Mark (Pictured above, right), who has over 17 years of planning experience in the public and private sectors, joins from the Scottish housebuilders’ industry body Homes for Scotland, where he was the principle planning adviser.

Mark began his career at Eden District Council in Cumbria and worked for both Edinburgh City and Fife councils before moving to the private sector, where he served as the associate director for international planning consultancy RPS.

The appointment will see Mark lead on a range of new projects in the coming months at the planning consultancy, which has offices in Harrogate and County Durham.

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Steve Hesmondhalgh (Pictured above, left), managing director of the company, said he was pleased to welcome a new colleague with Mark’s breadth of town planning experience.

“We have a strong team and an impressive, successful track record of delivering commercially viable schemes for clients and we look forward to helping them to take a pragmatic approach to making development projects a reality in the new planning environment,” he added.

Recently the company has enabled fashion design business Inspire Intimates to create new offices in the former Bilton Library in Harrogate and has been involved in the redevelopment of the Boosbeck abattoir near Redcar for housing.

It has also helped to gain planning approval for a £3m tourism and leisure development at Angrove Country Park near Great Ayton and planning permission for 145 homes on the edge of Kirklevington near Yarm.