As a planning practitioner, I enjoy the professional challenge of unlocking development potential, and securing the most optimal outcomes for clients. With an ever changing regulatory framework, it is important to be responsive, flexible and proactive in seeking out new opportunities and delivering on client aspirations.
Pearce Gunne-Jones
Pearce has over 10 years’ experience assisting clients with a range of projects working across all sectors, and delivering on commercially-focused schemes. He has particular expertise in managing large project teams on strategic sites in some of the country’s key growth locations such as the Oxford-Cambridge Arc, estate regeneration projects in outer London, and urban extension schemes, including in the Green Belt.
In securing positive planning outcomes for clients, Pearce is particularly experienced in developing effective planning strategies for sites from the very initial feasibility stage. This includes optimising the potential of housing and commercial sites, and robustly supporting site promotion through the local plan process through to allocation, and most importantly seeking to de-risk what is becoming an increasingly complex process.
Pearce's Projects
Boss & Co
The project supported one of London’s oldest companies, Boss & Co, to upgrade and extend its existing premises in Kew, allowing it to remain in its historic home and to sustain its tradition of handmade craftsmanship and specialist artisanal labour.
A constrained layout and the poor natural light of the site, threatened our client with relocation due to a lack of suitable local space but our scheme delivered a high-quality, flexible workspace, improving efficiency and securing the business’s long-term future.
A heritage-led strategy addressed the building’s townscape merit, its setting within the Kew Green Conservation Area, and proximity to Kew Bridge, balancing conservation sensitivities with economic and community benefits. The outcome safeguards industrial heritage and supports future apprenticeships.
Dollis Valley Estate Regeneration
We assisted Countryside and its development partner London and Quadrant in their successful bid for the redevelopment of the Dollis Valley Estate in the London Borough of Barnet.
The proposal was to demolish the existing 1960s housing estate and adjacent redundant primary school, and create up to 631 new homes and replacement community facilities. We prepared a successful hybrid planning application and environmental statement, advised on ecological, archaeological and landscape issues and coordinated the required technical input from the wider consultant team.
This ensured that the first phase of the development could commence soon after the grant of planning permission, whilst providing greater certainty as to how this would form part of the wider estate regeneration master plan.
The project has been particularly challenging in seeking to deliver an appropriate mix of social and market units to meet the needs of existing secure tenants whilst ensuring that the scheme remains viable.
We continue to support the ongoing phased regeneration of the estate.