IFLAS Open Lecture with Harry Bowell, Director of the National Trust North

Free Open Lecture – Tuesday 10 November 2015, 5:30-7:30pm

Percival Lecture Theatre
University of Cumbria, Rydal Road
Ambleside, LA22 9BB

Harry Bowell - In service of a city: how public land could help make a place even greater

Local Authority budgets are under increasing pressure and in the great cities of the north this is becoming particularly acute and set to get more so. One of the impacts of this squeeze is that non-statutory services are typically being disproportionately cut. Despite the manifest benefits that the management of parks and other green space have in urban areas their provision and maintenance is not a statutory requirement.

Sheffield is England’s 4^th largest city, a third of which is within the Peak District National Park and, despite its industrial image, has a huge green infrastructure –reputedly having the most green space per capita of any European city and is literally cooler than Manchester because of its woodland cover. Evidence suggests that this proximity to a beautiful, accessible countryside is the reason for a burgeoning outdoors industry.

National Trust has been working with Sheffield City Council to define different models of management and finance in three distinct zones; national park, accessible green wedges and urban parks. When unified they may point at new ways of gaining maximum benefit from publically owned land that is not a large draw on our reducing public purse.

Harry Bowell is Director of the National Trust North, delivering national strategy across the new North Region, which stretches from the Scottish borders to Cheshire; from St Bees to the Humber.

 

Harry was previously Director of the Midlands for the Trust, and from 2000 to 2009 was Regional Reserves Manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) with responsibility for the nature reserve operation which spans from the Peak District to Scotland. He also led Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s nature reserve team for 13 years.

Harry currently lives in Sheffield, where he loves getting out in the Peak on his bike.

 

To register for this free Open Workshop, please email iflas@cumbria.ac.uk

 

Find out more about the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability, our leadership programmes and the April 2016 Spring School at www.iflas.info