I have been involved with the North West Region since 2019 and I am both honoured and excited to start my year as chair. I want to build on this past amazing year and I am looking forward to seeing what we as a group can achieve in 2023.
It is an exciting time within the planning industry with the levelling up agenda playing out across the country, with exciting plans in place to create meaningful and positive change within communities across the North West. However, planners are facing many challenges with the public sector operating on reducing funding and the changing government leadership.
Therefore, my theme for my year is to support, encourage and welcome to all planners, be they just starting out, newly chartered or experienced professionals. I entered the planning profession from the encouragement of experienced planners and being given the opportunity to learn and gain experience of my own. Consequently, I would like to pay it forward with this opportunity for all of our members in the North West.
I want to help our members regardless of what stage they are in within their career journey, to expand their horizons. I want to welcome new members and ensure the resources we create can be accessed and appreciated by everyone so the benefits of planning can be felt across our region and across our communities.
My top priorities going into 2023 are focused on three aspects of providing support to planners across the North West:
- To welcome, support and encourage new as well as our experienced planners within our region, creating a strategic planning careers action plan of engagement, with a complementary package of resources for careers fairs and other promotional material to help those exploring careers in planning with our Education, Careers and Mentoring task group and enhancing our volunteer network by continuing discussions with the LPA Champions and implementing the LPA Engage Business Plan from those in the Isle of Man across our rural communities in Cumbria to our metropolitan cities of Liverpool and Manchester;
- To ensure everyone can enjoy our publications and research by looking to create and deliver accessible formatted documents to allow everyone to understand our valued publications and working with colleagues across the RTPI, as well as with our EDI champion Ian, to continue to instil important inclusive principles within our region to welcome everyone across the planning profession;
- By exploring what we can do as a region to support the climate crisis by making conscious changes as a region to be more sustainable benefitting our region’s future communities and planners
Overall, I’m excited to see what 2023 will bring and I can’t wait to see what we will achieve together. If have any great ideas on how we can best support planners across the North West – I would absolutely love to hear so please do not hesitate to reach out!
Emilly Kitching Bower
RTPI NW Chair 2023