John Knight Award
We are proud to name this award after John Knight in recognition of his 50+ years of inspirational voluntary work. John continues to promote the planning profession.
Winner - Bob May
Bob May has 40-years’ experience as a planner working in the public, private and voluntary sectors where he has constantly demonstrated a significant and inspirational commitment to the RTPI and planning within our region. Following graduating in 1986 from the university of Manchester he worked for several rural and urban planning authorities before joining Turley in 1994 where he rose to became part of the national leadership team, Head of Expert Witness and Chair of their Charitable Trust until he left in 2015 and later up his own consultancy Ryan and May. Bob has been an active member of the RTPI in the north-west being chair of the region (2005/6) and speaking and chairing a myriad of CPD events. He has gone on to serve on a number of Planning Schools Partnership boards in the North-west and Yorkshire. As part of his career, he was an early advocate of the move away from ‘development control’ to ‘development management’ and pioneered the use of hybrid planning applications on complex retail led projects over 20 years ago. He has undertaken a significant amount of voluntary and charitable work, both in the UK and abroad, ranging from working with planners in Sierra Leone, to Homelessness charities in Ancoats. He was made a Fellow of the RTPI in 2017 in recognition of both his leadership skills, contribution to the RTPI and commitment to guiding and mentoring early career planners. Bob is highly regarded by his clients, colleagues, and planners across the region, known not only for their technical expertise, sound judgement and approachable demeanour, but also for his honesty, discretion, and professional integrity. He is therefore a worthy recipient of this year’s inaugural John Knight award.