Convenor, RTPI Scottish Branch, 1983

I was elected Convenor of the Scottish Branch of the RTPI for 1983. The picture shows how the Branch’s magazine reported it.

Between 1975 and 1987 the Radical Institute Group (RIG) produced a manifesto backed by a slate of candidates in RTPI elections and also contested some Branch elections. In standing against the sitting vice-convenor of the Scottish Branch I was breaching the kind of gentlemanly norms that operated in RTPI. After my election the rules were changed so that the Junior and Senior vice-convenors automatically progress unchallenged.

During my year as convenor the Branch took initiatives it would not previously have countenanced. These included work on Women and Planning, Planning and Ethnic Minorities, and I completely changed the theme and content of the previously planned annual conference, which we held in Glasgow on the theme of Planning and Poverty.

In those RTPI’s Scottish branch had no paid staff and no office.