2025 RTPI Planning Enforcement Conference

Shadi Brazell  is the Director of Central London Forward (CLF). CLF is a partnership of the 12 central London local authorities,  working together to support inclusive and sustainable growth so the central London economy thrives, and all residents and communities benefit from the opportunities this creates. Shadi has a background in public policy and political advice, and has worked in local government, for the Mayor of London and for the Labour Party on culture, media and sport policy.

Helen is a Strategic Planner with over 30 years’ experience working across public and private sectors, both in the UK and internationally. Her specialism includes regeneration, masterplanning, inclusive healthy placemaking, development management, infrastructure planning, strategic policy development, community engagement and service improvement. She has led major development schemes such as Oak Wharf, a canal redevelopment site in Hackney, London and a Model City Plan for over 4 million people in Lagos, Nigeria, and more recently leading on a range of Garden Town developments and urban extensions for mixed use schemes comprising housing, schools and major infrastructure of more than 6,000 dwellings on behalf of Buckinghamshire Council.

She is the Founder and Chair of BAME Planners Network, promoting  diversity and inclusion in the planning profession. She is also an Advisory Board Member for Women in Planning and President of ICOGA Europe (Idia College alumni association). Helen has won several awards and was a judge in the RTPI London Region Awards 2021, RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence in 2020 and 2021.

Helen has been a member of the  RTPI General Assembly since 2019, RTPI Membership Panel (2016-2017), RTPI International Committee (2019), RTPI Membership and Ethics Committee (2020 to date) and was part of the International Strategy working group (2020/21).

Helen is RTPI President 2025. 

Ahsan is a qualified and chartered town planner with over 20 years of practical experience. He has worked in private and public sector. Since 2007 he was a Planning Inspector rising to Professional Lead at The Planning Inspectorate. He trained and managed inspectors and led/developed continued professional development training and quality assurance systems for the appeals service. His expertise is enforcement, planning, community infrastructure levy, prior approvals, tree preservation and high hedge appeals and procedures. 

Dr Sarah Groves-Phillips MRTPI is the Corporate Manager for Planning Services at Ceredigion County Council which encompasses Planning, Building Control and the Nutrient Management Board. She was named as one of the 50 most influential women in planning for 2025. Sarah has worked across policy and development management in her career and her particular interests lie in rural affordable housing and more recently nutrient management. Sarah volunteers on the RTPI policy forum.

Mark O’Brien O’Reilly is a leading barrister at Francis Taylor Building with a growing reputation for experience and skill well beyond his year of call. Ranked as one of the top junior planning barristers in the country by Planning Magazine’s Planning Law Survey 2024, he is also recognised among the top ten planning barristers under 35, with particular expertise in injunctions.

He has a strong and busy practice across all of Chambers’ areas, including planning, environmental law, public law, compulsory purchase and compensation, licensing, and major infrastructure projects. Mark regularly appears in the High Court - often as sole counsel - and has extensive experience advising on and obtaining urgent planning injunctions, including in many of the recent reported cases concerning section 187B. He has also acted for a national housebuilder in resisting an injunction.

Mark is frequently instructed both as sole and junior counsel, including against and alongside silks, and appears before a wide range of courts, tribunals, and planning inquiries. His clients include central and local government, developers, landowners, and local residents. Notable cases include R (Dawes) v Secretary of State for Transport [2023] EWHC 2352 (Admin) and Buckinghamshire Council v Twynham [2023] 7 WLUK 126.

Shelly Rouse MRTPI is a Principal Consultant with the Planning Advisory Service with a passion for delivering support to local authorities and helping drive public sector improvement with housing delivery and land supply as her specialities.  Shelly is the project lead for PAS on its capacity, capability, skills and resources programme; using her expertise in local government resourcing issues including strategic workforce planning and project management. Shelly is also currently providing planning expertise to the new graduate scheme Pathways to Planning aimed at widening the talent pool of local authority planners.

