For the second year in a row, we were delighted to host Hertfordshire’s Planning Resilience Symposium – an event aimed at providing a platform for our hard-working public sector planning teams.

A year on from the first symposium – where we launched Hertfordshire’s mentoring scheme – we heard about how this has progressed along with other new initiatives borne out of these forums – namely the Development Quality Charter.

Excellent to hear from Ross Whear, Amanda Foley and Sara Whelan on these points, representing Hertsmere, St Albans and Dacorum respectively.

We also heard from Sioned Davies, Barrister at No.5 Chambers about how the Government’s prioritisation of ‘good design’ has made for an interesting year.

A unified request for clarity rang around the room. In small groups, delegates workshopped the notion of ‘good masterplanning’, and these discussions culminated in a panel discussion with representatives from Tarmac, CALA Homes, Thakeham, Hertfordshire County Council and Meeting Place offering their thoughts on the matter.

It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet with so many members of our local authority planning teams, and encouraging to see that there is a unified determination to build more, and better, for Hertfordshire.