Friendly and approachable professionals   

Neil is a founder of Lepus Consulting and a landscape ecologist with 20 years' experience, applying the principles of landscape level planning to help shape land use plans and programmes to maximise sustainable development performance.  

Neil has worked in local and central government for 10 years, providing ecological, green infrastructure, recreational and landscape management and protection advice, he also served as a policy advisor.  

Neil is one of the UK’s leading strategic environmental planning experts and set up Lepus, in part, to support local planning authorities in the preparation of their local plans. He regularly appears at Examination in Public and has an invaluable in-depth knowledge of plan making. Neil specialises in the Strategic Environmental Assessment, green infrastructure planning and Habitats Regulations Assessment of plans and programmes. 

Neil is passionate about landscape ecology and the opportunities to optimise ecosystem services through appropriate land use configuration; he is fascinated by butterfly metapopulation dynamics in calcareous landscapes.

Samantha is a Principal Environmental Consultant with over 15 years’ experience in the environmental sector. Over this time, she has gained in-depth experience of plan and project led environmental assessment, with a particular specialism in Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA), Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This experience covers a wide range of sectors including land use and transport planning, major transport projects (road and rail), mixed use developments and projects from the education, health care and renewable energy sectors.  

Samantha has proven experience in co-ordinating and delivering a wide range of stakeholder consultations. This includes engagement with statutory consultees, non-statutory consultees and technical specialists.

Samantha has led projects for a diverse range of clients across England and Wales from both the public and private sector. Clients like Samantha for her professionalism and determination to find evidence-led solutions to potentially complicated large scale strategic challenges.

Emily joined Lepus as an Environmental Consultant where she works in the environmental planning team specialising in SA and SEA projects. 

Emily has provided support for a wide range of Lepus projects, having a strong background in research focusing on sustainable food production, neighbourhood planning and climate change mitigation. She assists senior members of the team with data analysis, report writing and GIS-mapping. She has also supported the Business Development team at Lepus where she has developed her understanding of stakeholder engagement and Local Planning. 

Emily has worked on multiple projects in the UK, Germany and Romania to engage people with the natural environment. She has lead workshops in schools to educate young people on sustainable food production and agriculture. She was a member of the Buchanan Institute ThinkTank and has completed a project generating policy proposals to embody a bottom-up approach towards the ’20-minute-neighbourhoods’ concept in Edinburgh. Emily obtained her degree from the University of Edinburgh in Sustainable Development specialising in Politics and International Relations.  

Emily is a keen violinist and enjoys playing various other instruments in her free time. 

 

Will has comprehensive experience of working on a range of landscape assessment projects. Leading on all LVIA projects, Will has demonstrated strong skills in report writing and project management and is an integral part of the Landscape team at Lepus.

With experience carrying out Landscape Character Assessments, capacity studies and Green Infrastructure projects, Will has an array of experience and applicable skills. Will regularly works in protected landscapes and has completed projects in the following AONBs and National Parks: Arnside and Silverdale AONB, the Cotswolds AONB, Chiltern Hills AONB, Malvern Hills AONB, Peak District National Park and Lake District National Park. He is therefore familiar with protected landscape policy and planning control in these areas.

Having completed his thesis on using GIS to determine visual impacts of wind farms on the Lake District National Park, Will is comfortable using QGIS and has developed on this skills during his time at Lepus. 

 

Laura is a Senior Environmental Consultant specialising in Sustainability Appraisal (SA) and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Since joining as a graduate with an MSci in Biological Sciences from the University of Birmingham, Laura has progressed quickly over the five years she has been here and now leads our SA team.

 

At university, Laura’s masters project focused on the impacts of climate change and increased carbon dioxide on woodland ecosystems. Building on her background in research and data analysis, Laura has developed strong skills in report writing and assessments supported by her GIS capabilities.

 

Demonstrating skills in project management, Laura oversees a range of SA/SEA projects and is able to manage competing deadlines on complex projects. She also plays an important role with our new starters, offering training and support.

 

Laura has always been interested in the natural world and hopes to continue to provide support for sustainable development in the UK throughout her career. She is an Associate member of CIEEM.

George joined Lepus as an Environmental Consultant following his graduation from Cardiff University where he studied Geography and Planning.

George has developed strong report writing and data analysis skills building upon his background in planning, research methods and policy research. George has provided support for a wide range of Lepus projects, specialising in Sustainability Appraisals. He assists senior members of the team with data analysis, report writing and GIS-mapping. 

George is a member of Gloucester Vale Conservation Volunteers whereby he keeps an active role in issues surrounding the environment and sustainability. 

In addition to the above, George is a keen Rugby player coaching youth teams in his free time. 

Amy joined Lepus as an Environmental Consultant following her graduation from the University of Durham where she studied Geography. She has supported the technical team on a range of projects including Sustainability Appraisal (SA), Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA) and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Studies.  

Amy has strong experience in the analysis of sites and policies and is highly competent at using GIS, producing clear and meaningful mapping of key data. Within the SA team, Amy has developed her report writing experience in particular producing comprehensive Scoping Reports and non-technical summaries. She regularly attends client meetings and has managed smaller scale projects for the Lepus team. 

In her work on a variety of BNG projects and HRAs during her time at Lepus, Amy has established strong skills in ecological surveying and data analysis. Amy has applied this knowledge in ecological surveying through the production of Preliminary Ecological Appraisals (PEAs) and BNG assessments, utilising the Statutory Biodiversity Metric Calculation Tool. Amy has developed her mapping skills within QGIS to present findings and has produced many Phase 1 Habitat Maps to support BNG reports. 

 

Mia joined Lepus as an Environmental Consultant following her graduation from the University of Oxford where she studied Geography, obtaining a first class degree.

 

Mia has worked on a variety of Habitats Regulations Assessments during her time at Lepus and has established strong skills in site assessments, data analysis, policy review and ecological surveying. 

In addition, Mia is experienced in carrying out fieldwork & surveys, such as JNCC Phase 1 habitat surveys and JNCC National Vegetation Classification. As such, Mia has been working on a variety of BNG projects alongside HRAs. Mia is excellent at assimilating data and has extensive experience of producing thorough reports. With her skills in report writing, research and GIS, Mia is able to produce purposeful reports which are able to withstand scrutiny. 

Poppy is a Business Development Manager who joined Lepus following a career in the City.

Poppy has always had a keen interest in the environment following her environmental law studies at UCL and has demonstrated her Business Development skills in her role at Daylesford Organic. 

Poppy designs and makes her own silver jewellery in her free time and enjoys cooking and hosting for friends and family.