Regional Activities Committee

Kim Cooper

Chair

Kim is a Senior Town Planner at Arup working within the Planning, Policy and Economics Team. She is Vice-Chair of the national RTPI Education and Life Long Learning Committee and a member of the University of Liverpool Planning Advisory Board. Kim is also the founder and Chair of ‘Ideas for Liverpool’, a collective of young professionals from a range of disciplines working together to improve their city. Having volunteered with the RTPI for the last 10 years, Kim cares about the Institute and its future. In her year as Chair, Kim’s strategic aims are; to help planners embraces digital technologies, to continue supporting the next generation of planners and to help raise the profile of planning through celebrating success.

Ian Gilbert

Vice Chair

Ian is a Planning Associate in for Barton Willmore with 12 years-experience advising public and private clients across residential, commercial, retail, leisure and conservation based projects advising on development management, plan-making and EIA processes. Ian sits on the RMB for the NW RTPI in the Senior Vice Chair role for 2020. He is passionate about adding social value and ensuring that planning is used as an effective tool to engage across all sectors of the industry and its stakeholders; including the community. Ian is a member of the Education and Careers Regional Activities Committee and has focussed on promoting planning as a career in local schools as well as mentoring a number of Licentiates through the APC process.

Kieran Blaydes

Junior Vice Chair

Kieran joined The RMB as the Junior Vice-Chair for 2020 and is a member of the Education task group after chairing the 2019 Young Planner’s Conference in the North East. He previously worked for Barton Willmore and ELG Planning in the north east for 18 months before joining Hive Land & Planning in the summer of 2019 as a Graduate Development Planner and Surveyor. He is working towards submitting his APC in the summer of 2020 and is beginning the RICS Planning and Development structured training programme aiming to become a chartered Surveyor. His role on the RMB in 2020 will see him supporting the Chair and Vice-Chair.

Joanne Harding

Honorary Secretary

Joanne is the Local Plans Manager (North) for the Home Builders Federation and represents the members of the HBF in seeking to influence the production of planning policy in the North of England. Joanne is an experienced policy planner with more than 15 years in the profession. After starting her career in the private sector Joanne has mainly working within local government, contributing to planning policy for Stafford, Halton and Cheshire East. Joanne is strong supporter of the planning profession and is currently the Honorary Sectary of the RTPI NW region and a RTPI General Assembly member, and has previously served as RTPI NW Chair and as a Trustee of the RTPI. Joanne is a member of the CPD Task Group and is keen to help to support our local members through professional development and other RTPI services and events.

Ben Vickers

Honorary Treasurer

Ben is a local authority planner who’s spent most of his career working in London writing policy for Camden’s Local Plan and supporting neighbourhood planning groups (including the largest ever Community Right to Build Order). Now working for Cheshire East Council, Ben monitors the borough’s housing supply and works on the council’s development plan. He’s a supporter of ‘Garden Cities’ (having relocated to the North West from Welwyn Garden City) and new technologies which could ultimately lead to better informed decisions.

Andrew Johnston

(Immediate Past Chair)

Andrew is head of planning at Urban Splash and Immediate Past Chair. Andrew is heavily involved with public private partnership projects on the committee, including the Planning Champions initiative. Andrew also sits on the Partnership Working Board with the University of Manchester. In between stints working in Manchester, Birmingham and London, Andrew has also worked in New Zealand, were he became a chartered member of the NZPI.

Emilly Kitching

Emilly is a planner at Arup with 3 years’ experience, working in both the public and private sectors. Emilly’s background in planning policy has given her an excellent understanding of the Local Plan process and experience in multiple areas of policy including Green Belt assessments, policy writing, consultations and engagement. Emilly is passionate about sharing the value of planning to everyone and supporting her fellow planners. Emilly sits on the Regional Management Board as the Representative for the General Assembly for 2020. Emilly is also a member of the Regional Activities Committee and part of the Education, Careers and Mentoring Task Group where she works as part of a team to help promote planning as a career.

Julian Jackson

Julian has over 40 years planning practice experience. Most of that was gained at various local planning authorities in Hertfordshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire mainly working on Local Plan making. Since 2012 Julian has been a freelance planner working with local authority and third sector clients on Local and Neighbourhood Plan preparation. Julian is a member of the Regional Management Board, for 2020 is a member of the Nations and Regions Panel and leads the North West Planning Aid Task Group.

Rebecca Dewey

Trustee for Regions and Nations

Rebecca is a chartered planner with over ten years of experience in consultancy, local authority and client-side roles. She works for WSP | indigo as an Associate Director in Birmingham. Rebecca has held roles on the North West RMB since 2018, as General Assembly representative and more recently Ex-officio, whilst supporting the RAC’s Education, CPD and Awards task groups. Prior to this, Rebecca worked in Manchester and London, and volunteered with the London region as Young Planner and later as Honorary Secretary. She has a passion for nurturing the next generation of property professionals, through university liaison and mentoring colleagues. As recognition, she was awarded the 2016 Rising Star in Property Award, which supports the future pipeline of female leaders. Rebecca was elected to the RTPI Board of Trustees for 2020-2022.

