Phil Back BA, MMRS

Phil is an expert in consultation with nearly 25 years’ experience using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. He has worked in local government and for specialist local government consultancies, managing a large number of projects covering the full range of local government services, including several parks and open spaces studies, and projects in leisure, tourism, economic development and bereavement services, for instance, but also commissions examining broader themes of service quality, innovation, and e-democracy. Some of his work has been published, and much is in the public domain.

Phil now runs his own research business specialising in local authority work and has collaborated with Ashley Godfrey Associates in a number of very successful studies, drawing on his specialist knowledge of local government, community development, patterns of use of open spaces, and research design and implementation. His clients include local authorities across the length and breadth of England, and his work portfolio covers small and large scale research into community needs and aspirations, providing the insight and understanding to support strategic response to those needs, and also consultancy work on specific areas such as community engagement, strategic waste, and charging policies, for example.

Phil has a reputation for clear and robust research, with findings that are strongly evidenced by the data, and for strategic insights that have enabled local authorities to act effectively on the results of research.

Although Phil is an expert in handling and manipulating statistical data, he also works in and with local communities, using techniques such as Planning for Real and participatory methods tailored to the requirements of the particular project, to enable and empower communities and stakeholders to develop and implement their own priorities and solutions for community needs. His creative and dynamic approach is highly regarded, and Phil has facilitated literally hundreds of focus groups and workshops, with the general public and with experts, officers and elected representatives. He is skilled at enabling participation, and at leading these discussions towards shared understanding and effective decision and action. He is also an approved Spaceshaper facilitator.

He is also a highly regarded presenter who has spoken on local government and community research in a number of national and regional settings, chairing the Market Research Society’s local government research conference in 2005.

Phil is a graduate in modern history, has a postgraduate qualification in transport history, and is a full member of the Market Research Society, by whose professional Code of Conduct he is bound. He is also a longstanding member of LARIA, the local government research network, and is a member of his local Parish Council and Selby District Council’s engagement forum.

a2b Spatial Intelligence Ltd - Pete Sinclair B.A. FRGS, FBCart.S

a2b Spatial Intelligence is a small company specialising in very specific aspects of Geographic Information Systems. Combining traditional statistical procedures with geo-spatial information, a2b Spatial Intelligence is a Strategic Partner of the MapInfo and SPSS corporations and provides software, consulting, training, data cleansing and digitizing services to a wide variety of clients at home and abroad.

Pete Sinclair of a2b Spatial intelligence has worked with Ashley Godfrey Associates on a number of projects including the development of the play indicators.

Other recent projects successfully delivered by a2b Spatial Intelligence include; • Liverpool City Council. Delivery and implementation of web based Geographic Information System for internal and public use to report a wide variety of incidents or problems related to council services.

DfES. Web based mapping system matched to curriculum requirements for use in schools by GCSE Geography students.

BBC / eaga plc / DCMS. Strategic deployment and extended consulting services associated with Digital Switchover of UK Television.

Ashley Godfrey Associates. Wide range of GIS services provided to assist with Open Space audits and play provision mapping for a considerable number of local authorities and Play England.

QA Research. Wide range of training and consulting engagements associated with public service analysis for local authorities.

Mark Strawbridge BA(Hons) Dip TP Dip LA DrLA (hon) MRTPI IHBC

Mark’s thirty year career has embraced all aspects of planning and development work, at all levels from single sites to large-scale regional strategic planning. His portfolio of work includes projects involving landscape, regeneration and environmental work, heritage and conservation, community consultation and engagement, feasibility and impact studies, and has involved all stages of the formal and informal planning process.

A successful local government career led ultimately to the establishment of an independent planning consultancy, with clients that have included Government departments, statutory bodies, regional agencies, Local Authorities, town and parish councils, community groups, businesses and individuals throughout the UK and further afield.

Mark has collaborated with Ashley Godfrey Associates on a number of projects assessing the quality and design of open space, play provision and sports and recreation facilities.

Dr Tim Lodge (Agrostis)

Dr Tim Lodge has over 16 years experience in sports turf research, agronomy and construction and has worked throughout the UK, the USA and in Europe. He has the only fine turf maintenance and construction oriented PhD in the UK.

Tim is a Law Society approved expert witness service for all matters related to turf, golf and sports ground maintenance and construction. He is cited as being available to provide expert witness services in the following areas:

• Turfgrass species identification.
• Soil, grass, top dressing & rootzone quality for sports turf.
• Sports turf drainage, construction & management.
• Playing quality characteristics.
• Design, management, construction procedures & materials in relation to all sports played on grass including golf, soccer, rugby, cricket, bowls, polo, hockey, croquet, racecourses & amenity.
• Turf quality (commercially produced).
• Golf bunker quality (sand, construction & design).
• Turf irrigation & water use.
• Golf course design, set up, maintenance theory, policies & practice.
  
  

Tim ’s clients include the Football Association (FA), the English Cricket Board (ECB), Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG), English Golf Union (EGU) and Sport England.

Tim has worked with Ashley Godfrey Associates on a number of projects involving the restoration of sports pitches including projects in Cotmanhay Playing Fields, Derbyshire, the former Atkinson Morley Hospital site in Wimbledon and Dootson’s Park in Leigh. For these projects Tim undertook site investigations to establish the existing ground conditions and then set out the remedial measures required to improve pitches for community use.