AMT Public

Meet the Team

These are the people who enable Action For Market Towns.

Chief Executive

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 joined AMT as Chief Executive in 2004.

Chris has three postgraduate qualifications in relevant disciplines, including most recently a Masters degree in community enterprise from the University of Cambridge Business School.

Chris is a board member of the Development Trusts Association and Chair of its Policy and Communications Committee. For the last two years he has served as Vice Chair of both the South East Rural Towns Partnership and the Yorkshire and Humber Market Towns Network.

Board Members

Carol Chapman

Carol is Secretary of the Market Drayton Civic Society, which she has supported in many roles for many years. This has demanded liaison and collaboration with both the general public and local authorities over planning and a variety of other matters.

She is the Community Representative on the Market Drayton Economic Development Forum, and at present is Acting Chairman. She is also Chairman of the Forum’s MTI Programme Steering Group, having been involved with the Programme from the beginning.

In addition she is a director of North Shropshire Tourism. Carol is currently part of the team rehousing and refurbishing the Town Museum.

Catherine Hammant

Catherine is a Chartered Surveyor with a background in commercial property. Since 2001 she has been a Project Coordinator for Stamford Vision. She has established really active working groups helping to deliver their Vision, and the private sector has had a major input both in time and financial contributions. They received a significant grant from the Welland SSP to deliver refurbished space for economic use and improve the public realm. As part of this she has managed a design competition, supported by CABE and English Heritage to improve two central public spaces.

Catherine's commercial property background allied to her hands-on experience make a valuable contribution to the Board.

Daniel Judges

Daniel’s first job was with Cheltenham Borough Council in July 1996 as Park Ranger, from where he progressed to managing the Allotments for the Council. He developed his career further when he moved into regeneration in 2001, working in deprived coalfield communities as a project manager for Groundwork, in South Yorkshire.

As the Rural Regeneration Officer for Gloucestershire First (the county’s economic development partnership), Daniel spent several years working with and establishing Market Town Partnerships, in close collaboration with the South West Regional Development Agency’s Market Towns Initiative - and subsequently the Market and Coastal Towns Association.

Originally employed to support the development of the Market Towns Healthcheck model, Daniel’s role evolved to provide practical guidance on strategic issues affecting Market Town communities, while also embracing and supporting the development of key strategic projects across the county.

Daniel supported a number of communities directly but maintained a close working relationship with the majority of market towns in Gloucestershire and their various stakeholders including Local Authorities. Daniel understands the complexities and frustrations associated with partnership working and especially in working with Regional Development Agencies.

In his current role, Daniel provides management support and advice to the Gloucestershire Market Towns Forum and its Board of Directors, with a particular focus on making the organisation more sustainable and independent.

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 is a part-time PhD student at the University of Exeter, where he is investigating aspects of rural deprivation in England.

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.

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 and in the judging of the annual awards. Her job at the Press Association puts Lorraine 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 with John Pole and Robyn Woronka to ensure stories generated by market town associations are included on the Community Newswire website and Press Association news wire. As a board member Lorriaine is in a key position to help, and will make the most of the benefit of “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.

Philip Eden

Philip’s career has until recent years been in public transport. His last position in this sector was as Managing Director of a Stagecoach group company having previously held several management positions.

He moved into business education/training where he managed a centre and several European-funded projects. He is now employed in community development with Cambs ACRE.

Philip has been a Parish Councillor for over twelve years in three locations including Mayor of City of Ely. He now chairs City of Ely Perspective having been a member for over five years.

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 currently Chair Elect of the Gloucestershire Market Towns Forum, and Clerk to Lechlade on Thames Town Council, 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.

Dr Ray Pahl

From 1995 to 2002 Ray was the Chair of the Foundation for Urban and Regional Research (Charity). From 1983 to 1985 he was a member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Commission on Urban Priority Areas that reported as Faith in the City.

He combines a feet-on-the-ground approach, reflected in his activities in Bishop's Castle where he lives, with professional expertise in urban and rural economy stretching over 40 years.

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 will be the person you usually speak to in the first instance 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.

Chris Windridge

Chris has lived in Caterham, Surrey on and off since the age of 10.

He has been a Healthcheck Chairman (ABC - A Better Caterham) for 2 years and set up his own business as a consultant in Customer Monitoring over five years ago.

