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Planners: indespensible to good local government or public enemy number 1?
- 1. Planners: Indispensable to successful local government? OR Public enemy number one?
- 2. structure of the presentation • my perspective on what it must be like to be a planner in the present context • What skills do we need planners to have in a corporate context and an external context? • Three characteristics make planners valuable contributors to their own organisations and to the wider world; the “boundary spanner” ( or “reticulism’), the entrepreneur and as an “interpreter” • Look at some case studies relating to these characteristics • Draw some conclusions 2 2
- 5. 5 5
- 7. National Government Regional Government County Council City District Council Council Town/Parish Council Community action teams
- 8. Freedom?
- 9. so planners must this is our context..... be... globalisation localism reticulists interconnectedness fragmentation co-ordinators transparency complexity communicators personalisation austerity entrepreneurs certainty ambiguity interpreters
- 10. reticulists... • A reticulist is someone who possesses skills in creating, servicing and manipulating communication networks, and is astute at identifying where in an organisation a decision in which she/he is interested would be made. • The role of the reticulist applies to the development of inter-sectoral collaboration. • They are ‘skilled conveners’ who appreciate the potential for mutual exchange and envision a mission which can be fulfilled through joint participation. • Reticulist skills are associated too with boundary crossing and strategic thinking. Reticulists identify the key resource holders and fellow reticulists in their own and other agencies. Adrian Davis: Independent health and transport consultant
- 11. reticulist entrepreneur interpreter Interpersonal Networking Brokering relationships Managing Listening and Entrepreneurial accountabilities empathy Appreciates Innovative and Framing and sense- different modes of creative making governance § Political skills and Tolerates risk Building trust diplomacy “The competent boundary spanner”: Paul Williams:Public Administration (2002) Vol 80
- 12. Integrated spatial Manifestation planning The reticulist at work Duty to Horizontal integration co-operate NNPF Vertical integration neighbourhood plans community plan Organisational corporate plan integration Housing policy NH Bonus Local economic local growth plan growth LEZs +LEPs Adapted from: “Effective Practice in 21st century CIL Spatial Planning.” Janice Morphet infrastructure Asset maximisation (2011) Routledge
- 13. Case study Nottingham City Council, Broxtowe Borough Council, Gedling District Council, Erewash Borough Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council have worked together in a combined joint advisory committee to deliver over £11m of schemes across the conurbation which promote growth and green infrastructure under the ‘growth point “ programme. We have also worked together to produce an “aligned core strategy” http://tinyurl.com/dykyrk7
- 14. reticulist entrepreneur interpreter Interpersonal Networking Brokering relationships Managing Listening and Entrepreneurial accountabilities empathy Appreciates Innovative and Framing and sense- different modes of creative making governance § Political skills and Tolerates risk Building trust diplomacy “The competent boundary spanner”: Paul Williams:Public Administration (2002) Vol 80
- 15. The entrepreneur at work
- 16. Case Study: Vauban Germany
- 17. Case Study Chicago Urban Forest
- 18. reticulist entrepreneur interpreter Interpersonal Networking Brokering relationships Managing Listening and Entrepreneurial accountabilities empathy Appreciates Innovative and Framing and sense- different modes of creative making governance § Political skills and Tolerates risk Building trust diplomacy “The competent boundary spanner”: Paul Williams:Public Administration (2002) Vol 80
- 19. “Planners must accept the value of a mobilisation effort The interpreter at work generated within civil society, however uncomfortable this might seem to be. It means appreciating that others in many arenas and networks in an urban area may have a better capacity than technical experts to “summon up” an idea of an ‘urban region” that has widespread resonance and mobilisation force within a particular governance context” “Urban Complexity and spatial Strategies : (2007) P. Healy P.281
- 20. Community Professional Political Perspectives Perspectives Managerial Perspectives Perspectives Text Managerial Perspectives Local Political Perspectives Perspectives
- 21. Case Study Loughton Neighbourhood development plan • Create allotments OR turn into area for “green burials”, tree planting. • Create parking/drop off area opposite the school • Create a wildflower meadow • Any new development to have adequate parking provision
- 22. Case Study contd. • “This area is not suitable for residential development” • “No additional dwellings permitted for development within the Conservation Area” • “No buildings or structures shall be constructed on the paddocks” • “No building structures will be built on this open land” • “The open space shall remain green open space and not subject to further residential development” • “No residential development permitted in the existing area of the park and no other commercial or other buildings” • “The area will be kept free of any residential development.” • “The area shall remain free from any residential development” • “The two churches and the Memorial Hall shall remain as Community facility and not converted to residential development.”
