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Executive members

As an executive member, you are in a position to lead inside and outside the council in demanding high-quality design. The planning and development portfolio is the one with the key responsibility.

What executive members can do

  • Give a clear signal to officers and local people that you will accept only good design. Ways to do that include:
    • ensuring that all strategies, policies and planning briefs require good design quality and clearly express the council’s aspirations
    • making sure that strategies and plans are specifically about the needs of your town and city (not just a wishlist that could be about anywhere)
    • making sure your council has a good spatial plan – look at CABE’s Planning for places to see how you could improve your core strategy
    • communicating that message through your website and the local media
    • showing commitment, leadership and support on design quality – one way to do that is to support design-led initiatives and awards.
    • using your position at the right time to back what officers are doing.
  • Read CABE research showing how good design can deliver long-term value and how bad design costs more. Well-designed buildings cost less to maintain and last longer, well-designed schools boost attainment and crime is lower in well-designed streets. 
  • If you hold the planning portfolio, you can act as a champion for good design inside and outside of the council. You don’t need to be an expert but you do need to be able to recognise the qualities of good design. Ways to do that include:
    • using the guides available from CABE and others
    • increasing the understanding about design among officers and fellow councillors – encourage them to get further training, such as offered at CABE’s urban design summer school
    • making sure you have the staff to deliver quality places and that they have the right skills to deliver good design.
  • Whatever your portfolio, you can make sure design quality is proritised in procurement and budgets and that you consider revenue as well as capital to cover future maintenance. If you are the education executive member, look at CABE’s 10 key criteria for school design; if you have responsibility for parks, take a look at The value of public space, our guide to how cities have used their public spaces to deliver social, economic and health benefits.

How do you know if a proposal is any good? Use our seven principles of good urban design to help.

Resources for executive members

Planning for places

CABE guide for local authorities on delivering good design through core strategies.

Value of good design

CABE guide showing how investment in good design generates economic and social value.

Cost of bad design

CABE guide highlighting what happens when buildings and public spaces go wrong.

Value handbook

CABE guide for public organisations wanting to get the most from local buildings and spaces.

Value of design

Section of CABE website devoted to investigating the benefits of good design and the costs of bad design.

Sustainable Cities

CABE website offering advice on how to tackle climate change through planning, designing and managing sustainable places.

Planning together

CLG publication for local strategic partnerships and planners contains useful case studies on working collaboratively.

PAS elected members’ planning skills framework

Planning Advisory Service guide to planning for councillors highlighting how members can get the most from the system.

IDeA councillor’s guide 2010/11

Updated guide by the Improvement and Development Agency reflecting the latest legislation and thinking on local government in England.

Executive members in action

High Street Kensington

High Street Kensington: people before cars
Photo by Urban Exposure

Kensington & Chelsea: street wisdom

Leadership from forward-thinking Cllr Daniel Moylan helped shift the balance of a scheme to improve High Street Kensington away from standard traffic engineering solutions and towards a more radical streetscape design.

The problem: Action was needed to improve the public realm to maintain the viability of the high street in the face of the threat of a major retail development. But major change would be sensitive and difficult given the range of different uses and its proximity to residential areas. That made it hard to reach a consensus on the way forward: some groups wanted traditional streetscape design while others wanted more radical outcomes and some re-allocation of space in favour of pedestrian cyclists.

The response: Daniel Moylan took sole charge of the project by agreement with the chair of planning and conservation. It was agreed that the project would accommodate existing traffic flows but that all road users would benefit. The design was based on simplicity, quality and elegance and removed all but the most necessary street clutter, with almost no guard railing or bollards. Crossings were simplified to be straight across rather than staggered wherever possible and the remaining staggered crossings were redesigned with the removal of guardrails.

The result: The improvements have created a simple and easily legible street scene which both pedestrians and motorists are trusted to use sensibly. The scheme won numerous awards and come to be seen as the way forward by other local authorities and professionals.

Bishops Mead, Chelmsford

Bishops Mead, Chelmsford: council insisted on quality
Photo by Ashley Bingham and Mark Ellis at A&M Photrography

Chelmsford: planning for new homes

Cllr Neil Gulliver, cabinet member for planning, became design champion at Chelmsford Borough Council in 2003 and has helped build on the authority’s reputation for good practice in residential planning that had been established under predecessors like Professor Tony Hall.

The problem: Chelmsford has the pressure of population and housing growth – in a largely suburban area where people often regard high-density housing as radical.

The response: The authority had a long history of design skills in planning: Cllr Gulliver succeeded a professional town planner as the design champion. He realised you do not need to be an expert in design to do the job but you need to recognise design and how it affects ordinary lives. The influence of a leading councillor and chief officer can change the mindset of existing staff and change the emphasis of the planning process from legalistic to spatial.

The result: CABE housing audits highlighted the role of the local authority in delivering quality. Chelmsford has demanded this from housebuilders and succeeded in getting them to appoint good architects, modify or drop standard house types and design new house types, and one-off buildings. Through negotiation it has also ensured that new neighbourhoods feature designs based on urban design principles and that buildings address public space questions.

North West Cambridge: insisting on sustainability

As executive councillor for climate change and growth at Cambridge City Council, Sian Reid was instrumental in securing strict sustainability standards in the area action plan for the North West Cambridge housing and mixed use development.

The problem: Cambridge is growing rapidly but the city council sees combating climate change as at the heart what it should be doing. That means a low-carbon approach that minimises emissions from new development. The North West Cambridge site straddles the boundary between the city council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

The response: An area action plan was developed with the support of councillors and officers from both authorities and was seen as an opportunity to set new standards for sustainability. All homes will have to be Code for Sustainable Homes level 4 or higher until 2013 and level 5 after that – ahead of mandatory deadlines. Requirements also include a decentralised energy system that must be applied across the majority of the site, 20 per cent onsite renewables and water conservation measures.

The solution: The requirements in the area action plan were challenged on appeal but justified in front of a planning inspector and upheld. Political leadership, cooperation between two authorities and good work by officers has helped set higher sustainability standards that are now being applied constructively by the developer.

Knowsley: centres for learning

Cllr Larry Nolan provided leadership during 13 years as cabinet member for children’s services, which was vital in the authority’s delivery of seven new centres for learning within a year.

The problem: Knowsley had 11 secondary schools that needed replacing or refurbishing and, as in authorities around the country, student numbers were falling. The rising number of surplus places meant it made sense to consolidate education in fewer schools.

The response: Knowsley secured £150 million of PFI funding under Building Schools for the Future (BSF) to replace the existing 11 secondary schools with seven new learning centres. These would be more than just schools but part of a wider vision for transforming education, integrating with children’s services and helping to revitalise communities too. The designs include the replacement of traditional corridors with learning streets where students can choose to study or socialise at comfortable seats and coffee tables and the replacement or traditional entrances with large open spaces. They are also open longer, often until 10pm, and at weekends and in the holidays and can be used for wider community activities.

The result: Cllr Nolan died in 2006, but his vision was realised by February 2010 with the opening of the seventh centre for learning as Knowsley became the first authority in the country to complete its BSF programme. The centres have won a string of awards and the British Council for School Environments held its 2009 annual conference at the Halewood Centre for Learning.