Midlands property consultancy Harris Lamb is launching an Environment Department to operate alongside its existing disciplines, and has appointed environmental impact assessment (EIA) coordinator and ecologist Dr Holly Smith to spearhead the team.
Holly joins the team from Ecus in Sheffield, where she led the Environmental Impact Assessment team for seven years, obtaining the IEMA EIA Quality Mark for the company and delivering environmental statements for a wide range of developments across the UK.
Patrick Downes, Director of Planning for Harris Lamb, said: “The decision to enhance the business’ offering with a clear environmental stance is one we’ve been discussing for some time. Increasingly companies are asked to demonstrate their efforts to preserve and minimise impact on the local environment and while we have done this for a number of years, with ecology being high on the political and social radar at present, now is the time for us to establish a specialist department.
“Holly is a highly respected ecologist within the field. She is bringing extensive experience throughout the sector and, having worked alongside her on projects including North Worcestershire Golf Course and Stoneleigh Park, we knew that she was the ideal person to lead the team for us.
“With more than 12 years’ professional experience, starting as a consultant ecologist before moving into EIA, Holly has a huge amount of insight which will bolster our other services, enabling us to develop detailed environmental statements on behalf of our clients and aid the planning and design process. We’re delighted to be able to extend our service provision and to have her at the helm of the new division, and our clients should see a real benefit from us adding this service in-house.” he added.
Holly said: “I was attracted to Harris Lamb because I was keen to work with the business’ highly respected planning department. I have worked with Pat and his team for over five years, providing environmental support to their clients for a wide range of developments.
“In that time I’ve come to highly respect the professionalism and knowledge of the team and couldn’t resist the fantastic opportunity to join them. I am excited by the opportunity to contribute to the growth of the company by developing environmental services that will build on the company’s excellent reputation and success,” she added.
Holly and Harris Lamb have a long-standing history of working together on projects including North Worcestershire Golf Course, whereby Holly coordinated and produced an environmental statement under the IEMA Quality Mark Scheme and acted as client project manager, working with the planning team and client to produce design, and on the Stoneleigh Park Redevelopment, where Holly again oversaw the environmental statement, acted as client project manager and was retained to work with the Park and HS2 through revising the HS2 detailed design.
Further recruitment to the team is imminent.