Sylvia Law (planner)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sylvia Law OBE (1931–2004) was a British town planner. She became the first woman to be President of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). She was born in Southport, Lancashire, and grew up in Rochdale. Her father was a cotton waste merchant. She attended Bury Grammar School for Girls, Lowther College at Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales, and studied geography at Girton College, Cambridge.

She first worked as a teacher, then as a researcher at Unilever, but soon chose planning as her career. In 1959 she started as a planning researcher with Kent County Council and trained as a planner at Regent Street Polytechnic. Influenced by Patrick Geddes, she held socialist beliefs. Her work in Kent showed how suburban sprawl harmed the countryside and helped push stronger development controls.

In 1964 she moved to the Greater London Council, focusing on public open space and outdoor recreation, and stayed there until 1986. She helped create the Countryside Recreation Research Advisory Group (CRRAG), which planned for recreation needs. She joined the RTPI Council in 1965 and remained until 1978. In 1974 she became RTPI President, the first woman to hold the post, during the institute’s 60th anniversary. She also led the education committee and worked on the Community Land Bill and the future of planning. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1975.