Meet the Board

Susan is a Chartered Town Planner with over 30 years' experience as a planning practitioner in local government and over 13 years in the development industry. She was Head of Planning for six years at Northampton Borough Council and has a proven track record in successfully managing the department through a difficult period of change and transformation. Since 2014 Susan has worked as an independent planning consultant working with both public and private sector clients.  She has practical experience of dealing with a wide range of projects from rural exception sites to new settlements and sustainable urban extensions with a proven track record of working in partnership in a multi-agency and disciplinary environment. Susan was Chair of the Board of Trustees from July 2019 to December 2022 and is now President 2023.

Bernadette is a Planning and Licensing solicitor with thirty years’ experience working as a lawyer and a planner in London and the regions.  She is a partner and Head of Planning at Sharpe Pritchard.  She is Honorary Solicitor and Climate Change Champion for the RTPI and sits on the Board of Trustees.  She is a member of the Law Society’s Planning and Environmental Law Committee and was voted “The Planner” Woman of Influence in 2020.  She provides strategic Planning advice, negotiates complex Planning Agreements and conducts Planning appeals, Judicial Reviews and Statutory Challenges in the High Court and Court of Appeal.  She lectures regularly on planning law topics to clients, planning consultants and developers.

Susan is a Chartered Town Planner with over 30 years' experience as a planning practitioner in local government and over 13 years in the development industry. She was Head of Planning for six years at Northampton Borough Council and has a proven track record in successfully managing the department through a difficult period of change and transformation. Since 2014 Susan has worked as an independent planning consultant working with both public and private sector clients.  She has practical experience of dealing with a wide range of projects from rural exception sites to new settlements and sustainable urban extensions with a proven track record of working in partnership in a multi-agency and disciplinary environment. Susan was Chair of the Board of Trustees from July 2019 to December 2022 and is now President 2023.

Lindsey Richards BA (Hons) DipTP FRTPI

Lindsey is a chartered town planner with over 30 years’ experience in planning, design and delivery. She has extensive background primarily working in the public sector, experienced in community engagement and bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to deliver key housing projects.  Lindsey’s previous roles included leading the planning team at Milton Keynes Partnership, responsible for the expansion of Milton Keynes and introducing the Milton Keynes Tariff.  Lindsey moved to English Partnerships (now Homes England) in 2009 to head up the delivery team in the Midlands. 

Lindsey’s last role was Head of Planning at Homes England, where she worked  in a consultancy role providing specialist advice to Homes England delivery teams. Lindsey was responsible for driving design quality standards and introducing BfL12 ( forerunner to BfHL) as an assessment tool on Homes England sites. She was a member of the Garden Town and Villages Programme Board and worked closely with DLUHC on policy formulation.  Lindsey strongly advocates the value that early community engagement contributes to projects and oversaw the introduction of a community engagement strategy and toolkit to support Homes England projects. 

Lindsey was Head of Profession within Homes England. She undertook a mentoring role to promote the profession and support licentiate members.  Lindsey established the Planners Network within the Agency and oversaw  training and Homes England annual planning conference. 

Lindsey stepped down from her role at Homes England in April 2023 to concentrate on her Vice-Presidential role with the RTPI.

Lindsey is a member of the General Assembly of the RTPI, vice chair of the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee and became a Fellow in 2018.   She will start her presidential year in January 2024.

Lindsey is a Trustee for Design: Midlands

Timothy Crawshaw MA MRTPI FRSA works as an International Planning and Development Consultant in the areas of urban design, planning, green infrastructure, energy efficiency and sustainable transport. With experience in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, alongside an expanding UK practice, he has a specific interest in the role of the nature based approaches to addressing the climate emergency, alongside improving health and wellbeing outcomes and tackling inequality.

Timothy is an experienced lecturer, trainer and facilitator with a passion for community development, and he continues to champion the role of planning as a key part of the solution to the challenges of our times. Timothy is currently the Chair of the Tees Valley Nature Partnership.

He was the 2022 President of the Royal Town Planning Institute.  

