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Name: TAYLOR, Ken Education and
Qualifications:
Career Summary:
SUMMARY OF RELEVANT
EXPERIENCE: Access to Open Countryside: Since the prospect of new
access legislation arose, Ken has been particularly active in this area of
policy development and implementation.
Ken has undertaken research for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Countryside
Agency, Countryside Council for Wales (CCW) and Forestry Commission on risks
associated with access to the countryside, although the work for SNH focuses
more on managing access. Also of
significance is his work for Defra/DETR in undertaking economic and
regulatory impact appraisals of proposals for increasing access to Open
Countryside. He has
helped different organisations assess the impacts on their activities; this
includes the MOD (at Catterick), the Local Government Association and the
Countryside Agency. The work for
the Local Government Association included a review of possible funding
sources to meet extra costs arising as a result of the Countryside and Rights
of Way Act 2000. On other
projects for the Countryside Agency, English Nature and the Ministry of
Defence, he has provided advice and collated information about good practice
on the management of public access.
Rights of Way: Ken has been at the forefront of
work with highway authorities in developing their Rights of Way Improvement
Plan. He wrote the draft and
final Plan for Lancashire (for Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Borough
and Blackburn with Darwen Borough Councils), one of the first to go out to
public consulations. Working
with FaberMaunsell, Ken is helping Nottinghamshire County Council to prepare
its Rights of Way Improvement Plans.
Ken is part of a team undertaking research into the use of BOATS, for
Defra. Also for Defra (and its
predecessor) he has completed economic evaluations of proposed changes to
legislation surrounding Rights of Way in England and Wales and associated
regulations brought in under CRoW.
He also undertook a project for CCW looking at the value for money
achieved through support given to local authorities in maintaining PRoWs in
Wales. Land Management Practices and Economics: Ken spent nine years as a Farm Management Consultant initially in the
South West and then the North West of England. Duties involved giving
specific technical, financial and managerial advice to farmers of all
types. Subsequently, this
experience has been used in projects requiring an understanding of how
farmers manage their land, the pressures under which they operate and their
attitudes to change. A prime
example is his work on assessing the likely implications of different options
for modifying the NVZ Action Programme in England. With PAA Ltd, he helped to assess the likely costs to
farmers of action by United Utilities to bring SSSIs on their land into
favourable condition. He also
undertook research into the potential use of Land Management Incentives in
Scotland’s soon-to-be designated national parks (for Scottish Natural
Heritage) – this included analysis of the success of a wide range of schemes
developed using Objective 5b funds which targeted improvements to rights of
way and access facilities (e.g. the Dartmoor Moor Care campaign, Exmoor’s
Sustainable Countryside Management Initiative). Ken has also worked on projects that examine the interaction
between access and agricultural management, and work to help mitigate the
effects of public access on livestock management. More recently, Ken has focused on problems of common land
management, and is working with Defra, English Nature and Staffordshire
County Council/PAA Ltd on separate projects concerning common land
management. Rural Development and Environment Policy:
Ken has worked on a variety of policy
studies for government departments and agencies. Examples include five
separate studies for the Land Use Policy/Rural Affairs Group - covering beef,
sheep, dairy, forestry and LFA reform. Ken is currently undertaking a major
research project for the Environment Agency, looking at possible alternative
future developments within the dairy industry and the implications of each
for the environment. Evaluations
of the impacts of policy instruments and incentive schemes have also been
undertaken. Examples include
economic evaluations of the Suckler Cow, the Beef Special, and the Farm
Woodland Premium Schemes. Ken
has also been active in using environmental economics to evaluate policy
options (such as woodland and forestry design, flood warning and forecasting
benefits, and sustainability).
In the light of the 'crisis' in UK agriculture, Ken has worked on two
projects that seek to characterise future changes in the industry's structure
and what the effect will be on social trends and the environment (including
nature conservation, cultural heritage and amenity).
On the rural development front, Ken is
assisting the British Mountaineering Council to promote greater use of local
services by visiting climbers and hill-walkers to North Wales. He has undertaken a visitor payback
initiative in Langdale (financed by the Lake District National Park Authority
and the BMC) to explore ways in which visitors can be involved more closely
with local communities, to mutual benefit. Woodland/Forestry: Over
recent years, Ken has undertaken research into various aspects of woodland
and forestry policy. Most recently,
he has worked for the Woodland Policy Group on two projects to investigate
the potential for 'Wildwoods' in suitable areas of Britain and what obstacles
may exist to implementation, and in examining proposals for CAP reform in
order to identify opportunities for enhanced tree-planting. In addition to
evaluating the impact of the FWS and FWPS on farmers in UK, he has directed
projects aimed at identifying public preferences and attitudes to forests and
woods. He has contributed to the
development of the Welsh Woodlands initiative and helped prepare the annual
report on the Community Forest programme in England. Ken is currently developing a Good
Practice Data Bank for Forest Enterprise, containing information on managing
public access and recreation. Environmental Assessments: Agricultural
specialist on a number of Environmental Assessments spanning a range of types
of development. Examples include assessment of the impact of developing a new
town on land adjacent to the A45 west of Cambridge; impact of a series of
water resource developments (such as a new pipeline, two separate proposed
reservoir developments and new boreholes). He is currently working as agricultural adviser on an EIA
of a proposed major road/rail infrastructure development in Greater
Manchester. Project Management: Many of the
projects on which Ken has been engaged require the use of experts from a
number of related disciplines, sometimes as associates or sub-contractors.
Examples of such project management roles include Tir Cymen Monitoring and
Evaluation for CCW, involving up to ten staff from three organisations;
Valuing Landscape Improvements in British Forest for the FC, incorporating
work from market researchers, academics and economists; co-ordinating inputs
from seven experts in a review of home grown vegetable protein sources which
could replace animal proteins in livestock feeds (for MAFF, SOAEFD, MDC and
MLC). |
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Last Updated 05/07 |