Wales Planning Conference - Positive Planning for Wales

21-Jul-08

The first planning conference focused on the planning system in Wales held on 3rd July was hailed a success by delegates. Over 200 delegates attended and heard views from speakers on a range of planning issues facing Wales.

Jane Davidson, Assembly Government Minister with responsibility for planning launched a householders’ guide to tackling climate change (the guide is available to download from here) and plans to introduce new minimum standards for buildings. To see the Minister's speech, please click here.

Jim Claydon, Immediate Past President of the RTPI set out the key planning issues from around the UK and the role of the RTPI. To see Jim Claydon's presentation, click here.

John Maitland Evans, Chief Executive of the Vale of Glamorgan Council, highlighted the role planners play in achieving corporate objectives and the importance of “the ability to say no”; it is good quality projects that will stand the test of time; click here to view the presentation. This was echoed by Carole-Anne Davies of the Design Commission for Wales, who also highlighted the need to increase design knowledge and greater public design awareness. Click here to access Carole-Anne Davies' presentation.

Peter Goatley of No. 5 Chambers provided a legal view and a quick round-up of recent case history for delegates; click here to view Peter Goatley's presentation. Dave Jolley gave delegates details of how Urban Vision is working with local planning authorities on providing planning services; click here to view the presentation.

The upheaval and crisis faced by rural Wales was also raised by Dafydd Iwan, President of Plaid Cymru. He called for good planning, in terms of providing affordable housing and local amenities where they are needed in villages as well as towns; to read Dafydd Iwan's speech in Welsh click here. Christine Reeves of NLP, provided the conference with an outline of the role retail plays in place making. Christine's presentation is available here.

A series of workshops were held at the conference and reports on the discussions of the workshops can be found below:

Housing

Planning for Climate Change

Design and Sustainability

Regeneration and Place Making

Minerals and Waste

International Planning

There were calls for the Conference to be an annual event, so the search starts for a bigger venue.