Bill Lindsay works with Fife Council Development Services where he manages the Local and Community Policy team which is responsible for local development planning in the Kingdom. He is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Scottish Executive Committee and was Convenor of the RTPI in Scotland in 2005. Bill has been a Planning Summer School Member since 2001 and is currently Honorary Programme Liaison Officer.

Why attend Planning Summer School? Bill says the answer to that is dead easy!

“It’s a great opportunity to network with planners, economic development, regeneration, and transportation practitioners and academics from all parts of the U.K. and abroad, and to hear – and meet – ‘A list’ speakers. You’ll have the chance to find out what’s going on elsewhere and to share your own experiences – and that’s becoming more important as the nations within the U.K. diversify their planning systems. The format of Planning Summer School allows you to choose a weekday or weekend slot to suit your circumstances".

“Planning Summer School is work but with fun because socialising mixes with the learning. You’ll meet old friends and make new ones. You’ll find answers to your problems (planning or otherwise) or be able to offer solutions to others’ problems. Or maybe you’ll discover that the issues you’re wrestling with are not unique to you after all. Over the years, I’ve met many delegates who have said that Planning Summer School has boosted their enthusiasm and re-ignited their interest in planning. That’s the reward".

“And if you like what you see, you have the chance to stand for election and join us".

“Quite simply, it has to be the best value CPD you can get!”

After graduating in Architecture from Liverpool University and a short period in private practice in London, Jan began her planning career in the public sector, working in conservation and design and subsequently in forward planning for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. In 1987 she joined surveyors and property consultants Weatherall Green and Smith where she became head of their planning team in Leeds in 1990. In 1997 she moved to the South West and in 1998 joined King Sturge as head of their Bristol Planning team.

At the beginning of 2004, she joined Terence O’Rourke Ltd as a Technical Director, with the remit of opening a new office in Bath together with Jim Claydon, RTPI President in 2007. She was promoted to Director in March 2005 and is now a consultant with the practice.

As well as being a co-founder and organiser of the annual Bristol Planning Law and Policy Conference, Jan also contributes to the National Planning Forum and sits on the Panel for the RICS Awards in the South West. She has just completed a period as an external examiner to the Faculty of the Built Environment at UWE. During her career she experienced Summer School as both a delegate and speaker, but joined as a member in 2002. She is currently on the Programme and Special Funds Panels and is Deputy Press Officer.

Janice Morphet was a Senior Adviser on local government modernisation and e-government at the ODPM 2000-2005.

Before this she was Chief Executive of Rutland CC, establishing it as a unitary authority, Director of Technical Services at Woking and Secretary of Serplan. She has also spent time as a planner in Enfield, Islington, and Surrey CC and for over eleven years at Tower Hamlets.

In 2006, Janice joined rmjm consulting as a Director and also became an associate with a number of consulting firms. She has recently been appointed to the Planning Committee of the London 2012 Olympic Games. She is a Visiting Professor at UCL, where she is working on an RTPI sponsored project, Effective Practice in Spatial Planning with Deloitte and is also a member of the RAE 2008 panel for planning. Janice has recently been elected to the RTPI General Assembly and joined Summer School in 2006.

Richard Morris works in development control in Sevenoaks, where he has recently been made Area Manager for one of the DC teams. Prior to this he also worked (briefly) in the private sector, and more substantially for Cardiff County Council in policy, regeneration and development control.

He has been a member of the Summer School since 2004 and is currently part of the hospitality team, helping to make sure that everyone is well looked after, happy, fed and that the bar is fully stocked! He is passionate about the development of the profession and works to improve both the perception of it, and the people within it, and strongly believes that the Summer School has a key role to play in this.

Pamela O’Donnell is an Associate Director in Turley Associate’s Belfast office.

Pamela began her planning career in the Department of the Environment primarily in Development Control before taking up a secondment opportunity to work as a community planner with the West Belfast Partnership Board in 2000. When she returned to the Department in 2004, it was as Head of Comprehensive Development. Pamela joined Turley Associates in 2005 and her current projects include town centre regeneration schemes, educational and mixed use housing developments.

Pamela is a member of the Northern Section of the Irish Branch of the RTPI. She was elected to Summer School in 2002 and won the RTPI Young Planner of the Year award in 2004 for her work as a community planner.

Pamela continues to be involved in Summer School as she sees it as an important training/social event for both planners and elected members.

I am Senior Lecturer in Planning Policy in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Ulster, having formerly worked at the Universities of Liverpool, Dundee and Westminster. Prior to that, I worked in the Planning Department at St Albans District Council. My teaching brings me into contact with undergraduate and postgraduate students in the context of planning practice and communication. My research interests include the modernisation and reform of planning; new forms of spatial planning, including marine spatial planning; community planning and development; and urban regeneration, particularly the areas of Town Centre Management and Business Improvement Districts.

