Planners considering strike receive support

The Irish Planning Institute has declared its "full support" for planners in Dublin and Cork who are considering strike action in protest against the "down grading" of their profession.

Mr Philip Jones, the IPI's president, told The Irish Times last night he was "not surprised this issue is coming to the boil" because of the intense frustration of planners over what amounted to the removal of their career structure.

Under local government re forms, it is intended to abolish the posts of city or county planning officers and replace them with new management posts of "director of planning services", which would be open to officials with no planning qualifications.

The planners' branch of IMPACT, which represents most local authority staff, decided last week to ballot its 200 members in Dublin and Cork on a range of options for industrial action, including an all-out strike, aimed at safeguarding the status quo.

The ballot is due to be held by mid-November. If strike action is approved, it would mean there would be no professional planners available to assess planning applications for all classes of development, including major housing schemes.

Since last March, planners in South Dublin County Council have been on a "work-to-rule", refusing to take telephone calls, in protest against a decision by management not to replace Mr Enda Conway, who retired in February as chief planning officer.

Planners in Cork fear management there will also "suppress" the post of chief planning officer following the retirement three weeks ago of Mr John O'Donnell, who held it for more than 20 years and, by common consent, served with great distinction.

"Will this legacy now be lost?", Mr Jones asked. "John started so many things, like the idea of living over the shop, but he may be replaced by someone who isn't qualified for even the most junior planning position. That's what infuriates professional planners."

He said planners in other local authorities, outside Dublin and Cork, who are represented by the Local Authority Professional Officers' branch of SIPTU, feel equally strongly about the proposed downgrading of chief planning officer posts. They, too, might take action.

"The Government says we need more planners, but it's taking away the career structure, which is why so many have left for better-paid jobs with more prospects in the private sector. Planning must be seen as a serious activity, not a small cog in a bureaucratic wheel."

Even as their workload has expanded almost exponentially in recent years, the planning departments of local authorities have become seriously short-staffed. Dublin Corporation, for example, currently has just over half of its approved complement of 50 planners.

Under the "Better Local Government" programme, it is not only the chief planning officer's post that is being abolished. City or county architect and engineer posts are also threatened with replacement by directors of architectural or engineering services.

The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, told the Dail last week he would support proposals by the Dublin and Cork local authorities to abolish the chief planning officer posts in favour of creating new senior management posts - open to non-planners.

This strategy is now being resisted by the planners, who are likely to approve some form of industrial action in the forthcoming ballot. Should strike action proceed, it would affect the processing of planning applications and other functions performed by them.