6.1 Land-Use Planning

The body responsible for over-seeing the orderly development of all urban and rural areas in Uganda, is the Town and Country Planning Board.

The Board links up with the District Councils as the Planning Authorities at policy level. This involves co-operation In the preparation of structure plans (broad land-use development framework) for the various urban centres. Detailed schemes are then developed by the technical committees headed by the respective Town Clerks. The Committees cannot endorse any planning scheme without the knowledge of the Board. In rural areas, the District Development Committees are supposed to aid the Board.

The law governing physical planning is the Town and Country Planning Act Cap. 30. Although the Physical Planning Department serves as the technical arm and secretariat, there is no mention of it and its functions. This is an anomaly that could lead to operational problems.

The Physical Planning Department has the responsibility to undertake planning of all urban and rural settlements in the country. Unfortunately, due to lack of personnel and inadequate resources, its work has greatly been limited to major urban centres to the neglect of small and intermediate centres and rural areas.

In case of area planning, no place can be subjected to planning regulations unless it has first been gazetted into a planning area. For regional and district plans, the plans must be approved and passed by the Board before they can be legally enforced. Due to lack of personnel, the regional planning function has not been executed.

Consequently, there is no National Physical Development Plan, no Regional Development Plans and no District Development Plans for a comprehensive use of the land resource. Hence, the numerous land-use conflicts and the increasing deterioration of the environment. It is important to note that none of these plans can be prepared before a national land-use survey has been undertaken.