KPPC Planning Consultants has reached a new milestone with a record number of chartered planners after a hat-trick of new hires.

We have strengthened our team with the experienced trio of Phoebe Richards, Steve Llewllyn and Charles Raven.

They bring a combined total of 60 years’ experience and take our number of RTPI chartered planners up to six and overall headcount to nine – both the highest so far in 23 years of trading.

The appointments come as we continue to grow, providing the full range of planning services for householder, private, public, residential and commercial clients of all sizes across the UK.

Planning director Adam Bennett said: “A very warm welcome to the KPPC family goes to Phoebe, Steve and Charles. It is a pleasure to have you within the team, and I look forward to working alongside you for many years to come as we take KPPC from strength to strength.

“Phoebe has considerable experience within private sector planning consultancies supporting  a wide range of clients and was the first of our three new appointments, followed by Steve and Charles.

“Both Charles and Steve have strong backgrounds in public sector planning providing a thorough understanding of the planning system and how it operates through to senior levels. This experience provides important insight into the way to get the best out of our public sector colleagues and foster good relationships and decision making.

“Charles has more recently had the benefit of a number of years of private sector experience alongside this, rounding out his toolkit and providing valuable insights from both sites of the fence.

“Steve as a former major projects officer dealt with a number of the larger development applications within the former borough of Poole so understands acutely the intricacies of strategic scale planning.

“All bring a great depth of experience, knowledge and expertise to KPPC. Their appointments will allow us to continue to provide the greatest support for valued clients, meet rising demand for our services and pave the way for KPPC to progress ambitious growth plans.”

KPPC was founded in 2003 by Ken and Angela Parke, who recently retired as chief financial officer under strategic succession planning which has seen the reins of the firm handed over to operations director Kat Burdett and planning director Adam Bennett.

Senior planning consultant Phoebe, senior associate planner Steve, and senior associate Charles join KPPC planning director Adam Bennett, chief executive Ken Parke and associate planning consultant James Blake as the firm’s chartered Members of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) – providing a show of strength with six experienced and chartered planners.

Phoebe graduated from Oxford Brookes University with a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Business and Management before completing a Master’s in Spatial Planning and Development at the University of Reading.

She began her career in planning  at a regional practice before spending nearly two and half years as a planner at a London firm of property consultants.

Charles has a BSc (Honours) degree in City & Regional Planning and a Postgraduate Diploma in Town Planning from Cardiff University.

He has more than 25 years’ development management experience in both public and private sectors, including senior roles at Bournemouth Borough Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council and as a principal planner at a Hampshire-based practice.

Steve holds a BSc (Honours) degree in Urban Studies from the University of North London, now London Metropolitan University, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Urban Planning from Oxford Brookes University.

He has 29 years’ experience in local government in various senior and management roles, including positions at BCP Council, the Borough of Poole council, Wiltshire Council and Salisbury District Council.

• KPPC provides professional planning support advice for a wide range of projects ranging from large commercial housing schemes for property developers or domestic, private matters for individuals, householders, land owners and businesses. Our support includes site appraisals, changes of use, certificates of lawfulness, planning applications and appeals, public inquiries, pre-application negotiations, planning enforcement matters, development plan representations and site promotion.