Dan Whelan
The code unveiled last week is unlikely to achieve its goal of creating more beautiful developments, the region’s designers have claimed.
Launched for public consultation earlier this month, the National Model Design Code is aimed at providing local authorities with a baseline standard of quality and practice to take into account when considering development proposals.
For example, it urges councils to consider elements such as development layouts and street patterns; building façades; how landscaping would be approached; the environmental performance of place and buildings, and whether or not developments have taken local vernacular and heritage into account in their architecture and materials.
8 Jan 2021, 12:17
REDMAN…Was it a trick of the light or did Steve Rotheram really paint his own face red to demonstrate his unwavering allegiance to the Labour party and his beloved Liverpool FC? Rotheram’s decision to politicise his own countenance was a bold one, but one that will surely earn him even more admirers within left-leaning Merseyside ahead of his bid for re-election as city-region mayor in a few months’ time.
BRIDGE…A grade two-listed footbridge at Lancaster train station is going to receive some much-needed TLC. Thanks to a £1.3m investment from Network Rail, the walkway, which connects platforms three and six, will be upgraded and restored over the next nine months. With any luck, by August, the refurbished bridge will be teeming with commuters and day-trippers once more.