Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

I've been listening to a lot more electronic music recently, and I discovered a music (project? band? artist?) called Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan, whose name (with some relevance to my uni course, lol) immediately drew me in.

All the albums and tracks are very... I'd hate to say "conceptual", although that probably applies. They're very tied to the idea of urban planning and the promises that were made through the New Town developments of the mid-late 20th century (although the artist would, perhaps rightly, argue whether those promises were actually delivered on or not). It's an interesting reflection on the importance of public consideration in planning in the UK, supported by eerie, ambient 70's synths, and with some eye-catching album covers to boot.

Needless to say, I used last Bandcamp Friday to get a CD of my favourite album, 'Public Works and Utilities'. It arrived today and it looks absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately I'm away from my CD player at the moment, but I just can't wait to listen to it :D



Another planning-related media I've looked into recently is the short film "I Love This Dirty Town", released in 1969 and narrated by the author Margaret Drabble. It's interesting to see people outside the architectural/planning fields weigh in on the social impacts of some of the less-thought-out planning decisions of the past, the ones where the public interest perhaps wasn't prioritised over the experts' own egos. A lot of the discussion in the film reminded me significantly of Jane Jacobs' social analyses of planning (such as with the "eyes on the street" concept), but I feel it did lack depth and nuance, possibly because most of the people being interviewed were all from very similar creative roles as Drabble herself (designers, scuptors, other authors, etc.) rather than just... people who live in London.

The main concerns made about planning were the lack of public consultation (and to be fair to the film, public participation as a requirement to the planning process wasn't law until the Town and Country Planning Act of the previous year, and so the after-effects of the previous technocratic focus were still being felt in new projects), but there was very little, if at all, discussion about what could be done to improve public input.

Overall, it does feel more like a letter of complaint rather than a manifesto. It that was its intention, then... fine. The best thing about it was a great deal of footage of London in the 1960s, which I found fascinating. It makes me want to binge-watch similar short films on BFI Player... which I unfortunately can't do because it seems to hate my laptop for some reason. Alas.