The Local Government Service Association of Physical Planners (LoGSAPP) has opposed a proposed merger of the Development Planning Unit and the Physical Planning Department at the local government level into a single “Planning Department.”
In a press statement signed by the National President, Gifty Nyarko, after an executive meeting in Sunyani, LoGSAPP warned that such a merger, featured in the draft National Decentralisation Policy and Strategy (NDPS) 2026-2029, would undermine professional specialisation, dilute spatial expertise, and weaken development control.
The statement described the merger as “incapable of addressing Ghana’s urban planning challenges,” arguing that the real problems lie in ineffective implementation, limited institutional support, and not in the lack of integrated structures.
Proceeding without fixing these issues could exacerbate disorderly development, increase flood risks, traffic congestion, environmental degradation, and public safety concerns.
LoGSAPP stressed that the country’s urban woes stem from long-standing neglect of spatial planning, inadequate resourcing, weak law enforcement, and marginalisation of trained physical planners, not from the separation of development and physical planning functions.
Existing coordination mechanisms—Municipal and District Planning Coordinating Units and Spatial Planning Committees—already harmonise development and land-use planning.
No successful planning system, locally or globally, allows non-planners to dominate, or dilutes spatial expertise through restructuring.
The association highlighted persistent challenges: insufficient staffing, logistics, poor data access and weak institutional backing.
It called for recruiting qualified spatial planners into the Local Government Service, equipping departments with modern tools and sustainable funding, rebranding the profession, and strengthening enforcement of planning laws and ethics.
It urged the government to suspend reforms that weaken spatial planning and instead professionalise and protect the discipline for sustainable national development.
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Source:
www.graphic.com.gh