My first experience of Planning Summer School was in York and I enjoyed it so much that I subsequently became involved as one of the organisers through the Royal Town Planning Institute. As one of the few planning educators on the team, I believe that Planning Summer School offers a very valuable learning opportunity and brings together research and practice in a very constructive way. Over the years, Summer School has become an established part of our collective understanding of what contemporary planning is all about. Moreover, the unique design of each School which brings planners of all ages and experience together over a few days and evenings means that it represents something quite special in terms of CPD. As we celebrate what is happening in the different parts of the devolved UK, Summer School offers many opportunities for personal development and its format means that it can really strengthen our sense of being a true community of practice.

Roger has been in the profession almost forty years, starting in local government in 1967 where he held a number of posts up to 1988.

Then he moved to the Commission for the New Towns and led the planning team for the Commission’s land holding in the South East.  He then managed a land disposal team and then after a reorganisation became the Deputy Director for the Commission’s South region. In 1999 the Commission merged with English Partnerships and he became Deputy Director of Planning and Technical Services for the reformed English Partnerships with responsibilities across England for strategic planning.

In March 2001 upon a further reorganisation he left English Partnerships and set up the partnership of Lamont Planning Associates. He remains active with the Royal Town Planning Institute with the Friday Conference series and as a mentor. He is also a director of Colneside Project Management Ltd.

In recent years he has spoken at RIBA South events on housing, and at RTPI events re understanding development finance, partnerships , the new planning system and housing.

Cath is Policy and Community Manager for Snowdonia National Park Authority.

She has been involved with the organisation of Planning Summer School since 1998 and, as a Director of the Charity, has chaired the Special Fund Panel since 2000, with responsibility for the International Guest Delegates, for opportunities such as the Travelling Scholarship and for providing financial support to assist those with special needs / caring responsibilities.

She is a member of the RTPI General Assembly, representing RTPI CYMRU and is also a past chairman and the Programme Officer for Wales.

Cath graduated in Geology (University of Wales, Swansea College), before completing a part time postgraduate diploma in Town and Country Planning (Bristol Polytechnic) and has been a chartered town planner since 1986.

Prior to working for the National Park Authority she has had a varied career in local authorities in South West Wales and with the Welsh Assembly Government, spanning planning policy, urban regeneration, economic development, environmental project implementation, research and policy development related to health, community involvement, propriety and the Planning: delivering for Wales improvement agenda.

Ruth Richard's biography is awaited.

Leonora Rozee OBE BA(Hons) MRTPI is Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Policy at the Planning Inspectorate which she joined in May 1985. She has 18.5 years experience as an Inspector undertaking major casework and development plan inquiries. She has been directly involved in the evolution of the new development plan system for England and Wales, working firstly with the former ODPM on PPS12 and then initiating the PINS guidance on examinations into DPDs and SCIs. Leonora was promoted to Director of Policy and Head of Profession in February 2005 and to Deputy Chief Executive in July 2006 and she was awarded the OBE for services to planning reform in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2005. She is a member of the RTPI General Assembly.

She was first elected as a member of PSS at St Andrews in 2000. She has a special interest in the work of the Special Fund, deputising for the Chair of the Special Fund Panel, helping with the International students at the School and, in previous years, acting as Chair of the judges of the Prize Paper competition. She also deputises for the Hospitality Officer at the School. Leonora is a strong supporter of the work of PSS and the value it brings to the ongoing development of planning profession and to the education of the wider planning world.

I’m a geographer-planner by background. The geography was at Newcastle University in the sixties, where I frequented the Club-a-Gogo and saw the Animals (but not there). Some of the geography stuck, as I still like maps and travelling. Then to Oxford Poly, as was. Two great places to be a student.

After a short stint at Thurrock, my career has mostly been in North Yorkshire (Whitby, Ryedale, North York Moors National Park) and Lincolnshire, at East Lindsey. More recently, contracts at Selby, Harrogate and York. So almost all of my work has been in rural and/or heritage areas. I have been lucky enough to work in some superb places. My career has gone back and forth between development control and forward planning, all in district councils and one national park.

I have been on and off the Yorkshire Branch Executive of the RTPI for a good few years, and currently chair the group which produces one of the best Branch programmes in Britain.

The first Summer School I went to was at St Andrews, and I was surprised how well it recharged my batteries at a time when I was in need of that. I joined the local committees for York Summer School twice, the second time as chairman, and then stood for election. I possibly had an unfair advantage in attracting votes, as I ran a brewery trip to Sam Smiths at that School.

I love walking, both on the North York Moors (where I live) and in Europe, where I lead groups. Otherwise I am a bit of a Guardian caricature, with a beard and liking muesli, sandals and of course real ale.

Awaited.

