David Cullingford is the 2013 Chair of RTPI NE, having been elected at the Annual Meeting in December 2012.
David has been a Planning Inspector since 1981, undertaking large inquiries in York, Solihull, London and elsewhere, and coping with the occasional traumatic occurrence (a death, a burst artery and many tears). He now works in a part-time capacity, usually for periods of 2 months or so interspersed with long holidays. He was briefly allowed out (for about 5 years) to teach planning law at Newcastle University, on one afternoon a week. Previous appointments have been with the Department of the Environment and with Wilson and Womersley, now little known, but then engaged on the Liverpool Inner Area Study (involving David in his re-acquaintance with Toxteth after time spent there in the mid-1960s as a Community Service Volunteer) and in Botswana.
David has served on the Regional Activities and Policy Committee and has been a past chair of the Planning Aid Sub-Group, battling to maintain a ‘planning aid’ presence within the region. He remains a member of the regional Planning Aid group.
At the RTPI NE Annual Meeting David explained that the chair now accommodated the uncertain gait of old age instead of the vigour and enthusiasm of youth, as displayed by his predecessor Joe Ridgeon. Urgent involvement from all would be required to ‘fill the breach’. David’s themes for 2013 will focus on a modest re-balancing of the resources originating and spent in the region, the re-establishment of an accountable and local planning aid presence, and the fostering of improved links between the Universities and RTPI North East. The over-arching aim will be to participate and prosper.
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