I was invited to speak at the National Planning Forum at the Local Government Association yesterday on the theme "What next for planning?". Honestly! It was another of those "What would I know?" moments. I shouldn't really have accepted the invitation, but I do like the cerebral planning mob, and my ego got the better of me (flattery will get you anywhere, as you well know, Mike Hayes).
I think my role at these events these days is that of comic
curmudgeon. A sort of "angry old woman" meets regeneration practitioner
incandescent with rage about the funking of common sense, coupled with
the lack of decency and trust. Oh, and for good measure: how impossible
it is to get anything done.
The worst thing about this gig was that I had to follow a glittering array of really clever people: Matthew Spry of NLP really has to be one of our finest private sector planners, and Mike Kiely of Croydon council and the Planning Officers Association really has to be one of our finest public sector planners. These guys imbue confidence. One feels that the quality of the built environment really is safe in their hands.
Richard Blythe of RTPI was authoritative and refreshingly pragmatic; and totally honest about the breakdown of trust. And, as I have no clue as to "what next for planning?", really, I chose instead to tackle "what next in defence of planning?" and urged the old planners there to push back in the protection of our built environment and our country against this bonkers notion that it is our planning system that inhibits growth.
Start looking outward, I shouted, dump the earnest place-making clichés, ditch the elephantine processes. And most of all, don't give in to pressure to give approvals to stuff which is obvious short-term junk. Philip Inman in the Guardian said on Monday that "developers are as culpable as bankers - they need sticks not carrots". A bit outré and extreme perhaps. But it gets the point over.
And it was rather intimidating in the room, such a concentration of brain power. All the big stars in town planning were there: Michael Bach, Brian Waters, Roger Pidgeon, Ian Phillips, Corrine Swain to name but a few. I was delighted to observe the lack of any of the bleating "It's not fair!" (the universal cry of the toddler) that you normally get whenever a (collective noun please) of planners is congregated.
Last on the bill was our keynote speaker, Alex Morton of Policy Exchange, who is the progenitor of the latest policy thrust of course, and who really does have three brains. He made a hugely cerebral case for market realism in planning reform grounded in hard economic theory and global comparisons. I tried to follow as best I could, but I was struggling. I then regretted that I hadn't really explained my own complete (and conviction of the converted) devotion to localism properly. And I may go back to them about how to drive bottom-up regeneration.
I do think that, given all the wrong-headed nonsense about planning inhibiting economic growth, that planners should start to really give the development industry (and the government) something to think about. The public is, essentially, on the side of a decent and trustworthy planning system. And I reckon it is time to take the case to the people, offer new hope to towns and cities, point to great examples out there and talk to real people, not just other planners.
All in all I was ever so glad I went. Even if planners en masse are a little scary.
The worst thing about this gig was that I had to follow a glittering array of really clever people: Matthew Spry of NLP really has to be one of our finest private sector planners, and Mike Kiely of Croydon council and the Planning Officers Association really has to be one of our finest public sector planners. These guys imbue confidence. One feels that the quality of the built environment really is safe in their hands.
Richard Blythe of RTPI was authoritative and refreshingly pragmatic; and totally honest about the breakdown of trust. And, as I have no clue as to "what next for planning?", really, I chose instead to tackle "what next in defence of planning?" and urged the old planners there to push back in the protection of our built environment and our country against this bonkers notion that it is our planning system that inhibits growth.
Start looking outward, I shouted, dump the earnest place-making clichés, ditch the elephantine processes. And most of all, don't give in to pressure to give approvals to stuff which is obvious short-term junk. Philip Inman in the Guardian said on Monday that "developers are as culpable as bankers - they need sticks not carrots". A bit outré and extreme perhaps. But it gets the point over.
And it was rather intimidating in the room, such a concentration of brain power. All the big stars in town planning were there: Michael Bach, Brian Waters, Roger Pidgeon, Ian Phillips, Corrine Swain to name but a few. I was delighted to observe the lack of any of the bleating "It's not fair!" (the universal cry of the toddler) that you normally get whenever a (collective noun please) of planners is congregated.
Last on the bill was our keynote speaker, Alex Morton of Policy Exchange, who is the progenitor of the latest policy thrust of course, and who really does have three brains. He made a hugely cerebral case for market realism in planning reform grounded in hard economic theory and global comparisons. I tried to follow as best I could, but I was struggling. I then regretted that I hadn't really explained my own complete (and conviction of the converted) devotion to localism properly. And I may go back to them about how to drive bottom-up regeneration.
I do think that, given all the wrong-headed nonsense about planning inhibiting economic growth, that planners should start to really give the development industry (and the government) something to think about. The public is, essentially, on the side of a decent and trustworthy planning system. And I reckon it is time to take the case to the people, offer new hope to towns and cities, point to great examples out there and talk to real people, not just other planners.
All in all I was ever so glad I went. Even if planners en masse are a little scary.
Jackie
it is always good to read a good rant and I am delighted to hear you express what so many feel about the current approach to blaming the planning system for the economic woes of our country. I also share your view that we as planners have to continue to do more to make the case for planning and we also need to adopt the culture change necessary to really engage with people in a way that stimulates a positive approach to the planning of our nation and not one based on NIMBYism. It is unfortunate that we have in post a Minister who has a publicly expressed antipathy to planning (as well as one in DECC who doesn't believe in climate change!), however much he tried to distance himself from those views when challenged by Kirsty Wark on Newsnight (was there ever a more cringe making moment than for a Minister to declare that his views were merely attention seeking?).
Readers might like to view the report of the debate on Reconstructing England at Planning Summer School in LIverpool www.planningsummerschool.org.uk where Bill Chandler, a highly respected planner from Australia, said how appalled he was by the “narrow idealogical agenda” being followed by this Government and he asked “how long the delusion can go on?” I think many of us would like to know the answer to that qeustion but meanwhile as planners we have to make the best of what we have and that means embracing change in the way we do things and in how we conduct our debates.