Shelly started her career in local government and has worked for over 20 years across many planning specialisms including development management, planning policy and major site delivery roles. Previous roles also include a secondment to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government within the Planning Policy and Reform Team. Shelly has worked at PAS since 2020 and has been involved in local authority support & projects on development management practices, pre-app/PPA, performance management, designation support, councillor training, peer reviews, local plan production, planning reforms, environmental assessment and housing numbers.

She is frequent blogger for PAS under the name @HouseyRousey and Kent regional chair of Women in Planning which is an organisation seeking to promote equality and diversity in the planning industry.  

Chatura Saravanan is a pupil barrister at No5 Barristers Chambers specialising in planning and environmental law. During her pupillage, she has seen several inquiries (s.78 and enforcement appeals), enforcement prosecutions, and she has helped advise clients on injunctions. Click here for her bio.

Claire is a Professional Lead in the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) with responsibility for professional matters related to the Enforcement area of the Appeals Service. 

She is currently also the Operational Lead for Enforcement, a role she has now been doing for almost 3 years, overseeing operational delivery.     

Claire joined PINS in 2002, having previously worked in various local planning authorities. Her PINS career has mainly focused on planning and enforcement related appeals casework. 

A former Legal 500 UK Regional Junior Barrister of the year, Jack has a strong practice across in Planning and Environmental law with a particular interest in High Court challenges and enforcement. Jack is widely regarded as one of the go to barristers in relation to Injunctions in respect of unauthorised breaches of planning control and has vast experience of Enforcement prosecutions, Temporary Stop Notices, Injunctions (Gypsies and Travellers), CLEUDs, Tree Preservation Orders, Environmental issues pursuant to EPA including noise and odour abatement notices, Statutory nuisance, POCA, Committals for breaches of court orders and Breach of Condition notices.

Olivia Stapleford is the chair of NAPE and has worked in planning enforcement for over 10 years. She currently works for a large unitary authority, managing a large team of officers who work on cases including residential and commercial planning breaches, minerals and waste matters and monitoring of large scale waste consents across Buckinghamshire.

Scott is a nationally recognised practitioner in Planning and Environment Law who regularly advises and represents developers, Local Planning Authorities and objectors on a broad range of planning matters and at all stages from pre-application advice, through any appeal processes and to the Court of Appeal. He has extensive knowledge of all Planning Enforcement, including planning enforcement and environmental prosecutions, injunctive proceedings, statutory nuisance and Proceeds of Crime

Izindi Visagie LLB, MBA, LARTPI is a solicitor who previously worked in the planning legal teams at a few London local authorities before setting up Ivy Legal. Izindi has a hands-on approach to enforcement work and is as experienced on an early morning raid as she is as advocate at a planning inquiry. Izindi’s experience within local authorities means that she fully understands the needs of her LPA client and the subtle interaction of politics, policies, resourcing, and legal requirements that bedevil planning enforcement.

The Planning and Environment Group at No5 is widely acknowledged by industry professionals and the legal press as being one of the leading sets of planning and environment barristers in the country. Host to some of the leading barristers in the field, members have been involved in many of the UK’s major cases over the last three decades. Expertise includes energy and infrastructure projects, minerals and waste, retail and commercial development, residential developments (including new town settlements), environmental law, Compulsory purchase, and Enforcement.

Dentons UKI planning team sits within our 200+ strong UKI real estate practice working from five offices across the UK and Ireland.  We are ranked as one of the UK's leading planning law practices in the Legal 500 and Chambers Directories. We are known for expertise in large-scale housing and mixed-use regeneration projects, CPO and infrastructure advice.  The range, complexity and profile of work – for national and local Government, developers, investors and infrastructure providers – stands out.  Our point of difference is the balance of advising both Government and investors on all areas of planning law.

This gives us a different perspective and helps drive our reputation for finding solutions and remaining at the forefront of legal innovation.  Our working culture - focussed on building consensus and solving problems within project teams and with counterparties - is distinctive.  We believe our values – brevity, integrity, innovation and common sense – are recognised as helping us to drive success for our clients.