About us

Sarah Smart is a Director at FPCR with over 25 years’ experience in landscape planning and environmental design. She jointly leads the landscape team in FPCR’s Sheffield office and has worked across a wide range of environmental, development and green infrastructure projects throughout the UK.

Sarah has extensive experience supporting major and complex residential, mixed-use, employment and renewable energy developments, working as part of multidisciplinary teams from site promotion and planning strategy through to outline, detailed and reserved matters planning applications. Her expertise includes landscape and visual impact assessment, green infrastructure planning and strategy, and design input to landscape-led masterplanning.

She also coordinates Environmental Impact Assessments and provides landscape planning services including landscape evidence to support Local Plan call-for-sites written representations, rebuttals, Green Belt / Grey Belt and landscape review and advice.

Sarah advocates a landscape-led approach to development, recognising its importance for people, place and nature. Her work brings together policy and design responses to landscape character, health and wellbeing, inclusivity, climate adaptation, nature recovery and biodiversity enhancement, shaping green infrastructure strategies that connect new development with the natural environment.

She seeks practical, cost-effective and nature-led design solutions that add value to development while responding to environmental regulation and policy, including Biodiversity Net Gain. Her approach integrates natural and built environments at scale, from strategic planning through to detailed design.

Recent major project experience includes EIA coordination and landscape services for an outline planning application for part of the Worcestershire Parkway (Wychavon Town) new settlement, landscape services for the first phase application of the Milton Keynes Eastern Strategic City Extension Area, for a mixed-use development at Latton Priory as part of the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town, and a major industrial and logistics project at the Apleyhead A1/A57 junction.

Sarah also has extensive practical detailed design experience, including overseeing major landscape projects through to completion and providing contract administration services. Her previous work includes Bilborough College in Nottingham, the Glasshoughton Regeneration Project in Wakefield, and detailed design and tender-stage projects for British Land at Meadowhall Sheffield and in Wigan.