blog: 400 projects in 5 years - Reflections from our Development Planning team
Monday 17th October 2022
Having missed my 5-year anniversary at ITP (probably responding to a last-minute client request) it seemed right to reflect on the last 5 years, the good, the bad and at times ugly.
The
team has grown sustainably (although at times not as quickly as we would have
liked) we always look for that heady mix of technical ability sprinkled with
adaptability, resilience, and good old-fashioned ability to use plain English –
if clients, authorities, and our colleagues don’t understand we haven’t done
our job!
Unbelievably as a team we’ve worked on over 400 projects in 5 years, many of which are built out and people are living, working or holidaying in, which goes someway to explain the pace of the Development Planning sector and also the pause (quickly racking my brain) when asked ‘Do you remember that job in..’. The great thing about the work we do is the diversity (as those in the office will often hear me saying) it means that the team have the skills to take on any project (private or public sector) pretty much anywhere but also ensures that in these increasingly unpredictable times we maintain a resilience to adapt to market pressures and remain agile which is likely going to enable us to weather out yet another storm! The team have gone from strength to strength, and whilst we’ve all picked up some battle scars from particularly difficult projects along the way (I couldn’t possibly mention which ones) I do think my impeccable sense of humour has made their days much much brighter.
It’s important to say that whilst the planning arena is often in the firing line, as a soft target, to support another bold political statement or yet another policy document there is still a chronic shortfall of resource within highway authorities (through no fault of their own) to deal with planning applications which often leads to significant delays and puts a very real strain on the collaborative working practices we always strive for.
Whilst not claiming to have all of the answers (I have some) I would invite policy makers to spend a week (or even a day) with a consultant or highway development control team to see where the real barriers to delivering efficient and sustainable development lies which hasn’t improved over the last 5 years or nearly 16 come to think of it!
A thanks must go out to our clients (we’ve not jettisoned too many over the years) but now have a crop that understands what we do, how we do it and why we do it which will put us in a great position for the next 5 years. If you'd like to hear more about how the Development Planning Team can help you please get in touch.