Planning for Change: Planning in Times of Change

Planning policy and practice across the island of Ireland will increasingly be informed by climate change, shifting demographic profiles, and the changing role of our high/main streets.  These growing priorities for local, regional and national government are all discussed at the ICLRD Annual Conference next week.

Focusing on the theme of “Planning for Change: Planning in Times of Change”, the 12th Annual Conference of the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) will take place on the 6th November 2019. This 1-day event will take place in Ulster University – Magee Campus, Derry/Londonderry.  See attached programme for the day.

We live in changing and challenging times. Settlements across the island of Ireland, irrespective of scale, are facing challenges of an unprecedented magnitude. Such challenges are vast and complex, and include global warming and climate change, increasingly dispersed and fragmented settlement patterns, greater distances between where people live and where people work, housing affordability and an associated housing crisis, demographic changes, shifting retail patterns and a correlated stagnation and hollowing out of our city and town cores, a contraction of services locally, and diversifying energy supplies.

In this context, spatial planning policy and practice is increasingly operating in times of change – but, equally, must also plan for change. Planning must play a key role in preparing a more sustainable – and stable – future for our settlements, urban and rural. The conference comprises of plenary sessions and parallel thematic sessions on the following topics:

• Planning for Sustainable Change
• Planning for an Ageing Society
• Climate Change Adaptation – What this Means for Spatial Planning
• A Place with (No) Purpose? The Future of the High Street
• Principles, Policy and Practice – Looking to the 22nd Century

This conference will consider the challenges and opportunities facing spatial planning policy and practice now – and over the coming decades. It will provide a forum to both discuss and consider the future direction of planning, and the extent to which the achievement of transformative planning processes is possible.

Confirmed speakers, panellists & chairs include:

• Prof. Gerrit Knapp, National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland
• Dr. Louise Kempton, Newcastle City Futures
• Mr. Seamus Neely, Donegal County Council
• Mr. John Kelpie, Derry City and Strabane District Council
• Dr. Michael Cooke, Maynooth University
• Mr. Diarmaid Lawlor. Architecture and Design Scotland
• Mr. Niall Cussen, Office of the Planning Regulator
• Mr. Stephen Jones, Climate NI
• Dr. Ainhoa Gonzales Del Campo, University College Dublin
• Dr. Linda McElduff, Ulster University
• Mr. Conor Skehan, TU Dublin
• Mr. Brian Farragher, Roscommon County Council
• Ms. Suzanne Lutton, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council
• Mr. Dave Walsh, An Bord Pleanála
• Prof. Peter Roberts, Northern Ireland Housing Executive
• Mr. Angus Kerr, Department for Infrastructure NI
• Ms. Mary McIntyre OBE, Planning Consultant
• Ms. Caitriona Mullan, Regional Development Consultant – Communities, Place-making, Health
• Dr. Heather Ritchie, Ulster University
• Prof. Deborah Peel, University of Dundee

Cost

There is a fee of £65.00 (+ booking charges) to attend this event.

The ICLRD

The International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD) is a North-South-U.S. partnership that has developed out of a unique collaboration between academics and spatial planning specialists.

Core partners include the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) at Maynooth University, the Belfast School of Architecture and the Built Environment at Ulster University and the National Center for Smart Growth at University of Maryland.

A central objective of the ICLRD is to strengthen the policy and operational linkages between central, regional and local policy-makers and among officials and practitioners involved in spatial planning and social and economic development across the island of Ireland is

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.  We look forward to seeing you in Derry/Londonderry.

For further details contact ICLRD Director, Caroline Creamer  at caroline.creamer@mu.ie