Raising the Public Image of Town Planners
A new RTPI campaign champions town planners and the positive impact they have on local communities – and it needs your help…
Championing the Positive Role of Town Planners
The planning industry does not always get the best press – the stories that make the headlines usually focus on negative aspects and often are based on misinformation – so at Apex Planning Consultants we are very pleased to see a campaign aimed at championing the positive role of town planners.
Launched on World Town Planning Day (8 November), the RTPI’s (Royal Town Planning Institute) ‘It Takes Planners & You’ campaign aims to battle misinformation and champion the vital role that town planners play as partners in our planning system.
The campaign follows an RTPI survey that discovered that 87% of members felt that social media fuels misinformation around planning issues, and a quarter of them had been targeted through social media because of their role.
Apex Planning Consultants’ Director, Paul Smith, is a Chartered Town Planner and has been a member of the RTPI since 1999.
It Takes Planners & You
The campaign is encouraging the industry to share positive stories and messages about the positive role town planners play in creating the best surroundings for communities – from ensuring sufficient green spaces, supporting the environment and preparing for climate change, to enabling economic prosperity and making sure that child health and wellbeing is provided for in future plans.
It also tries to correct misconceptions around corruption within the planning arena, ensuring that the public understand the professional code of conduct that town planners operate within, and squashing the idea that the concept of 15 minute cities is designed to restrict the public’s freedom of movement.
‘It Takes Planners & You’ also encourages those outside the industry to get involved to help make their local areas the best they can be – from voicing concerns and offering potential solutions to Draft Local Plans, to becoming part of a local council or forum creating the Neighbourhood Plan.
Paul was recently invited to participate in an Open University workshop that brought members of the public and professionals together to discuss urban treescapes. During the event he encouraged the participants to engage in the planning process, and to interact with managing authorities to ensure their views on the creation and management of future and existing open space and treescapes are made known. This is a fine example of the planning profession seeking to actively engage with all, and to receive feedback to which it can respond.
Get Involved
In addition to Paul’s own recent experience, in order to spread awareness of the campaign, the RTPI has created a set of tools and resources that can be shared on social media, hosted on your website, printed out or sent to your network.
You can access the resources at www.planningyourworld.org.uk/get-involved.
This is a wonderful opportunity to shout about the positive work that we in the planning industry do – please join us in spreading the word!
If you would like to discuss your own project with us, or just find out more about what we do, please continue to browse the website or drop us an email to: info@apexplanning.co.uk without obligation.