A planning consultancy is expanding its support for local authorities, helping councils tackle capacity pressures, plan-making deadlines, and complex or high-risk decisions.
North Wales-headquartered Caulmert is bringing together established expertise within its planning team to offer councils additional assistance across areas including service reviews, strategic leadership, Local Plan delivery and review, major applications and decision-making, and expert witness work and appeals.
The consultancy, which has offices in Bangor, St Asaph, Altrincham, Nottingham, and Kent, already advises clients on development, planning applications, environmental assessment, site promotion, and appeals.
The enhanced offering is led by director of planning Steve Ottewell, who has more than 20 years of public and private sector experience, including senior responsibility for major local authority planning services at Barnet, North Tyneside, Breckland, and Salford.
He has supported elected members and senior officers, managed complex contracts, overseen major development programmes, and represented councils at examinations and public inquiries as part of director-level accountability across teams of more than 230 people, with combined revenues exceeding £15 million.
Steve said: “It’s an exciting proposition for Caulmert, allowing us to offer not only technical planning consultancy, but also leadership, practical service improvement, plan-making delivery support, and trusted critical-friend advice.
“Having worked extensively within local government, I understand the challenges councils face in balancing growth, service performance, political priorities, and increasingly complex legislation.
“Planning is always a hot topic within the business community, with conversations typically centring around the time taken and the impact this has on stifling the economy. Our aim is to provide practical support, experienced advice, and additional capacity, helping authorities make robust decisions and deliver their objectives.
“Our geographical reach already extends across North Wales and the north west down to the south east of England, while the experience we possess means we can also support clients nationally.”
Steve is supported within Caulmert’s planning division by fellow chartered town planners Neil Arbon and Jenny Coxon, who bring around 40 years’ combined experience to the team, which is earmarked to double in size aswork with local government clients grows.
“We are always looking for talented people to join the company, regardless of experience level, and we hope this enhanced service can provide a catalyst for the department to grow further,” added Steve.
The planning division forms part of Caulmert’s wider multidisciplinary consultancy that includes established engineering and environmental divisions, the latter of which is also led by Steve.
Founded in 2008, Caulmert is on track to meet an ambitious growth and development plan.
Its expertise in a variety of engineering, environmental, planning, and project management disciplines is supported by its use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) to ISO 19650 standard on many of its projects.
For more information and to view the vacancies, visit www.caulmert.com
