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 Wood is a chartered and independent planning consultant with over 35 years of experience in planning. In 2016, he founded Richard Wood Associates. He works both independently and in partnership, collaborating with other consultancies. Richard’s diverse career spans the private sector, senior roles in local government (including as a chief officer) and work with regional partnership bodies. This wide ranging experience gives Richard a well-rounded and balanced perspective on planning and development. He has acted as an expert witness at planning appeal inquiries and hearings for North Yorkshire, East Riding, Chorley, Harrogate, Selby, South Ribble, Wakefield and York Councils. The appeals have included housing, employment, hotel, solar farm, battery storage, and crematorium  uses and have involved locations with Green Belt, World Heritage Site, and Conservation Area issues. Richard has also provided and combined advocate and witness services for a Town Council. He has held different roles with Yorkshire RTPI, including his current role as policy advisor, and is also a member of the TCPA Policy Council.

Will is a Chartered Town Planner (MRTPI) and is 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.

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. 

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.