Pat Thomas was admitted as a solicitor in 1974 and has extensive experience of planning and related matters both in the private and public sector. Following three years with the Greater London Council and London Borough of Southwark as Planning Solicitor and advocate, she joined a leading City practice where she became a partner in 1981.

She is now the principal of Pat Thomas Planning Law which specialises in providing advice on planning and environmental law.  She is also a Consultant to Farrer & Co and advises ATLAS.  She is a trustee of the Town & Country Planning Association and of the Theatres Trust.

I embarked on my planning career in the Swinging ‘60s with a desire to change the world and to plan Utopia. The real world in a local planning authority proved somewhat different but I haven’t lost those early ideals.

I started my career in Reading by designing a retail impact model in the early days of computers. After a 6 year teaching break whilst my children were young I returned to planning this time in Dorset: firstly in West Dorset (pre-Poundbury), then East Dorset and finally in Poole where I remained for 14 years, latterly as Planning Policy and Implementation Manager.

Whilst in Poole I worked on a number of exciting projects including the regeneration of 50ha of central Poole where a new bridge linking Hamworthy with the town centre will act as a catalyst for mixed development. I am particularly proud to have been involved in the Seldown Ecovillage project comprising a low energy, sustainable, affordable housing scheme. Both these projects received awards from RTPI South West in 2005.

The other main strands of my planning work have been in managing the preparation of Local Plans for Poole and the commencement of the Local Development Framework, the preparation of Dorset Structure Plans and the South West Regional Spatial Strategy.

I am now retired and able to devote time to my interests including TCPSS. My initiation to Summer School was at Exeter in 1992 which I thoroughly enjoyed and, with repeated visits to Summer Schools since, I am now active on the organisational side. In addition, I am a governor at Kingston Maurward College which has given me a fascinating insight into further education and commercial business development. My other interests are family and friends, travel, rambling, my allotment, sport, Dorchester Film Society and art galleries.

David is a chartered planner having studied at the University of Liverpool, Department of Civic Design and is Planning Policy and Projects Officer at the TCPA. He is heavily involved in the Examinations in Public into Regional Spatial Strategies and has undertaken significant work on the North East, East of England and South East draft RSSs. He has delivered projects with Arup looking at the sustainability of future settlement sites in the East of England, the Disability Rights Commission scoping national, regional and local policy in relation to the Disability Discrimination Act and English Heritage looking at lessons for garden city settlements.

Currently, he is leading on work funded by Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on a best practice guide to urban extensions and new settlements, and evaluating new schemes that have developed over the last ten years. David also enjoys writing articles for Town and Country Planning and Public Sector Review as well as developing new projects at the TCPA. Prior to joining the TCPA, David was a development control officer at the London Borough of Hounslow, Chiswick team and conservation assistant at Welwyn Hatfield Council.

Having been involved in Planning Summer School in Edinburgh in 2005, and a delegate at Canterbury in 2006, David stood for election and was successful and is looking forward to serving the summer school over the course of the next three years.

Sara Whelan's biography is awaited

I am currently working for Cardiff County Council as the Team Leader for the Local Development Plan within the Policy Group and so struggling with the new planning system as it operates in Wales.

I have been a member of the Summer School since 1989 and have served in many capacities. I was Hospitality Officer for a number of years and President for three years from 2001 to 2003.

I am presently the Honorary Executive Officer which means that I head up the teams of helpers who organise and run the Summer Schools which happen each September.

I have enjoyed all of the jobs that I have undertaken and the skills I have needed to develop to do them properly have been very useful in my day job.

The whole Summer School experience has been enjoyable, even spending 4 days with Elected Members can be fun!

I am a supporter of the Welsh rugby team which only proves what an optimist I am!

I have two daughters, one of whom is a planner and the other has helped to organise Summer School for the past 10 years!

Awaited

Linda Durtnal set up Linda Durtnal Associates in January 2003, having previously been employed by the Royal Town Planning Institute and RTPI Conference to produce event programmes and training provision within the planning and development, housing, environment and economic regeneration fields. 

Linda is particularly involved in the production of training material for elected members of local authorities, as well as supplying business development support for Planning Officers Society Enterprises (POSe).  She also still retains involvement in the programme and production of the RTPI Planning Convention as a member of the Core Organising Group.

Linda provides company secretariat services, financial and marketing advice and website administration throughout the year for the Planning Summer School as well as technical programme content support for the President and Programme Panel.

Having been involved with the School since 1979 she has almost the longest historical memory of the School, only surpassed by one of the School’s Hon Vice-Presidents, John Wainwright.   She is proud to be associated with what she believes to be an incredibly important event within the planning profession’s annual CPD programme, providing an unparalleled all round learning experience for both elected members and for town planners as well as allowing tremendous opportunities for networking.