SARAH FOSTER
I have always endeavoured to promote the planning profession as widely as possible and to change outdated perceptions of planners and the planning system. I have been lucky to have been in the position to do this both within the profession via my RTPI chair and to the wider public via Planning Aid.
If I won the Young Planner of the Year Award, I would build upon this experience and take advantage of the additional opportunities that the award would undoubtedly bring to meet and present to organisations or groups who want to understand more about the planning profession in an entertaining and easily understood way.
CURRENT POST
Planning manager south, Peak District National Park Authority
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS/UNIVERSITIES
BSc (Hons) in Geography, University of Nottingham, 1998
PGCE in Secondary Education (Geography), University of Nottingham, 1999
Master of Town Planning with distinction, University of Manchester, 2003
Winner of RTPI Prize of Books, Moss Madden Award, Heywood Medal and Prize for Planning Law
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Geography teacher, Bromsgrove School, 1999
Planner, Austin-Smith:Lord Architects, 2001
Section 106 and development control officer, Manchester City Council, 2004
Senior planner, Turley Associates, Manchester, 2006
Planning manager, Peak District National Park Authority, 2009
EXPERIENCE AND ACHIEVEMENTS
Sarah Foster started working life as a geography teacher. Although the profession didn't satisfy her desire to formalise her interest in the built environment, it gave her an excellent foundation in areas such as empathising with people and communicating clearly. She has drawn on these skills in all subsequent positions.
Sarahs first planning job in a design-based environment at Austin-Smith:Lord in Warrington was invaluable in enabling her to understand the wider development process and the secrets of successful masterplanning and urban design. More mainstream planning experience at Manchester City Council and Turley Associates showed her the spatial planning process from both public and private perspectives. She loved the interaction with communities at the city council and enjoyed using that experience to advise on planning strategy for major private sector clients at Turleys.
With her educational background in physical geography and her love of the outdoors, an opportunity to work at a national park was too good to miss. She took up her dream job at the Peak District National Park Authority in September 2009. She heads a development management team of four officers covering an area of 750 square kilometres.
Design standards are extremely high and the parks statutory purposes and duty is at the heart of all decisions. She uses her private sector experience to ensure efficiency, her communication skills to actively engage with applicants, stakeholders and the wider public and her design background to ensure that all approvals provide the best possible outcomes for communities and landscape.
Sarah became involved with the RTPI in 2002 as a founder member of the national Young Planners Network Steering Group. She joined the North West Regional Activities Committee in 2004 and helped to organise the Young Planners Conference in Manchester in 2006. She won the RTPI Travel Scholarship in 2005, travelling to New South Wales to study its planning contributions system. In 2008 she became one of the youngest ever chairs of the RTPI North West and its first female chair for more than ten years.
Her main focus has been promotion of the planning profession and planning as a career. In 2008 she began design and delivery of a series of Planning Aid workshops, using her teaching experience to devise fun activities to explain the planning system in plain English. She has delivered seven sessions across the North West, with more planned, and engaged with more than 140 individuals representing local community groups with membership totalling thousands. Her hobbies are running, walking and her allotment.
Twitter
Facebook
Linked In
Flickr