What have Lewisham, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire got in common?

According to a report commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society, they are places where women are best treated by council planners.

Dr Gemma Burgess, from Cambridge University’s Centre for Housing and Planning Research, found that many local authorities fail to take into account the different needs of women when it comes to approving building projects.

The report says:

For example, women often have to travel from home to drop the children off at school, then go to work, then do the shopping before returning. Men, by contrast, tend to travel from home to work and back. If schools and shopping outlets are located far away from most people's places of work, therefore, women's working opportunities become much more restricted.

Similarly, women tend to be far more reliant on public transport. Previous studies have shown that 75% of bus journeys are undertaken by women and only 30% of women have access to a car during the day. Without good public transport connections, women's working and living opportunities are likewise limited.

So what is different about Lewisham, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire?

What I liked was the example from South Yorkshire where the authority recruited a group of women to go on a "walkabout" around the community with designers. Their views were then written into new planning briefs.

The Local Government Association isn’t very impressed by the findings though.

It said: "A monumental amount of time and effort goes into making sure that new developments are places where people want to live and work, and that they have the whole range of local facilities they need."

Which I think is a touch optimistic.