Meet the Team

These are the people who enable Action For Market Towns.

Chief Executive

As chief executive of Action for Market Towns (AMT), Chris has re-shaped its work to provide support to maintain thriving small towns by working with communities across the UK, providing advice to local authorities and influencing decision-makers.

Chris has nearly twenty years' experience in environmental management and rural affairs as well as a strong background in running independent rural development organisations. He has three postgraduate qualifications in relevant disciplines, including most recently a Masters degree in Community Enterprise from the University of Cambridge Business School. He is currently embarking on a PhD with the University of London on CSR and community regeneration.

Until recently Chris was Chair of Locality’s Policy Committee and Vice Chair of both the South East Rural Towns Partnership and the Yorkshire and Humber Market Towns Network. He is also an active member of the Rural Coalition.

Board Members

Catherine Hammant

Catherine is a Chartered Surveyor with a background in commercial property.

Since 2001 her work has focused on market towns and she has been a member of the board of AMT since 2004 and Chairman since 2008. She really enjoys being part of an organisation that encourages the creation of vibrant market towns.

Catherine takes a particular interest in policy and is a member of the ‘Small Towns for Tomorrow’ policy forum.

Following a move to Lincolnshire, Catherine widened her interests to community regeneration in market towns and for five years was the Project Co-ordinator for Stamford Vision, one of the first Community Interest Companies in the country. This active town partnership succeeded in delivering a range of initiatives including the multi award winning Gateway project, a £1.5m scheme to improve two town squares.

Subsequently Catherine has worked as an independent consultant with groups of towns across the East Midlands developing local skills and networks. She led the development of town benchmarking as a way for communities to ground decision making on a real understanding of their place.

In recent years she has developed her interest in the urban realm gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Street Design and Management from the University of Westminster. This has led her to pursue further research into quality public realm with a particular focus on its effective implementation in market towns.

Frances Stokes

Frances has been Business Development Manager in the Economic Development Office of Hampshire County Council for 13 years, after working as Overseas Marketing Manager at the Southern Tourist Board (now TSE) for 6 years. Frances is responsible for Rural Policy, Rural Economy and Business Support and manages a team of 13.

Frances was an original member of the Rural Towns, Rural Life Partnership (predecessor of the South East Rural Towns Partnership - SERTP ) in 1999 which delivered the SRB Small Rural Towns (SRT) project, and served as Chair of the SERTP South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Programming Committee from 2005 to 2007. She has been Chair of SERTP since May 2007 - re-elected until May 2011. Frances was also responsible for setting up the Hampshire Market Town Project in 2000.

As Chair of SERTP, Frances devotes considerable time to supporting small rural towns across the South East by helping SERTP raise its profile, regionally and nationally, and take on a more strategic influencing role; overseeing the delivery of the SEEDA £7million SRT Programme; maintaining an excellent working relationship with SEEDA; developing a new SERTP structure and Business Plan; developing a new communications strategy for SERTP; and reviewing the SERTP status and establishing SERTP as a Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee.

Frances’ practical experience of market town regeneration and rural policy development both within Hampshire County Council and SERTP is a great asset to the AMT Board.

Gordon Morris

Gordon Morris, an engineer by profession, trained and served with the Royal Navy until 1976, when he left to work in industry, initially as a sonar engineer, and eventually as a partner in a consultancy specialising in water conservation.

After a spell lecturing in Further and Higher Education he joined the Rural Development Commission as a Business Adviser in 1993. In 1999, he joined the Countryside Agency, where he worked on various aspects of rural regeneration, including the Market Towns Initiative and Beacon Towns Programme, both of which he helped to design and manage.

He left the Countryside Agency in 2005 and now works as a freelance writer and researcher. Gordon’s particular interest is in rural policy, mainly in the UK, but also overseas.

In addition to his work in England, he has visited Australia as a guest of the Bank of I.D.E.A.S. (www.bankofideas.com.au) as part of a joint Canadian, New Zealand , UK and Australian rural development team. He has also taken part in a North America-UK Countryside Exchange programme (www.cei-associates.org), and has visited The Gambia where, thanks to an invitation from a community “twinning” organization (www.build-online.org.uk), he was lucky enough to live with a Muslim family in Gunjur for a week to learn about their way of life and forms of governance.

Gordon is a Corporate Member of the Institute of Management and Incorporated Engineers. He has a Postgraduate Diploma and an MSc in Rural Development from the University of Plymouth/Seale Hayne, and a PhD in politics from the University of Exeter, where he evaluated aspects of the Market Towns Initiative, and investigated aspects of rural deprivation in England. He is currently a visiting lecturer at Bournemouth University, and a member of the Centre for Rural Policy and Research at the University of Exeter.

