The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP) Lagos Chapter yesterday advocated a stronger role for local council authorities in the physical planning process to reflect and conform to the provisions of the Urban and Regional Planning Act of 1992 and engender a sustainable environment.

The Institute said that physical planning at the national, state, and local levels of government should be distinct yet interrelated and integrated.

The Chairman of the Chapter, Mr Oladele Akindele, made the call at the chapter’s 2026 pre-annual general meeting in Lagos. He said the state government should consider increased participation in physical planning through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the implementation of all Master/Model City Plans and other Lower Order Plans to achieve a sustainable environment in the state.

Such PPP arrangement, he emphasised, will lessen the financial burden of the government in getting these plans implemented within the stipulated planning period. The Institute also noted the giant strides of the Office of Urban Development in the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development with the award of several regeneration/urban renewal projects to indigenous urban and regional planning firms, adding that it is expected to enhance urban development, socio-economic status of the people and environmental improvement of the state, leading to overall life betterment of the citizens.

Akindele explained that government action against illegal developments should be made stricter, especially in those regenerated areas.

“We implore the government to ensure that such developments are removed at the early stages of construction, and not when they have been completed and, in some cases, occupied. Until recently, building construction monitoring had always been the responsibility of various government agencies.

“We are now aware of and support the recent introduction of the Certified Accreditors Program (CAP) in the state, which is intended to reduce building collapses, improve enforcement of building regulations, increase inspection capacity, and promote safer, higher-quality construction, among other objectives.

“It will also reduce the seemingly economic wastage and disruption to the socio-economic life of the people that could be affected by the incidence of building collapse or outright government demolition,” he said.