Department for Transport to set up design panel for roads
The Department for Transport has announced plans to set up a design panel similar to Crossrail and HS2 to 鈥榖eautify鈥� the UK鈥檚 roads.
Minister of State for Transport John Hayes has mooted the plans as part of a campaign to improve the design of 鈥渢he single biggest asset owned by the government鈥�.
Quoting ancient empires such as the Greeks and Romans, Hayes said: 鈥淎 civilisation is largely defined by what it builds.How we see the Roman empire or ancient Greece is shaped by what they left behind for those born later.
鈥淩oads are part of our landscape. We cannot un-invent the car or order people to stay in the village of their birth. So we need to integrate roads into their surroundings.Flowing with the landscape. Or concealing structure where possible.
鈥淣ow we have a great chance to put these past failures behind us. We know how important roads are - crucial to economic growth and quality of life. They serve our well being.
鈥淲e will create a Design Panel. Such panels have been successfully used for Crossrail and HS2. Not just ensuring that the projects benefit from good design principles, but also that costs are controlled. I want these schemes to be the trail-blazers for the future. A future in which Britain is criss-crossed by award winning roads.鈥�
Hayes also takes issue with modern architecture, which in his words 鈥渇ails precisely because it rejects those principles of design that time has taught us to delight the senses鈥�.
The Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings said: 鈥淲e allowed bad design to become ubiquitous. Hideous footbridges, unncessary light pollution, roads that divided the landscape rather than threading through it. Everyone will have their own worst example in mind.
鈥淔or me, one has always been the Boston Manor viaduct, a set of brutalist monoliths that seem to have escaped from the grimmer end of some American metropolis.鈥�
The plan, announced by the Dft includes measures to include local people participating in all design planning; a fresh approach to the government鈥檚 relationship with contractors; creating a design panel to ensure projects benefit from good design principles, and an endorsement - and appreciation of - industry best practice.
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