Planner pen portraits

Number ten: The planner’s planner

I like being able to point out the window and show interesting developments I have been involved in. You can see the results of your work in the physical environment all around you as a planner. I work for the Council in the place I used to visit my grandparents as a child. I have the odd prick of conscience about some of the development we allow (yes, I did recommend approval for *that scheme* and I’d rather not discuss it), but I do try and make things less bad, and sleep better at night for it. On the whole, I reckon that I am doing some good in the world.

My husband, who works in the private sector, thinks I’m a dosser, that public sector work is a breeze compared to his long hours, but it’s become a bit tougher since austerity has reduced staff numbers in my department.

In my more cash-hungry moments, like when I think of having a bigger garden for the kids, I feel the pull of the private sector, but I won’t ever actually move. I think some people are cut out for private practice in planning, and some for local government. You have to have a thick skin if you’re a planner: we’re often unsung heroes but we go about our business quietly and make significant improvements to proposals to promote the public good through our understanding of a place and how the local politics work.

For me the public interest can be achieved at a variety of scales by making decisions in accordance with policy. Getting decisions like that, and better yet then actually seeing them built, is really rewarding.

Quotes

"I mean, well, surely the public interest is to make decisions in accordance with the policy which has been proofed to look at those public interest tests … it could be government policies in terms of education, healthcare, care for the elderly, all those things are coming into play … But it could be something as little as an extension blocking out somebody’s light but that extension’s for someone who is disabled. What’s the public interest? You’ve got to weigh up that this man has less light in his back kitchen, or this other man gets his wheelchair into the shower, that’s the balance that has to be struck."

"It goes down from the very, very hyperlocal interest, the neighbours worried about the loft conversion [to an] impact internationally."

"The purpose of planning changes so much, depending … I started under a Labour government, now we’re in a weird Tory government and you can see, even from that small period of time, the purpose has changed so much."

"I know what the idealistic purpose of planning is, it’s either building better places, the right homes in the right places, all these kinds of lines you see and that’s a good purpose, but whether it delivers that is anybody’s guess."

"For me, I have a line where I will never write anything, or never say anything or do anything that I … not never, but I won’t write something just because that has to be written … It’s got a political decision, but I’m not going to sit here and say black is white."

Notes

  • Works in local government

  • May have worked outside local government, but only briefly

  • Thinks about the public interest being under­standable at different scales and having a political dimension

  • Sees the purpose of planning as building better places with a concern for sustainability

  • Most likely thinks about policy and policy compliance a lot

  • Very systems and procedure driven

  • May well understand the local geography fairly well and even have connections to the authority they work for (such as living there, and thus have their own local knowledge)