Presidential visit to Northern Ireland

Maybe being 60 isn’t quite so bad? I had a lovely birthday weekend with my family and friends where the young went to bed first and appeared to recover slowest!

My first commitment of the week was meeting with the RTPI Executive Board. We are delighted to welcome three new members - Janice Morphet and Mark Southgate, Corporate Members elected for 2009-2010 and Young Planners representative Charlie Collins – I’m looking forward to working with them over the coming year. As an Institute we are approaching 23,000 members and are seeing the gender structure change from 70/30% male/female currently, to a 60/40% female/male intake of youth which is good to see. There are only three female trustees out of 15 although the RTPI General Assembly (GA) is moving towards a better mix. Nonetheless, 2008 RTPI President Janet O’Neill and future 2010 President Ann Skippers are female and I expect to see the trend of greater female involvement in the RTPI’s governance continue. A good example is the election of Leonora Rozee, a long standing member of GA as vice president of the Town and Country Planning Summer School, to be President next year.

However, I regret that we are not being so successful in addressing ethnicity with a very small percentage of members in comparison to the community we serve. Last year, the Board had two members from non white groups; this year none. This is one of the reasons I have chosen a presidential charity that concentrates on Africa, the largest of our Commonwealth friends. LINK Community Development http://www.lcd.org.uk is an educational charity that raises money for Black education. Their CEO Steve Blunden is an enthusiastic and able leader, growing the organisation to help promote understanding of the African issues in the West and bring about an improvement in educational attainment in Africa itself. We are discussing projects within RTPI Botolph Lane but I hope to raise enough money to provide a placement for one or two RTPI Young Planners to go out and promote better dialogue between planners and educators in local authorities and perhaps participate in a project such as building teachers housing in the rural areas to attract teachers there. Watch this space and expect me on my RTPI Presidential Regional and National visits to ask you to raise cash for this outstanding charity.

I also had my first Presidential engagement in the wonderful community that is Northern Ireland. My wife Philly and I visited Belfast and represented the RTPI at two events, both at Stormont, the most spectacular government building I have visited. The first was the RTPI-RSPB Northern Ireland Sustainable Planning Awards 2009 where we were treated to a wonderful series of presentations varying from a 60 hectare community to a small lock keepers cottage based centre providing visitor services as part of a tourist attraction. The winners included a Theatre in Derry that had been refurbished to provide community support of a truly sustainable nature. The link between the RTPI and RSPB is one of great synergy and may I thank the Director Aidan Lonergan, his team and the RTPI Northern Ireland (NI) Branch team for their excellent organisation.

The second event was the RTPI NI Branch Annual dinner addressed by the sometimes controversial Minister for the Environment, Sammy Wilson MP MLA. It was a memorable experience. Sammy was a kindred spirit, clearly hugely enthusiastic about planning and the RTPI. His after dinner speech was highly amusing but most importantly, extremely supportive of the RTPI NI Branch. At the moment, Northern Ireland is undergoing a Review of Public Administration including new District Councils with planning powers, previously applied solely from the centre. In my reply to Sammy I offered thanks on behalf of the RTPI for his support and extended the possibility of sharing with his department, perhaps at a Convention later in the year, some of our English experience of change and in particular lessons learned from our 2004 Act. Northern Ireland has a special opportunity to learn from English experience, good and bad, and commence a new period of sustainable and spatial planning that might be a catalyst for all the change the community is seeking. I wish them well.

At the end of the evening, the RTPI NI Branch Presidential chain was passed from Fiona McCandless to Gavan Rafferty, both clearly at the younger end of the profession! For Philly and I, it was a special visit as two of our children have recently married into Northern Irish families. We were both looked after with great kindness and courtesy by the RTPI NI Branch team for which we thank you. We love the Northern Irish community, although this coming Saturday when Ireland play England at Croke Park, Dublin, we will, of course, be supporting England!!!

Finally, many of you have visited this blog but nobody has responded to the issues I have raised. I encourage you all to do so, so that the blog becomes both a Presidential communications service to members and an opportunity for you to ask questions or raise issues for wider discussion.

All the best

Martin
2009 RTPI President