Planners must accept some responsibility for the past failings of the planning system, the president of the Irish Planning Institute has said.
Poor planning decisions had undoubtedly been made in the past, institute president Brendan Allen said, but the planning system itself needed to be radically changed.
The number of local authorities, which issue planning decisions, needed to be substantially reduced he said.
The decision-making arising from too many small planning authorities often results in poor decision-making in a national and regional context and a focus on ‘localism’. I believe that for planning purposes we need larger planning regions with greater power.”
Mr Allen was speaking at the institute’s annual conference in Kilkenny today. He said he supported the appointment of a planning regulator but said this office should be established as a division on An Bord Pleanála to avoid the creation of a new State agency. The National Spatial Strategy which was drawn up a decade ago was “no longer fit for purpose” and should be withdrawn he said. A Government policy on planning should also be developed.
While planners did have to accept some level of responsibility for the mistakes of the past, Mr Allen rejected a claim in a recent report on planning by An Taisce that planners had failed to vocalise their concerns and to exercise sufficient judgement throughout the boom. As early as 2003 the institute had called for reform of the system he said.
Reform of the planning system must be matched by political reform to restore public confidence he said.
