James Welch

Biography

James is a Landscape Architect / Environmental Planner and is a Fellow of the Landscape Institute. He is a founding Director of OPEN - now part of SLR. Before establishing OPEN in 2009, James was Managing Principal and Vice President of EDAW plc, part of the AECOM group of companies. He managed EDAW’s Edinburgh office from 2004-2009. Prior to that he was a Director of Lovejoy and headed up their Edinburgh office from 1992-2004.

The main focus of James’s work is landscape/ environmental planning and he advises clients across the full development spectrum on all aspects of site planning and landscape capacity for development. James leads OPEN’s environmental planning team and in the past 25 years he has established specific expertise in the renewable energy field and has been involved in numerous wind farm developments in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, including repowering projects. He also has extensive experience as an Expert Witness in respect of landscape and visual impact assessment and has provided evidence at over 90 Public Inquiries and Planning Appeals in Scotland, England and Wales.