Tritax appoints planning director

Logistics developer Tritax Symmetry has promoted Matt Claxton to the role after his two years spent as an associate planning director at the firm.

Claxton joined the Manchester office of Tritax Symmetry, part of Tritax Big Box Reit in 2018 from GVA Planning, which was since acquired by consultancy Avison Young.

Prior to working at GVA, he spent seven years as a senior planner then associate planner at Knight Frank in Manchester, and two years at Indigo Planning before that. He started his career at Armstrong Payne Associates in Penrith.

During his time at Tritax, Claxton has led on major planning applications including the developer’s 1.4m sq ft Symmetry Park in Wigan, Symmetry Park in Darlington, and other strategic and infrastructure projects across the North and North West.

He will continue to work alongside the wider development team in Manchester in his new role, as well as the planning team at Tritax’s office in Northampton where two other planning directors are based – Jonathan Dawes and Sinead Turnbull.

Andrew Dickman, director at Tritax Symmetry, said: “The scale of the sites we are involved in means that we require specialists with the highest level of expertise and attention to detail.

“Matt has been instrumental in bringing sites through the planning process in a considered way and is an invaluable member of the team.”

Claxton added: “We have 3,900 acres in our portfolio and, having already successfully achieved planning for more than 9.5m sq ft of logistics space, we are now working on obtaining a planning consent for a further 36.9m sq ft on the remainder of the sites.

“I’m looking forward to playing a key role in the company’s future property development portfolio.”