The difficulties in conducting effective town planning jobs are unlikely to be solved by the government's current proposals for the sector, it has been suggested.
Writing in the Scotsman, Martin Sales, a partner at law firm Biggart Baillie, said that plans to give local people a greater say in development decisions in their area may backfire unless their influence is limited to smaller-scale projects.
Without doing this, he argued, it will be difficult to make "relatively quick and, importantly from an investment perspective, predictable planning decisions without excluding interested stakeholders".
He added that people in town planning jobs face important challenges in helping to drive economic recovery, as well as tackling climate change - meaning it is very important to have an effective system in place for making development decisions.
Earlier this month, the Royal Town Planning Institute said the coalition government's first Budget had not paid enough attention to the important role played by planning professionals in helping to create jobs and foster economic recovery.
Posted by Lucy Hallows
