to provide clients with an effective one stop shop for Environmental Impact Assessment
  
• We are well resourced with experienced qualified staff. Both our Directors have over 30 years experience
  
• Director Barry Moore has given expert evidence at over 25 Public Inquiries


• We are all Landscape Architects, the company is Landscape Institute registered and an IEMA Corporate Assessor


• We have been established for nearly 15 years


• Our website is http://www.moore-environment.co.uk/


• Follow us on twitter @MooreEnv


• Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Moore-Environment


• Anything else - contact us - we are all quite nice as well!

Meerkats

Becoming a Chartered Landscape Architect

For a professional Landscape Architect, gaining chartered status is a key milestone. In her second year of the ‘Pathway to Chartership’, Lucy, a graduate landscape architect who has been with us for 2 years, is in a good position to explain what this means and reflect on her experience.

A Chartered Landscape Architect is required to demonstrate a high level of competency and commitment to Landscape Architecture. The process of becoming Chartered is carried out through the Landscape Institute (LI) and is called the ‘Pathway to Chartership’.

To embark on Pathway you must first be a Licentiate member of the LI.  To do this, your educational experience is taken into consideration and completion of an approved degree course is required. 

It is usual for a Landscape Architect to be working for an LI registered practice when embarking on Pathway as it is a mentored experience completed with the support of a Chartered Landscape Architect.

The structured syllabus is designed to develop the skills a Chartered Landscape Architect needs for their professional life.  Sections of the syllabus include professional conduct; professional duties and liabilities; professional appointment, professional relationships, practice management, the legal system, the planning system, environmental policies, environmental control, contract law and contract administration.
These subjects could be perceived to be ‘dry’ but when applying them to live projects and work in practice they can be fascinating and key to understanding the wider context of our work.

I have found Pathway an excellent stimulus to career progression and a helpful framework to work within.  The process is supportive with regular reviews with an internal mentor and an external Pathway supervisor.  I also attend study sessions with other Pathway candidates which allows us to share knowledge and experience. 

Typically the Pathway takes 2-3 years depending on your previous experience.  I’m approaching the final stage, an oral examination with the LI which confers Chartership status.  I will be required to demonstrate knowledge gained in addition to the skills in management and professional judgement.

The Pathway has opened my eyes to the breadth of knowledge and experience required to become a competent Landscape Architect, I would recommend it to any Landscape Architects who are considering becoming Chartered. 

New BS proposed to Help Protect Young Trees

Nurturing Nature: BS8545 Young Trees: From The Nursery Through To Independence In The Landscape: A Continuous Process

In 2008 the Government published Trees in Towns II – a follow up to the 1992 research on urban trees. Within the document was the statistic that, on average, 25% of young trees planted into the landscape fail. This was perhaps the spark which led to Keith Sacre (Sales Director at Barcham Trees) proposing that a new British Standard should be developed to help protect young trees and emphasise that the transition from the nursery into the landscape is a continuous process.

The scope for the new standard was proposed to The British Standards Institute (BSi) last year and the standard BS 8545 is now under consultation by a BSi committee.

Concentrating on nursery trees from 8-10 cm girth upwards, the standard is envisaged as a comprehensive flow chart beginning with the nursery production system through to independence in the landscape; the purpose being to highlight best practice for any particular methodology or production process. The proposed scope of the standard can be summarised as follows:

SECTION 1: Nursery Methods

• Impartially outline the advantages and disadvantages of current tree nursery production methods, describe best practice and introduce specifiable criteria for each.
• Expand upon specifiable morphological parameters/characteristics currently in use; introduce criteria for a nursery benchmark of tree health.

SECTION 2: Despatch and storage

•  Detail current best practice in despatching and transporting young trees
• Describe pre-transplant storage practices and the impact these have on transplanting success.

SECTION 3: Transplanting

• Identify current best practice and recommendations for transplanting, including support systems, tree pit design, structural soils and other backfill mediums.
• Consider the use of nutrient supplements and mychorrizal inoculations, when, how and of what value such supplements offer in enhancing transplanting success.

 SECTION 4: Post planting maintenance

• Review the use of mulches, post planting watering regimes and the impact of herbicide, competition, grass management and soil compaction.
• Define the use of plant health assessment, measured against a nursery benchmark, to evaluate and identify stresses post transplanting allowing remedial action to be taken early.

