My inspiration was the York Summer School of 1979.

The 1979 School is often best remembered as the occasion when Michael Heseltine invited himself to speak and tell us of the “jobs that planners keep locked in filing cabinets.” Memorable though that sound bite was, my much more abiding memory of that year was a conversation at the bar with a bloke called Ian Davison. We struck up a friendship that has lasted to this day. I found we had the same sense of purpose in planning; we laughed at the same jokes, and learnt that we had many things in common including having both lived and worked in the Caribbean in the early seventies.

Ian was the author of the ground-breaking Cheshire Design Guide. It was clearly making a difference and I was inspired to bring the message to Northern Ireland – if you are planning a layout, you don’t start with the constraints and certainly not the highway engineer’s handbook. You start by looking at the attributes of the site and how that can shape the evolution of an attractive and distinctive place.

Ian’s conviction inspired me to organise seditious RTPI events on the topic and persuade senior highway and planning officials to jointly visit Cheshire – and later to ride bikes in the Netherlands – to see things for themselves that might alter the mindset. In the 1990s Ian and I worked together running many courses in concept development to assist DOE planners and highway engineers in Northern Ireland play an active role in place making.

My working career covered just about every aspect of planning that I can think of, but my interest and motivation was inspired by that chance meeting at the 1979 York Summer School – a mission that was largely fulfilled in 2000 by the publication of an SPG for Northern Ireland that I insisted on being named Creating Places. It really should have been named the Ian Davison Guide to Creating Places. Ian talked me into standing for election at Summer School in 1995.

Who has had the biggest influence on my career?

That person would be Geoffrey Steeley, former County Planning Officer in Hertfordshire. Geoff was inspirational in his leadership – always challenging his staff to think outside the box, and to develop new concepts and ideas. In the mid-eighties, he developed a programme for the improvement of Hertfordshire’s town centres, based on his experiences of practice in other European countries. In 1987, he picked me to organise a study tour of centres in Holland and West Germany. It was a very successful visit – as a result, the County Council and several districts were prepared to invest substantial sums in town centre improvements and the concept of town centre management was born.

The following year, Geoff was President of the former County Planning Officers’ Society and was expected to host the Society’s annual Country Meeting. “Hertfordshire is too boring, Jed”, said Geoff. “I want you to organise it for me – in Scotland”. This I did – based on the Tarbet Hotel on Loch Lomond and including the Glasgow Garden Festival. It was extremely well-received and former CPO’s often speak fondly of it.

As a result of these experiences, I realised that I had a talent for organising courses and conferences. This led to my interest in the School and its aims, and I was part of the East of England Organising Committee for the 1989 School at UEA in Norwich. I remember driving a converted Bedfordshire ambulance from Hertford to Norwich, loaded with exhibition material. The RTPI then nominated me to go on the Summer School Council, and the following year, at St.Andrews, I did a successful presentation on the Hertfordshire Town Centres programme.

The rest, as they say, is history. My message to all young planners is to get involved in professional events as I did – the more you put in, the more you will get out of it. There is nothing more satisfying than planning for a major conference or convention, and experiencing the positive reaction from its success. Summer School gives all this and more!

There didn’t seem to be too many career options for a St Andrews geography graduate in the 1950s. Having grown up in the Perthshire countryside, town planning never featured in my life although a visit as a student to the architects involved in early stages of Glenrothes New Town gave me the idea that maybe there should be an opening in that field of work. Sadly my enquiries at the time got a negative response and so for the next five years I first taught and then got involved in cartography but with no real career prospects. Then an advertisement for a Planning Assistant with a geography degree saw me employed by Essex CC. A steep learning curve began, including three years at UCL three days a week in the evenings after work. Quite apart from the course itself, the direct contact with others working in various aspects of planning was invaluable combined with the varied experience I gained at work.

I heard talk of Summer School and having just got my planning qualification and wondering what direction my career should go, the added attraction of Summer School in St Andrews in 1965 saw me booking a place. In those days there was only one school so there were around 5-600 ‘students’. The first night was daunting as everyone looked, and for the most part was, so much more knowledgeable, experienced and intelligent than me! The fact that the name badge contained no indication of anyone’s rank set the tone of the school and I quickly lost my inhibitions about joining in discussions. I think I learnt as much from discussions over meals as I did from the papers and seminars. I was also impressed by the fact that the school was organised and run by planners and at that time, with only one part time paid employee. It was clearly evident too that what one got from Summer School depended on what you contributed to it. I was hooked and subsequently became directly involved in the organisation. As President in 1994 opening the school, again in St Andrews, I referred to my early experiences. At the end of the School a young man came and told me that he had been forced to attend and had tried to get out of it. Happily his experience had proved as rewarding as mine and he was wondering how he could persuade his employers to send him again!

I consider myself very fortunate to have been working as a planner during a period when the basis of the current planning system was developing. Summer School too has changed its format to meet the needs of the time and will no doubt continue to do so. My career interest in both the legal basis and implementation aspects of planning led me to the Planning Inspectorate. At my final interview the then Chief Inspector reminded me that we had met at Summer School at St Andrews five years previously and my heart sank as his advice then was that I needed another ten years experience. Fortunately he must have forgotten that part of his advice! That work took me all over the UK and after retirement, as a member of the National Planning Awards Panel, it was clear that planning continues to evolve to meet the needs of the day. I was encouraged and impressed with what I read and saw. A professional partnership approach to implementation is clearly bringing great rewards and I remain immensely proud of my chosen profession as a Chartered Town Planner.

The Summer School and me

I guess I’ve attended at least 25 Summer Schools, mostly in the days when they were a week long. So that means around one thousand lectures, workshops, and tours. And lots of University food and some excellent real ale (until it usually ran out after about three days).

Is this sad? Admirable? Daft? Exemplary? I’ve certainly no regrets. I’ve been stimulated, bored, educated, enthralled, inspired, disgusted (that was Nicholas Ridley). I’ve learned practical things and useless things (but usually interesting ones – I always try to hear about things which are different from my own bit of the planning forest). I’ve laughed, a lot, but rarely cried (just at Nicholas Ridley, again).

I’ve also given lectures, of varying quality, and done my share of entertaining – some will be old enough to remember the Grotton Roadshow, a series of absolutely hilarious songs and sketches which finished many a Summer School. I reckon, with my colleagues Dave and Steve, to be unusual in reaching what passes for a senior position in the profession largely by making jokes about it.

All this has influenced me and my career in a big way. I’ve learned a lot, of course, from people who know a lot more than I do about a lot of things. Each time I’ve attended I’ve gone back to work with extra enthusiasm. And I’ve made some very good friends too. My advice is, firstly, to go to it – maybe not 25 times but as often as you can. Throw yourself into it, enjoy it, learn from it, eat the food and drink the drink. Then maybe you’ll end up like me. But I don’t want to put you off……