Governing to protect green spaces in London

At CPRE, we’re passionate about the value of local green spaces for both people and nature. We spoke with Catherine Irving-Johnstone, a dedicated trustee of CPRE London whose efforts are helping to ensure everyone can access, connect with and protect the city’s precious green spaces now and into the future.

Realising the importance of green spaces

The countryside has been a part of Catherine’s life since she was a child. She recalls family holidays to one of her favourite places, the Lake District. ‘It was always a really special place where we would spend a couple of weeks a year. My grandparents lived right on the border, so it was always nice family time, and I associate it with really happy memories.’

Catherine currently lives in London and continues to appreciate having access to nature both within and beyond her home city. ‘I love both elements of the countryside’, she says. ‘I really appreciate being in the fresh air and the green spaces when I leave the city.’ But she also feels very thankful to have green spaces right on her doorstep like Epping Forest, an expansive area of ancient woodland that stretches into the city. ‘You can be in London and feel like you’re absolutely in the wilderness, it’s amazing. I think there are real mental health benefits to people spending time in green spaces. In London we often talk about having ‘Parklets’, so using car parking spaces on streets and converting them into a little tranquil green space.’

However, the true value of the countryside and green spaces really dawned on Catherine when she found herself confined to a 1-bedroom flat in London during the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘I think it was at that time that it really hit home to me how important being outside was’, she explains. ‘Especially because I didn’t have access to a garden, or anything like that – green spaces became really important to me.’

With her deepened appreciation for these spaces, Catherine felt motivated to find out who was involved in protecting them. It was at this time that she discovered that CPRE London were recruiting for general trustees. This was her chance to help protect urban nature and ‘to experience a new volunteering opportunity that I was just really keen to understand a bit more about.’

A first-time trustee

Before joining the CPRE London team at the start of 2021, Catherine admits: ‘my perception was that normally you had to have loads of career experience and maybe you had to be a bit older to be a trustee. But what’s been really nice to see is that it’s really open and the recruitment process I went through was very inclusive.’

‘It was made really clear to me that my skills as a slightly younger person were really valued and desired on the board. I’ve been made to feel very welcome, despite not having decades of experience like some of the other members.’

Catherine feels that having this diversity on a trustee board is essential since ‘we’re trying to represent the whole population of London, and we need to make sure that there’s a range of voices on our board to ensure the issues we’re talking about are really relevant.’ She also recommends that ‘if you’ve never been a trustee before, there’s a great guide called The Essential Trustee…it’s a really good outline of what your legal responsibilities are.’

‘I’ve found it to be a very welcoming and open organisation,’ Catherine reflects. ‘I’ve learnt loads that I didn’t know before, and I’ve met lots of people that I would never have met otherwise.’ Now over three years into her role, find out what Catherine enjoys most about being a trustee for CPRE London:

Supporting impactful events and campaigns

Like for many trustees, it’s Catherine formal responsibility to attend quarterly board meetings. ‘We get together in the evenings and have some really good contact with the staff team and director, and we hear about updates, we review the financials, we talk about any risks. One day a year we have a strategy day where we really take a step back and look at the operating plan and think about where the organisation is going in the future.’

Aside from these scheduled touchpoints, Catherine is involved in a variety of activities at CPRE London. Her professional background is in legacy and events fundraising, so she often shares some of this expertise with the group; ‘I’ve advised the director of our branch on comms they can put out, making the most of Free Wills Month and chatting through funding ideas.’

‘There’s more of an informal role to represent CPRE London at events and help where I can in putting some of those on and getting involved.’

Of the many events Catherine has been involved with, she especially enjoyed supporting the hustings event that CPRE London hosted for the London mayoral elections. ‘We managed to get every party represented either by the candidate themselves or a representative of the candidate.’ The group convened a fantastic panel of different organisations from within the environmental space who asked many questions of the candidates. ‘It was great because I felt like it really honed in on an important issue, and it really stood out as one of the best green hustings events in the whole election.’ Since CPRE London also broadcasted the event to a live online audience, Catherine felt ‘it was really good for spreading the green agenda across many other voters – they were really hearing what each party thought about things.’

In terms of future events and opportunities for CPRE London, Catherine is feeling particularly energised about an upcoming campaign they’re in the process of launching. ‘It’s what we’re calling our tree ring around London; a campaign to create woodland space and green space almost as an M25 of nature.’ It’ll aim highlight the ‘tranquillity of having a ring of nature around London, but also the environmental benefits to it – absorbing pollution, creating spaces for wildlife – so that’s a really exciting campaign that’s going well so far.’

Find out more

If you think you’d like to volunteer for CPRE like Catherine and stand with the countryside, take a look at our volunteering pages and current opportunities, or get in touch with us at volunteeringteam@cpre.org.uk. You can find out more about CPRE London here.