Meet the Team

CHAIR

An historian and economist by training, environmental and land use issues have preoccupied John throughout his career. After grappling with a range of related matters during his early years in the Treasury, he worked in the field of town and country planning in both England and Scotland before spending almost twenty years handling many aspects of landscape, access, land management, development and planning policy as a Director in Scottish Natural Heritage. He is a past Convener of the UK-wide Countryside Recreation Network, of Scotland’s National Access Forum and of the Southern Uplands Partnership and now chairs the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland and the Scottish Campaign for National Parks. Locally he is Vice-Chair of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere. He lives near Kirkcudbright, where he and his wife run a small herd of black Galloway cattle. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Charles Strang, Community Council Secretary, is a retired architect and town planner. Conservation management, planning and policy have been his specialisms, particularly in local government planning and as Director of Buildings & Gardens at NTS. He continues to take what some think is an unhealthy interest in planning policy.

Previously Charles has served on St Boswells Village Committee, Earlston Schools Council, and St Boswells Tennis Club. He wrote Borders & Berwick: An Illustrated Architectural Guide in the popular RIAS series.

Charles has been a Director of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, the Southern Uplands Partnership, Director and Vice-President of APRS, and Vice-President of the Edinburgh Architectural Association (where he is Honorary Librarian). As Secretary of the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust, he is proud that Geddes was the originator of Think Global, Act Local, watchwords which are essential for our present and future.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Having studied Geography and Geology, John graduated from Glasgow University in 1971, afterwards going on to a career in education. Latterly he taught Geography and was a PT Guidance at Hermitage Academy for many years before retiring in 2003

Since retiring from full time teaching, John has been active in a number of volunteer roles in both the tourism and countryside access fields. Since 2004, he has been a trustee of Helensburgh and District Access Trust and has served as their convener for many years. He served on Argyll and Bute’s Access Forum from its inception and is still nominally their “facilitator”.

John joined the board of The Friends of Loch Lomond (FOLLAT) in 2012, and since 2017 has represented that body on the Executive Committee of the Scottish Campaign for National Parks. John took up the chairmanship of FOLLAT in June 2023.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Currently Head Ranger on Glen Tanar, in the Cairngorms National Park. For 7 years, from its inception, Eric has served as Vice Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park Board, as a Ministerial Appointee. Eric was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, in 1991, for his study of the Access/Conservation interface, in protected areas of Northern Europe and has undertaken conflict resolution work, at the invitation of the Portuguese Minister for Environment, in the Tejo protected area.

Eric is a co-opted member of the Council of the European Federation of National Parks and Protected Areas. Co-author: the original ‘Cairngorms Forest and Woodland Framework’.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Jane trained initially as a molecular geneticist but was always very involved with the macro side of the natural world as well. She now manages a 1000 hectare ecological restoration project, Gorrenberry, in the Hermitage Valley of Scottish Borders, mainly planted with native broadleaves but with room for a small herd of hardy Belted Galloways (pictured above). She chairs the Campaign for a Scottish Borders National Park.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Helen is campaigns & policy manager with Ramblers Scotland, where she has worked since 2004. Previously Helen worked for Friends of the Earth Scotland and has a MSc in Ecological Economics from Edinburgh University. Before that for 13 years she was a teacher, trainer and manager in language schools, mainly overseas. Helen was Chair of Scottish Environment LINK until December 2017 after 7 years on the board. She now a board member of Planning Democracy and sits on the Transform Scotland policy forum. Helen is a keen hillwalker, cyclist and gardener.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Rob has spent almost all his career in environmental understanding, including running a national charity which operated in nine of the UK’s national parks, so gaining experience of the many benefits a National Park brings. He chaired the Forest Education Network for 9 years and has recently stood down from being Vice-President for Expeditions and Fieldwork at the Royal Geographical Society. Having first visited Galloway on holiday over 50 years ago, Rob now lives there and is Chair of the Galloway National Park Association.. Over the last 5 years he has been working with the inspiring young people of Galloway who have shown how important a National Park is for their futures.

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARKS STRATEGY PROJECT MANAGER

Nikki took over the part-time role of project managing the Scottish National Parks Strategy Project from John Mayhew in Spring 2022. The Strategy Project is jointly run with APRS and Nikki had previously worked with APRS first as a volunteer and then managing the APRS Green Belts Alliance project. She has worked as an environmental policy consultant and prior to this worked for the National Trust for Scotland in a range of policy and Management Planning posts. Earlier in her career she worked at RBG Kew and RBG Edinburgh after a first degree in Ecological Sciences and a MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy.

ADMINISTRATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

Pamela has a background in Training, Administration and HR Management in the voluntary and finance sectors. After deciding on a change of career in 2019 she began studying with SRUC. Pamela is currently studying MSc Wildlife and Conservation Management and works with the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association, and with the Scottish Campaign for National Parks, managing administration, communications, and website development.