Emma is an Associate Director and Urban Designer and has gained over 15 years of experience working on large, complex strategic masterplans around the UK. Her work is rooted in reconnecting nature networks and championing healthy placemaking, often supported by strong stewardship and governance models. She leads and manages projects through all stages of planning – from promoting sites through the Local Plan process, to Outline Planning, Design Codes, Developer Implementation Packs and Reserved Matters Applications.
Her notable projects include a new mixed-use neighbourhood of 635 homes at the former Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) site at Fort Halstead, Sevenoaks; Chilmington Green Garden Suburb in Ashford, Kent, delivering 5,750 homes; and a 380-home neighbourhood at Little Chalfont Park, on a former golf course site in the Buckinghamshire’s Green Belt.
Emma was project lead for the Outline Planning Application and Design Code for up to 1,550 homes at Weyside Urban Village in Guildford, which secured planning permission in December 2021 and was selected as one of the government’s National Model Design Code (NMDC) pilot projects. This process involved close engagement with a Community Review Panel, to explore identity and local distinctiveness with key themes embedded into a Community Design Code and reported back to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), now MHCLG, through round table discussions and written reports. In 2023, Weyside Urban Village won its category at the Planning Awards for Best Use of Publicly-Owned Land in Placemaking.
Emma is currently working with Lands Improvement on Little Barford in Bedford, a new community on the edge of St Neots, helping to optimise opportunities arising from the proposed East West Rail Station at Tempsford. Within her role, she has played a key part in leading the project and collaborating closely with officers at Bedford Borough Council.
Her extensive experience delivering strategic sites has also contributed to a key role in the review and development of JTP’s Design Code methodology. Emma is passionate about driving design and environmental quality across all her projects, ensuring they are vibrant, resilient and capable of supporting future innovation.
She has authored numerous Design Codes across a range of contexts and densities, including Channels Golf Course in Chelmsford; Manydown in Basingstoke; Weyside Urban Village and Wisley Airfield, both brownfield sites in Guildford; and the Main Street Design Code at Bailrigg Garden Village, developed in close collaboration with the city and county councils in Lancashire.
In 2021, Channels Phases 3 and 5 was awarded the Winner at the Housing Design Awards and was ‘Highly Commended’ with the judges praising the high-quality Design Code and Vision Document.
Within JTP, Emma has a key role in the practice’s auditing processes, as well as being involved in various working groups including Health and Wellbeing, Sustainability Champions and Community Planning. Emma is passionate about pushing the design and environmental quality of all her projects and ensuring that they are vibrant, robust and enable future innovations.
