Planning is 50

Taking part in our various events are:

Jim Claydon

Jim Claydon BSc MSc Dip TP MRTPI is technical Director with Terence O’Rourke planning consultants based in Bath having been appointed in 2004. He is currently working on a masterplan proposal, a regeneration scheme, and the CLG’s Spatial Plans in Practice research project monitoring the implementation of the new planning system. In 2005 he was part of the consortium of consultants who delivered the Marine Spatial Planning – Irish Sea Pilot for Defra, a major input into the Marine Bill White Paper. Jim was previously Head of the School of Planning and Architecture at UWE Bristol where he was a lecturer for over 20 years and is still visiting professor. As well as teaching he ran numerous training courses for politicians and practitioners all over the UK. Prior to that he worked in planning for Leicestershire and Devon County Councils. He is President of RTPI having served on committees at a national level for ten years and was Branch Chair for the South West in 2000. He provided research support for the Education Commission. He has written and lectured extensively on marine spatial planning, planning education and training, planning implementation and negotiations.

Peter Fidler

Professor Peter Fidler joined the University of Sunderland as Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive in 1999 moving to the region from Oxford in the South of England where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Oxford Brookes University.

Born and brought up in Greater Manchester, Peter Fidler is a Chartered Town Planner, a Past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, who has worked in planning and in the University sector for some 30 years. He chaired the RTPI Education Commission.

Peter has lived and worked in each of the English regions, including the West Midlands. From 1976 to 1987 he worked at the then Birmingham Polytechnic in the School of Planning and Landscape. Whilst in Birmingham Peter was a member of the Management Committee of SURE Housing Association and the Board of Shape Urban Renewal Enterprises (SURE). Since coming to the North East Peter has become “Passionate about the North East”, and is a Board member of the region’s Strategic Health Authority. Peter is proud to have been created an Ambassador for the City of Sunderland, a Deputy Lieutenant of Tyne & Wear, and is a Board member of Sunderland ARC Urban Regeneration Company and Codeworks, the region’s Centre of Excellence in Digital Media and Technology He is a supporter of Sunderland AFC.

David Lock

David Lock is Chairman and Managing Director of David Lock Associates Ltd (planners and urban designers in Milton Keynes and Melbourne, Australia) and Chairman of DLA Architects Practice Ltd; and a Director of Integrated Transport Planning Ltd. He was Chief Planning Adviser (half time) to the Department of the Environment from 1994 to 1997; and is Visiting Professor in the Centre of Planning Studies, School of Business, University of Reading; Chairman of the Town and Country Planning Association; and Chair of the environmental education charity City Discovery in Milton Keynes. He was appointed CBE in the 2007 New Year’s Honours List for services to Urban Design.

Julie Morgan

Julie Morgan was an undergraduate student of UCE School of Planning. Whilst studying, she attended the first ever National RTPI Planning Conference when she became involved in the West Midlands Regional RTPI Committee. She moved on to play a key role for Young Planners in the East of England Region where she secured funding and programme of events to support YP there culminating in her becoming the inaugural RTPI Young Planner of the Year. Julie has a wide range of experience in Development Control, Local Planning, and Consultancy and until recently led Stafford Borough Council’s Urban Design Service.

Sue Percy

Sue Percy is the RTPI’s Director of Membership, Education and Lifelong Learning and was previously Head of Department of Urban, Environment and Leisure Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences at London South Bank< University.

As Director of Membership, Education and Lifelong Learning, Sue has overall strategic responsibility for membership strategies, professional education, the implementation of the assessment of professional competence and for continuing professional development and lifelong learning, managing the conduct and discipline process, and delivering effective processes for attracting and retaining members. She is a member of the executive management team which is tasked to provide leadership and direction to the Institute.

Her responsibilities at London South Bank University included providing both academic and professional leadership for the department, contributing to the effective management of the Faculty and managing the planning, validation and delivery of courses associated with the department. Sue was responsible for quality assurance in all aspects of department business and in promoting the external profile of the department and maintaining effective working relationships with external bodies. She was also involved in research and enterprise activities.

Sue is a chartered member of the RTPI and began her career in planning practice at Huntingdonshire District Council, then moved to North Hertfordshire District Council, before entering higher education. She is currently a planning aid volunteer and is a member of the South East RTPI Regional Activities Committee. Sue is also a member of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers’ Planning and Environment Research Group.

Professor Alan Wenban-Smith

Alan Wenban-Smith is a senior planner with a strong track record of experience and achievement in the fields of integrated land use,transport and economic planning in the public and private sectors. His particular expertise is in linking housing, land-use, economic development and transport policy to other aspects of urban and regional policy. He spent 25 years as a planner in English local government, responsible for both land-use and transport policy at local, city and regional levels – including senior roles in Birmingham – and playing a key role in national adoption of innovations in integrating land-use and transport planning.

He has carried out a wide range of research and consultancy projects for government departments and agencies, regional bodies and interest groups. As adviser to the Shadow Transport Secretary in 1995/6 he was primary author of Labour’s then transport strategy (Consensus for Change). He has been a witness and an adviser to Commons Select Committees. He was Visiting Professor of Planning at Newcastle University in 1997-9. Alan now works as an independent consultant on regional planning, transport, economic development and housing issues.

Recent projects (independently and in collaboration with other firms) include a study of the integration of regional transport with spatial strategies for DfT, the establishment of a Regional Intelligence Observatory for the West Midlands Regional Development Agency, and the production of Regional Planning Guidance and Transport Strategy for the Yorkshire & Humber Regional Assembly. He is also currently chair of the NHS West Midlands regional innovations hub (MidTECH).

Professor J.W.R. Whitehand

Jeremy Whitehand graduated and later gained his PhD and DSc from the University of Reading. He has held full-time academic posts in the Universities of Newcastle upon Tyne, Glasgow and Birmingham, where he has been based since 1971. Jeremy has promoted the study of urban form, or “urban morphology”, through founding the Urban Morphology Research Group at Birmingham. The UMRG has generated a considerable research profile, numerous publications and PhD graduates. Jeremy is also very active internationally in this field, being a founder member of ISUF, the International Seminar on Urban Form, and is currently Editor of its journal, Urban Morphology.

Most of his publications, some 200 in total, are in the field of urban morphology, and he has a special interest in urban conservation and townscape planning. He has led research projects funded by UK research councils and the Leverhulme Trust into city-centre change, new housebuilding in mature suburbs, and most recently on the scale and nature of urban change in Chinese cities.

He was formerly a member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society and the Council of the Institute of British Geographers, Chairman of the Institute of British Geographers Urban Geography Study Group, and Editor of its journal Area. He is currently an adviser on urban planning to Shanxi Provincial Government, China, Honorary Professor in the University of Shanxi, China, Emeritus Professor in the University of Birmingham and Visiting Professor, UCE Birmingham