SECTION 5: Formative pruning

• Describe the aims and objectives of current best practice of formative pruning and how this relates back to nursery practice.

The proposed standard is to be aimed at all professionals involved in the process of handling young trees from the nursery into the landscape. The first stage in an ongoing consultation process has just been completed by many such professionals and considered why plants might fail. The results, together with future consultations will help inform the BSi committee and hopefully lead to the production of this good practice guidance ensuring that plant failures on schemes are reduced and young trees develop into well-formed, healthy specimens.

The Rise of BIM

The Building Information Modelling Working Party Strategy Paper was released by the Department for Business on the 20th June 2011 and outlines the Government’s strategy for capability in BIM to be a requirement for the procurement and delivery of all future public buildings by 2016.

BIM has increasingly although to varying extents been used by the construction industry for a number of years but the advent of the Government strategy will no doubt hasten its adoption as a more standard way of working across the board. However, the current lack of understanding and agreement as to what BIM actually is and how it should be used makes investing in the required technology and training a risk, but if companies don’t will they get left behind?

Paul Morrell the Government’s Chief Construction Advisor has suggested that small businesses do not need to panic (BIM Webinar June 2011); he has however also stated that companies should “adopt BIM or get betamaxed” (NBS BIM Roundtable Discussion May 2011). Hmmm which is it Mr Morrell?

Perhaps both; the analogy has been made with change-over from hand drawing to CAD in the 1980s/90s. There was both resistance and enthusiasm, whilst some companies were unwilling to adapt and were left behind, conversely there remain (admittedly usually small) companies who have doggedly stuck to hand drawing and have managed to survive. Most companies however adopted CAD, trained up their staff and moved with the times; albeit at varying speeds and using a variety of software. The adoption of the BIM process and technology will no doubt be similar, and perhaps we need to have faith that the industry will continue to use companies for their professional expertise not just their technical capacity.

BIM after all is not simply sophisticated technology, but a method of working, a collaborative process between all members of a project team. Suitable technology is required to enable effective implementation, but BIM is not only defined by drawing files; but by the way the people responsible for those drawing files choose to integrate them and use them.

The power of BIM is undoubtedly phenomenal, at its ultimate it is a single information laden database of all the elements required for a project through its entire lifecycle. At its heart is usually a 3D model which coordinates and visualises all these elements and enables outputs of different dimensions – 2d drawings, 3D visualisations, phase sequencing, cost estimates, carbon impact analysis, management plans – all of which can essentially be simultaneously produced or amended, vastly reducing the time and cost risk of late design changes, conflicts on site or simply producing specifications.

A fully integrated BIM though does raise legal, contractual and insurance issues. Who owns the actual BIM database, who is responsible for what and how can fair usage of data be assured? Some of these issues can be addressed with slight modifications to current collaborative NEC and JCT contracts that employ a shared approach to risk. As with any project the key is to ensure an accurate brief at the outset. Clients as well as suppliers need to be educated in what to expect from the BIM process with the brief reflecting the requirements and outputs for each stage from each consultant.

BIM is here and although it may be constantly reiterated that it is a process and not a tool, tools are required to implement it. Possibly though it may not strictly be necessary to rapidly invest in expensive hardware and software updates; with appropriate protocols and techniques in place, the more commonly used applications could be utilised to BIM standards, for smaller projects at least. However, as with the transfer to CAD, the uptake to dedicated BIM software is inevitable – the decision then becomes which one……

Wind Turbine Planning Consent

Moore Environment has helped secure planning permission for a 300kW wind turbine in Herefordshire, one of the first commercial scale machines to be proposed in the County.

The turbine would measure 66.7 metres to blade tip and the project also includes ancillary features - an access track, substation building and temporary wind monitoring mast. Herefordshire Council requested a full Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) to be carried out following concerns about the potential impact of the proposal on the landscape.

The LVIA was carried out in accordance with guidance published by the Landscape Institute (LI) and Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and included:

·       interpretation of a 15 kilometre Zone of Theoretical Visibility (ZTV) and 25 photomontage viewpoints

·         an assessment of alternative proposals considered

·         baseline survey of landscape character and environmental assets

·         an assessment of the sensitivity and capacity of the landscape to accommodate the proposed turbine and the identification of any significant effects, taking into account best practice guidance published by the Countryside Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage

·         a visual impact assessment for receptors including dwellings, communities, public rights of way, heritage features such as Scheduled Monuments and Parks and Gardens, and local roads

·         the development of a mitigation strategy including turbine colour, location and design of ancillary features and measures to restore and enhance local landscape character.

