Demolition and Delay – Loss, delay and regulation
POSTED ON March 28, 2025
the tensions and wider costs of development activity that planning systems are tasked to address are often missing or denied in simplified and politicised claims regarding delay
Herald journalist Mike’s Smith article on the demolition of two tower blocks in Glasgow last week (Sunday 23 March 2025) was a bit tangential for our Edinburgh-centric interest but interesting and instructive nevertheless. He wrote – I also fear we’re making the same mistakes over and over again, particularly in poorer parts of Glasgow. Huge parts of the city, including the Gorbals and Kinning Park, were pulled down in the 60s to make way for motorways and to move people from tenements into high-rises. Now, 40 years later, parts of the city are pulled down again because the high-rises have been judged a mistake. Will we have another wave of demolitions in another 40 years when attitudes change again? Of course we will. How wasteful. How pointless.
Suggestions to repair and refurbish the blocks were dismissed. The delays unacceptable.
The Association’s Director, Terry Levinthal, reflects on this demolition in the context of the role of planning and the how “delay” is used as a tool to justify decisions, reflecting on a report “Examining the discourse of ‘delay’ in urban governance: Project speed and the politicisation of time in the English Planning System”.
See the full blog here.
