Our People
Mr Mike Breakell
Member of Common Room
Lecturer
Originally from Preston, Mike studied for a BA in Geography at King’s College, Durham from 1959-62. From 1963-66, whilst working as a town planner for Essex County Council and Greater London Council, he studied for a Diploma in Town Planning at University College London. He also holds a MS in Urban and Regional Planning from University of Wisconsin (Fulbright Scholar and Mellon Fellow). In 1970 he returned to the GLC then, later that year, went to Australia to work as a planner in Perth for Urban Systems Corporation as well as the Sydney Planning Authority until 1972, returning to the UK late 72 to early 73.
Back in the UK, Mike was Senior Lecturer in Comparative Planning at Oxford Polytechnic, from March 1973 and subsequently Oxford Brookes University. He taught mainly rural and tourist planning, organising numerous short courses for professional staff; he also ran the annual visit by planning students from the University of Waterloo in Canada for many years.
In the 90s he ran overseas courses in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and gave occasional lectures in Australia and New Zealand, Canada, USA, and Malaysia. For several years, Mike jointly ran short courses on planning and archaeology with OUDES and still teaches about the Cotswolds on the annual Oxford Experience course at Christchurch.
Mike is a Former Chairman of both Southern and South Eastern Branches of Royal Town Planning Institute and Transport Officer for the national annual Planning Summer School. He has been a Local District Councillor in West Oxfordshire since 2000. For many years he has been involved in local conservation as a Green badge Guide and in the local folk scene; Morris Dancing locally with Charlbury and Finstock and playing with the Finstock Festival Band.