Extract from the Landscape Features and Visual Receptors Plan showing three stage ZTV, 2.5km radius, properties with and without views, photomontage viewpoints and heritage features

It is predicted that this turbine could generate enough electricity to supply 188 homes each year, contributing to the Herefordshire’s renewable energy targets.   

Whiting Landscapes and Manual for Streets Two

On Thursday 23^rd June Penny, Richard and Lucy from Moore Environment attended an evening hosted by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Construction Excellence (HAWCE) and Whiting Landscape.  The evening started with a tour of the impressive nursery facilities at Whiting Landscape.  This was followed by seminars from guest speakers including a presentation from Alan Young (WSP) titled ‘An Insiders Guide to Manual for Streets Two’. 

The ‘Manual for Streets Two - Wider Application of the Principles’ was published by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) on 29 September 2010. It builds on some of the principles set out in the first edition of Manual for Streets and provides guidance for designing streets in both urban and rural situations, beyond the residential setting. 

Key issues and principles included:-

·         Streets need to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists, not just motor vehicles.  A hierarchy should be used whereby pedestrians are considered first in the design process.

·         Streets can play an important role in providing places for social interaction, helping integrate communities.

·         Streets can vary massively in their context and standard highway design is not always appropriate.  A non-standard approach should be adopted whereby multidisciplinary teams design streets to suit their context.

·         There is a perception that increased vehicle visibility splays results in improved safety.  However, evidence suggests the opposite - increased visibility result in increased vehicle speed and more accidents.  Narrow, winding streets can force traffic to slow down.  One successful case study of this is Poundbury in Dorset where there have been no reported accidents for 12 years.

·         Streets where pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles share one surface can provide attractive, safe and sustainable environments where cars are forced to slow down to a more human pace. 

·         Good design should reflect pedestrian and cyclist desire lines.

·         Designs should be legible and inclusive of all ages and abilities.  Currently many streets are cluttered and confusing.  Removing street clutter such as unnecessary signage, bollards, railings and lightings can aid circulation and legibility.   

·         There is a trend in today’s society to be obsessive about risk and liability which can prevent innovative design.  A new type of audit is proposed whereby safety forms one component of the audit process, still of paramount importance, but not dominating the overall assessment of the scheme.

 

Saving Bee Orchids

This population of Bee Orchids has been taken from an inter-carriageway parcel of land on one of our highway projects.  Bee Orchids are not protected by legislation; however, the plant is site specific and occurs in one small area of the development site. As this area will be lost to construction we are attempting to safeguard the local population of Bee Orchids by carefully translocating them to a receptor site.

The Bee Orchids are currently being cared for by our ecological consultant’s, Middlemarch Environmental Ltd, whilst the receptor site is prepared.  Topsoil and seed collected from the donor site will also be translocated along with the Bee Orchids turves to aid continued colonisation.  The translocation of the topsoil is a critical part of the process as Bee Orchids live in symbiotic relationship with mycorrhiza (a soil-dwelling fungus

Malvern Show Success

Congratulations to Lindsay Warwick (and Lucy from Moore Environment who helped) who won a Bronze metal from the Royal Horticultural Society for her show garden at the Malvern Spring Show last weekend.  Based on the theme of ‘Atom’ to celebrate UNESCO’s International Year of Chemistry, the garden was inspired by the magnetic moment of an atom and was designed to draw visitors to the space…and draw it did!  The garden attracted a lot of attention from the public who were invited to interact with the garden by writing their comments on the chalk boards surrounding the garden.

Lyndsay enjoying a well earned rest

The finished garden

Malvern Spring Show 2011

Lindsay Warwick, an up and coming garden designer is competing to win the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship.   As part of the scholarship process, candidates who got through the first round have the opportunity to design and build a show garden at the Malvern Spring Show 2011.   Over the next few days Lindsay is exhibiting her show garden which is based on the theme of ‘Atom’ to celebrate UNESCO’s International Year of Chemistry which runs throughout the course of 2011. 

 

Lucy, one of our landscape architects has been assisting with the planting of the garden and providing moral support through the daunting RHS judging process and press day… good luck Lindsay!

