Celebrating our Volunteers
3 of our wonderful volunteers were nominated for a national volunteer award for their dedication and hard work. The awards were presented at the national CPRE conference (online) in October 2020.
Janie Clifford
Volunteer on our Berkeley Vale district committee
Nominated by: Prue Vernon, member of Berkeley Vale district committee
Nominated for: Promoting rural life, and connecting people and countryside
Janie has been on the Berkeley Vale Committee for 40 years. Her knowledge of the Berkeley Vale, its landscape, flora, fauna and people is encyclopedic and it is always available to CPRE. She and her husband Rollo set up and run the highly successful Frampton Country Fair at which CPRE always has a stand.
Geof Murray
Volunteer, and former Chair, of Stroud district committee
Nominated by: Pippa Schwartz, Honorary Secretary of Stroud district committee
Nominated for: Special contribution
Geof has been a central pillar of the Stroud committee for 15 years, during which time he was Chair for 6 years. In his time on the committee he has amassed a formidable knowledge of the planning system and its intricacies, and did a huge amount of work to protect valuable threatened places within our District. Not least of these was Baxter’s Field, a long-running application by Gladman to build extensively on a highly visible green field on the edge of Stroud in the cherished Slad Valley, home to the late Laurie Lee. Opposition to this application had attracted a considerable local following, with nation-wide publicity, of which Geof was an important part. On his retirement as Chair, Geof continued his valuable work by creating a detailed database of applications in the Cotswolds AONB and their outcomes. We continue to add to this valuable account as a means of keeping track of how each planning district performs in its ability to protect our wonderful landscape.
Geof is a much-valued member of our committee to whom we still turn for trusted advice on planning matters. He will soon retire from the committee and we shall miss him acutely.
Elizabeth Bourne
Volunteer of over 30 years
Nominated by: Louise Williams, Director
Nominated for: Growing capacity and special contribution
CPRE is 94 years old. For almost a third of that time, over thirty years, Elizabeth Bourne has been working for the organisation – both as an employee and as a volunteer. At various times she has been the Branch Administrator, the Branch Director and more recently, its Membership Secretary. All of these roles she has carried out with exemplary efficiency and dedication. As a result, CPRE Gloucestershire has been able to sustain a strong and resilient local office with crucially, a stable membership base.
It is thanks to the dedicated service of people like Elizabeth, people who are passionate about their countryside, that CPRE as an organisation has had the impact that it has over its long existence. We depend on our members, especially those volunteers who are willing to turn their hand to anything and work hard, even at the unglamorous jobs!
Interested in volunteering with us?
Find out more about volunteering