Prior to this, Chris worked in IT for IBM, Cray Research and Sun Microsystems, holding a number of technical, sales, business development and management positions in the UK and Europe. Over his last three years at Sun he specialised in tracking customer satisfaction and behaviour on a large scale throughout Europe and participated in various business improvement exercises, which made him a natural fit for helping with the Healthcheck in Caterham.

Chris has been actively involved in all aspects of a Healthcheck, from surveys, research, analysis, and reporting, to project identification and the building of a network of volunteers and partners.

Chris is fulfilling the role of coordinator on an interim basis for SERTP. He is also helping to create an improved Healthcheck process.

Chris is contactable on 07795 102093 or by email: chris.windridge@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 can be contacted at the office from 9am to 5pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Email Dawn at dawn.dowds@towns.org.uk

Debbie McGrath

Debbie brings specialist programme management, monitoring and evaluation skills that will help drive forward the Towns Alive programme within Action for Market Towns' broader work.

Over more than twenty years working with international development organisations, Debbie has managed major disaster relief and economic development programmes and provided consultancy support in fundraising, project development and monitoring and evaluation.

Since 2007, as Programme Manager of the Market Town Partnership in Keswick, Cumbria, Debbie has used her skills and experience to help communities nearer to home, developing a sustainability strategy, driving forward regeneration projects and coordinating cluster planning of the seven local parishes.

She continues to work with the Keswick Area Partnership part-time, but now combines this with her role as Programme Manager of the Towns Alive programme, using her experience and skills to help sustain and revitalise other market towns. Debbie is contactable at debbie.mcgrath@towns.org.uk

Hannah Bowden

Hannah specialises in business start up and development with an emphasis on web based information services and technologies. Market analysis, business planning and strategy, project and change management are Hannah's strengths. She has experience in the collection, structuring and use of information for the demanding financial services sector and is applying this understanding to amt-i's growing research database.

Her current focus is on the design and creation of online resources to help market town partnerships develop into self-sustaining organisations.

Hannah has 12 years' experience in business start up and development. Prior to joining AMT, Hannah worked for a number of years in New York for Webmind, an artificial intelligence software firm, where she helped to develop the text filtering software business from less than 20 to 130 employees and to attract in excess of 10 million dollars investment. After a short stint to help develop the family business in Germany, Hannah returned to the software industry, most recently opening up the UK market for D2K, a New York-based data services company, with development teams in Budapest, Hungary.

Hannah is responsible for developing amt-i as the enterprise arm of Action for Market Towns and can be contacted on 07795 146913 or by email: hannah.bowden@towns.org.uk. or hannahbowden@amt-i.co.uk.

Hannah works part time, morning and afternoons, alternating weeks: Daily 9.00am-12.45pm and 3.00pm-5.45pm.

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 is responsible for implementing AMT's communications strategy, which involves communicating with members, the media and governmental organisations. His hours of work are 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 4.30pm Friday. John can be contacted on 07795 106567 or 01430 441557 or by e-mail 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). After a year teaching English in Barcelona, she returned to Sheffield where she joined the NHS and was responsible for coordinating training programmes for GPs and servicing the recruitment of trainee GPs. Katie 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 AMT’s Towns-4-Towns Coordinator and in this role will help towns to share knowledge and best practice from their successful initiatives through face-to-face and online networking. She works Tuesdays and Thursdays and can be contacted on 07876 701 266 or by email at katie.fewings@towns.org.uk.

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.

Robyn Woronka

Robyn came to England in 1999, after studying Urban Planning in Toronto, Canada. She completed a Masters Degree in Urban Regeneration at the University of Westminster, London and began her career at BURA (British Urban Regeneration Association). At BURA, Robyn was responsible for delivering their four Best Practice Awards and was a panel member of the BURA Charitable Trust Award for Community Regeneration. She also managed the Research Department at BURA and has worked on research projects with SEEDA and the ODPM.

She is currently working on delivering the AMT Regional and National Market Town Awards and supporting other projects being developed through the Big Lottery funded programme, Towns Alive.

Robyn's core office hours are: Monday 11am–2pm, Wednesday 10am–4pm and Thursday 11am–2pm. She can be contacted by email at robyn.woronka@towns.org.uk or by telephone on 07771 962374.

Tom Simpson

With Tom’s invaluable computer skills he ensures the smooth running of information technology within Action for Market Towns. He also provides website support and deals with online queries for AMT Members and MTN Users.

You can contact him by calling the office between 9.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday or by email at tom.simpson@towns.org.uk and he will be happy to help you!