Words and actions sit hand in hand in developing planning achievements

Planning, 5 September 2008

The Planning Summer School is under way and this means that autumn is not far behind. The annual elections for the institute's key positions are on the horizon. What roles are up for grabs and why should people want to stand?

The largest field is for a place on the general assembly. This body has a role in debating and formulating the institute's policy. It is made up of members who have stood for election as individuals as well as representatives of each region and nation elected in their own area. The assembly also has representatives from legal and technical sectors, licentiates or students and associations. Members serve for two years, and half of the assembly is elected each year. Members attend four meetings a year, three of which are in London, and they may serve on one of the institute committees.

The general assembly is the body from which the executive board is usually selected. This forms the institute's trustees. But members may also stand for the board without being assembly members. After two years on the assembly, members are eligible to stand for election as junior vice-president. The post gives automatic progression to senior vice-president and then president.

Planners generally have a commitment to improve the environment and lives of the people where they practice. It is more a mission than a job. By becoming involved in the operation and practices of our professional institute, we can extend the influence we have over the success of planning.

"It is so easy to criticise," I recall my school art mistress asserting, "but much harder to achieve oneself". If we have frustrations or dissatisfactions with the way that the profession is evolving or what it is achieving, it is much better to get stuck in and help make improvements via our corporate body. I would encourage members, particularly those with experience on regions and nations activity committees, to consider standing for election. Nominations are open until the end of the month and the elections are held in November. Results are announced early in December.

Half of my presidential visits are now complete and I look forward to meeting the remaining regions and nations. Also enjoyable are the speaking engagements I am invited to as president. Last month, a conference brought together speakers from a range of bodies to discuss how the empowerment agenda could be progressed.

The morning session on consistent and strong local leadership included communities and local government secretary Hazel Blears, Local Government Association chairman Sir Simon Milton and British Urban Regeneration Association chief executive Michael Ward. The audience was mostly local government officers and charity workers who face daily challenges in increasing the role of community groups in their neighbourhoods and organising activities. They discussed the potential of the empowerment white paper to bring benefits.

My session on how best to co-ordinate social, economic and physical regeneration was a great opportunity to put over the message on spatial planning. I explained how, in developing spatial strategies, planners can bring together a range of community needs and aspirations and identify the public and private agents and agencies that can deliver them. I stressed that local development frameworks are a primary means of realising the ambitions of local strategic partnerships and community strategies.

Spatial planning is not a top-down activity and it needs to be built on proper engagement with the potential partners in delivery and the communities they serve and affect. This includes hard-to-reach groups and those not normally engaged, which allowed mention of Planning Aid and the huge importance of its case work and outreach work. It is not possible to know, other than in the questions following a talk, how far the message is distributed. But in explaining and extolling the benefits of our profession we will increase the success of our labours.

Janet O'Neill is RTPI president. For further information and election nomination forms, please visit www.rtpi.org.uk, contact James Taylor on 020 7929 8172 or email james.taylor@rtpi.org.uk.