About Us

Thanks for looking at our site. I hope that the following gives some indication of the range of services that we can offer:-

I'm Peter Hakes, the principal of the consultancy which was established in 2004.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and I hold a Post Graduate Diploma in Management Studies.
I am also a Member of the RTPI Independent Consultants Network.

Having been in planning since 1966 working in a number of local authorities, I have amassed a wealth of experience and expertise in all aspect of planning, including:-
  
* development control,
* enforcement,
* forward planning,
* conservation and
* urban design.

I have also given evidence at many major planning inquiries.

In 1992 I produced the first edition of Planning Legislation Update, and have been running this service ever since. See our Planning Legislation page.

Latterly and until leaving in 2004, I was Environmental Strategy Manager at Essex County Council, in charge of a team, whose aim was to support and promote the concept of sustainability.

For several years I Chaired the Essex Air Quality Consortium and managed work by my
team on Climate Change and Renewable Energy Strategies.

I also responded to many major planning applications and reviewed Environmental Statements.

Back in 1992 I initiated the Essex Guide to Environmental Impact Assessment on behalf of the Essex Development Control Forum and Essex Planning Officers' Association (EPOA).
The EPOA has subsequently commissioned this consultancy to continue to review and update the Guide. See our Environmental Impact Assessment page.

Projects that I have been involved in include;
* carrying out a Sustainability Appraisal of the Essex Minerals Local Plan Second Review,
* Managing the Sustainability Appraisal of the Essex and Southend-on-Sea Structure Plan Review and
* Managing the creation of Essex's Local Agenda 21 Strategy.

Whilst working for Essex I was also a member of the Environment Task Group for the proposed East of England Regional Spatial Strategy.

Other work has included:-
* involvement in the South Essex Catchment Abstraction Management Strategy,
* Chairing the Environment and Conservation Hub of the Essex Rural Partnership,
* representing the County Council on the Dedham Vale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty project and the
* the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty project,
* chairing the Crouch and Roach Estuary Management Project,
* representing the County Council on the Stour and Orwell Estuary Management Group and
* being a director and trustee of the Thames Estuary Partnership.

I was also the Essex representative on the 'Metrofringes' Interreg European project.
Another particularly exciting European Interreg project was 'SAIL 11' which promoted integrated coastal zone management and sustainable regeneration around the Southern North Sea coasts.
Other partners were based in Zeeland (in the Netherlands), North West France, West Flanders (Belgium), the Thames Estuary and Kent.
Essex County Council was the lead authority and continued to employ me to manage the project until completed at the end of October 2005. See our Links Page.

I currently lecture on Environmental Impact Assessment at Anglia Ruskin University, and have lectured on this subject at Aberystwyth University, Colchester Institute, London School of Economics, University of Greenwich etc. and given numerous talks on the subject. I helped initiate the MSc course on Environmental Impact Assessment in Cambridge in 1992.