Garden Concept

'The garden has been inspired by the ‘magnetic moment’ of an atom.  Drawing people to the space like electrons looping a nucleus. ‘Chemistry...all that matters’ has taken the typical associations of science and placed them in a showcase.

A blend of art and education, tribute is paid to the test tube rack and dusty chalkboards that have been an ever fixed mark in Chemistry lessons for so many of us.

A minimalist planting palette serves to reflect the key components of compounds, with dense central ‘nuclei’ topiary balls surrounded by clouds of ‘electron’ planting. 

The iconic ‘atom’ sculpture piece stands adjacent to the central pond, rivers of meandering electrons flow from this source winding their way through the space, weaving around the base of the test tube feature that proudly bubbles away at the back of the class.

Here you will find rambling plants, the ‘billowing of scientific experiments’ encased by the frantic scribbles on the blackboard, or in the words of Dalton

“atoms of matter bound together by a force of attraction”.'

The Prince's Mayday Network

Moore Environment has just joined the Prince's Mayday Network:-

The Mayday Network is a collaboration of businesses taking action on climate change and resource depletion. In a non competitive space, Mayday businesses work together and with partners to seek out and promote the best solutions to the major environmental challenges we face. When taken to scale these new innovations contribute to creating the pathway to better ways of working and to a sustainable future in which businesses can prosper alongside a healthy environment and society. These tried and tested business solutions are stored on the free-to-access Mayday Journey.
The Mayday Campaign seeks to mobilize business on climate change and resource depletion. It is based on the premise that our economy and society will only reduce its dependence on fossil fuels and protect the natural world we all depend on if the business community is fully involved and committed to sustainability.
The Mayday Journey is an online resource documenting the simple steps that any company can take to take action on climate change from changing light bulbs through to changing mindsets.

Join today - go to www.maydaynetwork.com 

Forum For Tomorrow

On Friday 25^th March, Lucy attended a networking breakfast hosted by Forum for Tomorrow (fft) West Midlands.  The event was an excellent opportunity to network with ally professions including civil engineers, architects, structural engineers and quantity surveyors.  Guest speaker for the event, Steve Fitzgerald, outlined recent ‘Business in the Community’ research which demonstrates the benefits for businesses in engaging with their local community to tackle key social issues such as climate change and sustainability. 


Steve also highlighted The Prince’s Mayday Network, ‘a collaboration of businesses taking action on climate change and resource depletion.’  The aim of the Prince’s Mayday network is to provide a non-competitive platform for businesses to work together, sharing knowledge and promoting the best solutions to major environmental challenges.

J and F Partnership Inclusive Landscapes and Sustainable Communities

J and F Partnership – Disability Awareness Workshops for Designers and Public Service Providers

How not to provide disabled access

We are very sorry to be losing Frances Carroll from Moore Environment at the end of March. She has decided to focus on her own consultancy J & F Partnership, specialising in design for inclusive landscapes and sustainable communities. Frances’ new company will provide workshops and seminars in design best practice to enhance the experience of physically disabled users. 





Workshops will include key issues for design, how to develop an empathetic approach and will include advice gained from her partner Joe and his 30 years ‘real life experience’ as a wheelchair user. Frances can be contacted on email@rainbow1975.plus.com and 01789 763878. Whilst we will lose Frances from our Company she will remain a key member of our network and we hope to continue to work with her and her new practice.

A good example of gate design in the Lake District.

In the foreseeable future our world will continue to experience increased life expectancy and increased populations of people with disabilities. So..there is no place for the ‘average’ person being perceived as young and without disabilities.

 

And yet,

'Inequalities are still being literally built into new places and planners and designers need to examine more closely the impact of their decisions…….

(Inclusion by Design - CABE 2008)

Who Should Attend the workshops

·         Students of landscape architecture and urban design,

·         Established design consultants wishing to improve their practice,

·         Public realm developers and contractors.

·         Organisations delivering services to the Public: local authorities, transport providers, the national trust, restaurants, entertainment providers, religious institutions, schools and retailers.

Why attend

 

• The relevance of empathetic design and how it leads to more intuitive outcomes and enhanced user experience.
• Key principles, aims and how to apply an empathetic  approach
• From shared knowledge gained from ‘real life experiences’.

