John Mason

I'm a planner and urbanophile based in Cambridge, UK. I work at Carter Jonas as a planning consultant.

I'm interested in cities, architecture and planning, as well as queer history and diversity and inclusion.

While I live in Cambridge, I'm a proud Midlander and acquired my interest in all things urban from my home city, Birmingham. I have written about Birmingham's architecture for Failed Architecture and Umbrella magazine.

I have reflected on the changes the pandemic has wrought on our neighbourhoods, which also appeared in Costar magazine.

I am a Chartered town planner with the Royal Town Planning Institute, and a committee member of the East of England's Young RTPI. I have organised and chaired several events, including:

• "Employment-led Growth in a Post-COVID world" with Cambridge Ahead and the Cities and Transport Group of Cambridge University
• "Market-Towns Post-COVID: Reflections from East Anglia" with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, and Lowestoft's Regeneration Team.

I am a member of Carter Jonas' Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee and am passionate about broadening access into planning and the property world more generally. I regularly give talks to local schools and colleges on planning. I have also been interviewed on life as an LGBT person in The Property Reporter.

In July 2020 I started a blog on Queer Cambridgeshire: https://queercambridgeshire.wordpress.com/, seeking to shed some light on the queer residents who have lived and studied here, and the queer stories of our buildings and the objects within them. There is also an associated Instagram account: @queercambs.

Local history, after all, is about how our local environments have been shaped by the people within them.

I can be reached on LinkedIn or by email at john.mason [at] carterjonas.co.uk.