Regional Activities Committee

Philipp is a chartered town planner with over 17 years of multinational planning experience in both the public and private sectors. Originally from Austria, he studied regional planning and spatial development at the University of Lille 1 in France. During his professional career at local planning authorities and consultancies in Germany and Austria, he focused on planning policy, community engagement and neighbourhood planning. Since Philipp moved to the UK, he has worked as a senior planner for North East Derbyshire District Council. In this role he strives to deliver the new Local Plan for the District, supports Neighbourhood planning and gives planning policy advice.

Derek graduated from Dundee University in Town and Regional Planning and later from Durham University in Environmental Impact Assessment. His career has spanned over 30 years, with the latter half at Chief officer level. He has also worked as Head of Planning with the Dubai based master developer "Nakheel" leading on a number of major projects including the Waterfront City and Palm Jumeirah. He has been a consultant since 2011, specialising in interim management and service transformation. He returned to full time Local Government in 2019 as Chief Planning Officer at Sefton Council on Merseyside.  He has a passion for overseas planning, with clients in the Middle East, Russia and China during his time as a consultant and is familiar with their planning systems. He is currently a member of the RTPI Membership and Ethics Committee and the RTPI Education Network. Prior to this he was a member of the RTPI's International Committee and the Independent Consultants Network Steering Group. 

Richard is a chartered town planner and works as an independent planning consultant based in Hull. He set up Richard Wood Associates in 2016 and has a long track record of working in the Yorkshire region in the public and private sector.

Will is a chartered town planner and is part of the Atkins UK northern planning team.  He works as a part of multi-disciplinary teams on a range of infrastructure and development projects which vary from local to national significance, and contributes to business development. 

Will previously worked as a planning consultant within the Property industry with Cushman & Wakefield in Leeds.  He started out his career in the public sector, working within a variety of teams at the City of York Council.

Will is also a part of the Regional Management Board for RTPI Yorkshire, as Honorary Secretary.  In addition, he is a steering member for the Commonwealth Association of Planners Young Planners, working in collaboration with the RTPI on events and initiatives where relevant

Simon is an Associate Environmental Planning Consultant currently working for Delta-Simons Environmental Consultants Ltd in the national team. Simon specialises in the provision of Environmental Planning Services and advice to developers, land agents, fund managers, local authorities, town planning consultants, other co-professionals and colleagues. Before joining Delta-Simons, Simon worked for an award winning private and public sector regeneration partnership in North East Lincolnshire. Simon was the key senior consultant and project manager for the firm's largest private planning contract in the region. In 2008 Simon started his planning career at East Riding of Yorkshire Council dealing with predominantly major applications. As well as being a Chartered member of the RTPI he is also an Associate member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (AssocRICS).

Becky is a Chartered planner and is Head of Development Services at City of York Council. Since joining City of York Council in 2018 Becky and her team have lead led on a number of large scale schemes including the York Central site which is one of the largest brownfield sites in England; located next to the city's existing retail and business core and the railway station and is 45 hectare mixed-use development site. Before joining City of York Becky worked at Wakefield Council specialising in residential developments and also led on a number of large scale schemes including the Wakefield East expansion project and Newmarket Lane development site. Communication is a key part of Becky's work ethic and is always happy to promote planning whenever the opportunity arises. The future of planning is important to Becky as she sees it has part of her role to promote planning and has recently done talks in schools to promote the planning in future generations.

Bob retired from commercial planning practice in 2012. From then he was Honorary Regional Secretary of RTPI Yorkshire until 2019 when, amongst other things, he has led on the inception and development of the Great North Plan, and subsequent “Ambitions for The North“ report.

He was elected to the RTPI General Assembly in 2015/17. He continues to play an active role within RTPI Yorkshire, particularly in pursuing pan regional planning initiatives and career professional development opportunities that challenge the status quo.

He is particularly interested in hearing from anyone in, or considering joining, the planning profession about how the RTPI can improve in serving it’s members. He enjoys walking, gardening, reading and holds a Leeds United season ticket.

Paul is a consultant with Carter Jonas in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. He has been a member of the RAC and volunteer with Yorkshire Planning Aid since 1996. Paul served as the Chair for the RTPI Yorkshire Region during 2006 and since 2009 has chaired the Yorkshire Conference Series in partnership with the two planning schools at Leeds Metropolitan University and Sheffield Hallam University.

Alyn graduated with an Honours degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Oxford Poly in 1979 and was elected a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1982.  He Has his own consultancy practice which he established in 1990. Alyn has been involved in a wide range of private and public sector work throughout Yorkshire, the North West and beyond.  Clients have included Land Securities in respect of the White Rose Centre at Leeds, The East Midlands Region of the National Trust and local authorities.  He has also undertaken extensive work for Morrisons, Asda and the Co-operative Group.  Current Clients include Waitrose and John Lewis. Alyn has been appointed an “Expert” by the Government’s High Streets Task Force. He has extensive experience of public inquires, hearings and examinations and he has spoken at a number of RTPI seminars on the role of the expert witness at inquiries. Alyn is also on the Steering Group of the RTPI Network of Independent Consultants.

In his spare time Alyn enjoys time with his wife ambling in the Lake District, attending cricket matches and the delights of older motor cars. Over the past 20 years he has been learning to play the piano accordion, unsuccessfully, and he is a professional model maker.  He also aspires to be paper free. 

Abbie has worked in the Policy and Plans Group at Leeds City Council since October 2016, after joining the Council’s corporate graduate development programme. Since then, she has been supporting neighbourhood planning groups across Leeds to prepare and implement neighbourhood plans, including through the designation, policy preparation, examination and referendum processes. Abbie was part of the team that organised the first national neighbourhood planning forums event in October 2018 and she has co-authored the Council’s Neighbourhood Planning and Design Toolkit.

She has a particular interest in supporting neighbourhood planning groups in inner-city, urban areas, and in community engagement as part of the neighbourhood planning process and is a neighbourhood planning champion.

Abbie also is a policy lead on housing standards, including space standards and accessible housing.

I am a second year student studying Human Geography and Planning at Leeds Beckett University. I have an active role within the university in a number of volunteer roles, as course student rep, co-founder and treasurer of the Geography Society and volunteering projects through the university. 

My involvement in the Royal Geographical Society’s student ambassador scheme and women in property award have further accelerated my aspirations to work in the planning sector specifically targeting sustainable regeneration projects whilst create equality in our areas.

I am an adventurous individual who enjoys spending time in the outdoors as well as being fortunate enough to have had incredible opportunities to travel the world, experiencing different cultures and landscapes which only further increased my passion for exploring and inspired me to do the degree I am today.