Meeta is a chartered town planner and a UK qualified planning solicitor. She is a founding partner of Town Legal LLP, the boutique planning law firm, and before joining Town, Meeta was a planning solicitor at city law firm King and Wood Mallesons (formerly SJ Berwin) and prior to that a planning officer at Westminister Council. She has experience of dealing with a wide range of development schemes of all types and scale, up to and including urban extensions. However, her specialism is large scale mixed-use redevelopment and regeneration schemes, both in London and across the country. She regularly advises on all aspects of planning and associated issues such as highways, compulsory purchase, CIL, heritage, affordable housing and scheme viability, development plans, judicial review, planning appeals. Meeta has been involved with the RTPI at both a regional and national level for over 20 years and is a past chair of RTPI London. Meeta was vice chair of the Board of Trustees from 2021-2022 before being elected to Chair of the Board from January 2023.

Janet Askew is a chartered town planner and a past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She is the President of the European Council of Spatial Planners, new chair of the Planning Policy and Research Committee, and former chair of the International Committee of the RTPI, in which role she has led on the production of a new international strategy for the RTPI. A long career in the public and private sectors and academia included leading the School of Planning and Architecture in Bristol for many years. She is currently the Visiting Professor in Planning Law in Ulster University, Northern Ireland, and visiting lecturer at Cardiff University in Wales. She has worked in all four nations of the UK and lectured extensively in various European countries, China and Taiwan. Her main area of research is in planning law, specialising in legal and regulatory regimes, and she has advised various governments on planning regulations and planning systems.  She is a member of the International Platform of Experts in Planning Law, most recently working with planners and lawyers in Poland and Spain, as well as an advisor to the German ARL (research academy) on planning reform. She chairs the RTPI partnership boards of planning schools in the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and University College Cork, Ireland. 

Stefano is a commercial and pragmatic development planner with a strong customer focus. He has over 35 years of UK professional experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams within  planning, environmental, design and engineering consultancies. He is the Founding Director of Stefano Smith Planning – an independent planning consultancy established in 2019. He has extensive experience in providing development planning and project management services in the environment, infrastructure, energy, commercial, industrial, housing and mixed-use sectors. He has specific experience in statutory planning (including approvals & consents and expert witness), sustainability, regeneration, master planning & urban design, consultation & engagement strategies & tools, development economics and urban analytics. He is an Expert on the Westminster Government’s High Streets Task Force set-up in 2020. He has successfully advised, negotiated and delivered complex land development and infrastructure projects of a range of sizes. He has been intrinsically involved in the evolution of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 participating in various Scottish Government workshops. He is a regular member on research & advisory panels, including Scottish Government research on the infrastructure levy (2017) and the value, impact and incidence of developer contributions (2020/2021). He has been an external practitioner on Heriot-Watt University's Final Year Planning & Property undergraduate degree course, and graduated from the University of Glasgow post graduate masters' programme in Urban Analytics (MSc Urban Analytics) in 2022.

Stefano is an RTPI Board Nations Trustee, Chair of the Nations & Regions Panel and Vice-Chair of the Policy Practice & Research Committee and member of the Nominations Sub-committee, as well as a member of the RTPI Scotland Executive Committee and past RTPI Scotland Convenor.

Tony Crook, was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and is now Emeritus Professor of Town and Regional Planning.  He Chairs the Conservation Volunteers and the Construction Industry Council's Housing Panel; is a lay Privy Council appointee to the Architects Registration Board, is a Director of the Kensington & Chelsea TMO Residuary Board; and an Academy of Social Sciences council member.  Former roles include; member of the Board of the Royal Town Planning Institute (and former Chair of Education Committee); Deputy Chair of Orbit Housing and of the Construction Industry Council; Chair of Rotherham MBC governance review; Chair of Shelter Trustee Board and of Sheffield Homes Ltd; and member of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust; the Lloyds Banking Group Housing Commission and the Housing Commission for Northern England.

His research covers private rented housing and planning obligations.  His latest book 'Planning Gain' (Wiley Blackwell) won the RTPI Research Excellence Award in 2016 and jointly with Professor Christine Whitehead he won the Sir Peter Hall award in 2020 for research on land value capture.  In 2004 he was elected, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and was appointed CBE in the 2014 New Years Honours for services to housing.

