Richard Blyth’s talk on “The pros and cons of a data-driven system for making decisions for places” outlined the challenges of using data to make planning decisions.

A sound bite that perhaps summed up the talk could be “You’ve got a whole planning policy, and you don’t know if it’s working or not”.  

The customary pointed questions were posed by John Rigby, on behalf of the society. 18 people stayed for dinner, where (on our table at least) we enjoyed wide ranging discussions panning from politics to house moves, from ultramarathons to international relations.