Education

This page provides a resource for school and college students, and teachers on planning and related environmental matters. It contains information and links to other sites on the world wide web that may be of use for homework, coursework, projects and assignments.

Much of the information concerns the Bury Metropolitan Borough area, but information and links are also provided on Greater Manchester, the North West and the United Kingdom.

What is Planning?
A system of 'Planning' was first introduced in the late 1880s to combat the squalid urban conditions which arose out of the industrial revolution. Later legislation sought to check the rapid growth of towns and to improve their appearance and amenity. Today, planning is concerned with the total environment, both urban and rural, and seeks to balance the need for various forms of development and conservation. Choices have to be made between the need for new houses, shops, businesses and offices, and the need to retain open land as farmland, recreational land and wildlife sites. Development sites also need to be well related to transport routes. Planning is also concerned with the appearance and quality of new development and with the impact of new proposals on neighbours sites. Go back to the education page to find out more about what the Council's Planning Division does. Or find out more about planning by reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica definition of urban planning.

• By making plans for the future use of land in the Borough?
• By controlling where development can and cannot take place

Examples of what planning has achieved elsewhere can be found at the Resources for Urban Design Initiative site.

If you wish to find out more about planning you might want to read this week's planning news from Planning Magazine, or visit the Royal Town Planning Institute web site this site also includes information on careers in planning. The biggest planning site on the web Cyburbia has thousands of planning links.

Or find out what it is like to plan a town or city:

• For younger children visit Make a Town. This site offers free software which can be used to make and arrange a town with houses, shops and a library and plan for its growth. You can also build a village or a farm.
• For older children and students visit the Simcity web site. Here you can register and build a city online. The site includes reference material for teachers.

Maps
The Planning Division can supply Ordnance Survey maps of the Borough to children and students attending local education authority schools in the Bury Metropolitan Borough area. (This service is not available to non-local education authority schools or for pupils from local authority schools outside the Bury M.B. area). Some maps can be downloaded direct from the Ordnance Survey website.

For further information contact the Planning Policy Section at Craig House, by Telephone 0161 253 5284, or email planning.policy@bury.gov.uk

A4 and A3 copies will be subject to a small photo copying charge, larger maps may be more expensive.

Facts and Figures

Local Information
The Bury Fact Sheet provides summary information to a number of the most frequently asked questions about the Borough.  (More detailed information by subject is listed below) :

• Census - fact sheets containing data from the 1991 Census are available from the Town Hall or local libraries.
• The Environment - The Environment Agency website.
• Greater Manchester - the Greater Manchester Research unit website provides information on the Greater Manchester area.
• House prices - information on house prices can be found at the Halifax, Nationwide Building Society and the HM Land Registry Site

National and international information

• Britannica - the Encyclopaedia Britannica online.
• Encarta - abridged version of the Microsoft encyclopaedia with maps and articles.
• England plc - facts and figures on the UK economy.
• Environment Agency - information on the national environment or put in your postcode and find local environmental information
• Office for National Statistics - official statistics and information on society, the population, and the economy of the United Kingdom. This site also contains a page for students and teachers.

Local Schools
In the future we hope to add links to environmental projects carried out by local schools. Does your school have a web site or have you carried out an environmental project that could be listed on this page? If so, let us know. Email: planning@bury.gov.uk.

• Bury Education School Net Bury LEA web site, containing a list of primary and secondary schools web sites as well as other useful information.
• If you or your school are designing a home page, why not visit Webmonkey for Kids - this site is specially designed to teach children how to make web pages. To find out what other schools are doing on the 'net why not visit the Schools Network at Kids on the Net.

Useful Links

• Adobe Acrobat Web Page and Free Down Load
• Ask Jeeves for Kids - this search actually responds to questions and not just keywords.
• Just for Kids - internet directory just for children.
• Kidland - internet directory of children's sites.
• KidInfo - information for homework and projects. Resources for children and techers.
• Kidsclick - directory of resources for children.

Environment

• BBC - the BBC Education web site provides some very good links on geography and the environment.
• Community Forests - information from the Countryside Agency on an initiative to plant native broad leaf trees. Information on our local community forest can be found at the Red Rose Forest web site.
• Discovery Channel - the Discovery Channel's school site.
• Educational Hotlists - good list of educational sites grouped by subject, prepared by the Franklin Museum, Pennsylvania.
• Environment Agency - information on the national environment or put in your postcode and find local environmental information.
• Learning Web - from the United States Geological Survey pages on biology, geology, geography and water science for schools.
• Safe Routes to Schools - pages from SUSTRANS on making the journey to and from school safer.
• UK National Air Quality Information Archive - find information on air quality and pollution in your area.
• US Environmental Protection Agency - a US based site full of information on the environment, conservation, ecology recycling etc. for younger children in the Explorers Club or older children in the Student Center.
• The Why Files? - answers to frequently asked questions with sections on environmental and social sciences.

• Encarta - abridged version of the Microsoft encyclopaedia with maps and articles.
• Microsoft Terraserver - aerial photographs from around the world.
• NASA - images from space of the earth, including cities, landscapes, oceans and the weather.
• Ordnance Survey - information on maps and mapping and downloadable maps at various scales for the UK.

Planning

• Cyburbia - thousands of links to planning and architecture related sites.

Fun sites
Learn about planning and the environment with these fun sites:

• Earth to Kids - competitions, games and teaching resources from the earth Defense Fund.
• Make a Town - free software which can be used to make and arrange a town with houses, shops and a library and plan for its growth. You can also build a village or a farm.
• Simcity register and build a city online. The site includes reference material for teachers.

Other interesting sites

• About.com - expert guides for learning - including biology, environment and geography, with a special section devoted to children and teenagers.
• East Lancashire Railway - information on the ELR, timetables, news etc.
• StudyWeb - educational resources listed by subject.
• Virtual Field Trips - go on a field trip without leaving your classroom.