Jeffrey is a chartered town planner and has extensive planning experience in the UK and Hong Kong. Jeffrey is currently working at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead as the Principal Planning Officer. Jeffrey has been elected to the RTPI Board of Trustees for 2022-2024 as Trustee for Young Planner. He has also held roles on the RTPI South East since 2018, as a member of the Regional Activities Committee, and later as Honorary Treasurer and a member of the Regional Management Board, supporting Region, the CPD development, minerals and waste planning, and the planning schools’ partnership in the Region. Jeffrey has a passion for volunteering in planning. Jeffrey was one of the UK representatives to attend the Young Planners Worksop of the European Council of Spatial Planners in Paris and Plymouth and was the Member of the International Committee. Jeffrey was also a member of the BOB-MK Steering Group to support the CPD training development. Before moving his planning career to the UK, Jeffrey was a member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. Jeffrey was also a Youth Ambassador of the Macao Urban Planning Forum, Hong Kong City Gallery, and the HKMTR Island West Line Community Project. Jeffrey has been rewarded with several highly prestigious scholarships and awards from his universities, employers, and the RTPI. Jeffrey is the winner of RTPI South East Young Planner of the Year 2018, the Finalist of the Young Planner of the Year 2020 and 2021, and the Finalist of the "Employee of the Year" 2018 in Surrey County Council.

Ben is a chartered planner, with 10+ years working for Camden and Cheshire East councils predominantly developing planning policy. He now works as an Independent Planning Consultant.

At Camden Council, Ben supported work on the Camden Local Plan (2017), particularly ensuring Camden became the country’s second ‘car free’ borough. He also led on supporting 3x neighbourhood plans including one proposing the country’s largest Community Right to Build Order.

For Cheshire East Council, Ben was responsible for monitoring and reporting housing delivery, including the council’s ‘Five Year Supply’ and performance against ‘Right to Build’ legislation (self-build). He also supported work on Cheshire East’s Site Allocations and Development Policies Document (2022), delivering the plan’s self-build policy.

 As an Independent Consultant, Ben provides planning support to both business and private clients, predominantly working for Three Dragons writing housing demand, viability, and academic studies.  

Elle is a Chartered Town Planner who has worked predominantly within the private sector for almost 30 years.  Her career began with a short period working on the Shrewsbury and Atcham Local Plan, and has since included working for a regional planning consultancy, a national house builder, two global commercial real estate companies and as Head of Planning at SLR Consulting an international environmental consultancy. She thus has experience across a range of sectors, organisations and geographies.

Elle is currently Head of Built Environment Growth at SLR focusing not only on project delivery, but ensuring that clients have available the most comprehensive technical advice to optimise the positive environmental, social and sustainability outcomes of their proposals.  She advises a range of clients from investors, enablers, developers and charities through to the public sector, across a full spectrum of uses including tourism, leisure, housing, retail, care, education, industrial and logistics.  Elle’s passion for helping to shape the built environment and the positive outcomes which great development can deliver is supported by her regular involvement in projects from pre-acquisition due diligence, inception, design and public consultation, through to site promotion and planning, project management and site delivery.

Professor Samer Bagaeen’s breadth of experience lies across local government, academia, and urban planning. He is a Technical Director with the Environmental Planning team at Arcadis, a Professor of Planning & Resilient Systems at the University of Kent, and a Councillor since 2019.

Samer is a Chartered Town Planner, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Design Council Expert, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a Trustee of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a Non-Exec Board Member for the South East at Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors. He is Chair of the RTPI’s International Committee in 2023 and sits on the Audit & Risk Committee. Samer sits on the Kent Housing and Development Group and advises the Kent Chief Planners Group. He is a founder member of Hydrogen Sussex and sits on the Advisory Board of the BAME Planners Network.

He previously worked with the Rockefeller Foundation’s global resilience programme as an Associate Director. In Kent, Samer currently manages Cultural Co-location, a Creative Estuary project funded by the Cultural Development Fund and his team has developed a planning for culture toolkit.

He served on the Policy Council at the Town and Country Planning Association from 2010-2020 where he also served as a Trustee for five years. Samer also worked for the RICS as an officer looking after thought leadership relationships. Samer is a regular speaker at conferences and events.