Louisa Fielden

Louisa is a Senior Planner at Avison Young (formerly HOW Planning) with 4 years experience advising on residential, commercial and mixed-use projects from inception to approval, for a range of clients including landowners, developers and housebuilders. She also has experience of promoting sites through the development plan process. Louisa sits on the RAC for the RTPI NW and has been on the Awards task group for the past two years, and the Promotion of Planning task group for two years prior.

Justin Paul

Justin is the Principal Director of J10 Planning. With vast public and private sector experience he advises clients across a multifarious range of sectors including residential, business space, leisure, healthcare, education and retail fields for plan-led and direct applications projects. He is a member of the CPO and affiliate of the IHBC. As NW Treasurer (2004 – 2019) he guided the Region fiscally and has been a keen advocate for a range of pioneering Member services regionally. Shaping the organisational structure he initiated the popular Annual Dinner, been the architect behind the well-received Planning & Resources research and is a keen exponent of the NW CPD training programme; supporting members through the careers and education services, the Young Planners network and Planning Champions initiative.

John Sturzaker

John started his career as a planning practitioner, working mainly in planning policy in North East England. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Civic Design at the University of Liverpool. He teaches modules on planning law, planning practice and community planning, and is his main research interests are localism, planning for housing and the green belt. John was elected as a Fellow of the RTPI in 2019.

John Knight

John is a member of the RTPI North West Regional Activities Committee. Born and brought up in Manchester, John gained qualifications in town planning, teaching and management from universities in Sheffield, Nottingham and Manchester. Starting his professional planning practice at Manchester City Council in the City Centre and Design team, he has spent most of his career within the region working for local planning authorities including two periods as Head of Planning. He is now engaged on a range of community and neighbourhood planning projects. For 2020 he will lead the regional Policy and Research Task Group.

Alec Hickey

Alec is the Planning Team Manager at Burnley Council with over 8 experience working in both the public and private sector. Since graduating from the University of Manchester with a Masters in Town & Country Planning in 2012 Alec has worked at a number of Local Authorities and Private Practises in different roles starting off as a planning assistant to becoming the Planning Team Manager at Burnley Council. Alec has been a Charted Member for a number of years and has since taken on the role as an RTPI mentor. Alec is a member of the Social and Events sector of the Regional Activities Committee which helps facilitate the upcoming years RTPI events for the North West.

Deborah Baker Barnett

Deborah is a planning Associate at Zerum, working on urban development projects with a particular interest in heritage. She is on the Education and Careers task group and enjoys visiting schools to talk to students about planning. Deborah is an assessor, reviewing applications for membership of the RTPI, and sits on the Membership Assessment Advisory Panel in this capacity. She often presents an assessor's view at regional 'APC Club' events which are aimed at Licentiates and others preparing for charted membership of the RTPI.

Steve Thompson

Steve has been a member of the RTPI since 1993 and joined the North West Regional Activities Committee in December 2018. Steve worked in the Planning Department at Wigan Council since 1987, most recently in the Policy and Projects Team until 2018, when he took early retirement. During his time at Wigan, he helped to deliver several major regeneration schemes including the Grand Arcade Shopping Centre and the award-winning Wigan Life Centre. As part of his role on the Regional Activities Committee, Steve was a member of the judging panel for the 2019 North West Regional Planning Awards. Steve has recently enrolled as a Planning Aid England Volunteer and is looking forward to working with local communities to help them understand the increasingly complex planning system!

Jake Crompton

Jake is a Chartered Town Planner with 7 years-experience working in the private sector. He graduated from the University of Manchester in 2013 and has worked in various private sector roles, including planning consultancy, multi-disciplinary practice and currently for a national housebuilder. Jake joined the Regional Activities Committee in 2017 and has been involved in the Education and Careers Task Group since then. He chaired the Task Group in 2018 with a focus on reaching out to schools to promote planning as a career and re-launching the annual school competition to give an insight into different aspects of the profession.

Kayleigh Lancaster

Kayleigh is a Planning Specialist working for PFK Land and Development who are based in Cumbria. Since qualifying in 2009, Kayleigh has experienced working in both the public and private sector and now acts for a range of private and public sector clients offering advice on all aspects of the planning system. Kayleigh is a member of the RTPI North West’s Regional Activities Committee, and is involved with developing and delivering the programme of CPD training and social activities which take place across the North West. I joined the Regional Activities Committee in 2019 to help promote RTPI activities across the North West, but particularly in Cumbria.

Tillie Baker

Tillie joined Arup Manchester as a planner in 2018, where she has worked on a variety of development and planning policy projects including a new Acute Receiving Centre at Salford Royal Hospital and an Infrastructure Delivery Plan for Rossendale Borough Council. She has lead the Education, Careers and Mentoring Task Group since 2019, having served on the Committee since 2017. Tillie has been instrumental in broadening the reach of the Task Group to serve both prospective and current planners. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Tillie has previously worked as a planner in the United States after receiving her Masters in Regional Planning from Cornell University in 2014. She became chartered through the Associate route in 2019 and continues to mentor planners from varied backgrounds who are seeking membership of the RTPI.

