Dr. David Counsell

Dr David Counsell MA MSc PhD MRTPI

David Counsell is a chartered town planner and planning academic with over forty years experience of practice and research in urban and regional planning. As a practitioner he worked in local government mainly for county councils in England - latterly he was Head of Environmental Management at Cleveland County Council. His local government experience included work on local and strategic plans and master plans for major new developments. At Cleveland he was also responsible for corporate environmental policy and Local Agenda 21.

He has a PhD in environmental planning and as a planning academic has been involved in two major research council funded projects on sustainable development and regional planning in England and integrated spatial planning in the UK and Ireland. David has undertaken research for the UK Government on sustainability appraisal and has advised the English Regions Network and city councils in Leeds and Hull on sustainable development and planning.  He has published widely in international planning and environmental journals.

David was a member of the RTPI’s advisory group lobbying for a UK Spatial Development Framework and an assessor for the Irish Environmental Protection Agency’s Urban Environment Research Grant. He is also on the Council of the UK Royal Society for Wildlife Trusts.

He is joint author of the new 2009 book 'The New Spatial Planning' published by RTPI and 'Regions, Spatial Strategies and Sustainable Development' published by Routledge in 2004.