Convention had a clear theme, quality control and communicated key messages effectively

We were quite worried about five weeks before this year's Planning Convention – numbers were down – but a last ditch effort nonetheless resulted in a timely surge in attendees to just over 600, compared to 680 last year. I asked them at the end whether they enjoyed it and was delighted with the huge "yes" - and they had good reason.
The six plenary sessions were excellent - as one delegate put it to me, “extending the mind from a routine job in development control ...” - and the breakout sessions were very good too.





This convention was different, not just because of the last minute surge in numbers, but because the RTPI-Hawksmere teams, led by Trustee Mike Hayes and Director Sue Percy, were determined to establish a clear theme and then apply quality control to all events.
Another important difference was our communications strategy.
We struck it lucky in receiving the Housing and Planning Minister John Healey, and launching "Planning to Live with Climate Change" initiative - special thanks to Director Rynd Smith and Junior Vice President Richard Summers - on the same day, in the same place, as a major launch of the weather forecast for the next 60 years, launched by a minister that confirmed the value of the RTPI’s seven commitments to address Climate Change.





This meant that our press releases, put together by Tino Hernandez’s team, secured wide national coverage and added to the broader communications messages we were promoting to the usual suspects, such as Planning Magazine.

Our communications expertise is now spinning out to the membership - through consultancy to Regions and Nations and a vastly improved website, and government and stakeholder strategy.
Certainly, the realisation of one of my presidential aims, to increase the profile of the RTPI and the profession, is being achieved and there is more to come.



The Convention was also used for seven launches and five awards, with special sessions to meet the Communities and Local Government team, led by Chief Planner Steve Quartermain, and the RTPI Presidential Team.



Perhaps my most pleasant Convention task, apart from addressing the delegates, was to award Sunand Prasaad, the Royal Institute of British Architects' President, with an Honorary Membership of the RTPI. Sunand has always been a planning champion, but his performance the previous week, with another honorary member Nick Raynsford, on the Today radio programme, explaining and supporting the democratic planning process in so far as it affected the Chelsea Barracks saga, was fantastic.



Well done Sunand and welcome to the RTPI.
After the Convention closed, with a highly amusing debate led by Kevin Murray, in which he chastised planners for being Guardian readers, not Times readers – I read the Weekend FT, Kevin! – I had one final pleasurable task to perform.





Leonora Rozee, the deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) is retiring and, to celebrate this occasion, and also most importantly, the award of a CBE to our Secretary General Robert Upton, a modest reception of close friends was held just off St James’s Park, on a balmy evening in a quiet garden.
Richard McCarthy described what an important contribution Leonora had made to national planning policy and practice. I provided personal experience of Robert’s intellectual and leadership qualities and introduced a support team:

• Paul Farmer, Executive Director and CEO of the American Planning Association, providing an anecdote regarding Robert’s no nonsense and direct approach to decision taking;


• Chris Shepley explaining how Robert was to be immortalised in his next book on the Grotton Papers; and


• Charles Veal, the RTPI Member Services Manager, giving a touching eulogy about the respect for Robert amongst staff.

I was able to conclude the proceedings by emphasising how much Robert deserved his gong.
Well done, Robert and Leonora!

Martin Willey,
RTPI 2009 President

Planning at the coalface - challenged in every direction

The visit to the RTPI South East Region covered a lot of ground, from Didcot Parkway to Romsey. My guide was regional chair, Martin Taylor, Director of Humberts Leisure, and our first stop was to South Oxfordshire District Council offices, at Wallingford.

I went to meet Adrian Duffield, Head of Planning there and in the adjoining Vale of the White Horse council - as the 2 councils, one Tory, one Lib Dem, had combined their administration, but not their councils!
Adrian manages the most efficient development management process I have seen with daily and weekly, individual and team monitoring sessions. All of his teams were lively and enthusiastic, clearly keen to perform.
We moved to Abingdon, in the Vale of the White Horse, and there, Mike Gilbert, DC Manager, took us on a tour of the town centre - in particular, to an excellent mixed new and conservation scheme, based on the Old Brewery, as illustrated here.
We then returned for lunch, to meet councillors from all parties and members of the Management Team. Here, the discussion ranged from the problems of delivering a Local Development Framework to the detailed consideration of an urban extension.

Reading was a short journey away and Alison Bell, Head of Planning, took us with members of her team, around Reading Town Centre. Alison has worked here longer than she cares to admit, and I was impressed by her vision and commitment to change the centre. As I am someone who mainly sees Reading from a train, the tour and contributions from her team were inspiring. A clear framework has emerged with proper “grain” and, despite the economy, major parts of the jigsaw were clearly about to emerge, to build on the success in transforming a difficult environment. All credit to you all.

Reading University Planning School, now part of the Henley Business School - brings tears of pleasure to my eyes, to hear that planners are educated in a Business School! - is an excellent new, energy efficient building, in the pleasant parkland campus. Dr Alina Congreve, Dr Gavin Parker and others met us with a lively group of students, from an extraordinary range of backgrounds, who challenged me on the motive and process for me becoming President.
Conversely their motive was a 50-50 mixture of either wanting to change the world, or stumbling across planning and then becoming inspired.
The RTPI is working on material to capture young people’s interest at secondary school level, and there is clearly considerable potential to increase awareness of planning as a career.
The work on display was impressive and DVDs of the best were a good way of spreading the word about the quality of the course.

