{"podcast":{"title":"50 Shades of Planning","slug":"50-shades-of-planning-1168819","podcast_index_feed_id":1168819,"rss_url":"https://feed.pod.co/50-shades-of-planning","website_url":"https://pod.co/50-shades-of-planning","image_url":"https://images.pod.co/5mS4nT6SQ3R4_geO4VUXYGg3bhYRQVG3qwYGGgh0ock/resize:fill:1500:1500/plain/artwork/04acffea-73a6-4d39-813c-a571d416c0f1/50-shades-of-planning-1744212704.jpg","author":"Samuel Stafford","episode_count":168,"summary":"50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives. 50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time...","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819"},"episode":{"title":"LGR","slug":"lgr","published_at":"2026-05-16T09:00:30+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819/lgr","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819","url":"https://pod.co/50-shades-of-planning/lgr","audio_url":"https://downloads.pod.co/b6f9f0f9-d7fe-4a5a-836c-563849ec1a3e/8df13352-dacb-4da0-8e74-f308e24eee36.mp3","summary":"The 2026 local elections will likely turn out to be significant for a number of reasons. Westminster psychodrama aside though, one area of immediate interest, for example, is what the increased number of councils under no overall control will mean for local plan-making. That is a topic to which Sam Stafford hopes the podcast will return in due course. Of similar immediate interest is the possible impact upon local government reorganisation (LGR), the whys and wherefores or the pros and cons of which might have been thought to be settled up until recent events. For now though it is to be assumed that, despite perhaps some spanners being thrown into some works, LGR remains the direction of travel for the foreseeable future at least. What has to be happening right now to make it a success? What lessons can be learnt from the most recent round of unitisation? How will reorganisation affect decision-making in the authorities about to be abolished? And how does planning get a place at the top table in the authorities that will replace them? These are the themes that were explored in a conversation recorded online in March 2026 between old friends of the podcast Catriona Riddell (who chaired the discussion), Jonathan Werran , Claire Tester and Jane Meek , and new friend of the podcast James Hood . Catriona is a Director at Catriona Riddell & Associates; Jonathan is the Chief Executive of Localis; Claire is Head of Strategic Planning at the South Downs National Park Authority; Jane founded Frontier Planning; and James is a Director at the Local Councils Network. Some accompanying reading. Local government reorganisation: Policy and programme updates Ride the Wave - Balancing investment risk and opportunity to guide urban renewal Everything in its right place - Establishing…","meta_description":"The 2026 local elections will likely turn out to be significant for a number of reasons. Westminster psychodrama aside though, one area of immediate inter…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3576,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/50-shades-of-planning-1168819/episodes/lgr/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/50-shades-of-planning-1168819/lgr.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}