Environmental consultancy chooses North East region to open its third office

Planning and landscape consultancy, Stephenson Halliday, has chosen Newcastle to open its third regional office, building upon the success of its Kendal and Glasgow offices.

The Kendal based company was established in 2001, specialising in providing town planning and landscape advice to the development industry.

The Newcastle office is seen as both an extension of the existing business strengths and an expansion into property related planning through the appointment of Alastair Willis, technical director, and Marie-Louise Milliken, principal planner.

The office is led by Mary Campbell, planning director, who has moved from the company’s Kendal office and is head of planning.

She said: “This is a very exciting move for Stephenson Halliday and builds on the growing demand for our services.

“We have recruited new staff to undertake work already secured in the North East region and the quality of the space at the Old Post Office has, I have no doubt, helped us to attract the very best.”

The Newcastle office is based in the old Post Office building on St Nicholas Street. The old Post Office building recently underwent a £5.8m redevelopment, which included new office premises in the upper floors.

Stephenson Halliday was one of the first businesses to move into the new office space in November 2017 and sees it as the perfect location to grow the north east business.

Alastair joins the business from WYG in Newcastle where he has worked for the last 11 years (nine years with Signet Planning prior to its acquisition by WYG), and has 13 years private practice experience.

He brings extensive town planning experience and knowledge in all areas of property planning; including residential, commercial, retail and tourism development.

The company has also appointed Marie-Louise Milliken, who joins from North East-based developer, The Banks Group.

Marie-Louise is a chartered planner with over 10 years’ experience working in the private sector, including time spent within a large multidisciplinary consultancy working on residential, minerals, regeneration, highways, energy and waste developments.

Building upon the strength of the sector, Stephenson Halliday believes there is a gap in the market in the North East to establish a niche planning and landscape consultancy.