Under The Spotlight with Izzie Diment

Izzie joined Paul Basham Associates as a Graduate Transport Planner in 2018 after gaining a BSc Geography undergraduate degree at Oxford Brookes University. Since joining the Graduate Programme in our Oxford office, Izzie has just celebrated her 2 year anniversary with the company and was recently promoted to Assistant Transport Planner.

What does your job involve? 

My job on a day to day basis involves assisting senior colleagues with a range of projects from small scale sites to large scale developments. A large chunk of my time is taken up writing reports as well as using AUTOCAD to carry out initial site layout advice and to complete drawings. In addition to that, I also have a few Travel Plan Coordination sites that keep me busy!    

Since becoming part of the Women in Planning Thames Valley committee, I have been helping to organise future events for the branch as well as attending regional and national meetings to understand the future for Women in Planning.  

What do you enjoy most about the role? 

I really enjoy the variety of projects that I get to work on day to day and I love that every project is different. In particular, I do enjoy getting out on site and seeing how the potential development will fit in with the surrounding area as well as getting to visit parts of the UK that I have never been to before.  I also really enjoy the networking side of the role, being able to attend relevant, topical events as well as being able chat to others in the industry.    

What challenges you each day? 

Each project has different challenges, for example overcoming a highways objection, advising a client on a layout that doesn’t quite work or working through the stages of junction modelling. However, once these challenges and constraints are overcome, it is even more rewarding.  

What do you get up to in your free time? 

Outside of work I’ll admit that I love exercise, especially in the current situation I have found a new love for cycling as Oxford has so many routes to explore as well as continuing to go running, with a few home workouts!! At the same time, I do like to visit various pubs at the weekend (especially now they are open!), so will definitely be combining a cycle ride with a visit to the pub.   

During lockdown, I started to bake both bread and cakes, and will definitely continue this in the future! I am most proud of a 4-tier cake I made the other week!  Other than that I really do enjoy planning a holiday, which may be a challenge right now, but we are hoping to go to Vietnam in 2021.