Planning @50: What is its future?
This article is part of a series of articles marking the 50th birthday of planning. Read more.
Thirty-five years ago, I started my first job – as a planner in a London agency. An early acquaintance there – a healthily cynical account man –had on his pinboard a newspaper headline that read simply: 'Planning: the god that failed.' The reference was actually to town planning. But the irony was sweet and, I suspect, still resonates now, in the middle of what is an intense debate on the future...