Brendan has more than 40 years of professional experience. He has masters’ degrees in town planning and environmental science and is a member of both the Irish Planning Institute and Royal Town Planning Institute. Before setting up the practice Brendan was a senior executive planner in Clare County Council. Before that he worked for local authorities in Dublin and Cork and on development programmes in Africa and Australasia. Brendan had technical responsibility for the Clare County Development Plan 1999- 2005 and for the Howth Special Amenity Area Order 2000. Brendan has a particular interest in sustainable settlement patterns, countryside planning and landscape management.
Brendan has experience of every aspect of the Irish planning system, ranging from work as a development control case officer in Fingal County Council to the securing of planning permissions for large-scale developments for private sector clients.
Brendan is author of ‘Landscape and Society in Contemporary Ireland’ published by Cork University Press in 2013 ( http://www.corkuniversitypress.com/product-p/9781909005716.htm for more information). Brendan has also contributed to a number of peer-reviewed planning journals (Town Planning Review, Third World Planning Review, Cities, Planning Perspectives and The Environmentalist).
Nelleke made an early start in her business career, working in her parents’ pharmacy in the Netherlands. She qualified in business administration and worked in a trading company for four years. In her twenties she came to Ireland on holiday and stayed, loving every aspect of the Irish landscape. Nelleke trained as a ceramicist in Ireland. To fund her apprenticeship she worked as a maintenance gardener and also managed an historic garden restoration project. Following a period working with village potters in West Africa, Nelleke studied homeopathy, qualified and set up a Dublin practice. She also met and married Brendan and they moved to County Clare. Five years later their daughter Karina arrived. Nelleke is the practice administrator. She oversees daily operations, supervising the general administration of the office.
The practice can draw on the experience and expertise of a wide range of consultants for larger projects. For instance, the planning application for a housing scheme in Shannon Town, which received planning permission in 2022, involved Cyril O’Reilly (designer), Paddy Coleman (civil engineer), Denis McKeon (surveyor), Paul Murphy (ecologist), TVAS archaeology and Sinead Monahan (landscape architect)