Devon, Cornwall & Somerset Young Planners

Alison is a Chartered Town Planner, currently working as a Senior Planning Officer at Devon County Council. Since joining the County Council as an apprentice in 2017, Alison has worked within a variety of planning disciplines alongside undertaking the Chartered Town Planning Degree Apprenticeship at the University of Plymouth.

During her career, Alison has dealt with a breath of applications across waste, minerals and infrastructure within Devon as well as strategic planning work across the multidisciplinary teams and statutory responsibilities of the County Council. In addition to this, Alison has had the opportunity to work on an infrastructure delivery project as part of the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund Project.

Since completing her MSc Planning degree at the University of Plymouth in 2018 Faye has been working as a Town Planner in a multi-disciplinary team at Bailey Partnership.  Faye was elected as a Chartered Member of the RTPI in September 2022, and has now secured the role of Senior Town Planner within the company.

During her career Faye has dealt with a variety of applications within the South West of the UK, across public and private sectors including: retail; leisure; education; healthcare; residential; and listed buildings.  These have ranged from small scale building conversions to major housing developments.  Faye is committed to delivering high quality place making in a way that protects our environment.

Faye is also Chair of the RTPI South West Young Planners Devon, Cornwall and Somerset Steering Group, having been a volunteer with this group since 2020.

Jess is a Chartered Town Planner with over 10 years public and private sector planning experience. Jess currently works as a Senior Planner for Carney Sweeney in the Exeter office, recently moving from Collier Planning based in Taunton.

Previous to this, Jess worked at East Devon District Council, where she was part of the Cranbrook Team dealing with strategic planning matters for the new town of Cranbrook.

During her career, Jess has dealt with a variety of applications within the Southwest and is experienced in working within multi-disciplinary teams progressing all types of development proposals through the planning process. Her work currently includes the preparation of development appraisals, planning statements, appeal statements and negotiating with planning authorities in respect of development proposals.

Liam is a Chartered Town Planner and is currently a Senior Planning Officer within the Cranbrook and Major Projects Team at East Devon District Council. Liam has over 6 years’ experience and has previously worked at Bristol City Council and DPP Planning Ltd.

Since graduating from Cardiff University in 2018, Liam has worked on a mixture of applications across in public and private roles and currently manages large scale housing delivery and employment schemes in East Devon.  

Liam has been a member of the Devon, Cornwall and Somerset Young Planners Steering Group since April 2022 and was elected to Vice Chair in 2025.

I have been a planning officer at Torridge District Council since December 2021. Although a new planner I graduated with a degree in Environmental Sciences in 1996 and a Masters in Water Resources. I worked as a hydrologist for 7 years for both Thames Water and a number of other consultancy firms in both the South-East and South West. I then retrained as a secondary geography teacher and taught A level Geography in the FE Sector for the last 14 years in Barnstaple. I enjoy learning and being challenged and have found both in equal measure over the last 3 years. It soon became apparent that the sector is lacking trained professionals and I would like to be more involved in helping promote a career in planning more widely, especially encouraging making it more flexible to re-train. I enjoy running and taking part in other outdoor activities along with the rest of the family although in the past few years football seems to have taken over our lives at the weekends.

Milad graduated with an MSc in Planning from the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol, in September 2022. His professional journey began in 2015 as an Architectural Assistant after gaining his Architecture degree in 2014. He has since worked on a range of urban and residential developments abroad, from small-scale projects to larger strategic schemes.

Milad moved into the UK planning sector following a public sector internship, which provided valuable insight into planning policy and development management. He joined Mid Devon District Council as a Planning Officer in June 2024, where he now handles a variety of applications, including residential schemes, listed buildings, and prior notifications.

In July 2025, Milad joined the RTPI South West Young Planners Devon, Cornwall and Somerset Steering Group, where he is keen to contribute his international perspective, collaborative approach, and passion for place making.))