Clyde Shanks

Managing Director

Clyde has 28 years experience in planning consultancy having begun his career in London and Reading before returning to Northern Ireland in 1999.  He quickly rose to the position of Director at Turley Associates in Belfast before taking the decision to establish Clyde Shanks in 2011.

Clyde has considerable experience in co-ordinating complex, infrastructure projects across all property sectors and in establishing strong relationships with decision makers.  He brings thoroughness and clarity of thinking to project direction and strategy and is constantly seeking to improve what we do and how we do it.  He is a keen runner, golfer and part time hockey coach at Lisnagarvey minis.

Gavyn Smyth

Associate Director

Gavyn previously worked in England and Wales at a number of local authorities securing excellent experience that he applies across a busy and diverse portfolio of planning application work in our office.  He works closely with local Council planning officers in trying to proactively manage these towards timely recommendations to approve.

Gavin McGill

Associate Director

Gavin is an Associate Director with the company having risen from the role of Graduate Planner after securing his Masters in Environmental Planning at Queens University.  He has been with the company for 12 years and handles a diverse and busy planning application workload with a high volume of renewable energy, agrifood, tourism and waste infrastructure work.  He is a keen fan of Ulster Rugby and enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter and a quiet craft beer or two.

Rachel Ingram

Graphic Designer

Rachel heads up our graphic design team and brings wonderful creativity and vitality to all of the documents that we produce.  This includes our diverse core planning work as well as expanding new opportunities in company branding, website design, events and festival advertisement and menus for restaurants, bars and hospitality venues.

Gregor Southall

Senior Planner

Gregor is a Senior Planner with Clyde Shanks having joined the team in April 2024 and has quickly adapted to the fast paced life in the office.  He brings strong commercial experience having worked for 5 years in the private sector with Montagu Evans in Glasgow.  He has gained valuable experience of managing complex and major scale planning applications across all sectors.  Gregor is experienced in the co-ordination of extensive consultant teams and engages positively with his counterparts in local Councils to keep projects moving forward.

Susannah Boyce

Planner

Susannah joined Clyde Shanks in August 2023 having spent a year working in the enforcement team at Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council.  She graduated with a first class honours degree from University of Ulster and won the EPLANI award for best student in her year.  Susannah prepares planning applications, CLPUD and CLUED submissions, applications to discharge conditions as well as undertaking diligent planning history and development plan status searches and supporting senior colleagues across a wide range of development projects throughout Northern Ireland.

Nicole Lawther

Graduate Planner

Nicole joined Clyde Shanks as graduate planner in January 2024 and has quickly settled in to the team.  She graduates from University of Ulster in summer 2024 and is balancing her final year studies with working in a busy planning consultancy.  Nicole monitors and tracks our extensive portfolio of live planning applications alerting our team, clients and consultant colleagues to real time progress on applications and the need to respond to any queries or requests for additional information.

Kate Harrison

Graduate Planner

Kate Harrison joined Clyde Shanks in September 2024 as a Graduate Planner.  Kate brings a law degree from University of Exeter and is presently studying a Masters in Planning at Queens University.  Kate assists the Director, Associate Directors and wider team with proactive tracking of all of our planning applications and updates to clients on progress through the planning system in addition to supporting the professional team on public consultation events, application preparation and planning history research.