Grads on the ground gives an insight into what our young professionals are doing in their varied day-to-day job out in the field. Delta-Simons' Graduate Environmental Planning Consultant, Edward Carr gives an insight into his recent experience at the Place North West's Industrial + Logistics Conference.

 

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Grad On The Ground

 

Hi, Grad on the Ground Edward Carr here! As I approach two years with the Environmental Planning Services team at Delta-Simons, I’ve gained broad technical and project experience. From writing high-level planning and environmental feasibility appraisals, to working on EIA projects, preparing planning submission documents, and routinely delivering multidisciplinary project proposals. I’ve also represented Delta-Simons at the 2022/23 TTP Cambridge Half Marathon and 2022 C2C2C event (a 100 mile charity cycle ride around Lincolnshire).

Seizing a great opportunity for development in our professional careers, fellow Graduate Chloe Glenn and I, along with over 200 co-professionals from the property and development sectors, headed over to the Place North West’s Industrial + Logistics conference hosted at the Manchester Science Museum.

An excellent opening speech by Andrew Pexton, Senior Director at JLL, set the scene on the current industrial and logistics market in the North West and was followed by Kate Howe, Development Director at Tritax Symmetry, who led the conversation on the future of the sector. Panel discussion followed, with panellists from the investment, advisory and development sectors responding to questions from the audience. If you’d like to learn more about the event and topics discussed, an in-depth write up can be found here. 

Throughout the event, topics of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and Sustainability were common touchpoints, the importance of BNG heightened by the upcoming mandatory requirement of developments (minus some exceptions) to achieve 10% BNG. From project experience and going forward, bringing BNG in all its guises forward in the design programme, investor’s minds, and discussing with co-professionals, will be key in securing funding, avoiding programme delays and ultimately achieving measurable and long-term biodiversity improvements associated with development. Knowing this and with my increasing involvement in this area, I’m keen to engage with available teaching resources to support my wider technical consultancy knowledge to be best placed to deliver for our Clients. Interestingly, during the networking event a similar call for an education/teaching between professions was similarly identified, helping to upskill all those involved in future development programmes.

While demand for land and availability present challenges, opportunities for alternative solutions e.g. multilevel logistic warehouses, are being proposed and brought forward. Similarly important as the above, with these new opportunities presenting fresh challenges, it’s as important as ever for our acoustic team to engage with interested parties and determining authorities to embed considerations of orientation alternatives and mitigation strategies to help reduce exposure levels to noise sensitive receptors and determine project feasibility.

The topics discussed above highlight to us the importance of integrating our consultancy services in the development and planning programme to assist with securing commercially viable and realistic opportunities for consent.

While at first apprehensive and both being in single digit experience of attending such events, the exposure, insight into the industry, learnings and opportunity to build our networks was hugely beneficial for us both and is something we are both looking forward to developing more of in the future.

Our thanks are offered to the event sponsors AEW Architects, Lexington, JMW, Panattoni, Waterman, Turley, and Cole Waterhouse.

 

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Our Environmental Planning Services

 

Delta-Simons, part of the Lucion Group, is a multi-disciplinary environmental and health and safety consultancy providing trusted advice and solutions to ‘Protect People and Planet’ through facilitating sustainable development.

As a national provider with strong regional presence, Delta-Simons works with clients from multiple sectors including industrial, commercial & residential developers, retailers, industrial manufacturers, fund managers, institutional investors, hi-tech companies, public sector and charitable organisations. For the past 30 years, the team has provided a holistic suite of commercially astute environmental services and advice, designed to mitigate risk to both people and environment.

Our Environmental Planning team aims to support clients through the different stages of the development lifecycle, ranging from initial constraints mapping through to technical support on planning site delivery.

Our commercially focused project managers have extensive knowledge of technical and planning issues, working knowledge of Environmental Permitting as well as practical experience of project implementation; as such we recognise the importance of de-risking your project at planning stage to secure robust, commercially viable and deliverable consents. The Environmental Planning team support a range of sectors including commercial, residential and mixed use development, low carbon and renewable technologies, waste utilities and industrial. Find out more about our services here.
 

Our Acoustic Services

 

Environmental noise and vibration can affect the acceptability of a development through its effects on the health of people and the amenity of the local environment. However, adverse effects can be avoided or minimised through early and proactive input to a design.

Delta-Simons’ acousticians bring considerable expertise and experience supporting public and private sector clients with Planning Noise Assessments and acoustic design advice on a range of development types, including residential, urban regeneration, transport, airport facilities, commercial buildings, leisure parks, retail, and industrial developments.

Delta-Simons is proud of its track record in providing high quality technical advice to clients and working with them to enhance the prospects for successful outcomes for their projects. The Delta-Simons specialists are members of the Institute of Acoustics, and their experience includes projects across the UK and overseas.

Find out more about our Noise and Vibration services or contact our team today.