INSIGHT
Plan B P
BRING ON THE GLAMOUR PLANNER
WOT’S GOIN’ ON ’ERE, THEN?
“I’m telling you,” insists a prominent young planner to Plan B at a debate about city freedoms (we’re just too cool). “Hugh Ellis wrote The Bill. His colleague, REDACTED, told me.” “Nonsense, nonsense,” we baa-ed in true Stephen Fry stylee. “The TCPA’s head of policy hasn’t the time for such frivolities. He’s a deeply serious man.” The young planner smiled and shrugged. “I’m serious. He wrote The Bill.” A quick bit of research (thanks Wikipedia) reveals that there is, indeed, a screenwriter named Hugh Ellis who wrote nine episodes of the nation’s leading police station-based soap opera between 1997 and 2002. One of them bore the intriguing title This Land Is Ours. Hmm. It can’t be, surely? Not Dr Hugh Ellis, planning firebrand, university lecturer, Friends of the Earth adviser, TCPA head of policy and heavyweight author of such tomes as Rebuilding Britain: Planning For A Better Future? He can’t possibly be the same man as Mr Hugh Ellis, writer of nine The Bill episodes, award-winning film Summer starring Robert Carlyle, short filmmaker and son of actor David Ellis who appeared in – The Bill – can he? Where would he find the time? Plan B has to know. “Dear Dr Hugh,” we email. “Forgive the frivolous inquiry, but… ” “Oh dear, the truth is out!” comes the brief reply. This is too good. This is far too good to let go.
A PACKET OF PLANNERS, PLEASE
You may have noticed that we like a little wordplay at The Planner. Why, only this week we found ourselves earnestly discussing the correct collective noun for planners. You know the kind of thing – ‘a murder of crows’, ‘a pod of dolphins’, and the like. But planners? I guess the appropriate term would depend on where you fit on the bill for the planning circus. If you were a Conservative politician, for example, you might favour ‘a pox of planners’ or even ‘a pettifog’.
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Someone seeking unlikely planning permission might think of ‘a refusal of planners’; those seeking to influence decisions would probably favour ‘a petition’. House builders may well consider there to be ‘a conspiracy of planners’ or possibly a ‘regulation’. Planners themselves might propose ‘a proposal of planners’ or a ‘draft’, ‘assessment’ or ‘report’. The more cynical among you may think you belong to ‘a commiseration of planners’ or, worse still, ‘a collective howl’. It’s fair to say that planning has something of an identity crisis and, driven to distraction by a particular secretary of state, is rather confused about its role, status and even its name. Perhaps, after all, we are nothing more than ‘a pickle of planners’? Incidentally, we’d welcome your collective noun suggestions via Twitter: @ThePlanner_ RTPI
Another prominent young planner alerted us to an article in The Guardian written by Tom Campbell, author of The Planner (a novel), which you may have seen mentioned in this column in August. In the piece, Campbell eloquently laments the lack of cool in planning, as compared with, say, architecture, and insists that the typical town planner is commonly seen as a “faceless underwhelming dullard”. For the sake of our cities, that are undergoing rapid change, planners need to reinvent themselves with a little more pizazz. “Just as they are needed more than ever,” writes Campbell, “the status of planners and city administrators has never been lower.” We’d like to satirise Mr Campbell but, frankly, he’s right. Few things can be more bleakly funny than the treatment of planning and planners by contemporary politicians. Recognising this, noted screenwriter Hugh Ellis used this year’s Young Planners’ Conference to urge young planners to stand up, reclaim centre stage and shape the future. “We need a bit of Hollywood here,” he said [haha]. “Planning is so important. For the last 30 years I have believed in planning as a sure way to make better places for people. You as a generation need to take on this mantle.” Young planners, you’re not a pickle. You’re a potential.
WE WISH YOU… OH, NEVER MIND With rare sincerity, Plan B wishes all The Planner’s readers a happy holiday season. OK, all right, that was completely insincere. See you next year.
I M A G E S | PA U L B E D N A L L _ F L I C K R / S H U T T E R S T O C K
24/11/2014 09:47