Making Places Together was established by Penelope Tollitt in 2020 - nothing like setting up a new business at the height of the pandemic…!

Penelope is coach, facilitator and trainer specialising in planning, place shaping and sustainability. She is accredited with the Association of Facilitators, a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a Chartered Environmentalist.

Her work in her consultancy, Making Places Together, is varied, including clients such as Marlow Film Studios, Planning Authorities and Parish Councils. She is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Barlett, University College London.

Penelope’s background is in urban design and planning, having worked in a number of planning departments, including in Bath, Kensington and Chelsea, and Wycombe where she was Head of Planning and Sustainability.

She is a Design Council Expert, Chairs the Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes (BOBMK) design network, is a Director of Planning Officers Society Enterprises (POSe), and is a past member of the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) Policy Council, and past Chairman of the RTPI’s England Policy Panel.

In her personal capacity, she is involved with a number of community led initiatives to boost biodiversity and cut carbon. She is a voluntary non-executive director of Chiltern Rangers, a CIC engaging local communities in managing woodlands and wildlife sites; she chairs of Revive the Wye, a community partnership for the Chalk Stream in High Wycombe and Bourne End; and is a trustee of Wycombe Environment Centre, that runs the High Wycombe circular economy shop Refresh. She is a Fellow of the RSA.

Khawar Asif joined the team a little while later.

Khawar has recently completed the educational element of a Master of Science in Spatial Planning at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, where he completed modules in urban design, plan and policy making and development economics.

Khawar has also received multiple honours and awards for my academic and professional achievements, such as the Adam Blackwell Prize for Languages and the Black and Minority Ethnic Award. He was awarded the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Future Planning Bursary and was course and student ambassador on his Masters course.

Outside of work, Khawar holds voluntary positions at various organisations such as co-opted governor at his Alma Mater, John Hampden Grammar School. He is also Student Member of the General Assembly of the RTPI.

Khawar possesses a strong set of skills in planning, development management, decision making, negotiation, customer support, communication and training, research, and problem-solving, and his sole passion is about improving the quality of life and environment for the communities he serves.