Today is ‘World Town Planning Day’ – a chance to recognise and celebrate the role of planners and their contributions in shaping our communities.
Now in its 71st year, WTPD is celebrated across 30 countries. Here, we bring together some soundbites from the six members of our own Planning and Regeneration team about what planning is and how it helps:
- “Planning is about shaping and managing the built and natural environment as the setting for current and future generations to lead healthy and fulfilling lives.”
- “Through the planning system, the risks of change are questioned and interrogated. The statutory planning process is underwritten by a vision of how our society should be.”
- “Planning’s role is to safeguard valued assets, balance competing agendas, and help shape a vision for more successful places.”
- “We see planning as a tool for making things happen and responding to urban challenges.”
- “Planning seeks to address complex issues – and it therefore operates in a world that is constantly changing.”
- “The planning process currently offers the best model for how the new imperatives of a climate change mitigation and biodiversity enhancement could be worked through at community level.”
We’ll be thinking today about what unites planners and their achievements across the globe at a time when town planning is probably more important than ever.
