Our Diary
 April 30 2026
18:30 - 20:30 Using AI in your Civic Society The Gallery
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Agenda
This agenda listing shows events scheduled for the next six weeks.
Scroll through events with the large next/previous arrows. Hover your mouse over the month grid adjacent [touch dots on mobiles] for event details.
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Using AI in your Civic Society
📆 Thu 30th April | 18:30 - 20:30
🚩 77 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6EL (map)
Artificial Intelligence is everywhere in the news and in business these days – we even used it to generate the image for this event. How can it help your civic society ? Do you need to be an expert? (No!) Civic societies are often under-resourced, and at this event we’ll show that with a little knowledge, illustrated with examples, AI can bolster your resources in several useful ways, without necessarily spending a penny. Please book here ( https://www.londonforum.org.uk/events/using-ai-in-your-civic-society#booking ). Agenda Firstly by way of introduction, we’ll look at some novel…
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Member Services Committee meeting
📅 Thu 7th May | 14:00 - 16:00
🚩 Room B1 70 Cowcross St, EC1M 6EJ (map)
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![Manual for streets 2010 [CiHT]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/manua-for-streets-2-1-scaled-e1776252588896.jpg?fit=1810%2C1810&ssl=1)
Manual for Streets update
The DfT has circulated a draft of the eagerly awaited Manual for Streets update.
Christopher Martin expresses the wish that it must not become just another well-meaning advisory document.
He wrote “My hope for the next Manual for Streets is simple: That it stops asking politely. That it gives practitioners permission, and obligation, to design streets around people, not vehicles.”
The source of this news item is an article in Building Design.
Environmental Outcomes Reports
In March 2023, the previous government published a consultation on Environmental Outcomes Reports.
The current Government has published its response to the EOR consultation. It gives a summary of the 278 responses made and states that there will be a consultation on EOR regulations and guidance.
The lawyer Nicola Gooch of Birketts has published a blog explaining that Environmental Outcomes Reports will be introduced to replace the current system of Strategic Environmental Assessments Also, the blog provides a useful list of all of the secondary legislation introduced [more…]
Densifying the Suburbs – A presenter’s Insight
Our President, Ben Derbyshire, provides his Insights into our recent Densifying the Suburbs event.
I welcomed the invitation to speak at an open meeting of the Forum, ‘Densifying the Suburbs’ alongside Professor Tony Travers of UCL and local planners, Paul Lewin and Justin Carr from Waltham Forest and Brent councils respectively. My challenge – most people who have time to participate in their local civic societies will already be well housed, so what, I asked, should be our collective response to fellow citizens who are not?
I talked the sell-out audience through the full range of possibilities for housing development in the face of the collapse of home-building in London. As ever, architects are out there flying kites for some radical alternatives.
100 mile city – Peter Barber [more…]
![London Bus [Unsplash]](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/jonathan-chng-uIsygO87jtM-unsplash.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1)
The rise and fall of bus passenger numbers in London
Bus passenger numbers in London reached a peak of 2.4 billion in 2014, but since then have fallen to 1.8 billion in 2025. This decline is now exercising the Mayor and GLA Transport Committee, but it is not a new phenomenon. From 1958 to the early 1980s there was steady decline in bus usage. In the ten years to December 1969 the scheduled fleet fell from 7756 to 6900, if Country buses and Green Line services are included. Scheduled red buses fell from 6451 to 5785.
This decline reflected a growth in private car ownership and poor industrial relations. A prolonged strike in 1958 precipitated the decline; dozens of routes were withdrawn from January 1966 in response to an overtime ban. The increasing number of private cars added to congestion and also to bus journey times, especially at peak periods. A record was set on Maundy Thursday, 1972 when a number [more…]
![Statutory consultees jigsaw - inspired by image by Markus Winkler [Unsplash] and made with AI](https://i0.wp.com/www.londonforum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Statutory_consultees.jpg?fit=1536%2C1024&ssl=1)
Statutory Consultees
Statutory consultees play an important role in the planning application process by providing expert advice on significant environmental, transport, safety, and heritage issues. There are currently 13 organisations that local planning authorities (LPAs) must consult about specialist issues when they receive relevant planning applications, from the Environment Agency and National Highways to Historic England.
Their role is very important, but there is widespread agreement that the system is not working well, causing needless duplication of effort and delays in making decisions. Hence the Government issued in November a consultation document about ways to make the system more efficient and effective. One of the key aims is to reduce the amount of statutory consultation and follow up requests that are required, and it is difficult to argue against the proposition that there are currently too many needless referrals to the consultees.
The most eye-catching proposal is to remove Sport England, the Gardens [more…]