Steve France is Principal Planner (Development Control) with Sunderland City Council. He has been involved with the RTPI in the North East of England since 1987, both as a committee member and as a planning aid volunteer, and was Hon Secretary of the old Northern Branch from 1988 1993. Steve has been an active member of the Branchs Education and Research Group, which sets up the branch conference programme, throughout most of the past 20 years.
Steve is married, with two children, and studied at Manchester University and Oxford Polytechnic. Before coming to Sunderland in 1987, he started work with Berkshire County Council in 1974. Steve has experience of most areas of planning work. Having started in structure planning, he has worked his way through local planning to development control.
The past couple of years have seen him help to turn around the fortunes of the development control section, from one which failed to meet any of its targets to one which is held up as an example of how to operate a successful DC service.
Steves active sporting days have much reduced over recent years, although he still enjoys playing golf and working out at the gym.
As for the coming year Steve would like to continue the work of the current Chair in improving links with other related professional groups. He hopes to visit as many parts of the north east as he can and to encourage members (and non members) to get involved in the work of the RTPI Region. He is concerned that the recent target driven approach in planning and particularly development control has resulted in a decrease in the quality of service provided. In both his employment and through his RTPI work he will be encouraging quality both in procedures and in outcomes.
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