“Planning” reports today (9th November 2011) that a Department for Communities and Local Government official speaking at the Action for Market Towns symposium in London said that ministers “were certainly thinking of considering the option” of providing funds for preparing neighbourhood plans direct to local communities, rather than routing these through higher tier councils. Read more →

November will see the start of an exciting new commission to develop and provide business support for Digital Businesses located in Lincoln, Boston and East Lindsey.

Working for Lincolnshire County Council’s ‘Digital Revolution’ project, CDI Alliance and Globe will be delivering the programme of networking, business support and seminars proposed in our recent tender response to support digital businesses. Read more →

I’ve had a long association with Gainsborough, my children went to school there, most of my local shopping gets done there and Gainsborough Riverside Regeneration was a major part of my life for several years in the 1990s. I was therefore happy to offer Globe’s help when a conversation with ex-colleague and friend Charles Cook at the Lincolnshire Co-operative Development Agency touched on a long established local institution – Gainsborough Adventure Playground. Like many community and voluntary organisations, the Gainsborough Adventure Playground Association – to give it its full name – is feeling squeezed between reducing public sector finance, limited availability of grants and a rather dismal local economic and employment climate. The effect is that they need to ‘prove their worth’ to people other than the children and parents they work with. Read more →

Businesses and Shoppers alike breathed a sigh of relief as news of a planned new car park in the historic market town of Spilsby in Lincolnshire filtered through. Working on behalf of Robin Hood Parking Limited, Globe were successful in obtaining planning permission for an initial three year period for a new surface car park in the heart of the town centre. The new car park will tidy up the derelict Jackson building centre off the High Street and will provide much needed car parking a stone’s throw away from the shops and restaurants in the primary shopping area. With the new car park set to open in time for the busy Christmas shopping period, this year, Christmas will really come early for local businesses as more and more people are encouraged to visit this pleasant market town.

My faith in British urban life has been restored – after a weekend in Brighton!

Our visit – to attend a conference – just happened to coincide with “White Night”. No, I’d never heard of it before either but now I’ve discovered it I want to go back for more – and help spread it to other UK cities too. No longer shall I be one of those who complain that continental cities always do it so much better! Read more →

Consultation on the NPPF ended last week yet Whitehall has continued to find itself deflecting criticism about the reforms.  I, personally, have been quite fascinated by the lively debates that the consultation’s sparked and at times I’ve even found my own views on what I believe the fundamental principles of planning to be, challenged.

But, away from the academic side of things, this recent coverage of the planning reforms coupled with the high profile shenanigans at Dale Farm, got me wondering what effect it’s all had on the public’s perception of planning. Read more →

There’s nothing like contemplating a Web Strategy Plan to get you thinking about your professional networks (or to be honest, almost anything other than your Web Strategy Plan). At a time when work remains fairly scarce and cuts in the public sector have led to a flood of people offering freelance services of varying quality, the temptation is to pull up the drawbridge and keep opportunities to yourself.

I’ve done several pieces of work at Globe looking at creative digital businesses, digital workspaces and more generally at the needs of SMEs, so when an opportunity was recently advertised to quote for local work on the Lincolnshire Digital Business Cluster we took a serious interest. Read more →

James Hurley’s article this week in the Telegraph ‘Entrepreneurs “fear” approaching their bank’ struck an interesting note with several discussions I’ve been involved in recently as well as our own experience particularly in relation to international consultancy work. Read more →