To find out more about disability awareness workshops, please contact either Joe or Frances Carroll on:

·         T : +44 (0)1789 763878 or

·         E : email@rainbow1975.plus.com.

 

The 'Localism Agenda':

 

Lucy and Penny attended this WWIC (Women Working in Construction) event at Wolverhampton Science Park on 23^rd March. They reported a very good debate with speakers presenting strong cases for (Steve Quartermain - Chief Planning Officer for Communities and Local Government) and against the Localism Bill (Waheed Nazir - Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council and Louise Brooke-Smith - Director of Brooke Smith Planning (representing the private sector's view). 

1)  Chief Planning Officer for Communities and Local Government - Steve Quartermain

Key Points:

• Government’s vision is for greater democratic and local control for sustainable growth.
• The current planning system is centralised and too complex
• Although the government proposes the abolition of Regional Strategies they recognise that there is still need for strategic coordination for cross-boundary issues

• The Bill will introduce 3 changes to the Community Infrastructure Levy The government will introduce a new Major Infrastructure Planning Unit within PINS (PINS is the planning inspectorate- responsible for the processing of appeals against the decision of a LPA and also for holding inquiries into local development plans.)
• They will introduce new Neighbourhood Planning Tools

• Applicants that can use the new Neighbourhood Planning Tools will include Parish Councils and Neighbourhood Forums.
• Neighbourhoods will be based on Parish/Town Council Boundaries and Electoral Wards.  The defining will be community initiated with the LPA having a key role in designating these areas.
• The LPA'S role also will include confined decision making, fund examination, they will have a duty to support the neighbourhood groups but only if asked!  They will have a duty to adopt what the community asks for.
• The community plans will need to generally conform to strategic policies and proposals.

 Both the Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council and the director of Brooke Smith Planning put up a strong argument against the Localism Bill as below:

2)  Waheed Nazir - Director of Planning and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council

 The council has concerns about how cross regional issues will be addressed by the Localism Bill.

• How can we ensure that the Community groups are an accurate representation of the local community? At the moment the Localism Bill allows people outside a community to sit on the community forum and make decisions for a community they are not part of.
• Does the council have available capacity to support these neighbourhood groups? - Birmingham City Council has been forced to cut 120 jobs out of their original 400 - the resource simply may not be there.
• Communities are already consulted through Supplementary Development Plans - why do the community plans have to become Development Plan Documents?
• How are the councils to communicate to the community how neighbourhood plans are to work? Currently they do not have the resource to do this. 
• There is a risk that through confusion caused by the changes in the planning systems, developments will occur that do not have permission - this means more work for the council to then take legal action.

Birmingham City Council has experience of working closely with communities.  In the case of Moseley a lot of the development was community driven and it was a positive exercise.  However, the council learnt some valuable lessons from this, for example:

• It was challenging for the community to engage the Environment Agency and Transport providers, not fully understanding all the issues.
• There were tensions between strategic issues and local desires, for example, the residents didn’t like the main road running through Moseley and even though it is the main route into Birmingham and vital for the area's growth.
• The Localism Bill hasn't given any indication of how these tensions are to be managed.

Birmingham City Coucil have developed a very clear approach to the way they would like to see the city develop as Action Plans for 5 key areas within the city, called the ‘Big City Plan’.  It is with this plan that they managed to secure John Lewis, who are investing in the area around New Street station.  It is only with this clear plan and assurance of the areas growth that businesses will invest in an area.

3)  Louise Brooke-Smith, Director of Brooke-Smith Planning (representing the general private sector view)

Brooke-Smith Planning are advising clients that they will need to work with this new system, however:-

• The changes will likely have a negative impact on development as the construction industry hesitates because of the uncertainty.
• There is no interim guidance on how we are to make the transition to this new system
• The RSS currently gives us guidance on amounts of new housing needed - how will this be delivered now?
• The Localism Bill will probably increase the amount of planning by appeal.
• It is likely that a patchwork of plans will come forward with no comprehensive approach
• NIMBISM will be an issue
• Who will fund this new system?
• At present there doesn't seem to be a timescale given for communities to produce Neighbourhood Plans.
• Will communities be permissive and proactive in promoting development?
• It is likely that small and medium scale developments will become more common.
• At the moment the Bill will allow communities to play developers off each other in order to get the best financial gains for the community - very dodgy game to get in to.