CWAC head of planning passes away

Fiona Hore, chief planning officer at Cheshire West & Chester Council, has died suddenly aged 56.

After starting her career at Ceredigion County Council and Newark & Sherwood Council, she moved to Chester in 2006 and worked for Chester City Council as a development planning manager. Hore rose to become head of planning at the combined council.

She was also a corporate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and appeared on the TV show ‘Planners’ in 2013, which followed the work of local planning officers in the UK.

Justin Paul, managing partner of J10 Planning, worked on several key Chester development projects during her tenure at Cheshire West. He commented: “She was a tenacious and skilled operator, much respected by her members and the planning community, she effectively managed the planning service in the face of resource challenges and having only recently joined the Regional Activities Committee for the RTPI in the North West many of us were looking forward to her bringing a new dynamic to the professional body. She will leave a big void and I know that she will be greatly missed.”

Dan Mitchell, partner at Barton Willmore, who also worked with Hore, said: “I worked closely with Fiona for some 15 years on major schemes including various Chester Zoo projects, which she was extremely proud of, and more recently on Chester Fire Station. Fiona was a great ambassador for Cheshire and town planning as a whole. She always provided pragmatic solutions to planning applications to achieve the best outcomes.”

Hore had been a chartered town planner since 1996 after graduating from Sheffield Hallam University, where she studied urban and regional planning.

She died at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral on Monday 23 March. A private funeral will be held in Cardigan.

A spokesperson for Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, operator of Arrowe Park, said rumours the cause of death was Covid-19 were not correct.

Place North West has contacted Cheshire West & Chester Council for comment.

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