John England MBE

John England is a Director of England & Lyle Limited, Chartered Town Planners, based in Darlington. He has been a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute for 35 years.

After an early career in local government planning, mostly with the former Cleveland County Council, John joined WS Atkins Consultants in 1987 as Head of Planning in the Northern Regional office. In 1995 he became a partner in a new town planning consultancy, England & Lyle. John specialises in retail planning and town centres and has extensive experience in retail consultancy work for local authorities, developers and retailers. He has become recognised as a specialist in retail planning nationally.

In 1997 John was awarded a PhD by Newcastle University for research in retail planning. This was followed in 2000 by a book on Retail Impact Assessment: a Guide to Best Practice.

In recent years John has developed experience in advising clients on retailing in market towns, particularly in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He lives in rural North Yorkshire and takes a close interest in the market towns in the Yorkshire and Humber Region. John was awarded an MBE in the 2010 New Year Honours list for his services to retail planning.

John Howarth

John Howarth is an experienced senior business professional with a background in both the multi-national corporate sector and the small business sector. He works as an independent business advisor to charities and social enterprises.

He has been President of the South East Hampshire Chamber of Commerce and the Leatherhead Chamber of Commerce. He led the Economy Workgroup in the Leatherhead Healthcheck Project and set up the company that implemented the recommendations – becoming a Director and then Company Secretary.

John advised on setting up The Caterham Community Partnership Ltd, the company that is implementing the recommendations of the Caterham Healthcheck, and is now the Company Secretary.

John is also an advisor to the team in Bookham that are just completing the Bookham Village Plan.

Lorraine Connolly

Lorraine is a journalist with more than 20 years' experience. Since becoming news editor of Community Newswire, Lorriane has been involved with Action for Market Towns (AMT) and in the judging of AMT's annual Market Town Awards.

Lorraine's job at the Press Association puts her in a strong position to help to increase media coverage of the work done by market towns across the country.

Community Newswire was created to help community groups, charities and voluntary organisations increase their media presence and Lorraine has already begun working to ensure stories generated by market town organisations are included on the Community Newswire website and Press Association news wire.

As a board member Lorraine is in a key position to help, and will make the most of her inside knowledge of events to maximise publicity opportunities.

Lorraine grew up in a market town in West Yorkshire and for the past 18 months has lived and worked in an East Yorkshire market town.

Len Turner

Len was Manager of Accounting and Budgets at the Firestone Tyre & Rubber Company and Finance Director (Comptroller) of their industrial Products Division in the 1970s. From 1981 until 2002, Len ran his own family business in the needlework trade with 80+ employees.

Len has lived in Warminster since 1989 and since 2003 has been the Economic Partnership Manager for West/Mid-Wiltshire (MWEP). He has been a School Governor since 1970, London Borough Councillor (1974 to 1990) (Council Leader 1986-1990), Chair of the Local Government Information Centre (LGIU), Vice-Chair of the Association of London Authorities (ALA) and the London Research Centre (LRC). Len was also Chair of the Wessex Association of Chambers of Commerce from 2001 to 2003.

Currently, Len is an Honorary Alderman of the London Borough of Ealing, and Chair of the Wiltshire Forum of Community Area Partnerships and the South West Market and Coastal Towns Network. He is Finance Director of the Warminster & Villages Development Trust. Len is also a qualified Social Enterprise Business Advisor.

Len believes passionately in the future of Market Towns as the backbone of the nation. He has experience of training in professional and organisational development, policy and research related to market towns, regeneration practice and the private sector, and a background in marketing and publicity.

Philip Eden

Philip's early years were in Harrow and Poole before moving to East Anglia in 1969. Ely has been home with wife and children since 1999.

Philip spent 27 years in management and directorship of what are now PLCs of First Group and Stagecoach public transport operators, seeing them through difficult but beneficial processes of deregulation / privatisation.

A foray into managing a business/training centre in Ely was followed by community development work for Cambridgeshire ACRE which gave him new skills and time to immerse himself in community life of this beautiful small "city for all reasons". He is back in public transport now with consultancy, management and driving among his portfolio.

Philip currently chairs Ely's partnership, City of Ely Perspective, is a councillor and past mayor of City of Ely and vice chair of Action for Market Towns.

Peter John Godfrey

Peter Godfrey was born and bred in Kent, educated in Rochester, and studied statistics. He has worked at East Malling Research Station and later the Medical Research Council. He later entered industry, working in accounts, production and HR where he spent over twenty years at board level, mainly with international companies. In 1990 he set up his own consultancy company providing a full range of services and training in relation to Human Resources and more recently in IT.

He is past chair of the Gloucestershire Market Towns Forum and a member of SWMCTN as well as a member of the South Oxford Bench to which he was appointed in 1988.

