RTPI President Lindsey Richards FRTPI visited Northern Ireland at the start of September, as part of her tour of the UK and Ireland nations and regions.
During her time in Northern Ireland, the President was shown around the 2024 RTPI Planning Excellence Award-winning new Business School and Student Hub at Queen’s University Belfast’s Riddell Hall. Here, she was met by Emily Wray, Lidia Ballocchi and Nicole Jude Walsh, planning students at QUB and members of the RTPI’s Young Planners Committee, as well as Chris Bryson MRTPI of Gravis Planning, who was the planning agent for the new building as well as being the RTPI Northern Ireland’s Executive Committee Chair for 2024. The President also enjoyed a quick, impromptu tour of the QUB Planning School, meeting Dr Neil Galway and seeing work from a recent event aimed at engaging young people in planning their surroundings.
Lindsey visited the Queens University Belfast Business School & Student Hub
The President was then taken on a tour of the Ulster University city centre campus, meeting recent and current planning students Conor Campbell, Matthew Lynn, Sasha Hornby and Tiernan FitzLarkin alongside academic staff Dr Neale Blair, Dr Gavan Rafferty, Dr Carlos Balsas and Claire Williamson. During this visit, Tiernan was presented with a certificate as winner of the RTPI NI Student Project Prize for his research on the topic of resilient urban design in Belfast, exploring policies and recent developments with a specific focus on the Loft Lines development in the Titanic Quarter.
Lindsey was taken on a tour of the Ulster University city centre campus
The following day, the President attended the RTPI Northern Ireland Planning Conference on the theme of Positivity in Planning, where she provided the closing speech and thanked everyone who took the time to meet her, saying:
“My theme for the year has been Planning as an early career choice and building the pipeline of planners, which is essential to address the profession’s resource challenges. That starts in both junior and secondary schools and making the connection between many of the subject matters studied as part of the school curriculum.
"Our accredited planning schools play a key role in building that pipeline through the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. I was delighted to speak to current and recent students from both Queen’s and Ulster Universities, meet academic staff and see the state-of-the-art new buildings. It was great to see many of this year’s graduates starting new jobs in the beginning of what I hope will be a long and rewarding career in planning.”
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