INTRODUCTION

Good planning gives direction to civic leaders, businesses and citizens to make meaningful decisions for the long term and how best their communities can grow into that future, while allowing for essential services to be provided in the near term. Planning is done not only by trained professionals working in the public sector for planning departments or in the private sector for developers; planning is also done by lay persons who volunteer on local committees or commissions, including a planning commission, zoning board of appeals or historic district commission. Regional planning is a category of planning and development that deals with designing and placing infrastructure and other elements across a large area. Regional planning zones may encompass several towns, cities or even parts of different states, each of which could have their own planning offices in the realm of "urban planning." The key to regional planning is anticipating the needs of a community or group of communities before those needs arise. Regional planning experts might try to predict how and where the population of a region is going to grow over the next decade and recommend the building of roads and other infrastructure to support that growth before it happens. Those involved in regional planning are often called planning commissioners. Planning commissioners work with the local governments and urban planners within their regional planning zone to discuss such issues as regional development, land use, community development, long-range planning, environmental planning, housing and economic development. Regional planning often walks a fine line between serving the needs of the community, protecting the environment and taking into account the rights of individual land owners and community members.

Depending on the mission statement of the regional planning commission, the group may serve exclusively as an advisory board, as a research arm of the member cities, or as a governmental entity that approves building permits or neighborhood plans in the region or in unincorporated areas of the region. Regional planning commissioners should have sufficient knowledge in many areas, including engineering, the environment, transportation, sociology, and geography. Many colleges and universities now offer degrees in urban planning and regional planning. Regional planners are key to the thoughtful development of cohesive regions that both serve the needs of the communities within them and keep in mind the environmental impact of large groups of people living together. Regional planning is an important way to understand how a region is growing and what needs to be done to ensure that growth happens in a logical and reasonable way. Planners are not anti-growth; instead, they seek to determine the best way for a community or group of communities to grow for the benefit of all involved.

WHAT PLANNING PORTRAYS

Planning is a profession with the primary purpose of improving the communities in which we live. Planners look not only at existing conditions and problems, but also develop a vision, with goals and strategies, of what a community could be in the future. Planning deals not only with physical development, but also social and economic improvement of our society. It looks at the issues of urban cities and rural communities, housing, environmental protection, historic character, economic development, improvements to our transportation system and social policies.

Urban planning refers to the citys functionality as a two dimensional system; it rearranges urban elements in space and recreates flows and interrelations; has as result the maximum optimization of urban spaces fuinctionality; it is complementary with urban design, it creates an object for urban marketing and branding and it projects itself positively or negatively in the urban image. In geography, it explains the relation between space and its function, the functional space distribution in a city and is a picture of urban dynamics (Galle, 1991). Planning means looking ahead and chalking out future courses of action to be followed (Harris, 2001). It is a preparatory step. It is a systematic activity which determines when, how and who is going to perform a specific job. Planning is a detailed programme regarding future courses of action. It is rightly said Well plan is half done. Therefore planning takes into consideration available & prospective human and physical resources of the organization so as to get effective co-ordination, contribution & perfect adjustment. It is the basic management function which includes formulation of one or more detailed plans to achieve optimum balance of needs or demands with the available resources. According to Urwick, Planning is a mental predisposition to do things in orderly way, to think before acting and to act in the light of facts rather than guesses. Planning is deciding best alternative among others to perform different managerial functions in order to achieve predetermined goals. According to Koontz & ODonell, Planning is deciding in advance what to do, how to do and who is to do it. Planning bridges the gap between where we are to, where we want to go. It makes possible things to occur which would not otherwise occur.

