Meredith Evans (Chair)

Corporate Director (Environment & Regeneration), Telford & Wrekin Council

Meredith is the Urban Design Network's leader. He is an architect, designer and planner with local government experience covering planning, transport, highways, regeneration and economic development. Meredith is also a regional representative for CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) and chairs a task group that oversees reviews of the West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy.

David Brown

Senior Town Planner, Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

David is currently involved in a varied range of urban design projects working within the specialist planning section of the Northern Ireland Regional Housing Authority. He has experience in managing design briefs and frameworks, including the preparation of design concept plans and feasibility studies, within a housing context. David has worked on a number of town and village centre regeneration schemes across Northern Ireland, providing both design guidance and evaluation within a wide range of urban and rural environments.

Dave Chetwyn

National Manager for Planning Aid England

Dave Chetwyn is the RTPI National Manager for Planning Aid England. He is also Vice Chair of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) and a trustee of the Urban Design Alliance (UDAL). Before joining Planning Aid, Dave spent 17 years working in planning and urban regeneration in local government, specialising in design and heritage-led regeneration. He has also helped to develop and deliver training for CABE’s Design for Change programme and the Civic Trust’s Civic Societies Pathfinder.

Mike Galloway

Director of Planning & Transportation, Dundee City Council.

Formerly the head of planning in Manchester and Glasgow city centres, and latterly Director of the Crown Street Regeneration Project in the Gorbals, Mike has led the regeneration and development of the City of Dundee for the last nine years. The main projects he has championed in this time include the Overgate Shopping Centre, ArdlerVillage and Dundee Waterfront.  He is also the RTPI representative on the Built Environment Forum for Scotland’s (BEFS) Urban Design Working Group.

Stephen Gleave

Managing Director at Taylor Young

With over 20 years experience, Stephen is recognised for his commitment to urban design through the town planning process. Having worked in the public and private sectors he understands the dynamics of political and economic agendas.  He retains a hands-on role, taking the lead on major projects. He combines special expertise in masterplanning and urban design with an approach to community engagement. Stephen is a CABE Enabler and External Examiner at Sheffield Hallam Post Graduate School of Environment.

Colin Haylock, MRTPI

Associate, Urban Design Group Leader, Ryder HKS

Colin is an Architect-Planner with more than 30 years of experience spanning the public, private and governmental sectors. Colin has been a Regional Representative for CABE in the North East since 2000 and is a member of CABE's advisory Planning Forum. He has been a member of the RTPI Council and General Assembly since 1990. Previously he worked for 25 years with Newcastle City Council, latterly as Assistant Head of Planning, and played a central role in a wide range of major developments in the City including Byker and the more recent award-winning East Quayside and Grainger Town Projects.

Stephen Paul Hardy I.Eng FIHIE MICE MIHT

Stephen has extensive previous experience as a Highway Development Control Team Leader with city, shire county and unitary borough councils. He has actively participated in national level projects informing the way in which highway design impacts on urban design and resulting in the publication of Paving the Way, Better Streets, Better Places and Scottish Executive PAN 76 New Residential Streets and Manual for Streets. He is also active in championing the application of good urban design principals to reversing the urbanisation of rural roads by over engineered application of signs and road makings.

A fairly regular speaker at RTPI events over the past few years Stephen is the Network's contact for the South West region.

Professor John Punter MRTPI

Professor of Urban Design, University of Cardiff

For 25 years John has written on the evolution and practice of design control in the UK, and more recently on practice in USA, Europe, and Australia. His books include detailed studies of design practices in Bristol, Cardiff and Vancouver alongside research on design policies and design guidelines. He is now a Commissioner and Co-Chair of Design Review at the Design Commission for Wales where he also takes the lead in design training.

Eileen Thomas, MRTPI

Mott Macdonald

Eileen Thomas is a former local authority Director of Planning & Engineering and Corporate Policy who has recently moved into the private sector and now works for Mott Macdonald, a large multidisciplinary company.  In 2002 she sat on the government’s Urban Green Spaces Task Force and chaired its working group on partnership-working with the community. Since then she has produced a number of green-space strategies, for areas ranging from a large urbanised council to a rural authority.

Louise Thomas

Louise Thomas is Director of the Urban Renaissance Institute, part of SEEDA’s Regional Centre for Excellence and the University of Greenwich; editor of the journal Urban Design; and an urban designer as Director of TDRC (Thomas Design Regeneration & Consultation Ltd) in Oxford. She has been a part time design tutor at the University of Westminster for more than 10 years, as well as for previous CABE Summer Schools, and is External Examiner at the University of Central England.

Kenny Brown MRTPI

Director of Townscape Solutions

Kenny is a planner/urban designer with over 10 years experience working in the urban design field for the public and private sectors.  Based in the West Midlands, he has worked on a large variety of masterplans and projects throughout the country. Kenny has particular experience of housing design and layout, masterplanning numerous housing projects for many of the major national housebuilders. His past experience includes co-authoring Birmingham City Council’s city design guide and housing design guide as well as contributing to national design guidance. 

Ian Roberts