Should we give the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) the benefit of the doubt and assume they were just having a bad day when they published their Draft National Planning Framework? Surely they couldn’t have thought through the implications for heritage, sport, leisure and recreation in the new framework and purposely left Culture out?
Isn’t it impossible to believe that this government sees the need for new communities to have access to playing fields and leisure centres, but not theatres and galleries? Or even libraries...?
Somehow the early drafts of this crucial document must have made their way through other Government Departments, but missed out the Depart for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). After years of working together on the Living Places programme, DCLG and the DCMS should have had wheelbarrow loads of evidence and insight on how best to use culture to support the development of new communities within a new planning framework. Even the Living Places partnership website is still live.
Well done to the Theatres Trust and latterly Arts Council England for taking the time and effort to submit robust and well-argued submissions to the consultation. We will be submitting our own before the 17 October deadline.
Just in case omitting culture wasn’t simply some huge oversight, we’d urge you to make your voice heard too.
David Brownlee, Chief Executive, Audiences UK
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