President's Visit to Northern Ireland 2012

RTPI President, Colin Haylock, had a full programme in his visit to Northern Ireland in October.

 His first stop was to visit a number of regeneration projects in Derry / Londonderry, accompanied by Fiona McCandless DOE Director of Local Planning and staff from ILEX, including Ebrington and the Peace Bridge which he had some early involvement with. He saw how popular the Peace Bridge is and how it has linked the different parts of City and is being used by all including commuters, shoppers and tourists. He learned how the City is gearing itself up to being City of Culture in 2013.

After meeting staff from the DOE, the City Council and local planning consultants over lunch, Colin headed off around the City Walls with a detour to the Craft Village and the Irish Cultural Centre (An Gaelaras).

His second day was spent in Belfast, kicking off first with a breakfast with consultants and hosted by Consarc at the Gasworks Belfast.

Colin helped launch the joint RTPI / RSPB Sustainable Planning Awards at the PRONI Building (last year's winner of the Urban Development and the Built Environment category of the Awards) followed by a tour of the building.

A short walk away, Colin then met with staff and students from Belfast Metropolitan College, University of Ulster and Queens University, Belfast at the new Belfast Met College Campus located in the Titanic Quarter of the City.     

Colin had the pleasure to present a certificate to Dermot Monaghan, who was one of the top 10 candidates in the UK to have passed through the APC process recently.

The afternoon included presentations by Turley Associates and AECOM on the Titanic 

Quarter which is on land reclaimed in Belfast Harbour. This was followed by a walking tour of the area and around the signature Titanic Experience building.

The evening was spent on the floating Belfast Barge, which included the presentation of the Presidents Planning Leaders Award in Northern Ireland jointly to Mary MacIntyre and Malachy McEldowney. 

The final day of the Northern Ireland President's visit was at the RTPI NI organised event to help promote the upskilling of councillors in Northern Ireland ahead of local government reform and the devolution of planning functions.

The sell-out event at Stormont to support the capacity building of councillors to meet this challenge. Alderman Jim Dillon representing NILGA - Northern Ireland Local Government Association – laid down to councillors: "We must take on a more substantial representational role in relation to planning – that of actually designing and shaping our localities, to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of our citizens.”

Minister Alex Attwood stressed that planning is a “vast responsibility” and the planning transfer needs to be done right and fully funded and “can be the liberation of local councils … if we don’t run scared of it.” He signalled the intention to follow Scotland’s excellent example of the single policy document, and indicated the issue of a Planning Bill before Christmas.

Ross Martin, Policy Director at the Centre for Scottish Public Policy, advocated the critical councillor role and that they must take ownership of their local plan and decisions; planning committees need to have regard to the wider work of the council and use planning as a placemaking tool. He said that "Councillors are the key element of local government and planning."

Councillors are the key element of local government and planning.

RTPI President, Colin Haylock, highlighted the importance of resourcing for planning. He announced the RTPI’s intention to extend PIPA – the Politicians in Planning Association – and highlighted the opportunity that local government reform offers in introducing a Planning Aid service to Northern Ireland.