Planning Aid is one of the many RTPI success stories of recent years, and Dagmar Hutt is the excellent local co-ordinator. She had assembled a diverse group of practitioners to explain their jobs and promote Planning Aid to new graduates. It was helpful to hear such a diverse range of planning careers. One memorable one had moved into planning from dissecting animals for research – lots of relevant experience there, then!!

And now for something completely different….
The new “New Forest National Park Authority”, where newly appointed Director of Strategy and Planning, Steve Avery, welcomed us to offices rather appropriately at the back of a Garden Centre!
We visited a site where his team, of mainly very young planners, is breaking new ground in rural conservation areas that picked up Forest history and settlement patterns, not just buildings.
The other particular challenge concerned local residents' resistance to the proper interpretation of the General Development Order, requiring planning consent for change of use from agricultural to horse keeping - over a thousand objectors! This is certainly planning at the coalface.

Finally, to New Forest District Council Offices, where Young Planner Chair Ed Gerry chaired a meeting on “Managing Pressures on Sensitive Sites”, with offers from Natural England, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and the National Park Authority. After a lively discussion, I was dropped off at Romsey station and managed to stay awake and not miss my change of trains at Westbury, despite a challenging few days.

My personal reflection from this visit is to applaud the efforts of our colleagues in local authorities. Challenged within by non planner representative management teams, politically from government to release a five-year supply of housing land, but locally to delay such releases until an expected change in government might change the figures, from applicants requiring considerable powers of persuasion to submit green proposals, and from objectors determined to slow down or stop development, being a Local Authority planner requires real leadership and professional skills – well done, the South East.

Developer with courage to invest in green future

First call Cardiff, at a pre conference reception in the City Hall...
RTPI Cymru is thriving under the leadership of their chair, and Director Roisin Willmott has galvanised member interest in the country.
Wales has a National Spatial Strategy and, as was demonstrated at the Conference the following day, ministerial support in Jane Davidson AM (Welsh Assembly Government Minister) in delivering a substantial sustainability and climate change agenda through the planning system.
I understand she also announced yet another review of the planning system in Wales! What we need is a review of the capacity of the development industry to deliver sustainable communities. If better schemes were submitted, the process of stakeholder consultation and approval would speed up immediately.
Next, on to Belfast with Philly, to the Northern Ireland visit. If you recall my last visit, it included an excellent awards ceremony with the RSPB and, at the end of it, I asked if I might visit some of the winners.
First, however, a Young Planners reception at Café Vaudeville, the launch of the Northern Ireland section by its chair – sponsored by the estimable Michael Burrows and Pragma Planning.
A lively debate ensued surrounding the optimism for the proposed local authority restructuring that will create “super councils” to take on planning responsibilities from government. The following morning, an interview with Radio Ulster regarding the importance of planning in delivering a vision for the community; then breakfast with a group of planning consultants, who clearly felt they were the poor relations as far as the RTPI was concerned. I found it relatively easy to disabuse them of this notion, describing where consultants, as 50% of the membership, were actively engaged in governance to mutual advantage. We agreed an agenda of Branch engagement and I look forward to seeing the results shortly.

Brokerstown Village, one of the award winners on the outskirts of the city, is an interesting example of the courage of a local developer to invest in a huge bio mass boiler for a scheme that, in the current market, will take many years to take up the energy capacity of the £2.7 million investment. Good architecture and clearly well thought out scheme illustrated here.
Then off to a hugely important lunchtime meeting with Stephen Peover, the Department Secretary. He is about to be promoted to NI Treasury Secretary and has been a keen supporter of RTPI NI, for example, agreeing to pay for subscriptions for the several hundred planners in his department. We agreed a process of more formal civil service and branch liaison, in particular concerning training for councillors and members.

Ulster University Planning School followed with an excellent meeting, led by their Head, Prof Greg Lloyd, who recently completed a helpful report for government on planning reform. The meeting with students centred on careers and I was able to offer a wider than perceived choice, especially with the likely increase in jobs following reform.
Finally for the day, a delightful dinner, sponsored by Fleming Mountstephen Planning, in the recently refurbished Ulster Hall. This was a lively affair with the “crème de la crème” of Northern Ireland planners where, as a result of their generosity, I was able to bank £150 for my Presidential charity, LINK Community Development.
Up early the following morning, with Gavan Rafferty current and David Worthington, Past RTPI NI Chairs, to Londonderry – firstly, for an interview on Radio Derry regarding the Playhouse Scheme, another Award winner; then via Mary Macintyre’s (Senior Vice Chair) divisional planning office, many of whom joined us for the Playhouse visit. The scheme is exceptional – a dream of Pauline Ross, turned into reality by Niall McCaughan, and now a driving force for arts, theatre and community support in this city, with an extraordinary, and at times terrible history.

Finally, finally back to Queen’s University to meet David Cleland, Head of School, and an excellent team of lecturers, again the discussion with students centring on careers. We finished the day in East Belfast right in the centre of an area which faces many challenges, where students were presenting regeneration schemes to a community representative. Perhaps the most startling contribution from a very enthusiastic and committed group of future planners was that one team had produced a model of their proposals shown here. No problems about how to communicate what planners have in mind. Very well done!
I would be wrong in not admitting to us both being a little tired! Nonetheless, a rewarding and encouraging visit, which I believe will lead to improved communications between Botolph Lane and the branch, especially with our policy officer Brian Sore in place. We need one of him for each of the English Regions!

Martin Willey

RTPI 2009 President