I’m Mike Bodkin: a Town Planner with 35+ years' experience and a Chartered RTPI member since 1994. I set up Number 42 Planning in April 2026 to do the kind of work I most enjoy — unlocking planning problems for clients. I’m based in Brighton but work across the country.

I’ve worked across all parts of the planning system. 23 years at Kent County Council, latterly as Head of Growth Areas & Development and Head of Urban Regeneration, leading on growth and regeneration across North Kent and Ashford. Then seven years in private-sector consultancy with Peter Brett Associates and Strutt & Parker — building planning teams in the South East and running multi-disciplinary teams on major mixed-use schemes. Most recently, seven years as Head of Planning at TOWN, the SME 'profit-with-purpose' developer behind Marmalade Lane, one of the UK's most significant new-build cohousing schemes of recent years and winner of the RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup in 2020.

This mix means I am equally at home in the witness box, negotiating a section 106 agreement with lawyers or facilitating a community engagement workshop. I have led the planning process on schemes from individual houses to nearly 6,000 homes; written local plans, policy documents and evidence base studies; been a judge on the RTPI Awards for Planning Excellence since 2021 and I am on the RTPI’s Mentoring Panel.

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