Still Standing, Still Planning, Still Daft Enough to Care

Still Standing. Still Planning. Still Daft Enough To Care

Audiobook Narrated by the Author

Ever wondered what really happens behind the scenes of the British planning system?

For over forty years, Steve Hesmondhalgh has worked as a planning officer, consultant, adviser, referee, diplomat, therapist, and occasional target for public outrage. Along the way, he has encountered eccentric councillors, stubborn developers, overzealous enforcement officers, angry parish councils, impossible planning applications, and more village hall dramas than any sane person should experience.

Now, in the first of his autobiographies, he tells the stories.

Narrated in his own voice, Still Standing. Still Planning. Still Daft Enough To Care is a warm, witty and surprisingly heartfelt collection of true-to-life tales from a career spent navigating one of Britain's most misunderstood professions.

Inside you'll meet:

• Barry the Enforcement Officer, who treated planning breaches like major crimes.

• Malcolm the Countryside Officer, whose devotion to footpaths, trees and wildlife bordered on religious.

• Councillors, consultants, farmers, objectors and applicants who could only exist in the wonderful world of British planning.

• Dogs, disasters, committee meetings, village hall showdowns and enough bureaucracy to sink a battleship.

But beneath the humour lies something deeper.

This is a story about people who care about places. About communities, countryside, common sense and occasionally complete nonsense. It is a tribute to the planners, officers, councillors and ordinary residents who shape the towns and villages around us, often without recognition and frequently under fire.

Whether you work in planning, local government, development, architecture, surveying, or simply enjoy stories about British life and the wonderfully eccentric characters who inhabit it, you'll find something familiar here.

Funny, nostalgic, insightful and occasionally moving, this audiobook is part memoir, part comedy, and part love letter to a profession that most people only notice when something is being built next door.

Running Time: Approximately 2 hours 21 minutes

Narrated by the Author

Put the kettle on, settle into your favourite chair, and step inside forty years of planning chaos, countryside characters, committee room drama and the enduring belief that places matter.

After all these years, Steve is still standing. Still planning. And still daft enough to care.