STEPS IN GENERAL PLANNING FUNCTION

Planning function of management involves following steps:Establishment of objectives a. b. c. Planning requires a systematic approach. Planning starts with the setting of goals and objectives to be achieved. Objectives provide a rationale for undertaking various activities as well as indicate direction of efforts. d. Moreover objectives focus the attention of managers on the end results to be achieved. e. As a matter of fact, objectives provide nucleus to the planning process. Therefore, objectives should be stated in a clear, precise and unambiguous language. Otherwise the activities undertaken are bound to be ineffective. f. As far as possible, objectives should be stated in quantitative terms. For example, Number of men working, wages given, units produced, etc. But such an objective cannot be stated in quantitative terms like performance of quality control manager, effectiveness of personnel manager. g. h. Such goals should be specified in qualitative terms. Hence objectives should be practical, acceptable, workable and achievable.

Establishment of Planning Premises i. j. k. Planning premises are the assumptions about the lively shape of events in future. They serve as a basis of planning. Establishment of planning premises is concerned with determining where one tends to deviate from the actual plans and causes of such deviations.

l.

It is to find out what obstacles are there in the way of business during the course of operations.

m.

Establishment of planning premises is concerned to take such steps that avoids these obstacles to a great extent.

n.

Planning premises may be internal or external. Internal includes capital investment policy, management labour relations, philosophy of management, etc. Whereas external includes socio- economic, political and economical changes.

o.

Internal premises are controllable whereas external are non- controllable.

Choice of alternative course of action p. When forecast are available and premises are established, a number of alternative course of actions have to be considered. q. For this purpose, each and every alternative will be evaluated by weighing its pros and cons in the light of resources available and requirements of the organization. r. The merits, demerits as well as the consequences of each alternative must be examined before the choice is being made. s. t. After objective and scientific evaluation, the best alternative is chosen. The planners should take help of various quantitative techniques to judge the stability of an alternative. Formulation of derivative plans u. Derivative plans are the sub plans or secondary plans which help in the achievement of main plan. v. Secondary plans will flow from the basic plan. These are meant to support and expediate the achievement of basic plans.

w.

These detail plans include policies, procedures, rules, programmes, budgets, schedules, etc. For example, if profit maximization is the main aim of the enterprise, derivative plans will include sales maximization, production maximization, and cost minimization.

x.

Derivative plans indicate time schedule and sequence of accomplishing various tasks.

Securing Co-operation y. After the plans have been determined, it is necessary rather advisable to take subordinates or those who have to implement these plans into confidence. z. i. The purposes behind taking them into confidence are :Subordinates may feel motivated since they are involved in decision making process. ii. The organization may be able to get valuable suggestions and improvement in formulation as well as implementation of plans. iii. Also the employees will be more interested in the execution of these plans.

Follow up/Appraisal of plans aa. bb. cc. After choosing a particular course of action, it is put into action. After the selected plan is implemented, it is important to appraise its effectiveness. This is done on the basis of feedback or information received from departments or persons concerned. dd. ee. This enables the management to correct deviations or modify the plan. This step establishes a link between planning and controlling function.

ff.

The follow up must go side by side the implementation of plans so that in the light of observations made, future plans can be made more realistic.

ELEMENTS OF PLANNING
The main features or elements of planning are discussed in detail : (A) DETERMINATE AUTHORITY Planning is a very complex task. It implies conscious and coordinated efforts to achieve predetermined objectives. This naturally presupposes the existence of a central planning authority. The presence of a central planning authority is a sine qua non for effective and successful planning. This central authority formulates the plan. It prepares the blueprint. In a planned economy production and distributive decisions are not arrived at by the market forces, It is the central planning authority which fixes the targets and suggests measures towards the fulfillment of these decisions.

(B)

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Planning always envisages certain predetermined objectives. To plan after all is to

act with a purpose. So the aims and objectives of a plan tire laid down in advance, before the planning process actually starts. Hence under every type of plan there are certain welldefined objectives which the planning authorities strive to attain. These objectives, however, might be different under different circumstances. A plan might have a single objective or there might be a number of objectives placed in order of their priorities. There may be short-run or long-run objectives. These objectives may be economic, social or political. Certain important objectives of planning, for instance, are maximization of