- 23. “Flexibility must be built into the masterplan as unforeseen circumstances are always likely to arise. An essential function of a masterplan is to provide a framework for development that will be delivered over time, incrementally, while retaining the quality of design principles and without lowering standards” TCPA (2011)“Benefits and lessons in bringing forward comprehensively planned new communities”
- 24. Conclusions • Planners must not see themselves as confined to their own departments, involved in the narrow business of approving/refusing planning applications and creating local plans. They bring strategic thinking, knowledge and visionary capacity to the whole organisation from both inside and outside its boundaries • Planners must act as inspirational forces for longer term thinking within their organisations - to help their authorities think of future possibilities . • Planners need increasingly honed communication skills to act as co-creators, challengers, and listeners;to interpret the past , reinvent the present and imagine the future.
Editor's Notes
- Sitting in my cabinet the other day when a prominent member who shall be nameless on receiving a report from one of my planning officers on a consultation from the county council on a minerals extraction application which said that in her professional opinion the application should not be objected to on planning grounds said “ but I don’t understand - we expressed our views on this application in council. Why hasn’t the officer followed our direction and come forward with a report which expresses that? The professional views of planners can sometimes seem obnoxious to politicians, communities and lets face it occasionally even to chief executives!
- Sometimes it seems planners have been hung out to dry! I am often conscious of making myself a human shield to protect planners from the wrath of politicians.
- Sometimes it might seem like the chief qualification of a planner is to develop the hide of a rhinoserous!
- The LDF process was meant to be a “streamlined” and “simpler’ process. I can hear the hollow laughs resounding round the room!Even the business of abolishing the regional spatial strategies is proving to be more complex than the government bargained for!Shortly after the NNPF was published I received a tweet telling me the recession was officially over for planning lawyers and planning consultants.Planning is a complicated business. Running a leisure centre seems fairly straightforward by comparison ( don’t tell my director of housing leisure and culture I said that! )
- There we were. Bowed down by the heavy weight of being told how many houses to build in our areas.
- Now... we have freedom! Do we feel better! Probably not on balance!
- 1. At a time when companies are global in their reach; when architecture and ideas are shared instantly across the world, when economic problems in one part of the world have a much wider reach, planners are asked to pay attention to the local concerns of small individual areas, and recognise the uniqueness of each individual place.Planners are to be the boundary spanners, or reticulists, of our organisations. 2. In a world which is increasingly inter connected, through technology, social networking,transportation and media prevalence, at the same time it becomes increasingly complex, multi-dimensional , diverse and potentially fragmented. The planner’s job is to act as co-ordinators and linkers, always looking outwards, not inwards, and recognising where it is important to join things up. 3. People today demand information, accountability, openness. They have rights to shape and influence, to challenge, insist and protest. In that world planners need to be superb communicators. 4. People want to influence what happens in their area - exercise choice over the services they receive. At the same time we are living in an era of unprecedented austerity, so the demands on planners is to join with other officers in the need to be entrepreneurial, look at the world differently. Imagine how it might be, not as it has always been. 5. Nobody likes uncertainty. Everyone wants to know what will happen when and what will it look like. However in view of the fact that our community is so diverse and people have rights to choose what seems best to them, plans have to have a degree of ambiguity and flexibility to enable them to encompass a range of viewpoints. This not only requires planners to be master wordsmiths but to be interpreters to local communities of both the future the present and the past
- Commission on the future of local government July 2012. Chaired by Cllr Keith Wakefield Leader of Leeds city Council “ In the 19th century local government started to provide the infrastructure and utilities of water, electricity, sewers and public health. The new economic, social, environmental and technological challenges of the 21st century and beyond demand new infrastructure and different utilities to help create smarter towns and cities. Councils have a central role in commissioning this new infrastructure. For example enabling affordable and good quality ultra fast broadband, low carbon energy and cheaper fuel bills, housing for first time buyers and older people and transport systems. There is also a case to think differently about the social infrastructure that the 21st century demands; how to create multi-use assets that have social value and act as community hubs, including public spaces and parks, schools and cultural amenities. Towns and cities need to find new approaches to bring together dynamic local intelligence and understanding to inform better modelling, decision making and action to run local assets.