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Report { NORTHERN IRELAND PLANNER LIVE
Mallon commits to delivering change and a green recovery By Laura Edgar Launching Northern Ireland Planner Live, Nichola Mallon, infrastructure minister at the Northern Ireland Executive, outlined her commitment to “seizing the opportunities to enable a green cleaner recovery towards a new and better normal for all of us”.
solutions to the challenges we continue to face. More than ever, when faced with the challenge of Covid-19, the turbulence of Brexit, and the climate emergency, I believe we need to radically change the way we do things and plan for the future. It is my firm view that the planning profession and, Mallon, who took up the role in indeed, the planning system are well January this year after three years placed to address these challenges without an executive, innovatively through has not only had to partnership working, “I BELIEVE WE contend with a backlog through both central and NEED TO RADICALLY local government, and of decisions, but also CHANGE THE WAY the Covid-19 pandemic. also across the public and WE DO THINGS She told RTPI CEO private sectors working AND PLAN FOR Victoria Hills that with our communities and THE FUTURE” modern and sustainable with our neighbours – NICHOLA MALLON across these islands.” infrastructure is a “key building block of prosperity”. The basics See the full story on need to be right and the The Planner website: bit. long history of underly/planner1120-recovery yp y investment in infrastructure must be addressed. ed. Investment in infrastructure “cannot annot take place in isolation and without hout the understanding these investments nts can have”, she said. Mallon believes that, as a profession, ofession, planners have “a vital role” to play in developing places in which people ople live, work and enjoy their leisure time. me. “In these uncertain times planners anners are well placed to guide, encourage rage and to promote a more integrated approach to land use and infrastructure development, and to look for innovative and locally agreed
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The key messages n Speaking of the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor John Barry, Queen’s University Belfast, explained that people, on a more sociological level, are understanding the country’s – and people’s – vulnerability. “Whether it’s long supply chains that leave us very vulnerable, issues of food… insecurity – but also the sense that our lives cannot be taken for granted in terms of the interconnected worlds we live in.” Who would have thought, Barry added, that if you had a garden “you are extremely lucky luc during this pandemic”? He H urged planners to ensure that “people are within ens the Parisian mayor’s idea of the 15-minute city”. Perhaps, he added, the pandemic and the planetary crisis provide a chance to “rethink the cha training of planners, in terms trai of iit enhancing their vision, that tha it is not just growth”. nA Addressing the effects of both bot Covid-19 and the climate crisis cris would require a “reimagining of planning” “re going goi “beyond purely
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