Peter was Mayor of Rochester between 1972 and 1974.

Ryan Fuller

Ryan is a Director and Company Secretary of St Ives Town Initiative (SITI) in Cambridgeshire. He has considerable knowledge and experience of the workings of Local Authorities and has trained in local council administration and areas of Law including Company Law. Ryan also has business and financial management experience, and organisational management skills.

Ryan previously ran his own cafe and restaurant in St Ives and now works in financial services and community consultancy. A Town Councillor since 2008, he has worked on proposed town centre redevelopments and, as Chairman of the Council’s Property Committee, has overseen two large, local heritage building renovations projects.

As Director of the Town Centre Management (TCM) Partnership, Ryan has instigated and led various initiatives including the AMT Award-winning SITI Loyalty Card project.

Ryan is also Chairman of St Ives in Bloom and works to improve and preserve the town’s heritage and environment. His many commitments have given him valuable experience in committee working and developing community groups.

Sue Bevan

Sue has lived in the North East for 30 years working in various urban and rural authorities in the region, particularly in rural Northumberland since 1994.

As Rural Development Programme Officer for Northumberland, during 2001 Sue worked with partners to prepare the MTI bid for Northumberland which secured MTI status for 8 towns in the county. In 2004 two further towns were granted similar status. In 2005, as Rural Development Executive for Northumberland Strategic Partnership (NSP), Sue led the development of the NSP’s commissioning framework for market town investment for 2006-2008 resulting in the continuation of core revenue funding for 9 market town partnerships (development trusts), and capital funding for regeneration projects in those towns.

Recently, Sue has managed NSP’s contract with Miller Research to undertake retail distinctiveness studies in four market towns in Northumberland. Sue led the preparation of NSP’s outline investment plan for market towns for 2008-2011 based on their development as tourist attractions and the implementation of retail distinctiveness action plan.

Since 2005 Sue has also worked with the Development Trust Association (DTA) and Federation of Northumberland Development Trusts (FoNDT) to raise the profile of development trusts in Northumberland, embed them within the wider policy and strategic context and encourage enterprise activity and asset development.

Staff Members

Alison Eardley

Alison is the Policy Manager at AMT. She graduated from Canterbury Christ Church University College in 2000 with a BSc in Tourism with French and then became the Tourism Officer for the east London Borough of Newham. She successfully launched the Borough’s first Visitor Strategy.

In 2002 Alison moved to Chichester having accepted a new job as the Tourism Manager for West Sussex County Council, where she stayed for 4 years. Her next role was in the central Government Department for Communities and Local Government (formerly the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) where she was responsible for liaising with external stakeholders on local government issues, and also worked on the Local Government and Empowerment White Papers.

At AMT, Alison will be working with members and key strategic partners to develop and influence central and regional policy relating to market towns. She works Monday afternoons, all day Thursday and Friday mornings, and can be contacted on 0787 659 8957 or by email at Alison.eardley@towns.org.uk.

Anna McGowan

Anna is our Membership Coordinator and will usually be the first person you speak to when calling the AMT office.

Anna holds a Masters Degree in Contemporary European Studies from Loughborough University. Her first Degree in Public Administration, strengthens her administrative background. Anna's commitment to customer focus stems from dealing with clients in a legal practice, as a fee earning Legal Secretary.

As Membership Co-ordinator, Anna deals with all aspects of membership services, recruitment and insurance. She also supports the team by providing all aspects of administration including arranging meetings and travel, coordinating the office diaries, updating the website, supporting events and responding to general correspondence. If you wish to contact Anna you can call the office between 9.30am to 2.30pm Monday to Friday or email her at anna.mcgowan@towns.org.uk.

Deborah Collett

Deborah is AMT's Accounts Officer. She graduated from Huddersfield University with a degree in Business Studies and is a member of the Association of Accounting Technicians.

After graduation, Deborah spent several years in the restaurant industry before moving into accountancy for a national electrical retailer and wholesaler, then to an international manufacturer and later a marketing organisation.

More recently since settling in Suffolk, Deborah has worked for an Anglia-based Community NHS Trust in senior management, financial and technical accountancy roles. After a career break Deborah returned to work part-time for a prominent local architects practice before joining Action for Market Towns.

Deborah works 9am to 3pm Monday to Friday and can be contacted on 01284 756567 or at deborah.collett@towns.org.uk

Dawn Dowds

Dawn is the Administrator of AMT's five-year Towns Alive Programme and joined the team in May 2009.

Dawn is currently on maternity leave and Susannah Maxwell is covering Dawn's role.

