RTPI Scotland convenor Stefano Smith sets out his plans for 2017

In response to the RTPI Scotland director Craig McLaren’s look back at the important things that have happened in Scottish planning in 2016, and my thoughts as to what may be a pivotal year in planning in Scotland this year, I have framed my manifesto for 2017 accordingly. My theme is to promote planners as ‘visionaries’, ‘facilitators’ and ‘enablers’ in creating great places and sustainable communities.

Visionaries

I will highlight the important role that planners have as visionaries that ensure we have a positive and proactive ‘routemap’ and process that allow us to work with others to create great places for people across Scotland.

Key to taking this forward is building upon RTPI Scotland’s work on Repositioning Planning and feeding in to the consultation to be published by Scottish Government.

Facilitators

I will promote continued inter-professional working and collaboration in Scotland with other built environment organisations including, for example, Chartered Institute of Housing Scotland (CIH), Institute of Civil Engineers Scotland (ICE), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Scotland (RICS), Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation Scotland (CIHT). We have already done much work on this, but it will become even more important as we move towards a new planning system.

Enablers

I will work to put planners at the forefront of promoting approaches to infrastructure delivery through the planning system in Scotland. This will involve delivering infrastructure through policy, individual projects, funding mechanisms and managing risk.

Engagement

Key to achieving this will be engaging with RTPI Scotland members and key stakeholders. Given this, I have set myself some targets for the year:

I will be using the hashtag #weneedaplan throughout the year so please feel free to use this when tweeting. You can contact me on @ConvenorRTPIS or scotland@rtpi.org.uk.