Nottingham's planning chief saga reaches a conclusion

It’s been a stuttering, painfully long-winded process, but Nottingham City Council finally appears to have a new strategic director of city development.
He is ex-civil engineer David Bishop, who currently carries out a similar role for Bristol City Council
I say appears, because it looked like Simon Smales was going to step into the shoes which had been vacated by Barry Horne more than a year ago. For reasons which aren’t clear, the deal fell over at the last minute.
Mr Bishop will come to Nottingham in May, taking over from the widely-respected interim planning chief Jennifer Dearing, who has fought Nottingham’s corner with Westfield during tough negotiations about the future of Broadmarsh while overseeing the painful restructuring of a troubled department.
This process has led to yet more uncertainty in property and development about the future direction of a department which had only limited respect in the industry.
So one of Mr Bishop’s first challenges will be building bridges, reassuring the industry that Nottingham takes them and their plans seriously – and will deliver the level of service implied by the recently and controversially introduced planning advice charges.
His CV suggests a familiarity with many of the transport and sustainability issues which preoccupy Nottingham, and Bristol is a city of a size which compares with our own turf.
Welcome to Nottingham, David, here’s hoping…