Susannah can be contacted at the office from 10.30am to 2.30pm on Tuesdays and from 9am to 5pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Email Susannah at susannah.maxwell@towns.org.uk

Debbie McGrath

After more than twenty years managing disaster relief programmes overseas, Debbie switched her focus in 2007 to help communities nearer to home, taking up the role of Programme Manager of a Market Town Partnership in Cumbria, supporting and delivering community projects and facilitating community led planning.

Debbie’s specialist programme management skills in community consultation, stakeholder liaison, project development, fundraising, reporting and monitoring, although derived from working in rural development overseas, are equally applicable to the context of market towns and in early 2009 Debbie joined AMT as Programme Manager.

Debbie is responsible for driving forward the Towns Alive Programme within AMT’s broader work, coordinating a team providing training, information, policy support and guidance and opportunities to share best practice.

Since the end of 2009, Debbie has been working full time with AMT, covering the delivery of the Towns-4-Towns / Sharing Good Practice work, as well as the Programme Management role.

Debbie is contactable on 07540 723 305 or at debbie.mcgrath@towns.org.uk

John Pole

In the course of an eclectic career, John has worked as a journalist, most recently as deputy editor of two local newspapers in Yorkshire, run his own higher education public relations consultancy, established a company to develop student halls of residence, and owned and managed two pubs/restaurants.

John lives in a village close to the East Riding of Yorkshire market town of Howden. He took a leadership role in establishing and chairing, until recently, Howdenshire Forward – a local partnership designated under the Regional Development Agency's Renaissance Market Towns programme.

John now works for AMT on a part-time basis preparing 'Insight', our monthly members newsletter. If you have news for 'Insight', get in touch with John at john.pole@towns.org.uk.

Katie Fewings

Katie graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2000 with a BA in Modern Languages (French, Spanish & Portuguese). She honed her organisational skills over nearly four years as PA to the Director of an internationally renowned firm of architects in London before moving to Brighton and taking up the post of Project Manager at the online ethical travel directory, responsibletravel.com. In this role, she organised the annual Responsible Tourism Awards with partners World Travel Market, The Telegraph, Geographical Magazine and BBC World News, and facilitated a programme to develop and support community based tourism with the Washington NGO, Conservation International. Katie has a strong interest in issues of sustainability and social responsibility, and has set up her own website, Ethical Weddings (www.ethicalweddings.com) to help couples plan the wedding of their dreams without compromising their values. She also co-founded Our Ethical Network in Brighton to give ethically motivated businesses in the city the chance to meet one another, share common problems and explore business opportunities. Katie is developing AMT's online presence and helping towns to share knowledge and best practice from their successful initiatives through online networking in the new AMT Forums and other social media. She works Tuesdays and Thursdays and can be contacted on 07876 701 266 or by email at katie.fewings@towns.org.uk.

Liz Bourne

Liz has over 25 years' experience in training, initially as a Learning and Development Tutor in the Health Service and latterly as Learning and Development Manager in Local Government.

She gained her BA (Hons) Education and Literature from the Open University in 1993 and added an MSc in Education and Training Management from Portsmouth University in 2000.

In the same year, Liz left employment and set up her own successful Training and Development business, Bourne to Train, attracting clients from both the public and private sector. In 2007 Liz integrated her training business with management of a Town Centre and broadened her client base to include Town and Parish Councils and Market Town Partnerships.

Since 2009, Liz has been working with Action for Market Towns as Training Manager, co-ordinating the learning and development processes which will help to build capacity in partnerships and other community organisations.

Get in touch with Liz at academy@towns.org.uk or on 07879 118 946.

Mike King

Over the last 5 years Mike has worked in both Research and Regeneration roles. From 2002 he worked as a Researcher for VT Careers Management, before taking up a more senior position in the consultancy arm of VT in late 2005. Mike then joined Northamptonshire County Council’s newly formed Rural Renewal Unit (RRU). The RRU has been delivering the Rural Pathfinder Project across the county, addressing a wide range of issues affecting those living and working in rural localities, such as transport, education, health, training and access to recreational facilities.

Mike graduated with a B.A (Hons) Geography and History Degree from Staffordshire University in 1997, and has continued his educational career by gaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Sciences in 2005. An avid historian, Mike is currently completing his dissertation for an M.A in History from the Open University.

Mike is a specialist in the application of Qualitative Research methodologies in both the academic and public and private sector settings. He has vast experience in the design, implementation, analysis and presentation of a variety of projects via the use of focus groups, interviews and community mapping.

Outside of the working environment, Mike is a keen footballer, playing to a County League standard, and managing the successful Woburn Sands Wanderers. Other interests include travel, reading, cricket and looking after his pets.

If you wish to contact Mike please call 07818 068982, or alternatively e-mail him at mike.king@towns.org.uk. Mike’s hours of work are, Monday to Thursday 9am to 5pm, and 9am to 4.30pm on Friday.

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