Town planners in Kaduna State have urged the state government to include more of their members in its ongoing urban renewal project for effective service delivery.
The chairman, Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, Kaduna State, Tpl Asmau Shehu, who spoke at a one-day seminar with the theme ‘Professional Ethics and Conduct in Town Planning Practice’, said Kaduna has over 200 planners. She, however, lamented that people looked at town planners as those who only marked roads.
She said, “Town planners are not only the custodians of the environment, they are also to take into consideration what that layout will bring to the people in terms of social, economic and political development.”
Tpl Asmau, who noted that the seminar was aimed at enlightening, informing and improving the delivery of town planning practice and services in the state, noted that town planners have not been allowed to show their full potential.
“We are supposed to be in all activities including employment, improvement of economic development, and improvement of social development, education, health and housing because where you are talking about directing the use of land, town planners are not just there to prepare a layout, they are also there to advise on how the planning of the layout affect the people,” she stressed.