Meet our judges

Dominic joined Lichfields in 2016 and is an Associate Director in their Newcastle office. His experience includes development appraisals, the preparation and submission of planning applications, provision of strategic advice on major development sites, preparing planning appeals, drafting development representations and effectively engaging with local communities and key stakeholders. Dominic's experience has also included small to large scale mixed-use applications, bespoke heritage and design orientated projects, 5-year housing land supply analysis and SHLAA / HELAA reviews. Dominic is Regional Chair of the RTPI North East.

Fiona is a chartered town planner with extensive experience in local government working across all aspects of development management, spatial planning, regeneration and the historic environment prior to joining ELG in 2021 to lead the heritage team.

At ELG she is the Principal Heritage Consultant and assists a wide variety of clients UK wide, across all manner of heritage, development planning, planning enforcement and planning policy matters.

She is a full member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation Area (IHBC) and member of the North Branch IHBC Committee.  

She has a particular interest in urban renewal and town centre regeneration.

Darren has been a Chartered Town Planner for over 30 years and has worked in the public and private sector, latterly within the renewables industry developing onshore wind, solar, storage and hydrogen projects throughout the UK.  He lives and is based in the North East of England working for EDF Renewables out of their Sunderland office at Rainton Bridge.

Alastair joined the Defra Marine Planning and Licensing team in October 2019 as a Senior Policy Adviser. He advocates for ambitious marine planning and licensing policy and inputs into cross-government commissions on planning reforms, working with ministers and a variety of stakeholders. He previously worked at Natural England (NE) in the marine planning team where he was responsible for responding as a statutory consultee to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects alongside development management, development plan and marine licencing casework along the coast. He also worked for the NE terrestrial planning team and for the planning team at the Environment Agency.

Alastair is a Chartered Member of the RTPI and is currently Vice Chair of the RTPI North East. Alastair previously served as Vice Chair of the Young Planners' Steering Group and on the Regional Activities and Policy Committee. He was North East Young Planner of the Year 2022.

Jo is an experienced Chartered Town Planner and began her career as a planning consultant in 1999.

In that time she has delivered complex planning consents for prestigious projects including Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

Her main focus latterly has been the regeneration of cities. She played a pivotal role in the regeneration of Sunderland City Centre, obtaining planning permission consent for several distinguished projects in the Riverside Sunderland Masterplan.

One of Jo’s key areas of expertise is leisure and leisure-led regeneration. She led the development of Berwick leisure centre and Morpeth Leisure and Library hub, which are now state-of-the-art facilities in the North East. Elsewhere, Jo has led the redevelopment of leisure-based hubs in Farnborough, Cranleigh, Knaresborough and Harrogate to name a few.

Clients enjoy working with Jo for her down-to-earth approach. She is perceptive in negotiations and has experience handling a range of contentious issues in a calm and logical way. She is a level-headed project manager, co-ordinating teams of architects, developers, engineers, landscape consultants and others to drive projects forward. Jo is an intelligent, thoughtful planner, who finds ways around problems with careful negotiation and without conflict and aggravation.

Andrew is a Chartered Town Planner in our Real Estate department. He specialises in planning matters and undertakes a range of development management, planning policy and enforcement work.

Andrew became a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 1996 and has been a planning consultant with Ward Hadaway for more than 20 years.   He has worked throughout the north of the country and beyond undertaking planning work.  Previously he was a planning officer with three local planning authorities. Additionally he has had a period of secondment with a national house builder. Clients include developers, businesses, estates, land owners, pressure groups and private individuals.  Andrew is NEPRO accredited and additionally has had instructions from public sector organisations including councils,  NHS Trusts and CCGs.

Andrew has particular expertise in cases which are contentious and where there are difficult policy, legal and technical issues.

Mollie is currently undertaking her year-out placement at Hedley Planning Services, as part of her Master of Planning (MPlan) degree at Newcastle University. She has been a Student Member of the RTPI since 2020, and recently joined the North East Young Planners Committee in June 2023. During her time at HPS so far, Mollie has been gaining experience on a wide range of projects, including wind turbines and residential developments, as well as different types of applications, such as Full, Reserved Matters and Certificates of Lawfulness. Mollie will be returning to university in September 2024 to specialise in Regeneration, and following graduation, she hopes to start working towards her APC and becoming a Chartered Planner.

Liam has been a Planning Officer at North Yorkshire Council since July 2024, prior to this he was a Planning Officer within Gateshead Council, having been promoted from Student Planner in October 2023. He holds a masters degree in urban planning with green infrastructure. In his current role within the development management team, Liam works on a number of applications ranging from Householder and Listed Building Applications through to more complex majors including Residential Developments and Agricultural Developments involving Habitat Regulation Assessments and Environmental Impact Screening Assessments.

Liam joined the committee in 2023 and is currently working towards MRTPI Accreditation and is aiming to submit his APC in 2025.