About
Sue Kidd is an academic and chartered town planner with an interest in integrated approaches to planning and in particular the integration of environmental concerns into policies, plans and programmes. She has acted as an advisor to government departments, government agencies, regional and local authorities and NGO’s. Much of her work has focussed on sustainable development particularly in relation to coastal and marine areas. She is currently Head of the Civic Design Discipline in the School of Environmental Sciences. Before embarking on an academic career, Sue held a range of posts in the strategic planning teams of Merseyside County Council, Cheshire County Council and Sefton Borough Council where she led the section responsible for the preparation of the authority’s first Unitary Development Plan. As a planning academic she has played a key role in developing spatial planning theory and practice related to coastal and marine areas. Her work here includes: involvement in the preparation of a management plan for the Mersey Estuary(1991 – 1995); leading a DETR funded study on Integrated Coastal Planning in the North West (2000), coordinating an ESRC/NERC funded Trans-disciplinary Seminar Series on New Approaches to Managing Ecosystem Services in the Marine Environment (2007 – 2009); organising two ESRC funded workshops aimed at encouraging international partnership working in support of integrated marine spatial planning in the Irish Sea (2010 - 2011) and leading an ESPON Research Project on Territorial Development of European Seas (2010 - 2013) Sue's interest in this field is reflected in her positions as: Chair of the North West Coastal Forum (2007 – 2009); Chair of the North West Coastal Trail Steering Group (2007-); and Chair of the Irish Sea Conservation Zones Project funded by DEFRA, Natural England and the JNCC (2010- 2012). This project is the first time that a stakeholder led process has been used in the UK to help identify and recommend marine areas for protection.