Tess Cook,
MRTPI

Planning first brought Ruth and I together in Manchester many more years ago than I want to remember. The opportunity to join RJP in 2018 was one I couldn’t refuse - the values that are RJP’s foundation are so compelling in how they align to my personal take on what consultancy is all about.

As a now genuinely ‘senior’ planner, the ebbs and flows of my project experience chart the changes in the political tides over the past three decades. I have expertise in town centre policy and regeneration, strategic masterplanning and regional policy development, socio-economic analysis and modelling, infrastructure options appraisals as well as development advice and applications management, principally for housing and commercial proposals. Alongside communication and analytical thinking, a key strength of mine is in supporting real collaboration between organisations and individuals with differing goals, values and perspectives in order to deliver the required outcomes.

I love the range of places, projects and people that I get to know through town planning, but the most satisfying part is the ‘problem solving’ – finding the evidence, understanding the policy, building the case to support tangible change for our communities.

As the parent of a teen I seem to be currently developing a much greater understanding of the entire Star Wars canon than I would ever have thought possible or necessary, but the passion is infectious!