Tom Phillips is a town planner and an art history buff.  We sat down to discuss his somewhat unusual road to becoming a town planner, why so many planning applications get invalidated, what all the acronyms mean, why Children can lobby local councils, podiatry (yes, really!) and why Ireland had, until recently, more than 80 separate planning authorities.

Some notes from the episode:

• TPA report on LRDs: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:1e6b9094-8b42-3e71-abc1-47380d71cc93
• Article about Gavin Newson suspending laws to allow rebuilding https://www.irishtimes.com/world/us/2025/01/12/california-governor-suspends-environmental-laws-to-allow-rebuilding-in-fire-zones/
• Lichfields https://lichfields.uk
• Start With Why – Simon Sinek https://www.easons.com/start-with-why-simon-sinek-9780241958223
• The Incredulity of Saint Thomas https://www.artchive.com/artwork/the-incredulity-of-saint-thomas-michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio-1601-02/

Disclosure:
Though Tom is a great guy and extremely knowledgeable, I hadn't until now had the pleasure of meeting him.  Neither he, nor his firm, has carried out any work for me or for any of my companies in the past.

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