Jon Reeds is a long-established environmental journalist currently specialising in planning and regeneration. With a career spanning local government, specialist magazines and freelance writing, he has worked alongside and written about planners and transport planners for nearly 40 years, long enough to observe the emergence of modern environmentalism and their very mixed response to its demands. He has been involved with both local civic societies and national environmental groups. In 2006 he helped found Smart Growth UK, a national coalition engaged in promoting Smart Growth principles as a way of bringing a strong sustainable development ethos into the way we plan spatial development, transport and communities. He has convened its Steering Group and this book derives in part from its work and partly from his own experiences. He lives in London with his family.