My friend and former colleague Mike Collins, who has died aged 92, devoted most of his working life to teaching planning practice to students at University College London. He joined the Bartlett School of Planning at UCL in 1964 and spent the rest of his time there, including 20 years as its director of studies.
Mike was born in Dagenham, Essex (now east London), to Thomas, a finance director, and his wife, Bessie (nee Fisher), a nurse. After attending Dartford grammar school in Kent he gained a degree in geography at Nottingham University before joining the town planning division of the architects’ department of London county council in 1956, working mainly on drawing up development plans for the LCC.
Once he had switched to UCL he participated in many government funded research projects, often focused on the evaluation of the effectiveness of the statutory planning system when faced with complex problems.
After retiring in 1998 Mike worked as a planning consultant, mainly on auditing environmental statements and strategic issues.
In 2017 he moved to St Andrews in Fife with his long-term partner, Sheila Cassells. Never one to miss an opportunity to become involved in planning issues, he became embroiled in a number of local cases, including a controversial proposed development of the site on Abbey Park.
Mike also continued with his personal research and publications. His two last two publications, which he wrote during his 90s, looked at the hierarchical development of shopping in south London during the 19th century and a history of the development of town planning education at UCL, a field to which he had made a major contribution.
He also found time to take up golf, which he enjoyed playing in fair weather with Sheila.
He is survived by Sheila, his daughters, Susan and Charlotte, from his marriage to Daphne Baldwin, which ended in divorce, and by three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
