Regional Activities Committee

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.

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 (MRTPI) and is Vice Chair for the RTPI Yorkshire region.  In his professional role Will is a Principal Planning Consultant for Atkins in Yorkshire, and is working on a pivotal railway project for the North of England. 

He is also Co-Chair for International Co-Operation for the Commonwealth Association of Planners Young Planners (CAP YP) Steering Group, and helps to represent CAP YP on the new multi-disciplinary Commonwealth Youth for Sustainable Urbanisation (CYSU) steering committee.  During 2022 Will helped to launch and progress the CYSU initiative at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda, and at COP 27 in Egypt.

Christine took early retirement from Leeds City Council after a long career in local government planning. After several years with the new West Yorkshire Metropolitan County and after 'finishing' the Structure Plan, she moved to Leeds. There she managed and led teams involved in development management, with responsibility over the years for developments in the City Centre, North West and North East Leeds, as well as major projects across the District. After a couple of years involved mainly with family caring, but not having given up on the profession, she was keen to join the RAC and get back involved with the activities of the Region.

Philipp has an international planning background, started off his career in Germany and Austria and worked in both the public and private sectors.

Although specialised in planning policy he is experienced in planning application work, including pre-application advice, preparing planning applications and conducting public consultation.

Having worked for North East Derbyshire District Council’s Planning Policy Team for over six years, Philipp joined DLP in November 2021. Philipp works within the Planning Team but also contributes to Strategic Planning work.

Stan studied at the Department of Town & Country Planning at Newcastle University, graduating with BA (Land Use Studies) in 1965. He worked first for the West Riding County Council in the Environment Section of the County Planning Department, and was elected MRTPI in 1968. Following spells in development planning at Rotherham County Borough Council and York City Council, he returned to the West Riding County Council, from which he joined Kirklees Metropolitan council as a team leader in 1974, working initially on corporate planning including new housing and housing improvement schemes, and later on local plans. He followed this by work on Government regeneration projects, and was seconded to be the Housing and Environmental Regeneration Manager for Batley City Challenge between 1995 and 1998. On his return to Kirklees he became the conservation team leader, being elected as a member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation in 2001. Stan retired from local government in 2007, but remains a full member of the RTPI and the IHBC, and has since been a planning aid volunteer.

Paul is a Planning Director at Lanpro Services in York.  He has been a member of the RAC and volunteer with Yorkshire Planning Aid since 1993. Paul served as the Chair for the RTPI Yorkshire Region during 2006 and between 2009 and 2020 chaired the Yorkshire Conference Series in a partnership with the two planning schools at Leeds Metropolitan and Sheffield Hallam.  Paul has been a member of the Yorkshire Regional Awards Panel since its inception.

Alyn established his consultancy practice 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, the National Trust, John Lewis and Waitrose and Barnardo’s. He has also advised local authorities on matters relating to town centres and retail development. Alyn has been appointed an “Expert” by the Government’s High Streets Task Force. He has extensive experience of public inquires, hearings and examinations acting for appellants, third parties and local authorities. 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 25 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. 

Jennifer is a dual qualified Chartered Town Planner and Chartered Planning & Development Surveyor, with a background in architecture. She is currently Senior Strategic Land Manager at Barratt Developments PLC. Based in Barratt & David Wilson West Yorkshire Division, she is responsible for securing new land opportunities and promoting the existing strategic land portfolio through the planning system. There is focus on land acquisition in West Yorkshire and across South Yorkshire. Prior to working for a national house builder Jennifer spent several years at Turley and was involved in a broad range of multi-disciplinary projects for a variety of clients across the UK, including major retail, leisure and health. Jennifer has been a Member of the RTPI for over 10 years; is past Chair of YORnet and led the organisation of the 2013 Young Planners' Conference. She was also a "Young Planner of the Year" finalist in the 2014 Planning for Excellence Awards. She currently Chairs the RTPI Yorkshire Awards Group. Jennifer was also Chair of Women in Property's Yorkshire and North East Branch between 2013 and 2015.

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.

Dave Johnson moved to Hornsea in the East Riding of Yorkshire in January 2021 having taken early retirement from the University of the West of England, Bristol, where he had been a town planning lecturer for many years. Prior to that Dave worked for English Heritage as the Regional Policy Officer for the south west.  He has also worked for Future West, a charity promoting sustainable development through partnership working in the West of England area; for Southampton City Council as an Economic Development Officer; and for the National Union of Students as a Regional Officer for the south west. He has also been a parish, city and county councillor, where he was heavily involved in planning, transport, environment, culture and regeneration matters.  His main areas of interest are planning policy and implementation, planning and conservation and planning and education.   

Nyasha (Charlotte) is a committed and commercially minded chartered town planner with over 6 years of experience in both public and private sectors. She is currently working within the Development Management team at Richmondshire District Council, having previously worked for other Local Planning Authorities. Prior to that, she worked for WYG and Persimmon Homes and gained experience of project managing and providing specialist input into a wide range of planning applications primarily residential, sports, regeneration and renewable energy. 

Nyasha has a particular passion for high quality design and takes an innovative approach to resolving challenging and conflicting situations in planning related planning projects. 

Alongside her professional role, she is committed to promoting the RTPI and planning as a career to create a positive change within the industry. 

Dr Joanne Oldfield joined Sheffield Hallam University in 2021 from Carter Jonas having previously worked for Savills. Before this she completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield, exploring the application of sustainable development via the complex regeneration of the former Orgreave colliery site at Waverley. As a fully chartered planner with over fifteen years’ experience Joanne is also an AIEMA accredited EIA project manager and previously led Carter Jonas’ UK wide Environmental Impact Assessment group.

Joanne is key member of Sheffield Hallam’s core academic planning specialism and predominantly teaches across the MSc in Urban Planning and the Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship. She also teaches into the MSc in Environmental Management, the MSc in Advanced Valuation and the BSc Geography course, utilising her previous academic and commercial industry-based experience.

Joanne’s current research interests explore applied sustainability narratives and include considering: the framing and (re)framing of sustainability, the evaluation of planning theory and practice, planning for housing, post Brexit implications for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and pedagogical theory across urban planning HE courses including MSc and HDA routes.