Russell Curtis
21K posts
Russell Curtis
@russellcurtis
Founder @rckarchitects, but everything here my own. Barnet, London & Europe. Chair of Barnet QRP. 🦋 bsky.app/profile/russel…
- Pretty amazing that there's a zoom level on Google Satellite where you can see the entire route of HS2 being built between the Chilterns and Birmingham.
- THIS IS LITERALLY THE DEFINITION OF A BROWNFIELD SITEI am pleased that a plan to demolish a family home on Riddlesdown Road, Purley and replace it with a large block of flats has been refused. New homes are needed but the right place for new flats is Croydon town centre, central London and brownfield sites. chrisphilp.com/riddlesdown-ro…Readers added contextThe proposed development is on a brownfield site. The government’s National Planning Policy Framework defines a brownfield site as “land which is or was occupied by a permanent structure”. commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief…
- Your daily reminder that building 1.5m homes would take up an area no larger than the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is *less than a third of one percent* of England's total area. In no way is the countryside "under threat" by building the homes we desperately need.
- London is not a serious city. This map shows our current housing density: pink is 0 - 50 dwellings per hectare, blue is 50 - 150. There are entire boroughs that don't even break the 50dph threshold. Densify the suburbs!
- Just reflecting on the catastrophic loss of undeveloped land in England if we went ahead and built 4.5m homes.
- Just a quick reminder that Britain's countryside is safe, even if we decided to build 4.5m homes on it. Which we're not.
- I'm at Farringdon Station in central London. In 45 minutes or so, this train stops at Ashwell & Morden; 20 minutes after that, Cambridge. 👀 Check out Ashwell & Morden station...there's barely anything there! The perfect place for a new town of 10,000 homes, I'd humbly suggest.
- "Planning isn't the problem" latest: - £10k payment to mitigate impact of additional visitors to Epping Forest (which is 2 miles away) - 9 home scheme facing refusal as it's 1m higher than existing building - Overnight parking survey required for 4 homes And that's just today.
- Replying to @DerekLaCastaYou can see the masses of green stuff either side, yes?
- Note this fascinating thread on the scandalous “tendering” of PPE supply contracts. This investigation relies on info from the EU'S TED portal. After Brexit, even this transparency will cease. Is there any indication that the UK will have a satisfactory equivalent? No.
