This is not a drill!
Speech to the RTPI Cymru Wales Planning Conference Holland House Hotel, Cardiff, 22nd June 2023 I'm here to talk about you. At last year’s conference my colleague Julie James kicked off a conversation about the health and well-being of people in the planning profession. We really are grateful to the RTPI for conducting their ‘Big Conversation’ ; and for gathering views on what it means to work as a planner in Wales. This is a really important issue for us. Because not only do we care about you, but Wales really needs you. You are pivotal to helping us respond to the biggest challenges we face. But you’ve told us through the RTPI’s conversation with you, and there is no sugar coating this, that there are planners today working in exceptionally challenging circumstances, and this is taking its toll. There’s no glib response to that. The workforce has shrunk, and the world load has increased. In the 12th year of an austerity policy the strain is being felt right across public servic