Consultant town planners tasked on professionalism, innovation

Consultant town planners have been urged not to act or carry out their business like non-professionals.

Speaking during the 2022 Annual General Meeting of the Association of Town Planning Consultants of Nigeria (ATOPCON), Lagos State branch, Managing Director, MOA Planners Limited, Mr Moses Ogunleye, stated that practitioners would need to display their knowledge, skills and integrity continuously.

Ogunleye, who was the guest speaker at the forum, pointed out that for successful practice, consultant town planners must display skills of management, communication, negotiation, human and public relations, including.

All these, he said were germane for successful practice.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Strategies for improving the practice of Urban and Regional Planning Profession in Lagos State’, the guest speaker said: “For successful practice, the nature of the profession requires extensive co-operation, collaboration and understanding between public and private sector practitioners.

“Forms must run their operations as a business, with a value of a going concern, that can compete with the best in other states in Nigeria and indeed in other countries in service delivery.”

He noted that there has been an increase in the number of town planning consultancy firms and improved awareness in the services rendered by town planning consultants, listing advocacy, representation and preparation of Land Use Planning and Analysis Report (LUPAR).

Ogunleye focussed his presentation on the growth of the profession over some decades; the nature of practice; making town planning practice value-adding and managing plurality of concerns.

As part of making town planning practice value-adding, he enjoined practitioners to get involved in higher-order services such as the physical development plan, preparation, review of plans and advocacy rather than concentrating so much on representation and preparation of specialised reports.

“It is very pleasing to observe that lately, there has been an increase in the number of physical development plans of various categories, awarded by the Lagos State Government. A benefit from more services offered will be a boost to the relevance and value of physical planning,” Ogunleye said.

President of ATOPCON, Muyiwa Adelu, called the attention of practitioners to the opportunity they refused to take when the state government published names of illegal estates who are yet to get their estates’ layouts approved.

He called the executives of the Lagos branch of ATOPCON to work with the state authority in order to identify the estates with a view to ensure that they do the right thing.

“What this also means is that our firms will have more work while we generate more revenue to the state and also help the environment do better and guide against daily slum growths.

It’s high time we build on LUPAR’s success and begin serious advocacy to ensure all developers comply with the state directives,” Adelu said.

He implored them to use the occasion of the annual general meeting to work on getting a committee to commence work on this immediately, saying practitioners must beat their drums well if they require good dancers’ responses.

“I’d like to emphasize our roles as consultants are to do what is right and help our profession get a facelift. We should assist in doing the right thing and focusing on mutually beneficial goals for all,” he said.

Earlier, the Chairman of Lagos branch of ATOPCON, Dr.Kola Olayiwola, while welcoming members, said the theme of the annual general meeting practically mirrors the goal and objectives of the association’s founding fathers, who he said believed in ensuring a vibrant town planning professional practice, in the most ethical and professional way.

According to him, this was in an attempt to create a functionally efficient environment for living, working, recreation and circulation in a sustainable manner.

“These objectives are only achievable through the adoption of holistic planning approaches and efforts of town planners and their consulting firms via generation of different development plans — master plan, model city plan, regional development plan, district plan, excise village plan, local plan and layout plan, among others — related activities and services rendered by our member firms in Lagos State in particular,  and other parts of the country and beyond,” Olayiwola said.

He expressed hope that the deliberations, contributions and suggestions at the meeting would in no small measure create better and smarter cities that would not only be resilient but also sustainable through robust town planning practice.