PAUL DRINNAN

Following a rewarding career as a principal officer in local government, specialising in urban design and regeneration, I have made the move into the world of planning consultancy specialising in urban design. I am a sole practitioner although many projects, with which I am involved, neccessitates a close working relationship with fellow design professionals, including architects, landscape architects and town planners.

At the present time, I am engaged with a number of design projects for individual clients in the Northwest. In addition, I am delighted to be supporting St. Helens Council's Planning Team, which is dealing with a number of large scale schemes following the adoption of the local plan. These include bringing forward a number of large scale residential schemes on green and brown field sites. We are applying creative approaches to layout and persuing sustainable and contextual urban design principles. A number of high profile national housebuilders are included. Another area of work is in the implementation of a number of large scale logistics facilties as proposed, in vew of the Borough being well positioned in relation the national communication network.

Myself and a fellow colleague are currently preparing a Borough-wide design guide which will be comprehensive in nature and proposes a themed approach set around design implementation and based on a series of 'tiers', which refects the way in which real-life design is developed. In this way it can be compared with the RIBA Plan of Work but relating to the full scope of urban design 

It is hoped that the guide, when adopted, will encourage a structured approach to the way in which site designs evolve and will enhance the positive collaborative approach that should be sought, where possible, between St. Helens Council, Developers and Communities.

I am available to work with fellow colleagues across the professions in seeking to bring about high quality, sustainabe and responsive design proposals for future implementation.