Since I joined Nottingham’s planning committee nearly three years ago, I have made sustainability a big part of all the comments I make. It’s much more cost effective to include sustainable measures in buildings during construction than to retrofit them to a building after it is completed.Since I started asking the question “how green is this building?” details of sustainability now normally get a specific paragraph in every report. And during my time on the committee, the Council took advantage of new Government powers to include a “Merton rule” in our planning policy that says that new buildings over a certain size or covering a certain amount of land now have to find 10% of their energy requirements from sustainable sources.

My next battle is about getting a wider recognition that 10% is a minimum, not a target. The helpful tool “Building for Life” has as one of its 20 questions, “Does the building out-perform statutory minima?”

This week’s planning committee on Wednesday was one of the shortest I have ever been at, with only three planning applications. The first of these was for a new FE college on Carlton Road, and had an excellent sustainability statement that covered many of the things I talk about every month. You can read the full report on the Council’s Committee Online page (opens a Word Doc) but here is the sustainability section:

Sustainable design has been key to the design of the building and it has been confirmed that a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) ‘Excellent’ rating will be achieved. In order to achieve energy efficiency the building will incorporate a wood-fuel boiler plant; heat recovery; exposed thermal mass; positioning of building to maximise daylight; natural ventilation; minimisation of heat loss; rainwater collection and the efficiency of plant and systems will be maximised through the use of a digital Building Energy Management System. It has also been clarified that an intranet connection will be available to allow teachers and students to view the energy that the building is utilising as a teaching resource for energy efficiency.

In addition to that, we heard that the college are considering bat and bird boxes on the trees and open spaces on the site, which helps tick a few more biodiversity boxes.

We also had three “issues reports” where people who are going to be asking for planning permission in the near future and get the chance to test the waters at committee. This is usually only for very big applications, and this week we discussed a potential private hospital in the new University Boulevard Science Park (unlikely to pass - Science Parks are not good places for hospitals); new student housing on Alfreton Road (fairly good scheme, could be improved) and a stunning scheme for a new dual use church-cum-conference centre.

Today I was at the Joint Committee for Strategic Planning and Transport.  It’s a committee where members of the City Council join together with members of Nottingham County Council to pursue planning and transport issues that are important to both councils.

We heard a lot about trains last December, including a promise that by December 2008 there would be a regular 98 minute London train; and by 2011, the journey would only take 90 minutes.  This is a big benefit, not only for people who need to go to London for business and pleasure, but also for people taking the new Eurostar service from St Pancras.  It also makes it easier for people from Paris and Brussels to visit Nottingham without having to get on a plane.

This time, we heard of advancing plans to re-organise the main railway station in Nottingham city.  Network Rail plans to completely remove all the tracks and signals from the station area, and replace them with new signals and tracks.  The new layout would mean that the platforms become much more flexible, and more trains could use the station.  Hopefully, it will also mean an end to the annoying wait that many rail users experience as trains queue for a platform in sidings outside the Inland Revenue.

This work is obviously a big undertaking, but would apparently take perhaps as little as a week plus a few weekends.  During this time, the station would have to close to rail traffic completely.  The plans are to do this in 2011.  The best bit is that they are working with the people who plan to redevelop the station, and the people who hope to have started building the new tram lines by then, and hopefully, the work can be done comprehensively all together.  We’ll see whether this actually happens…

Residents in Beechdale Mews (and on the Beechdale Road, Robinswood Road) have been disturbed for the last few years by the Dunnline bus company operating a 24 hour depot right next to their houses.

Tackling the problem is a long and complicated journey.  Currently the Council is fighting two legal battles with the company.  A Noise Abatement Order was served on the bus company obliging them not to make a noise at night, and planning permission was refused for changes to their site on Beechdale Road.  The bus company appealed both actions.  The planning appeal is scheduled to be heard next April, but the noise order has been in Nottingham Magistrates Court for three days this week.

I was present in court for a day and a half, but local residents have sat through three days of trial in front of a District Judge.  Local residents also testified in court about how the nuisance is affecting their daily lives.  Bus noise throughout the night means interrupted sleep for many.  Diesel fumes coming over the wall means there isn’t a single day in the year when residents can enjoy their gardens.  Vibrations through the wall and ground disturb them too.  And residents on Robinswood Road have been kept awake by security lights that shine directly into their rooms.

The days in court ended on Thursday evening when the Council’s solicitor Mrs Matthews summed up the Council’s case.  It certainly sounded impressive. The judge has gone away to decide, and we expect to hear from him on 19th November.

I’d like to thank all the residents who testified, and all the residents who made the case possible by complaining to the Council, and letting the Council take measurements and recordings from their home.