It’s good to be back

A warm welcome to those readers who have recently begun to access this blog after receiving an e-mail alert from me. Do tell your friends and colleagues about the blog.

Quite a few of you were no doubt readers of this blog when it appeared on the RTPI Planning Matters website. I even got paid to write it in those days! I was hoping that someone else would like to take up publication of the blog, but after a year it became clear that if the blog were to be re-launched, I would have to publish it myself.

Although the first posts went ‘on air’ on 20th April, I wanted to make sure that I had got the blog looking right and had posted a reasonable amount of material before announcing the return of the blog more widely. As you will see, there have already been 23 posts on a variety of topics since April.

In addition, I shall be uploading archived items from the previous blog, and the first tranche of these (22 posts covering the period from October 2008 to April 2009) can be accessed by clicking on “OCT 08 – APR 09” on the top bar. Further items from the archive will be posted in the same way shortly.

There is now a comments facility (a feature which was not available when the blog appeared on the Planning Matters website) and, after some initial teething problems when comments did not seem to be uploading properly, one or two readers have already taken the opportunity to add comments to particular items.

One final point which might be worth mentioning is the availability of an Atom feed, which will enable you to receive new posts automatically by e-mail without your having to remember to visit the site from time to time. This is a free service provide by Google. You will find the link at the bottom of the page. Just click on it and follow the instructions, and you will then get e-mailed copies of new items as they are posted on the blog. However, you will still need to visit the site if you want to access other items from the archive or look at other pages.

So what’s in it for me? Well, not a lot really, apart from the fun of writing the blog. As you will see from “MY DAY JOB” (on the top bar) and the link to the KEYSTONE LAW website (on the side-bar), I am still a very active planning lawyer, so if you think your clients might benefit from my services or those of my colleague Ben Garbett, do please get in touch. If you click on “View my complete profile” on the side-bar, you will find a direct e-mail link on that page, which will enable you to contact me by e-mail.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading the blog.

© MARTIN H GOODALL