Town planner: Job description and activities
Job description
Town and country planning (town planning for short) involves making long- and short-term decisions about the management and development of towns and the countryside. It aims to balance the conflicting demands of housing, industrial development, agriculture, recreation, transport and the environment, to allow appropriate development to take place. Town planning is also considered a significant element in tackling climate change.
Town planners are at the heart of urban regeneration within cities and local councils, taking into account the views of a wide range of people. In rural areas they must balance the demand for sustainable rural development with the need to preserve the countryside.
Typical work activities
Town planning is a broad area of work, which requires many different skills. Some town planners may specialise, for example, in enforcement or development control. In general, tasks typically involve:
- researching and analysing data about a specific topic, such as minerals or a geographical area, and then coordinating this data with information gathered from a variety of sources, such as basic survey work, to enable informed judgements to be made;
- promoting environmental education and awareness, which may include helping disadvantaged groups express their opinions about planning issues and proposals, and visiting sites to assess the effects of such proposals on people or the environment;
- consulting interested parties and negotiating development proposals with local authorities and others, including liaising with other professionals, such as surveyors and architects;
- attending and presenting at planning appeals and public inquiries;
- developing creative and original solutions to satisfy all parties;
- recalling data, facts and procedures accurately;
- designing layouts and drafting design statements;
- assessing planning applications and enforcing and monitoring regulations as necessary;
- drafting policies;
- scheduling available resources to meet targets;
- writing reports, often of a complex nature, which make recommendations or explain detailed regulations - these reports may be for a range of groups, from local borough councils to regional assemblies or members of the public;
- dealing with the public, including presenting proposals at public meetings or planning committees - often these meetings bring together very different groups of people and planners may encounter hostility to their proposals, which they need to deal with effectively and sensitively;
- using information technology systems such as CAD (computer-aided design) or GIS (geographical information systems);
- working to tight deadlines to meet client expectations or procedural regulations.
AGCAS
Written by Jo Speed, University of Stirling
Last updated:
January 2008
