• Planner & Urban Designer
• BSC, MSC, MRTPI

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Esther is a town planner with an urban design bent. She worked in development management and design and conservation roles for 10 years in District and Borough councils before joining the Greater London Authority to develop the urban design and built environment policies for the fist London plan.  She later led on planning work at CABE before leaving to develop Urban Design London’s training and support programme over the last 14 years.

Esther has been a panel member and chair of a number of design review panels include at CABE, the GLA and a range of local authority based panels.  She is also an advisor on the built environment to NICE and has been an external examiner for UCL planning courses for the last 4 years.  She is a non executive director of the National Planning Forum and is a member of CHITs Urban Design Panel.

Esther has devised and delivered urban design training for RIBA across England and has recently facilitated round the country discussions between planners and MHCLG over barriers to delivering well designed homes.  Last year she was invited to speak at the NACTO Global Street Design Conference in the USA and has collaborated with them on the development of design guidance.  She has authored a number of design guides and books over the years including the RIBA published Design Companion for Planning and Placemaking