Following a brief spell at a local authority I joined NLP’s Newcastle office in 2000 as a planner. At that time the office was around ten people in size, the majority of whom remain core members of the company today.
I was advised, at an early stage in my career, that people use consultancies for two reasons: either they don’t have capacity to resource internally or the work is difficult and requires specialist skills. Looking back on it, that advice was right: I cut my teeth on various minor works and signage applications, also assisting with the roll out of telecommunications infrastructure. Following that early experience I soon went on to develop more specialist skills in residential and commercial development which has opened up opportunities to work on exciting development projects for a range of great clients.
Under the direction of Nigel Perry, Philip Barnes and Jonathan Wallace, I have been fortunate to work on, and now lead, numerous challenging, significant, developments across the north of England and Scotland. Through this supportive approach, which brought with it early experience in preparing and presenting expert evidence, I was able to develop a strong profile within the market-place, achieving career progression to Director, within a relatively short timeframe.
Looking back over the last ten years or so it’s pleasing that, notwithstanding current economic challenges and almost constant reforms to the planning system, NLP's culture remains unchanged. The people at NLP are intellectually strong, committed and competitive, and share an overwhelming desire to succeed. Indeed, beyond guiding large and complex planning proposals through an increasingly complex system, the greatest sense of achievement is having contributed to the growth and strength of NLP, the leading independent planning consultancy in the UK.
