A Day in the Life: Adam Price, Senior Planner, Bristol
In recognition of World Town Planning Day, we have spent the day with a Senior Planner to better understand their role.
Adam Price, a Senior Planner in our Bristol office, gives us a glimpse into a day in the life of a planning consultant at JLL.
As seems to be the case for many, I stumbled upon ‘planning’ at a university open day. All I knew at the time was that I wanted a career where I could make a positive impact on the built environment; something which plays such a critical role in the overall happiness and successfulness of all of our lives.
Fast forward a few years to when I joined the JLL Bristol team in November 2021 (celebrating my third anniversary very soon!), having previously worked in a mix of public and private sector roles. In my job, I work on a variety of exciting projects across the South West with great clients. Below is an idea of what my day-to-day entails for any budding planners out there!
6:30am – wake up and activate ‘quiet as a mouse mode’ so as to not wake my girlfriend and dog when getting ready for the day ahead
7:30am – fire up a podcast (No Such Thing as a Fish and Lateral are current favourites!) and enjoy the bus ride from charming Clevedon to bustling Bristol
8:15am – arrive at the office with heavy breathing after tackling the joyous inclines of York Place and Brandon Hill (clue is in the name!)
8:25am – freshly fuelled from a morning coffee, have a good catch up with colleagues whilst going through my inbox and calendar, and begin actioning any ‘quick wins’ (I am definitely in the school of thought of doing quick tasks right away – try it if you don’t already, it’s liberating!)
9am – create my to-do list, including who I need to call or email, and who I need to sit down with to discuss planning queries or give tasks to
10am – let’s assume this is a Monday as this is conveniently when we have our JLL Bristol Planning team meeting. Despite it being a Monday, everyone is usually in good spirits and raring to go. We talk through projects, finances and invoices, upcoming CPD and events, planning news, and anything else anyone wants to bring to the table e.g. new tools we can utilise, ideas for our next team socials etc. There is always a consensus that we come away buoyed and closer as a team – worth every minute!
11am – 1pm – ‘crack on’ with project work, which depending on the day and nature of the workload, can range from doing background research on a new site a client may be interested in, through to putting the final touches on a Planning Statement for an exciting new development ahead of submission to the Local Planning Authority.
1pm – 2pm – lunch, which I am embarrassed to admit, more often than not involves a meal deal and a wander round to stretch the legs. If there is a birthday or something like a project or APC success, the team may find ourselves in a local restaurant (Pizza in the Park being a safe bet!) to celebrate – this beats the meal deal hands down!
2pm – 5pm – more project work, often with interesting and sometimes challenging (in a good way!) meetings with different clients, project team members or other stakeholders. If any prospective planners reading this flinch at the idea of these meetings, do not fear. As someone who is naturally introverted, I was much the same when starting out my career but now I revel at the chance to share my knowledge and advice – it is funny what time, knowledge and the right learning and development can do!
5:10pm – pack up and enjoy a walk down the hills to catch my bus home to the sea, and to a very waggy-tailed dog and an often sleepy girlfriend who has taught science to teenagers all day (makes me even more grateful to be a planner!)
To see the full range of services our planning team offers, click here.
