Introducing our new Chair: Jonathan Clarke

We are delighted to be able to introduce our new Chair, Jonathan Clarke, who took over from Peter Raynes on May 17th 2023.

It is with great pleasure that I take on my new role as the Chair of CPRE Cheshire. As CPRE members will be aware, the branch has for several years been under the capable leadership of Peter Raynes, who I am delighted to say will stay involved as Vice-President.

To introduce myself, I was born in Lancashire and then brought up in East Anglia. My father worked as a Ministry of Agriculture advisor and then in the nascent Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) in the 1970s, so I can definitely say that countryside matters are in my family! Having moved back up to the north west in my early 20s, I moved to the Frodsham area of Cheshire nearly 30 years ago and have hugely enjoyed living here ever since. It strikes me what a fantastic variety of experience the area provides including its landscape, wildlife habitats and industrial heritage. Living near the Sandstone Ridge I can also vouch that the County is definitely not as flat as I had once assumed!

By way of family, I am married and have 2 daughters both in their 20s. I worked as a town planner in local government (mostly in Merseyside) for over 30 years and for two years as a Government Planning Inspector. Since retiring in 2019 I have been able to devote more time to past-times which mainly constitute walking (often in Snowdonia or other hilly areas of the UK), looking after our large garden and volunteering with the CPRE, Cheshire Wildlife Trust and the Chester Mountaineering Club.

Although I only joined CPRE a couple of years ago I have really enjoyed my time here and I feel the organisation can make a huge contribution to some the most important issues affecting society both nationally and locally e.g., countryside protection, housing, transport, food production, biodiversity, climate change – the list goes on! I have also met some great people in my time here and look forward to meeting more of you in the coming months and years.