The Colne Valley Park Trust is a registered charity which was incorporated in 2018 to take on the mantle of the lead organisation for the Colne Valley Regional Park which was established in the mid 1960’s. The remit of the Trust is to coordinate work to protect enhance and promote the Colne valley Regional Park.
The land in the Regional Park is not owned by either the Trust or Groundwork South (except the Denham Woods) – all that we achieve to protect and enhance the park is achieved by working closely in partnership with landowners and others for the benefit of people and wildlife.
The Trustees of the Colne Valley Regional Park are drawn from a wide range of professional backgrounds, including farming, business, local government, and journalism.
The trustees are all volunteers and they commission local environmental charity Groundwork South to undertake the practical day-to-day running of the Regional Park (scroll down to meet them).
Trustees of the Colne Valley Park on a development day at Woodoaks Farm, September 2021
Trustees brainstorming at Chiltern Open Air Museum
PRESIDENT
The President of the Colne Valley Regional Park is John Randall. He has loved the Colne Valley and its surrounding countryside his entire life.
He first became involved with our team more than a decade ago, while he was MP for Uxbridge, becoming a Director of the Colne Valley Community Interest Company and a Trustee of the Colne Valley Park Trust. He helped raise the profile and importance of this fragile landscape and brought many Parliamentary colleagues along to the Colne Valley Park to show them at first hand the importance of protecting the area. We were delighted when he agreed to become our President in 2019.
learn more here about Lord John Randall of Uxbridge and his support of the Colne Valley Park
TRUSTEES
The trustees of the Colne Valley Trust are:
John Whitby
Farmer
John lives and works in the Colne Valley Regional Park, working in his family’s farming business for more than 35 years. As well as post graduate qualifications in both Countryside Management and Agriculture, he brings a wealth of administrative experience having volunteered with a diverse variety of local and national organisations. John champions the important roles that farmers play, not only producing food, but also managing and enhancing the environment, enabling recreation and providing solutions in renewable energy. He is honoured to lead a Board whose broad range of skills delivers expertise enabling it to punch well above its weight. John was a founding Director of the Colne Valley Park in 2012, initially serving as Treasurer before taking on his current role as Chair in late 2017.
Learn more about John’s perspectives on what the Colne Valley Regional Park means to him here.
Glenys Price
Glenys’s family came to Denham when she was a child and although she lived in Twickenham for many years she came back after taking early retirement from the Metropolitan Police Civil staff after the millennium. She has always been familiar with the Colne Valley through dog walking in the country parks and her parents’ involvement with various campaigns to protect the local environment. She became a volunteer at the visitor centre helping out in the cafe, and also joined the Friends. She joined the committee and is now a trustee. Her other activities include quilting and textile arts and she was briefly on Denham parish council.
Paul Graham
Paul been exploring and protecting the countryside around Iver since moving to the area in the ’70’s. He is the Chairman of Iver & District Countryside Association. Formerly a teacher in Hillingdon and a local government officer in Denham, he has a particular interest in rights of way and making the countryside accessible to all.
Anthony Longden
A journalist, editor and senior executive in the regional press for more than 35 years, he edited the Uxbridge Gazette Series 1994-2002 and was editor in chief of the Bucks Free Press, Buckinghamshire Advertiser, Watford Observer, St Albans Review, Middlesex Chronicle, Windsor, Slough & Eton Express, Reading Chronicle and Bracknell News among others. Since 2012 he has worked as a specialist partner in a London-based crisis communications firm. He grew up in Uxbridge and is passionately committed to protecting the Colne Valley Regional Park.
Learn more about Anthony’s perspectives on what the Colne Valley Regional Park means to him here.
Carol Gibson
Carol moved to Iver in 1972 while working as a biomedical scientist in London, then at Hillingdon Hospital for 27 years. She was an Iver parish councillor and appointed as representative on the CVRP where she discovered some of the precious places so much in need of protection. She chaired the planning committee where her attention focussed on the damage done by development and the resultant loss of species that is only recently being addressed. No longer a councillor but still determined to fight for the CVRP and to improve it for all who value it.
Hugh Stokes
Hugh has lived in Chalfont St Peter on the edge of the Colne Valley Park for over fifteen years. He has a long-standing interest in the environment, and originally studied geography as an undergraduate. He has been involved in a number of local environmental organisations and initiatives, including those concerned with local chalk streams such as the Misbourne, and is a keen ornothologist. Until 2020 he worked in London as a lawyer for a global payments company, and has a strong interest in the way in which the law applies to environmental issues.
Jane Griffin
Experienced town planner mainly working in the public sector, including Planning Manager fora Regional Development Agency and Principal Planning Officer for South Bucks and Chiltern Councils. The majority of her work has been either fighting for or against new strategic transport infrastructure depending on its environmental impact. Recent examples of work has involved HS2, Heathrow Airport expansion and Motorway Service Areas.
Wendy Matthews
Wendy has lived in Iver with her family for over 40 years. She is a Buckinghamshire Council Councillor for Iver, Iver Heath and Richings Park and has been nominated by Bucks to become a Trustee. She is passionate about supporting her local community and will continue to fight for mitigation from the impacts of the many developments that do and will surround us. The protection of the Green Belt is one of her key priorities and ensuring that the villages remain vibrant communities where people want to live and work. She says ‘Our wonderful local green spaces have never been so valuable to people as now and they need to be protected and enhanced. The Colne Valley Park does and will play a vital role in achieving this.’
Amarjeet Hans
A Chartered Management Accountant who has lived in Denham for 25years. He been the chair of Finance for Denham Parish Council for 6 years.
He runs his own boutique Business Consultancy and brings a wealth of experience, having worked in the UK and Internationally.
He is also non-executive director for a number of organisations and is passionate about the local community, in particular the Colne Valley Regional Park.
Colne Valley Park Trustees during a development day in June 2019
