Two articles out today that are inextricably linked.

Housing Today highlights how good design is basically just for rich people (https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/most-new-homes-of-poor-or-mediocre-design/5103813.article)

While the BBC shows how, as a nation, we are designed for the car, not for humans: (https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51179688)

Actually it's even worse than that - go down almost every modern housing estate, and there's plenty of room for cars across masses of tarmac.

Why? Because roads aren't designed for cars - they are designed for giant bin lorries!

Yes - that five minutes a week activity, important though it is, dictates everything. Instead of designing bin lorries for the streets we want, we are forced to design streets for the bin lorries we have.

In other countries, they just buy smaller lorries. Lorries than can be electric powered, that can fit into narrower, human-centric spaces.

Bin wagons are expensive bits of kit - but they don't last forever. So we can decide now that new wagons must be smaller, must be electric etc.

And yes, it might mean a few quid on your Council Tax to pay for more collections. But isn't that a price worth paying for better design, better places, greater civility?