Executive Group Members:
David Rowlands
(Chair)
David has farmed the family farm since 1959 in partnership, firstly with
his parents, and latterly with his son.
The 240 acre farm was dairy until 2003 but now has a single -suckler herd
of rare breed beef, the meat being sold direct to the consumer.
The farm joined the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme in 2007 and encourages
wild life; contains a permissive Right of Way and hosts farm visits,
particularly from Schools.
David is a Governor at two local Schools and at West Cheshire
College. He was a Cheshire County Councillor from 1997-2009 and prior
to that, a Chester City Councillor. He has a keen interest in Rural
matters and in Education.
David is involved in local Charities and is Chairman of Cheshire Farm and
Wildlife Advisory Group.
Douglas Chalmers
Douglas is the Vice Chairman of the NWRAF. He is from an Aberdeenshire
farming family and trained as an animal nutritionist. Douglas held
technical and management positions in the agricultural supply industry for
20 years, and is now Director of the CLA in the North. He is a Governor at
Myerscough College and is Chairman of Fells and Dales LEADER LAG Executive.
He and his wife own a small farm near Appleby-in-Westmorland keeping
Herdwick sheep and free-range poultry, and where he has helped his wife to
form a Community Interest Company offering educational and environmental
activities there. He is also a member of Upper Eden Time
Bank.
Graham Ashworth
Graham is experienced and knowledgeable about the region
as a former planner, academic and environmentalist. He is interested in
rural affairs and environmental issues and can draw on his practical
experience at the National Trust. Throughout his career he has had
extensive hands on experience in urban and rural regeneration in the North
West.
Alice Bradley
Alice brings a wide range of experience and expertise to the Executive
Group.
A member of a farming family she is well known as a trainer to rural
businesses
across the North West. Alice has also been involved in the
European
Objective One Programme, the Integrated Conservation and Environmental
Project
and the ACORA group for the Liverpool Diocese. Alice founded the
Lancashire
Branch of the Women's Farming Union, and other work includes the Royal
Agricultural
Benevolent and Young Farmers Clubs.
Meredydd David
Meredydd has spent the majority of his
career in agricultural and rural education. A farmer’s son, he
graduated from the Welsh Agricultural College in 1976 and obtained an
MPhil in Soil Science in 1993. Between 1998 and 2004 he was Vice
Principal at Sparsholt College, Hampshire, where he was a member of the
Hampshire Economic Partnership. For six years he was Chairman of the
Hampshire Farming Partnership. In May 2004, Meredydd commenced as
Principal at Reaseheath College in Cheshire and is currently the
Chairman of Landex (Federation of land-based Colleges) is a Director on
the Board of the new national Learning and Skills Improvement Service
(LSIS) and is a national ouncil member of LANTRA the land-based
industries sector skills council.
Jolyon Dodgson
Jolyon has
been active in the field of rural affairs in the north west for over 30
years, as Senior Organiser of Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas,
then as Regional Director of Country Land & Business Association.
Jolyon’s voluntary work has included the post of national Chair of
Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) and chair of Cumbria Rural
Community Council (Voluntary Action Cumbria). He also founded Cumbria Rural
Forum. Jolyon was Vice-Chair and Acting Chair of the National Lottery
Charities Board for the north west, and Chairman of Awards for All.
Jolyon is now Chair of the Churches’ Rural Forum, Chair of Cumbria
Rural Housing Trust and Vice-Chair of the Lakeland Housing Trust, Board
member of the Mitre Housing Association, Chair of Governors of his local
village school in the Lake District and a Governor of Myerscough
College.
David Kinsey
David is a farmer from near Tarporley, but in recent
years he has diversified from dairying into wider business interests.
He has been involved in Cheshire's Rural Enterprise Gateway and is a member
of the Cheshire and Warrington Rural Partnership, having a seat on the
Rural Delivery Board. He is also involved in the Sandstone Ridge ECO
net Project, which is creating an interconnected network of woodlands,
heathlands, peatlands, wetlands and grasslands between Frodsham and
Bickerton to provide benefits for people and wildlife. David is
currently North West Regional Chairman of the CLA and sits on their
National Policy and Agriclture & Land Use Committees.
Denise Partington
Denise has been working in
the Voluntary and Community Sector for the last 15 years. Her current
‘day job’ is Chief Executive of Community Futures, the rural
community council for Lancashire. She is also a director of North West
Rural Community Councils, Chair of Preston Advocacy and member of the
social enterprise partnership in her home town of Longridge. Denise brings
a wealth of knowledge of rural voluntary and community sector service
activity to NWRAF and is particularly keen to help improve access to
services in rural areas.
Anne Selby
Anne comes from a North Yorkshire farming family. She
has worked in the North West for 21 years, mainly within the public
(planning and tourism) and voluntary sector. As Chief Executive of the
Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside, Anne has
been involved in rural and urban regeneration and represents the Trust and
regional environmental voluntary sector on a number of committees.
Andy Yuille
Andy is the Regional Policy
Officer for the Campaign to Protect Rural England
in the North West. He
is the Chairman of North West
Environment Link, the network of
environmental NGOs in the
region. He
has represented them on
the North West Regional Assembly (now
replaced by 4NW) and on the Regional
Planning,
Transport and Review and
Scrutiny Groups. He sits on the
Regional Strategy Advisory
Group and has been closely
involved in the development of regional strategy, particularly in relation
to planning, since 2006.
