Headingley Development Trust Board Nominations March 2014
Headingley Development Trust Board Nominations March 2014
Nomination / Personal Statement / Nominated byGill Eastabrook
Member No. 37 / I have lived in Headingley for over 20 years and believe I have a good understanding of local issues and of the delights as well as the challenges of living in a diverse area like Headingley. Until recently I have had limited time to contribute to making things even better locally, other than by being an early investor in initiatives such as HEART and the Natural Food Store. Since taking early retirement from my career as a government statistician, I have become a part time student and begun to get more involved locally, as a governor at Shire Oak School and occasional HEART receptionist. The next couple of years will be crucial for HDT’s development of a long term way of working so that individual projects, especially HEART, can operate with appropriate autonomy while ensuring that the synergies between them remain and that new developments can be taken forward. I do not know the answer to this but would like to contribute to finding it. The main things I have to offer are commitment to the area, energy and time but I would also bring general management and strategic skills and experience. / Martin Staniforth
Member No 36
Sarah Johal
Member No.244 / I have lived in Headingley for 22 years. Both my children attended Headingley Primary School, where I was involved as a parent governor. My children are now 17 and 19 and I would like to get involved and contribute in developing the future of Headingley with local residents and local businesses. I have really enjoyed seeing the development of HEART and other projects that HDT has supported. I am a social worker by profession and have twelve years management experience in children’s social work services, the last five I have been responsible for the development and management of adoption and fostering services in Leeds. I am passionate about improving the lives of vulnerable children and last year I moved into the role of Assistant Head of Service for Looked After Children in Leeds, working with partner agencies and various stakeholders to improve the outcomes for Looked After Children in Leeds. As a local resident I have been involved in the A660 group as a campaigner against the trolley bus as I feel strongly that this is the wrong transport solution for Headingley. I feel that I can bring enthusiasm and commitment to the role and have experience in management and budgetary responsibilities. I play badminton at Lawnswood School and enjoy gardening – but am not very good at the latter! / Daphne Paley-Smith
Member No 598
Richard Norton
Member No. 62 / I have lived in Headingley since 2001 and was one of the founding Directors of HDT; I was the Trust’s first chair and continued in that role until I stood down from the Board last year, a year before the maximum term allowed. As well as fulfilling the general role of Chair, in overseeing the governance of the Trust and representing it externally, I was mainly involved in two of the projects, Headingley Homes and HEART, and have continued to be since leaving the Board. I have been a member of the HEART Board since that was set up and fulfil the role of company secretary. I now work at Voluntary Action Leeds and if re-elected to the Board I will bring to it the extensive experience that I have gained in my working life in the third sector, in particular of governance, funding and financial management, forward planning, working in committees, strategic thinking and partnership work. I remain firmly committed to the aims of the Trust and am standing to re-join the Board so as to make a further contribution to HDT’s development as a really effective local organisation with an active and involved membership. / Lesley Jeffries
Member No. 163
Helen Pickering
Member No. 1047 / I would like to join the HDT board as this will enable me to continue my long history of personal commitment to working with others on local development issues in Leeds and beyond. I know the area well having lived and worked in NW Leeds for over 45 years. I attended Lawnswood School, worked at Leeds Polytechnic/Metropolitan University for 17 years, and then spent over 20 years working as a senior manager in universities in NE England. I am formally qualified in local economic development and have also been a full time practitioner as the founding Director of Leeds Initiative in 1990. I can bring experience of being an active member of a range of organisations including local economic development partnerships; school, college and university governing bodies; health, media and arts boards. I am an active member of my local resident association and am working with a number of local businesses and community organisations on a range of local issues including the start of the development of our new local neighbourhood plan. I can bring to the HDT Board knowledge of local economic development issues, experience of governance in a range of different sector organisations, a successful history of networking and partnership working, project management and research skills. I love Headingley and have spent very many happy years here, yet I believe it faces economically challenging times. HDT is a key local development organization which can help ensure the area thrives and for this reason I would like to contribute to its work. / Richard Tyler
Member No:31
Helen Seymour
Member No 119 / HDT has been a great catalyst for good in Headingley. It’s central objective to use enterprise and enterprise approaches to tackling some of the area’s challenges makes it responsive and above all capable of engaging anyone with a good idea, a bit of energy and the preparedness to work. I believe that collective enterprise works and should be fun.
I helped set up Headingley Farmers’ Market and am part of the organising group, was one of those who did the buy-out of the Natural Food Store and still serve on its committee and together with others founded Headingley Apple Day – now into its third year.
I am retired but in my previous life was head of development at the trade association for co-ops, and am still a trustee of a national charity The Plunkett Foundation which supports social and community enterprise. I was one of the founding directors of HDT and after some time off the board would like to get stuck in again, ensure that we listen to what members want and help push HDT along even further. I hope I have some of the skills and enthusiasm needed. I would consider it an honour to be elected. / Lesly Best
Member No 214
Martyn Thomas
Member No 1059 / I am a professional mechanical engineer, aged 69, and was Managing Director from 1986 through to 2002 of a large Swiss owned engineering company. I was based in Leeds but responsible for all activities and factories in Europe, Middle East and Africa – annual sales circa £250m.
I was honoured by Her Majesty for services to the engineering industry – MBE.
Having retired in 2002 I started my own consulting company and continue to do some advisory, non-executive work for companies in the Middle East.
Currently I am Chair for the Weetwood Residents’ Association , co-Chair of the North West Leeds Transport Forum (fighting the absurd trolley bus plans) and am a member of the Inner NW Leeds Planning Sub-Group.
I have put myself forward with particular focus on the Business Improvement District (BID) initiative and opportunity for HDT and Headingley as a whole.
I bring business awareness and experience, a commitment to Headingley/Far Headingley, a belief in the need for our larger community to self-improve its present and future rather than depend on others and , as a long standing resident, a belief in the beauty of Headingley/Far Headingley as a mixed community and neighbourhood – but under considerable threats. / Richard Tyler
Member no 31
Richard Tyler
Member No 31 / I have been an activist in Headingley for most of the time I have lived here, over forty years now. I am currently Treasurer of South Headingley Community Association and coordinator of Leeds HMO Lobby, and for ten years I edited Headway, the quarterly community newsletter. It has been my concern in the last twenty years to campaign to address the demographic imbalance in Headingley, and to restore a sustainable community to our area.The Lobby advocated setting up Headingley Development Trust in order to actually do something about these issues, and I was pleased to become a founding Director of HDT. I bring to the challenge knowledge of the neighbourhood and its problems, and familiarity with many of the avenues available to tackle them. I was HDT Project Director for the Headingley & Hyde Park Neighbourhood Design Statement, adopted as Council policy in 2010. Since HDT was set up, I have been Project Director for Headingley Homes, which acquires houses in order to let them to long-term residents, to restore Headingley as a sustainable community.
Last year, Headingley Homes bought its first property. If elected, I would continue to work for the Trust as a whole, and especially, to continue to promote Headingley Homes. / Sue Buckle
Member No 007