McNerney joins Salford City Council

Salford City Council has appointed Shelagh McNerney as its head of development, working alongside director Karen Hirst on schemes across the borough.

McNerney has held several high profile positions within the North West property sector. She began her career as a town planner at Cheshire County Council in 1985, before taking development roles at Bolton Council and Manchester City Council. She then moved into the private sector, holding senior positions at Taylor Young, AECOM and DPP Shape.

She was director of capital programmes and regeneration at Oldham College before establishing her own consultancy in 2013. She has advised think tank Respublica on research into high speed rail investment in Liverpool, alongside managing projects for John Moores University, Laing O'Rourke, Peel Ports and the City of Liverpool College.

At Salford City Council McNerney will work on ongoing schemes in the area, including Salford Quays, Middlewood Locks, Greengate, and Peel's Port Salford, as well as pipeline projects.

She replaces Nik Puttnam, who left Salford earlier this year to join Liverpool City Council as southern divisional manager of development and housing.

Speaking to Place North West, McNerney said: "There has been a huge amount of development over the last 10 years in Salford, but we are now also looking towards the future and there are lots of plans for the city that we want to progress. We want to extract as much local benefit as possible from the schemes, and make a contribution towards the Manchester family, working with our neighbours Manchester on one side and Trafford on the other.

"There is an impressive development pipeline, and the focus is on making a positive impact through collaboration with local developers and investors, in particular integrating our thinking around housing and infrastructure."