Biographies of the Chairs

Chair of the Officer Steering Group:
Adam John, Landscape Planning Officer, Colchester Borough Council

Adam has been the officer representative on the project for Colchester Borough Council for 10 years now; his profession background is as a Landscape Architect, employed within the Council’s Planning Department as the Landscape Planning Officer in an essentially consultative role. His particular specialist areas are landscape planning (development control & policy), landscape design, landscape characterisation, protected hedgerows & urban forestry.

Adam says: "The AONB/Stour Valley is important to me professionally as it sets a standard as an ‘exceptional’ landscape that acts as a template that can be drawn down to influence and where required help raise the standard of landscape planning throughout the Borough as a whole; and personally as somewhere to enjoy with my family".

Chair of the Joint Advisory Committee:
Nigel Chapman, Councillor for Colchester Borough Council

Nigel was elected councillor for Fordham & Stour Ward in 2002, and was first elected to Colchester Borough Council in 1982.  He has chaired the Rover Colne Countryside Project twice in the period 1998-2002, and was Mayor of Colchester 2002-2003.  He has been involved with the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project since 2002.

Nigel says: "I am very pleased to be elected chair of the JAC.  I believe I have a crucial role to play, during these difficult economic times, in ensuring that the taxpayers, that provide funding for the Project, receive value for money and are able to experience and share in the unique delights and outstnading opportunities that the Stour Valley has to offer all of us who live, work and visit there".

Chair of the Partnership:
Robert Erith, Country Land & Business Association (CLA)

Robert was born at Vinces Farm, Ardleigh, Essex where his father Felix Erith FSA farmed for over 50 years. His first job was leading his father’s Suffolk Punch horses between the traves (stooks) at harvest as a boy of six, and since then has lived and worked in the area, moving to Shrubs Farm in 1966 when he married. Robert and Sara farm 260 acres, mainly arable, but in the past they also kept sheep.  They are members of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, the Entry Level Environmental Scheme and in 1995 won the Essex FWAG Farming Conservation Competition. They have undertaken substantial conservation work over the past 30 years including undergrounding all overhead wires, planting five miles of hedge and some 7000 native hardwood trees. He is President of the Dedham Vale Society, Vice-President of CPRE Essex, a member of the National Farmers Union and a Committee member of the Colne-Stour Countryside Association.

Robert says: "My family have lived in the Stour Valley for at least 400 years.  I feel passionately that we have a duty to conserve this beautiful, gentle landscape in which we are so privileged to live.  We must aim to hand it on to future generations in a form which, although slowly evolving, would be recognisable to John Constable whose superb paintings provide a priceless legacy and immortalise a picture of the English countryside familiar throughout the world".

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