Charles is Partner-in-Charge of JTP Engages, working with communities and stakeholders from all backgrounds and sect, putting local people at the heart of the placemaking process. Charles is also an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism and a Trustee of community business charity, Plunkett UK.
He leads JTP’s dedicated community planning team, managing and facilitating co-design processes around the UK and internationally that combine both in-person and online activities to ensure that everyone is able to participate.
Charles is currently working with St William, part of the Berkeley Group, to create a Vision for the residential-led, mixed use regeneration at East Ham Gasworks, having previously led the process for St William at Beckton Gasworks, formerly Europe’s largest gasworks. He is also currently engaging with stakeholders at: Wychavon Garden Town (formerly Worcestershire Parkway) with Homes England and Summix; at Chrisp Street Market, Poplar with Telford Living; and at Park Pale Village, South Godstone with Regency & Co. He is leading the stakeholder and community engagement process for the mixed-use regeneration of Finchley Lakeside for Pentland Group and at Berinsfield Garden Village, Oxfordshire with Ptarmigan Land.
Working with local authorities on the delivery of community engagement, Charles’ work also includes Rugeley Town Centre masterplan for Cannock Chase and Stafford Councils and Weyside Urban Village, with Guildford Borough Council, including early community engagement for Phase 1 as part of a National Model Design Code pilot project. Other recent JTP projects including new neighbourhoods at Hill Farm, Kings Langley and Little Chalfont Park for The Hill Group and the borough-wide stakeholder and community engagement process for the Calderdale Placemaking and Design Guide which won the Stakeholder Engagement category at the Planning Awards 2024.
In 2021, Charles led JTP’s digital stakeholder and community engagement process through the Covid-19 pandemic for Lancaster City Council at Bailrigg Garden Village. The co-created landscape-led masterplan subsequently won the Landscape Institute Award for Masterplanning and Urban Design in 2022. Through this work and building relationships with Lancaster University Environment Centre, Charles became a founding member of the Soils Task Force, which promotes the protection and sustainable use of soils in planning and construction.
In 2019, Charles was asked to lead the Vision for Liskeard Cattle Market Charrette for Cornwall Council, sponsored by MHCLG as part of their exemplar Charrette initiative, with Phase 1 of the masterplan, The Workshed, a creative and digital hub now completed. He also led The Nicholson Quarter community planning process for Areli Real Estate to create a new Vision for Maidenhead town centre – a project which won the Stakeholder Engagement category at the Planning Awards 2024 and which achieved unanimous planning approval. Also that year, he led the Vision for Kendal whole town Charrette for Kendal Futures, which subsequently won £13.5 million in Levelling Up Funding, as well as the Vision for Tampere West+ city centre Vision e-charrette for Tampere City Council, Finland.
Important in Charles’ development has been his work as a local resident with the Barnes Town Team running two co-design processes – The Big Barnes Ponder in 2013 and Barnes Ponder 2 in 2023. These events and subsequent community-led activities have delivered a range of projects and helped to bring about the renaissance of Barnes, more than doubling footfall in the village and bringing back real vibrancy to the village on the river.
Other JTP projects include Central Winchester Regeneration project for Winchester City Council, developing a Supplementary Planning Document for this important city centre site which has now been formally adopted by the council. He also led the community visioning processes at Market Street, a new residential-led ‘urban village’ on a council-owned car park in Newbury town centre for Grainger; the award-winning regeneration of St Clement’s Hospital in Bow, including London’s first Community Land Trust; and the high-rise, residential-led urban quarter at Brunel Street Works, part of London’s Custom House and Canning Town Regeneration Area.
Internationally, Charles has led a cooperative regional planning Charrette in Auroville, India; community Charrettes as part of the Scottish Government’s Charrette mainstreaming programme in Girvan, Wick and Thurso; several Charrette processes in Sweden and Iceland, and an international multi-disciplinary team through three Charrette processes to plan an eco-resort in Tanjung Ringitt, Lombok, Indonesia.
Charles’ book entitled ’20/20 Visions: Collaborative Planning and Placemaking’, published by RIBA Publishing was a finalist in the Urban Design Group Book Award 2019. In 2009, he travelled to San Diego to accept the International Association of Public Participation Project of the Year Award 2009 for Scarborough Renaissance.
Charles has run a short Collaborative Placemaking course at the University of Hertfordshire, lectured at various universities and spoken at a range of international conferences and seminars including The Academy of Urbanism Quality Life, Beautiful City conference in Hangzhou, The American Institute of Architects Conference in San Diego, and the Remaking Cities Congress in Pittsburgh. In February 2026, Charles will be part of a panel at the AIA Webinar series.
