Most importantly, SOLACE is an important potential partner for the RTPI in promoting the status of planners in Local Authorities. They need to be persuaded that a planner should ALWAYS be on a Local Authority Management Team, planning should ONLY be delivered by Chartered Members, and we need them to resource Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) as a matter of urgency in these difficult times. I will be discussing this issue further in my column next week in Planning.
I was part of a small RTPI team who met Sir Bob Kerslake, CEO of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) during the week. We met to discuss the scope for planners to be part of his "Single Conversation" with Local Authorities not least in the promotion of LDF resourcing, I am pleased to report there was a great deal of constructive dialogue. We also discussed the scope for a closer relationship between RTPI and HCA Regions. The issue of planners skills also emerged and Sue Percy's excellent work with the HCA Academy, previously the Academy of Sustainable Communities, will clearly continue. We will be holding further discussions shortly to see how relations might develop but it is clear that the RTPI's offer of support for the work of the HCA, through our Networks and Regions, might bare fruit. Watch this space!!
Next I met Steve Quartermain the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Chief Planner. We discussed, amongst many things, the possibility for higher levels of co-operation between our Regions and Government Offices (GOs). This will feature in my Regional visits this year. Some Regions invite a GO rep occasionally to their meetings, some do not. If we are to increase our influence as a body, perhaps we need to maintain regular correspondence with our GOs, collectively in the Regions, as well as for individual purposes? Steve is a great ambassador for the profession and we need to deliver results for him at CLG, particularly through the provision of practitioner experience and solutions. The RTPI Networks offer a ready made source of expertise here and Rynd Smith, RTPI Director of Policy and Practice will lead on this.
If you need reminding, my Presidential theme is "Planning Delivering Solutions" – The 2008 RTPI Awards ceremony, my last engagement of week 2, was a brilliant platform to expand on this message and provided dozens of "solutions" from throughout the UK. The event was a success due to the high calibre of award winners and superb organisation skills of Judy Woollett and her RTPI team. With the arrival of the National Policy Statements and the Infrastructure Planning Commission, it was a great joy to see the Channel Tunnel Rail Link: High Speed 1 win the Silver Jubilee Cup - a major infrastructure project delivered on time, on budget and with optimum, economic, environmental and community benefits. This surely bodes well for the planning process. 
For me personally, it was wonderful to meet so many friends from throughout the country, and to be approached by many colleagues with the phrase "Do you remember me" - difficult to miss me with the chain around my neck but impossible for me to remember everyone I have had the privilege of working with - and to hear "Do you remember me? You gave me my first job."I’m celebrating a milestone this week – I’m turning 60 and I’ve got to say I am beginning to feel my age. But I’m not alone as two other RTPI colleagues share a birthday on Valentine’s Day - Janet O'Neill, RTPI President 2008 (but who of course is many years younger than me) and Rynd Smith. It’s bad enough having my surname but apparently my grandmother also wanted to call me "Valentine"!
Catch up soon,Martin.
Photographs: © Haymarket
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