I know that Simon’s colleagues and many friends here at the RSPB will be delighted at the news that he has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours and will join me in offering our warmest congratulations.
Simon is a regular contributor to our Saving Special Places blog and this richly deserved award recognises his role on the National Planning Policy Framework Practitioners’ Advisory Group (here’s a blog from the time the debate around the National Planning Policy Framework was at its height).
This award recognises Simon Marsh’s personal contribution to local government and communities in the UK.
The SSP blog caught up with Simon when we heard the news and his reaction recognised the support that made it possible; ‘I am delighted to receive this honour, which recognises my input to the National Planning Policy Framework. Although I did this in a personal capacity, I could not have done it without the support of many colleagues at the RSPB, and my family’s forbearance for many late nights.’
Simon is Head of Planning Policy here at the RSPB; he’s a chartered town planner and leads a team which seeks to ensure that the planning system and planning policy in England is positive for nature.
He is a member of the Department of Communities and Local Government's Planning Sounding Board, was formerly a member of the National Planning Policy Framework practitioners’ advisory group, and is a member of Lord Matthew Taylor’s review of planning practice guidance.
Until May 2011, Simon chaired the Greenest Planning Ever coalition of NGOs campaigning on the Localism Bill, and the Land Use Planning Working Group of Wildlife and Countryside Link, an umbrella body for voluntary organisations.
Before moving to the RSPB nine years ago, he spent most of his career as a planning officer at Sefton Council, Merseyside, and Essex County Council, with a two-year break advising the Government of Mozambique. He studied at the Universities of Durham, Sheffield and Liverpool.
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