RJP town planners

Embracing the festive spirit, our urban texture board features snapshots from this afternoon when Georgie and Prachi were out in town gathering Christmas decorations for the Women of Irish Heritage Christmas Networking event tomorrow, supporting Fréa. Preparations are in full swing here at the office, and we look forward to a memorable evening of supporting the great FREA charities, Irish Community Care and Leeds Irish Health and Homes. Fun fact the Manchester Christmas Markets need planning permission - https://lnkd.in/dGvT2nBT

A (slightly) belated congratulatory post for the winners of the #RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence 2024! Our Associate, Tillie Baker, was honoured to be a judge this year in the categories 'Excellence in Planning for Communities' (large schemes of 50 homes or more) and 'Excellence in Planning for a Successful Economy'. She can confirm that the process to decide winners is very robust - individual scoring followed by a lively, three-hour discussion where minds are changed! 🏆🧠

This week we warmly welcomed our new Town Planner, Mandy Pang, to the RJP team! As part of our RJP 'first day tradition', the team ventured into Manchester to 'wrap up' Mandy's first day with a delicious burrito! 😉 🌯   Mandy brings valuable experience from the public sector and is eager to dive into RJP's exciting projects. We're thrilled to have her onboard and look forward to accomplishing great things!

Think there might be some competition from the rest of team RJP to join Tess the next time on the #WIP #Netwalks

A glorious sunny November site visit to the Peak District National Park some eight years after securing consents for the Network Rail Hope Valley Capacity Scheme by means of a Transport and Works Act Order. A cracking day catching up with our NR environmental guru Jim Pearson and our Eversheds Sutherland legal lead James O’Connor. Thank you for the #BNG tips!

Happy World Town Planning Day! This year’s theme: Homes start with planning, and today we celebrate the work of town planners around the globe! Our diverse team has spent time living in India, Australia, New Zealand, US, Ireland and France as well as the UK and in both urban and countryside settings - all bringing a wide range of perspectives to shape our thinking on what makes vibrant and inclusive communities. This year, the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) introduces some big changes for the planning world - with a focus on revitalising brownfield sites, transforming underused areas into thriving neighbourhoods. These changes seek to promote sustainable growth and reduce pressure on greenfield sites but time will tell whether this will help to provide decent homes for all! What an exciting time to be a town planner!! #WorldTownPlanningDay #NPPF #TownPlanners #RTPI

Our wellbeing moment this week was inspired by the Scandinavian concept of Hygge (hoo-gah) , a culture of cosiness that has mastered the art of making winter a joy!    Kari Leibowitz published a study (linked below), investigating people's attitudes to winter and the ways we can powerfully affect our mood and behaviors.   One of the best top tips: 'We conflate the objective circumstances - that winter is cold, dark and wet - with subjective things like it being gloomy, boring and depressing, when you could just as easily make the case that it is cosy, magical and restorative!'   The positive mindset applies to all, and has well and truly been embraced by Georgie Nesbitt's new puppy, Piper!   Keep cosy from all the team at RJP!! ❤️ Article: https://lnkd.in/eap_ZJ8q

Excellent afternoon with Marc Zablotny taking us around his home patch in #Prestwich talking about the value of open space, sports, education, farming, heritage, astronomy, trams, masterplanning, food, beer and hairdressing! Slightly pooped now! Thank you Marc and Georgie Nesbitt for all the hard work preparing such an informative session.

Last week, Georgina Blackburn and I visited Urmston Grammar School to take part in their 'World of Work' careers day for Year 11s. While I'm not confident I was able to sway some students away from Engineering or Medicine, it was fun to talk about the virtues of an Urban Planning career with so many inquisitive and open minded kids. Many thanks to Natasha Kinder for organising such a valuable event and involving the Royal Town Planning Institute; you can read more about the day in the link below!

Another win for team RJP+NPR! Excellent competition from all the teams at the RTPI NW pub quiz. Kudos to our Salford / Wigan / MCC Duncan McCorquodale / LUC colleagues for their Greg’s and Cheese knowledge 🤓. And top marks to Marc Zablotny Prachi Bendale Tillie Baker Adam Rixon for successfully defending their quiz title - much respect ✊ Brilliant quiz as always from Robert Phillips and the team @urbanimprint and Bev Watson ☺️