CIEH Air Quality Conference

Aidan Jones, Project Officer, Smart City Team at Westminster City Council. Aidan works across the organisation's net zero and air quality initiatives. He is currently focussing on integrating traffic data into the council's air quality data platform and producing visualisations of air quality specifically for use in schools. This follows on from his previous work engaging with a select number of schools around air quality data. He is also a member of Westminster’s Urban Lab, which facilitates collaborative relationships with academic institutions on policy research and wider projects.

Alexandra Spence, Air Quality Consultant at Ricardo. Alex is an experienced air quality consultant who has specialist knowledge of air quality impact assessment on habitats. She is lead requirements engineer in the development team for the UK Air Pollution Assessment Service (UK APAS). UK APAS will be an online detailed dispersion modelling tool supporting the UK’s need for a more integrated, consistent, and streamlined approach to producing risk assessments of air pollution effects on sensitive ecosystems. Development of UK APAS is coordinated by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) on behalf of Defra, the UK devolved administrations and the UK Inter-agency Air Pollution Group. Ricardo, in partnership with Wing EMC, play a key role on the project in terms of providing technical support, product QA and project management. UK APAS is currently in a Beta testing phase and is scheduled for release later this year. It is expected to be accessed by local authorities, regulators and statutory advisers in determining planning applications and their potential impacts.

Claire Parsons, Smart City Project Manager at Westminster City Council. Claire is a Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner with a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Health and MSc in Sustainability and Environmental Management. With almost 20 years’ experience in environmental health, mainly in environmental protection, she has recently specialised in utilising digital tools to address air quality and net zero challenges in her role as a Smart City Project Manager at Westminster City Council.

Ciaran Donaghy, Policy and Campaigns Manager at CIEH. As well as managing the operational activities of the CIEH Policy and Campaigns team, Ciaran heads up CIEH’s public relations and public affairs engagement which seeks to provide members with opportunities to influence policymakers and raise public awareness of environmental health’s critical role in this important policy space. He has recently spearheaded a key CIEH project to refresh and enhance CIEH’s member-led policy development framework in the shape of our member-led Advisory Panels. Ciaran currently manages the CIEH Environmental Protection Advisory Panel who have been the main membership vehicle for developing CIEH’s policy outputs in respect of air quality.

Ellie Roxburgh, Convenor of the Sustainable Nitrogen Alliance at the Soil Association. Ellie convenes the Sustainable Nitrogen Alliance, a collaboration of environmental and health organisations calling for government to take an integrated approach to nitrogen pollution. Hosted at the Soil Association, Ellie takes a particular interest in advocating for a reduction in nitrogen pollution from agriculture to improve air quality, water quality and biodiversity across the country.

Emily Kearsey, Lawyer at ClientEarth. Emily is a lawyer in the Clean Air, Water and Soil team at environmental law charity ClientEarth. She has spent the past two years working on the law and policy relating to air pollution in the UK and EU, advocating for more effective air pollution laws and working on strategic legal interventions to uphold and advance existing legal frameworks. Emily is a qualified solicitor of England and Wales and has a master’s degree in Environmental Law and Policy from University College London.

Gareth Morgan, Head of Farming and Landuse Policy at Soil Association. The Soil Association is pleased to host the Sustainable Nitrogen Alliance. This diverse group of organisations, including CIEH, is raising the profile of the many unintended impacts of excess active nitrogen arising from synthetic fertilisers and intensive livestock. Gareth’s current priority is building the case for a transformation to an agroecological food and farming system. Previously he has worked on agriculture policy reform at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Natural England and the Wildlife Trusts.

Han Young Park, Project Lead, Smart City Team at Westminster City Council. After obtaining a BSc (Hons) in Politics and International Relations from University College London, she is currently working to improve air quality as part of Westminster's commitment to deliver a fairer environment. Her focus has been creating a healthier environment around primary schools in Westminster, through utilising informative data to raise awareness of air quality and encourage sustainable travel.

Dr Kevin Hicks, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at University of York. Kevin has been a research associate at SEI since 1997 and has 26 years’ experience in the field of air pollution. His current research interests cover integrated approaches to air pollution and climate change and the transfer of scientific information to the policy process. He has a particular interest in the impacts of nitrogen in the environment and working with stakeholder groups to determine the potential for integrated nitrogen management approaches.

Philip Bowen, Deputy Director, Environmental Protection at Welsh Government. Philip has spent the majority of his career, springboarded by environmental and ecological degrees, in the environmental sector. Following university, he worked with rural communities in Pembrokeshire focussing on delivering local environmental improvements before moving to the West Midlands to join the Countryside Agency. Key highlights included market town regeneration and Open Access (CRoW), before moving to the Rural Payments Agency and working on Common Agricultural Policy delivery, then to Defra to focus on EU Exit services. Having joined the Welsh Government in late 2020, Philip initially worked on health sector digital service before accepting the leadership role in Environmental Protection. His current remit includes air quality, soundscapes, chemicals, industrial pollution, and lead sponsor of Natural Resources Wales.

Richard Williams, Local Authority Unit Manager at the Environment Agency. Richard is an Environmental Health Officer with a long resume of managing local government pollution control functions. He is currently the LAU manager which oversees Part B and Part A2 Industrial regulation for England and Wales. In addition to developing regulation in the part B sector on behalf of DEFRA, he coordinates the LAU’s Helpdesk and Local Government’s engagement with the UK BAT process.

Tom Stuart, Senior Policy Advisor at WWF UK. Tom works on agriculture policy and sustainable food supply chains in WWF UK’s Production Policy Team. His work focuses particularly on the Environmental Land Management schemes, diffuse agricultural pollution and policies for controlling nitrogen in England, and on retailer levers to improve biodiversity and soil health outcomes in their supply chains. Tom’s five years with WWF build on previous consultancy experience reporting on the impact of agricultural and other policies on biodiversity and environmental outcomes, and five years as a policy officer in a rural district council.

Osborne Richardson are the market leading provider of professional Environmental Health recruitment services throughout the UK and have been providing services to Local Authorities and the private sector for 30 years.
They offer a range of staffing solutions from short term contract to longer term consultancy services, from 1 member of temporary staff to a whole team of Consultants or permanent appointments.

Clients value their honesty and integrity, and they have worked in partnership to develop long standing relationships across their network that allows them to deliver a professional and reliable service.

For job seekers, their unrivalled technical knowledge and long standing connections to the environmental health profession allows them to offer unbiased and informed advice to those at all stages of their career whether working on a contract or permanent basis.

For more information about how they can help and to see all of their current opportunities please visit www.osbornerichardson.com.