Town and Country Planning Association

The Town and Country Planning Association is England's oldest environmental charity. It was founded as the Garden Cities Association in 1899 by Ebenezer Howard, initially to promote the development of Garden Cities. Howard's successor as chairman was Sir Frederic Osborn.

Today the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) is an independent charity working to improve the art and science of planning. The TCPA puts social justice and the environment at the heart of policy debate and inspires government, industry and campaigners to take a fresh perspective on major issues, including planning policy, housing, regeneration and climate change.

The TCPA objectives are to:

* Secure decent, well designed homes for everyone, in a human scale environment combining the best features of town and country
* Empower people and communities to influence decisions that affect them
* Improve the planning system in accordance with the principles of sustainable development

The TCPA "is working to improve the quality of people's lives and the environments in which they live." (op cit)

Policies adopted to further these objectives cover a wide range of major national and regional issues, including, sustainable development, improved strategic planning, inner city regeneration and the provision of affordable housing, building new and extended settlements to reduce development pressures on existing towns and villages and to achieve a more sustainable pattern of development throughout England.

Current Projects

The TCPA is advising the UK Government on the criteria for planning "eco-towns" under the three aspects of sustainable development - social, economic and environmental. The TCPA will produce a series of "worksheets" in collaboration with experts under expert panels. Such "worksheets" for transport, community development, water, waste and renewable energy and more, will be produced to assist developers in their planning of "eco-towns" to ensure the strict criteria as set out by the Government's publication "Eco-towns Prospectus". [ [http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/ecotownsprospectus "Eco-towns Prospectus", published by the Department of Communities and Local Government, 23 July 2007] ]

One of the first worksheets to be published is 'transport' [Planning, 21 March 2008] .

The completed worksheets can be downloaded from the Town and Country Planning Association's website. Others will be available as soon as they are published.

Other jurisdictions

The acronym TCPA is also used by a group of townships in Olmsted County, Minnesota who do their own planning and zoning independent of and sometime in conflict with Olmsted County. In 2004 the TCPA lost a lawsuit with Olmsted county, clarifying with statewide implications in the State of Minnesota of how far its authority reaches.

Publications

*Town and Country Planning Association and David Lock, " [http://www.tcpa.org.uk/downloads/20070727_TCPA_ecotowns.pdf Eco-towns: scoping report. Helping to deliver a step change in the quality and availability of homes for the people of England] , London, TCPA, 2007
*Department of Communities and Local Government, "Eco-towns Prospectus", London, TCPA, July 2007

Notes

External links

* [http://www.tcpa.org.uk Official website]