economic growth, maximization of national income, improvement in the standard of living, reduction in economic disparities, full employment of labour, etc. (C) FIXED TIME PERIODS In a planned economy there are not only well defined objectives. In addition, targets are fixed for the attainment of those objectives within a specified period of time. The goals must, relate to a period of time. The time specified may be any period. Planning has a time dimension. Consequently there may be short-term, medium-term or long term plans. Plans may be for one, four, five or ten years. It is not necessary that a country should always follow a plan of a certain time period, say five years. Due to exigencies of situation a country instead of a five-year plan, may decide to pursue a seven-year plan. To make the idea of planning more concrete and meaningful, a starting date and a terminal date also should be mentioned. Efforts are made to realize the targets within the specified period. This provides a direction to planning. This also indicates the degree to which the planned efforts have been successful in the realization of the goals. In certain sectors the targets, could not be realized within the given time, the authorities may take necessary corrective measures.

(D)

GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Planning is a socialized activity. The state has to play a crucial role in consciously

and deliberately directing this activity. The desired predetermined objective may not be achieved through the free play of the market forces. Since the private sector is guided by the sole consideration of making profit, it, may fail to use optimally the economic resources of the country, and unleash forces of economic growth.

In such a case the state has to come forward to develop the basic infrastructure of the economy or to develop productive activities which require huge initial investment or which have a long gestation period. Similarly, public investment may be necessary for the fulfillment of certain socio-economic objectives like reduction of economic inequalities, achieving a balanced rate of growth and so on. (E) COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING In the true sense of the term, planning means comprehensive planning of all the sectors. In plan literature we may speak of planning through the market or planning by each individual production unit, etc. In reality, however, planning cannot be isolated and piecemeal. Planning implies a rational utilization of the economic resources so that there should be proper harmony and coordination among all the sectors of the economy. So piece-meal Government regulation to improve the functioning of the market mechanism is not planning. Planning should not be confused with mere economic directives and controls. It encompasses the entire economy. Planning implies national economic planning covering the whole of national life. (F) REGULATIONS AND CONTROLS Regulations and controls constitute an integral part of planning. A planned economy is regulated and controlled by the state. It is not left to the vagaries of free and automatic forces of market operations. In an unplanned capitalist economy there is hardly any control worth the name. People enjoy unbridled freedom in exercising their choices in the field of production, consumption, exchange and other forms of economic activity. In such an economy, if there is any control at all, it is "invisible". A planned economy, however, is-bound to take recourse to controls with a view to achieve the predetermined

objectives of planning. Thus, there may be control of production and consumption. Similarly, there may be control on prices, wages, import and export, savings and investment and so on.

CONCLUSION
Planning will achieve much in the society if well designed. It should be noted that though the end result of planning is execution (development) but government and planners should take note that planning without control is going to end up in disaster. Therefore, I want to call on the government of Oyo State as well as Nigeria to see to the development control aspect of planning in order to have a bright future and make the environment friendly for generations yet unborn. This way, our environments will be protected from damage which may spell doom for future generations.

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REFERENCES
Galle, P. (1991): Alexander Patterns for Design Computing: Atoms of

ConceptualStructure,

Harris, B. (2001): Sketch Planning: Systematic Methods in Planning and ItsSupport. In K.R. Brail and R. Klosterman (eds), Planning Support Systems. ESRI Paper 26615 Press, Redlands, California.

Harris, B. and Batty, M. (2001): Location Models, Geographic Information, and Planning Support Systems. In K.R. Brail and R. Klosterman (eds), PlanningSupport Systems, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Klosterman, R. (2001): Planning Support Systems: A New Perspective on Computer-aided Planning. In K.R. Brail and R. Klosterman (eds), Planning Support Systems, ESRI Press, Redlands, California.

Levy, J. M. (2003): Contemporary Urban Planning, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Maruna, M. and Maruna, V. (2004): IT Modeling Experience in Urban andRegional Development, Proceedings 9th international symposium, University of Technology, Vienna, 25-27, February, 2004.

Maruna, V. and Maruna, M. (2005): Prospective Enhancement of Urban Planning Methodology Based on OO Modeling and Rational Unified Process, Proceedings 10th international symposium. 11