Role of Councilors and TD’s in the Planning Process and Contact with Planners.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Statement from the Irish Planning Institute
Locally elected councillors have a specific role in the planning process: they are in effect the Board of Directors of the local authority. Therefore the Institute supports councillors having access to planners.
Dealing with planning is about communications. Part of a planner’s role is to communicate with all stakeholders so that their views can be taken into account.
But this process goes wrong when one group or another tries to exploit their position. Such exploitation can put individual planners under undue pressure in the way they are trying to do their job.
The Institute has been concerned for some time about councillors and others putting planners under such pressure.