Speakers

Your vice-chair is Colin Bannon. Colin changed careers from Pharmaceutical Chemistry to Urban Regeneration over sixteen years ago and has gradually built-up qualifications and expertise in Historic Conservation, Urban Design, Planning, and Regeneration.  He currently works as Team Leader for Heritage & Projects at Brighton & Hove City Council.  As well as a passion for urban design and conservation, Colin has been an active member of equality and diversity boards throughout his career to help address under representation in the construction industry as well as highlight greater understanding of disabilities such as neurodiversity.  He would like to weave some of these elements into the network and the RTPI more generally.

Patrick is AECOM’s Masterplanning Lead for the UK+I and has more than 25 years’ experience at the forefront of the professional debate on planning for housing and sustainable communities. He led the ground breaking studies of Sustainable Residential Quality in London that developed a design-led approach to delivering more and better homes, influencing the Government's approach to housing density and design in national planning guidance. Patrick has led and contributed to a series of national guides to better urban design including: the Urban Design Compendium; Better Places to Live: by design; and the Irish Government’s Urban Design Manual.

Dr David Mountain is Research Manager at the Royal Town Planning Institute, and an Honorary Research Fellow in Planning at the University of Manchester. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 2022, which concerned the end of the post-war new towns programme and the rise of urban regeneration. He has lectured and taught widely in planning and architecture.

Sowmya is an architect and urban designer with 30 years of global experience. As a Director of Integrated City Planning at Arup she brings a wealth of expertise in masterplanning, urban design, sustainable infrastructure, and planning policy at national, regional, and city-scale.

At Arup, Sowmya is responsible for leading the firm’s work in developing and emerging markets, engaging with international partners and clients, including governments, municipalities, private developers, investors, institutions, and civil society, to deliver a diverse range of projects and programmes around the globe. She is based in London and serves as a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London's Good Growth by Design programme, as well as sitting on the London Design Review Panel and working as an Ambassador of the UK Design Council.

Sowmya holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi and a Masters in Urbanism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Vicky Payne - Strategic planner and urban designer

Vicky is a strategic planner and urban designer with a background in illustration. She is passionate about strong concepts and design principles, sustainable development and equitable places. Vicky works as an Associate at Jas Bhalla Architects and also takes on discreet projects through her independent consultancy.

She has worked on research projects, strategic spatial planning frameworks, town centre strategies and large scale masterplans for clients like DLUHC, Homes England and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Vicky has helped to develop the National Model Design Code with colleagues and national government and co-authored a book about the future of UK high streets.

Lindsey Richards BA (Hons) DipTP FRTPI

Lindsey is a chartered town planner with over 30 years’ experience in planning, design and delivery. She has extensive background primarily working in the public sector, experienced in community engagement and bringing together multi-disciplinary teams to deliver key housing projects.  Lindsey’s previous roles included leading the planning team at Milton Keynes Partnership, responsible for the expansion of Milton Keynes and introducing the Milton Keynes Tariff.  Lindsey moved to English Partnerships (now Homes England) in 2009 to head up the delivery team in the Midlands. 

Lindsey’s last role was Head of Planning at Homes England, where she worked  in a consultancy role providing specialist advice to Homes England delivery teams. Lindsey was responsible for driving design quality standards and introducing BfL12 ( forerunner to BfHL) as an assessment tool on Homes England sites. She was a member of the Garden Town and Villages Programme Board and worked closely with DLUHC on policy formulation.  Lindsey strongly advocates the value that early community engagement contributes to projects and oversaw the introduction of a community engagement strategy and toolkit to support Homes England projects. 

Lindsey was Head of Profession within Homes England. She undertook a mentoring role to promote the profession and support licentiate members.  Lindsey established the Planners Network within the Agency and oversaw  training and Homes England annual planning conference. 

Lindsey stepped down from her role at Homes England in April 2023 to concentrate on her Vice-Presidential role with the RTPI.

Lindsey is a member of the General Assembly of the RTPI, vice chair of the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee and became a Fellow in 2018. She is RTPI President 2024.

Lindsey is a Trustee for Design: Midlands