Richard Harding – 2024 Volunteer Awards
Professor Richard Harding has been a Trustee at CPRE Oxfordshire for the past 9 years and our Branch Chair for the last 3 years. He’s standing down at our AGM in June, so we’d like to celebrate his outstanding contribution to both CPRE Oxfordshire and the Oxfordshire countryside.
Under his chairmanship, we have seen a refresh of the trustee board to engage a new, younger cohort of CPRE supporters to help guide the organisation at a strategic level. Richard has also supported the increasing professionalisation of our operations, including the updating of our financial procedures, without creating unneccesary additional bureaucracy.
His calm and diplomatic approach has enabled healthy debate across a wide range of views and issues. As both a scientist and committed environmentalist, Richard has been critical in providing facts and detail to inform our discussions and campaigning on issues such as renewable energy and water. We’re delighted that he’ll be staying involved with CPRE Oxfordshire as our expert on water issues and will also be sharing his expertise with the wider CPRE network through his chairmanship of the network water group.
Before becoming our Branch Chair, Richard was a District Chair for 6 years, first in our Wallingford District and then in our combined South Oxfordshire District. He oversaw numerous responses to local planning applications and planning policy. Richard continues to support this work and currently provides significant input to the emerging South Oxfordshire Local Plan.
Beyond all this, Richard is always happy to get stuck in and support our practical conservation activities too, including being a Hedgerow Hero!