Committees

Catharine is the Community Planning Manager for Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council and is responsible for managing and facilitating collaboration between a number of statutory partners delivering services to improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of local people. She has been a town planner for over 30 years having previously worked in Wyre Borough Council and Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council before returning to Northern Ireland to work in the voluntary sector on planning projects with community groups. A graduate of Birmingham Polytechnic, Catharine strongly believes in the importance of involving communities in making decisions which ultimately impact on their lives.

Chris Bryson is Director of Planning with Gravis Planning, a consultancy with offices in Belfast and Dublin, and leads a team of planners on large-scale development schemes. A graduate of Queens University Belfast, he has over 18 years’ experience working on a wide range of projects throughout Northern Ireland. Prior to joining Gravis Planning, Chris worked for the Planning Service (DoE) in the Belfast office, as part of the Development Control city centre team.

Cathy is graduate of Queen’s university, Belfast and a chartered town planner with almost twenty  years’ experience.

While working to the Department  of the Environment, Cathy worked and managed teams in development management and enforcement in a number of local planning divisions with a period in the Chief Planner’s office providing ministerial advice and guidance.  At the transfer of functions to local government Cathy moved to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council where she managed a team focusing on enforcement and major applications.  She has recently taken up a post as Commissioner with the Planning Appeals Commission.

Mura is a chartered urban planner and designer with over ten years’ experience working on climate, sustainability and placemaking across a range of sectors. Mura was Chair for RTPI in Northern Ireland in 2022.

Mura has worked for Transport for London, the Prince’s Foundation, Lisburn City Centre Management, Ards Borough Council and Ulster University.  Mura is currently Adaptation and Resilience Advisor with Belfast City Council. She is completing her PhD which explores the role of design in creating urban resilience and the ability for cities and towns to adapt to change and uncertainty.

Emma is a Senior Planner with over 7 years professional planning experience, having worked across both the public sector and private sector in England. Since moving back to Northern Ireland in 2021, Emma has joined JUNO Planning and Environmental Ltd and has started to develop her knowledge of the planning sector within Northern Ireland. Emma has extensive experience on all aspects of planning and has significant experience in dealing with complex major planning applications and working within large multidisciplinary project teams on high profile developments.

Alistair Beggs was appointed Director of Strategic Planning Division in February 2018. A graduate of Dundee University, he is a Chartered Town Planner with over 25 years’ experience working in a wide range of planning posts. Prior to spending 13 years with the Planning Appeals and Water Appeals Commissions Alistair worked with Dundee City Council, Angus Council and Fife Council. Alistair joined RTPI NI Executive Committee in December 2019.

Chris is currently the Acting Service Unit Manager (Principal Planner) for the Planning Enforcement team at Ards and North Down Borough Council in Northern Ireland, where he has worked for seven years.

After Chris gained a BSc (Hons) degree in Town and Regional Planning from the University of Dundee he worked for the Department of Environment for Northern Ireland’s Planning Service from August 2002 to March 2015 in both Development Management and Planning Enforcement roles across several Area Planning offices.

Chris is the NI Representative for the NAPE Executive Committee, which he has been since February 2017.

Erin is a Senior Planner at Turley in Belfast, working on some of the largest regeneration sites across the City, including Titanic Quarter, the Kings Hall and Sirocco. This exposure has allowed her to build up extensive experience in major city centre regeneration projects, with the latest approval at Sirocco representing a £450million investment in Belfast.

Erin is also a founding member of the Women in Planning Network NI which champions gender equality in the planning industry and was recently named on ‘The Planner Women of Influence’ list for 2021.

Diane has been engaged in planning practice for over 20 years having started her career in the Department of the Environment Planning Service holding various posts in development management and development plan. Diane also worked for the Department for Regional Development Regional Planning in the implementation of the Regional Development Strategy. In 2012, Diane attained a PhD from Queen's University, Belfast on the topic of collaborative planning and equality in Northern Ireland. Having worked at the Planning Appeals Commission since 2006, Diane has conducted numerous planning appeals, been involved in a public inquiry into a major road scheme and has just completed her second examination of a local development plan.

Nick Salt is a Senior Planner with Turley and has been based in their Belfast office since joining in January 2022.  In that time, he has worked on several major projects in throughout the UK and Ireland, including significant urban regeneration schemes, major logistics proposals and residential schemes.

Nick graduated from Queens University Belfast in 2017 with a Planning and Development MSc, having made the switch from a short career in politics.  He has previously worked in development management for the Isle of Man Government, and more recently with local planning authorities throughout England during a spell with Capita.

Lisa is a Graduate Planner at Arup, working predominantly within the Transport Consulting sector. She is currently a licentiate member of the RTPI and is working towards achieving chartership within the next few years. In her short career, she has demonstrated experience working on various multi-disciplinary highway projects, active travel strategy development and has completed extensive research into the future development of greenway and rail links in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Lisa recently graduated from Ulster University in 2021 with a First-Class, Masters of Science degree in Planning, Regeneration and Development. During her time as a student, Lisa received awards for both the EPLA NI Planning and Property Development Prize 2018-2019 and the RTPI NI Student Project Prize 2021 for Research into ‘Cross-border Cooperation in the Planning and Delivery of Greenways on the Island of Ireland’.

Lisa is a passionate young planner, with particular interest in the role of planning policy in achieving decarbonisation and encouraging modal shift across Northern Ireland. Through the integration of active travel interventions, she believes that further policies should be developed and implemented that have the potential to encourage long-term, sustainable modal shift.

Despite his short career, Justin is a Spatial and Smart City Planner with a demonstrated history of diversified experience developing and implementing smart city planning tools and PlanTech along with working on major transportation, regeneration, development, and renewable energy projects. 

Justin graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 2018 with a First-Class BSc degree in Environmental Planning. During his time at undergraduate level, Justin received awards for the highest performing planning student in his second year of study and the prestigious Simon Kirk Award for the highest performing final year student.  

Justin joined AECOM’s brilliant Traffic, Transport, Streets, and Highways Planning Teams, working on major schemes across both the North and South of Ireland to great success and learning a wealth of diversified experience.   

With a significant passion to make an impact on the future of the planning profession, Justin then undertook the role of Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate, leading on a novel two-year public and private sector collaborative research project between QUB Planning and VU.CITY exploring the future of digital planning through the creation and use of 3D digital twins, City Information Modelling, emerging PlanTech, and embedding these tools within the planning process. Under Justin’s leadership, this industry based KTP project was recently graded ‘Outstanding’ across every assessment category by Innovate UK’s KTP panel; a very rare accolade, and Justin has been nominated for a ‘Future Leader’ award.  

While leading the aforementioned project, Justin also returned to education and is currently close to completing a part-time Master’s degree in Planning and Development at QUB, has co-authored a peer-reviewed academic paper due for publication in International Planning Studies, diversified his growing skillset with qualifications in UX Design, Agile Business Analyst, and has been awarded an ESRC NINE PhD studentship on Digital Planning and PlanTech to commence in October 2021 with QUB.