Laird Ryan
town planner, urbanist; vice-chair of a Liverpool based environmental charity; editor, LocalismWatch

Laird is a town planner, whose CV includes roles in government, academia and the third sector. As chief advisor to Stoke’s elected mayor, he led a ‘Green Papers’ initiative, enabling the wider community to engage with public policy at an earlier stage and higher level. He then brought together key organisations in the West Midlands and North West to deliver accords on social and economic wellbeing.

Nowadays, Laird designs distance-learning modules for UCEM, Reading, is a qualified ESOL teacher, and is vice-chair of a Liverpool-based environmental charity. He edits OpenDemocracy’s LocalismWatch site, aimed at making sense of the government’s localism agenda.

Follow Laird on Twitter: @LairdRyan

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