Planning Aid in your area
Community Outreach Co-ordinators
Planning Aid England has Community Outreach Co-ordinators based throughout the country. Supported by a team of local volunteers, they help communities engage in planning their local area.
Chris Anderson
Based: Newcastle
Chris has been working with Planning Aid since 2005. He is a qualified town and country planner with 10 years experience of working with communities at the coal face of planning. His experience covers a broad range of areas including community planning, planning advice, workshop design and delivery, project management and volunteer coordination facilitation. Chris is a singer songwriter and, when not working for Planning Aid, performs with his wife in a rather brilliant band called Simpleswan.
Email: chris.anderson@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Carol Latham
Based: Wigan
Carol joined Planning Aid England in August 2011, arriving with nearly 20 years experience of empowering communities to make their neighbourhoods better places to live. She started out as a Planning Officer for Lancashire CPRE in the mid-1990s and since then has worked for a number of different voluntary organisations, most recently working as Community Network and Partnerships Manager for Bolton CVS. Carol is a keen traveller, a Wigan Rugby League season ticket holder and proudly owned by 5 cats.
Email: carol.latham@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Robert Keith
Based: Coventry 
Bob is a chartered town planner and started with Planning Aid in June 2011. He has 18 years experience as a policy planner for various local authorities, as well as14 years experience working as Executive Director of Groundwork Coventry and Warwickshire, supporting community-led environmental regeneration initiatives in deprived areas. To prepare himself for a hard days work, Bob likes to take a stroll through the dew covered fields around Kenilworth Castle with his sheepdog Skye (sharing a bacon sandwich en route).
Email: robert.keith@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Mike Dando
Based: Ilkley 
Mike has worked for Planning Aid in various paid capacities since 1990. He is a fully qualified planner and a community planner to boot. He graduated from Manchester University in 1981, working first as a wildlife trust planning officer and then as a freelance consultant. Mike only possesses black and khaki coloured clothes but nonetheless supports Wolves (who wear gold & black).
Email: mike.dando@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Stella Meesters
Based: Hatfield Peverel
Stella joined Planning Aid in July 2011. Prior to this she worked for the Rural Community Council of Essex as Community Engagement Officer where, amongst other things, she supported communities in the creation of Community Led Plans. She graduated from Anglia Ruskin University with a degree in Social Policy. When she is not busy working, Stella can often be found happily diving beneath the ocean of the South coast.
Email: stella.meesters@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Rebecca Elson
Based: Burton on Trent 
Becky started working for Planning Aid in August 2011. She has experience working across sectors with, most recently, 5 years experience managing major regeneration programmes for a Local Authority in the West Midlands and 2 years self-employed consultancy experience undertaking project management roles within the public sector. Becky is a keen pianist and saxophonist and, being true to her roots in Burton on Trent, enjoys marmite and the occasional real ale.
Email: rebecca.elson@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Jo Widdecombe
Based: Exeter 
Jo has been with Planning Aid since 2006. A chartered town planner, she has been in planning for over 15 years, working mainly in the public sector. In her current role as Community Planning Outreach Coordinator, Jo greatly enjoys helping communities have a greater say in shaping the places they work, live and play. She has a weakness for cakes and shoes, and with three young children, her life is always busy and fun!
Email: joanna.widdecombe@planningaid.rtpi.org.uk
Peter Whitehead
Based: Liskeard 
Peter first joined Planning Aid as a Community Planner in 2008. A fully qualified planner, he has spent the past 20 years working with various Councils around the UK. He started his planning career in Essex, before heading off to the Outer Hebrides; he has finally returned south and is now settled in rural Cornwall. No team teleconference is complete without an update on Peter’s chickens, and a distant “cock-a-doodle-do.”
