On Monday 16^th January 2023 the Year 11 GCSE Geography pupils received a talk about careers in town planning. 

The first presenter, Victoria Robinson from Planning & Environment Decisions Wales provided an introduction to town planning and explained the importance of working within the planning profession.  Vicky went through the different planning policies from a national, regional and local scale as well as linking planning to professions and specialisms such as ecology, transport, retail, minerals, land acquisition, planning law etc. 

The second presenter, Morgan Williams from Persimmon Homes began with an overview of his journey through the planning profession.  Morgan then shared figures of the number of houses constructed over time, which has not met demand. 

The pupils could relate to the need for more people to enter the planning profession to reduce the shortage of housing in the UK, which could be a potential career path in the future.  The pupils were shown how Persimmon will build newly constructed houses more innovatively to meet ‘net zero’ by 2030, which will include features such as Electric Vehicles (EV) charging points. 

The third and final presenter, Shafqut Zahoor from the Vale of Glamorgan Council shared his experiences of planning projects and showed before and after photographs of some of his projects.  The pupils could see how planning leads to regeneration and an improvement of the image of a region.  Shafqut went on to discuss issues of planning such as flooding, visual impact, parking etc. 

Finally, Shafqut shared how town planning has linked to the Barry growth programme, which has included new housing and a primary school.