Rebecca Halliwell

Rebecca is a Planning Officer at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council with 5 years’ experience working in the public sector. Since graduating from Sheffield Hallam with a Masters in Town & Country Planning in 2012 Rebecca has worked at a number of Local Authorities in different roles starting off in planning admin to becoming a planning officer in development management. Rebecca recently passed her Licentiate Assessment of Professional Competence (L-APC) in August 2019 and has since taken on the role as an RTPI mentor. Rebecca is a member of the Social and Events sector of the Regional Activities Committee which helps facilitate the upcoming years RTPI events for the North West.

Fiona Hore

Fiona has been a Chartered Town Planner since 1996 and is currently the Head of Planning at Cheshire West and Chester Council, responsible for both Planning Policy and Development Management. Cheshire West is a varied and diverse Borough, with areas ranging from the historic City of Chester, with its Roman Heritage and unique Rows, to the industrial landscape of Ellesmere Port. Prior to becoming Head of Planning at Cheshire West, Fiona was the Development Planning Manager at Chester City Council. She has had a varied career, and prior to her move to Chester in 2006, she was a Senior Planning Officer at Ceredigion County Council. From 1991 until 1996, she was a Planning Officer at Newark and Sherwood District Council.

Ian Pennington

Ian has taken an unconventional route to planning after running a Greater Manchester magazine whose cultural content increasingly considered planning issues. Now part of the planning and EIA team at Wardell Armstrong’s Manchester office, Ian has over two years’ experience on schemes from residential to renewable energy, producing Planning, Crime and Health assessments. Ian joined the RTPI NW Regional Activities Committee and the RTPI NW Young Planners Committee in January 2019 and has assisted with various CPD events, including arranging the Participation in Planning seminar at Manchester Art Gallery to tie in with the Peterloo Massacre bicentenary exhibition. In his spare time, Ian engages with sustainable transport and active travel campaigns and is passionate about enabling safer, more liveable streets.

Andrew Jalali

Andrew is interested in urban design, community engagement and the delivery of truly affordable housing – and how the development of new technologies can assist in improving these planning disciplines. Andrew is also keen to provide support to RTPI planning graduates, and advises aspiring planners on the potential paths to achieve a career in planning.

Sarah Corlett

Sarah has worked in the Isle of Man all of her professional working life, dealing with the Island’s unique planning system which has always involved third party rights of appeal. Whilst interested in planning issues relating to the changing nature of the rural economy and landscape, Sarah is particularly interested in developing and encouraging the Island’s young, emerging planning officers and to support them towards accreditation to the RTPI. Whilst physically distant from the UK-based Institute, she hopes to build on existing links to ensure that the Island is not forgotten.

Tom Royles

Tom is an Urban Design consultant at Urban Green, Manchester with over three years-experience in both town planning and urban design. He has worked on a wide range of projects including masterplanning, delivering small-to-large scale residential development, representing clients at planning appeal, and plan making.¬¬ Tom is also a member of the awards task group on the Regional Activities Committee and has assisted the task group with their regional awards programme and judging the Moss Madden award for the best dissertation.

Dr Christopher Wilson MTCP, MA, PhD

Chris has been a member of the North West RAC for 18 years now. Chris has focused on promoting the profession, and the work of the RTPI, to wider audiences. This included editing the publications produced by the NW Region, presently the End of Year Reviews. Over 2002-2006, Chris completed a PhD looking at community engagement practices in Housing Market Renewal Programmes in the North West. Since then, Chris has worked as a consultant for Warrington-based BE Group. He specialises in providing Employment Land Study Evidence bases for Local Plans and property market assessments for masterplans. Outside of the office, Chris likes to explore the region in different ways, though fell walking and Geocaching.

Atefeh Motamedi

Atefeh joined RTPI North West as member of the Young Planners Task Group in 2016, following election as Associate member of the institute. Atefeh is a qualified town planner with over 4 years UK and international urban and regional planning experience. Atefeh is also Associate member representative on RTPI General Assembly (201-2020). Through her international experience, Atefeh has gained extensive knowledge in land use planning, and has a keen interest in strategic planning, masterplanning, heritage planning and research. Recently, Atefeh has developed a keen interest in understanding the impacts of built environment on mental health, in particular of those with hidden disabilities. As a member of Young Planners Task Group, Atefeh is involved in organising ‘soft skills’ workshops, as she sees these skills essential for young planners professional development and ability to represent the planning profession in the best ways possible.

Sam Leuty-Milner

Sam is a planning graduate from the University of Sheffield and Birmingham and has worked for Tesni Properties for over five years where he currently holds the position of Planning and Development Manager. Sam has been an Associate member of the RTPI since 2018, and is currently working towards becoming fully chartered.