Dr Elizabeth O’Brien, director of regional and urban planning at Berwick’s Monash University, met with Casey mayor Kevin Bradford this week to discuss the exciting new university degree that will help address a critical shortage of town planners in Casey.By Rebecca Fraser
BERWICK’s Monash University is set to help the City of Casey address a dire shortage of town planners.
Later this month, the new Bachelor of Regional and Urban Planning course will start at the Clyde Road campus, with seven students enrolled in the pilot course.
Strong links have already been forged between the University and the council since the course was officially launched last October by Victorian Planning Minister Rob Hulls.
Casey mayor Kevin Bradford said the new program could not have come at a better time.
“The course is so relevant to this area.
“We (City of Casey Council) are so understaffed and almost at disaster stage in terms of planners.
“Planning affects so many things and a side effect of a slow-up in planning means less jobs in the area,” Cr Bradford said.
Cr Bradford said about 82 per cent of Casey’s workforce left the city each morning to go to work and he hoped that an increase in town planners would help increase local developments and local jobs and help keep more workers in the city.
His comments followed a recent council meeting when he said the shortage of planners was almost as dire as the current general practitioners shortage.
He said the director of planning and development services would arrange an urgent briefing to update councillors on staffing levels in the Strategic Development and City Living Departments and the effect this is having on future planning.
Officers will also discuss the option of recruiting approved private planning consultants to assist with major projects.
The move attracted unanimous council support.
This week, the director of the regional and urban planning course, Dr Elizabeth O’Brien, said the Berwick campus was ideally located, as students would experience first-hand the planning issues that arose in rapidly growing frontier cities.
Dr O’Brien said she was keen to create linkages between local councils and to engage with the community on planning matters.
She said the new course aimed to provide students with the right mix of practical and academic experience and input.
Dr O’Brien said most cities and their regions were experiencing a critical shortage of planners and Casey was no exception.
“Local government, as the largest employer of planners, faces the biggest challenge in recruiting planners,” she said.
Dr O’Brien said the new degree aimed to produce planning graduates who were able to make a substantial contribution to Australia’s social, cultural and economic prosperity.
She said a study by the Planning Institute of Australia in 2004 indicated excellent employment prospects for graduating planners, and a need for further training opportunities. Plans were already underway for students to gain practical work experience at Casey Council.
“I am aiming for an excellent exchange between us as educators and researchers and local organisations and practitioners,” she said.
