ANNA ROSE

Anna Rose is currently the Head of the Planning Advisory Service, delivering improvement in planning services across the country. Anna started her planning career advising NFU members on planning, transport and environmental law before moving to Rugby Borough Council and becoming their Head of Planning and Culture at Rugby. In 2014 she became Milton Keynes Council’s Director of Growth, Economy and Culture. Anna is a past President of the Planning Officers Society; a trustee of the TCPA and sits as the practitioner on the RTPI accreditation boards for the planning courses at UCL and Birmingham City University. She is an active peer reviewer for the LGA and a regular speaker on strategic planning issues, growth focussed planning and improving the customer experience.

ARANVIR GAWERA

Aran is an urban planner at Leicester City Council. He helps write policies which will shape his home city in the interest of the diverse communities he grew up with. Aran’s specialist areas include climate change, the natural environment, open space and sports provision, and creating healthy and sustainable new homes. He was a task force member of the Raynsford Review and is now a Trustee of the Town and Country Planning Association. More widely, he continues to encourage young people to engage with the planning system and consider working in the public sector, as well as finding other opportunities to make the profession more inclusive and diverse.

DANNA WALKER

Danna Walker is the founder and director of Built By Us - a social enterprise and an elected board member of the Architects Registration Board. Her career spans over 25 years in the construction and built environment sector and has encompassed a variety of roles from an electrician to Architect and strategic projects lead at the Construction Industry Council. She is a diversity and mentoring champion who chaired the RIBA’s Architects for Change Advisory Group for 6 years and founded the innovative FLUID Diversity Mentoring Programme, designed to provide support for practitioners seeking career progression. A finalist in the Precious Awards 2015, which celebrates the achievements of women of colour, Danna champions a more inclusive built environment and construction industry.

JON FAULKNER

Jon is an international development practitioner, working on rights, equity and good governance in fragile and conflict-affected states. He began his career in the Australian foreign service, has had roles as a CEO and director of international development companies and non-profits, and is currently consulting on humanitarian issues. After long stints in the Middle East, South Asia and West Africa, he is now settled in London, and is increasingly focused on equity and sustainability issues in the UK.

JULES PIPE

As Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration & Skills Jules is working on key priorities for the city, including: revision of the London Plan, major regeneration projects across the capital, ensuring London’s infrastructure needs are delivered to benefit all Londoners, and building a skills system that properly addresses the needs of young people and the economy. Jules has an unrivalled knowledge of London government, becoming the first directly elected mayor of Hackney in 2002 and serving as Chair of London Councils from 2010 until he joined the Mayor’s team in 2016.

LUCINDA TURNER

Lucinda Turner has a dual role as both Assistant Director of Planning at the Greater London Authority and Director of Spatial Planning at Transport for London. She commenced this joint role in 2020. She joined TfL in 2006 as Policy Manager for Congestion Charging, leading policy development and stakeholder management for the scheme, having previously been Head of Infrastructure (covering planning, property, transport and regional policy) at the CBI. She moved into TfL Planning developing Crossrail S106 / CIL funding policy, leading work on the Mayor's Transport Strategy, and being the environmental champion for TfL, working with the GLA to develop the Mayor's Air Quality Strategy.

She was the Secretariat to the Mayor’s Road Task Force establishing a strategic framework for the management, design and development of London’s streets and road network ensuring that ‘place’ was considered fully alongside ‘link’ functions. For the past 5 years, she has been leading TfL’s work on Spatial Planning, working to integrate land use and transport planning and promote more sustainable transport outcomes.

MEETA KAUR

Meeta Kaur is a chartered town planner and a UK qualified planning solicitor. She is a founding partner of Town Legal LLP, a specialist planning law firm. Before joining Town, Meeta was a planning solicitor at city law firm King and Wood Mallesons (formerly SJ Berwin) and prior to that a planning officer at Westminster Council. She has many years’ experience in advising on a wide range of development schemes of all types and scale, including urban extensions. However, her specialism is large scale mixed-use redevelopment and regeneration schemes, both in London and across the country. Meeta has been involved with the Royal Town Planning Institute at both a regional and national level for over 20 years and is currently on the board of trustees of the RTPI and chair of the Membership and Ethics Committee.

RAFE BERTRAM

Rafe Bertram is a sustainability expert and founding contributor of InnerPlanet, a data-led initiative to enable a collaborative and sustainable lifestyle. He joined the third cohort of Public Practice as Sustainability Lead for Meridian Water, Enfield’s flagship £6bn regeneration programme of an 87-hectare site. Rafe worked with Councillors, Directors, Heads of Service, the community and partners to drive Enfield’s vision for Meridian Water as aligned at the forefront of sustainable development worldwide. Prior to Public Practice, Rafe worked for Foster+Partners for 18 years, running projects ranging from tents for the Red Cross to retail venues for Apple and eco smart cities. He now continues his work at Enfield and Meridian Water, helping to embed climate action and sustainable strategies into all projects, workstreams and activities.

SARAH CARY

Sarah Cary is the Executive Director for Regeneration and Environment at Enfield Council. Sarah leads services that are central to Enfield residents’ quality of life, such as waste collection, recycling, street cleaning, building control and planning. She is also responsible for Enfield’s longer-term development plans, including ambitious plans for Meridian Water, which aims to bring 10,000 new homes and thousands of jobs to the borough. Sarah has a PhD in town planning and was previously at British Land, where she worked in the development team on major projects such as Regents Place, The Leadenhall Building and Canada Water before becoming Head of Sustainable Places with responsibility for environmental and social matters across the company.

TARA GBOLADE

Tara Gbolade is co-director of award-winning Gbolade Design Studio that specialises in residential and mixed-use developments for public and private sector clients through insight-led place-making. She sits on a few Design Review Panels including RBKC, Merton, and Lambeth where she advises the council on major planning applications. Tara joined Public Practice as an Associate in our second cohort where she was placed in Epping Forest District Council. She remains working on the Harlow & Gilston Garden Town development and supporting their Sustainability Guidance; setting the ambition and standards for Environmental & Socio-Economic sustainability; ensuring that high-quality sustainable design is embedded within new developments, and, in the regeneration of existing communities.