Warren Batts graduated from the University of Queensland in 1979 with a professional qualification in regional and town planning and has worked across Australia in various roles on planning projects since.  Warren’s career began in local government working with local communities to build capacity to understand and assist with implementing statutory planning schemes embedding strategic policy direction decided at the political level.  Since then Warren has worked in the private sector as a consulting planner for two large, global firms.  The breadth of Warren’s project work as a consultant has ranged from environmental impact assessment for developments in two listed World Heritage Areas (Great Barrier Reef and Wet Tropics) to the design and delivery of training programs relating to new planning schemes and processes in local communities.

Warren has played an active role in furthering the planning profession in Australia having spent many years on the Queensland Division Committee of the Planning Institute of Australia and assisting with the establishment of a North Queensland Chapter. Warren also assisted with the establishment of the planning course/s offered by James Cook University in North Queensland.  As a senior executive of consulting firms, Warren has also been able to mentor graduate planners assisting with their professional growth in industry.

Warren’s particular fields of practice include statutory and strategic planning, including plan making and community consultation process.  Warren has recently worked on the preparation of the first statutory planning schemes for Aboriginal communities in Queensland as part of the Queensland Government’s imperative for indigenous self-determination.  These communities are small and remote and have significant cultural differences from contemporary Australia.  Warren’s approach to effective and efficient delivering of a project is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the purpose and intent of the governing legislation, the requirements and process it embeds for a proposal and the requirements of the regulator in carrying out the assessment.