Making a difference

Everyday town planners are making our towns and cities better.

The perfect town

Designing your perfect town

Some of you might like playing computer games and the stats show, on average, young people spend around 15 hours a week doing so.

In the last few years quite a few of those hours might have been taken up playing Minecraft a game dedicated to designing the perfect town. And before your parent or carer complains too much, did you know in some ways it can be used to develop good life skills? For example it helped professional planners in Dundee redesign the local city waterfront. And there are other things to think about to improve our towns and cities.

Ten years ago no-one could have thought that Greta and students in the UK would be leading the fight against climate change, but it’s now a reality and it shows the power that young people have to speak up and make a difference. It’s that type of ambition to live in a better, greener world, to ensure people have homes to live in and places to visit that drives most town planners.

Fast forward

Fast forward to the pandemic and that hope for real change through a better planned future started to materialise. As lockdowns kicked in and working from home became the norm, pollution levels fell. Parks were used more, pop up cycle lanes appeared and air quality improved for the benefit of local wildlife and for people. It was a glimpse of what a different, greener, better planned world might look like.

A simple choice

Your chance to shape your future

You’ve got a simple choice. You can sit back and do nothing – blame ’big business’, blame COVID, blame anyone OR like Greta you can refuse to accept that one person can’t make a difference.

Because they can – everyday town planners are making our towns and cities better. Whether it’s through better insulated housing, better cycle routes, locating new developments by businesses so people don’t need to drive so far or at all, supporting the creation of jobs or improving street lighting so you can walk home at night from a friend’s house or local pub safely. These are just some of the things town planners are doing.

Of course there are already some brilliant planners out there trying to make a difference, but if you want to shape what the future looks like then we need you too. Choose Planning!