Meet trustees, staff and volunteers

Tony Burton CBE, Chairman

Tony has extensive high-level experience as an environmental campaigner and Board member.  He chairs Power to Change, supporting community businesses, and TCV’s Chestnut Fund. He is also Vice Chair of HS2’s Independent Design Panel.  Tony is a former Chair of the National Lottery Community Fund and former Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth.

Tony is a member of CPRE’s national Policy Committee and became chair of CPRE London in 2019.  He founded Civic Voice in 2010 and was previously Director of Strategy and External Affairs at the National Trust, and Deputy Director of CPRE.

Tony is an experienced land use planner and a neighbourhood planning examiner. He convenes Neighbourhood Planners.London and is an active volunteer in his local community, including as Chair of the Wandle Valley Forum, Secretary of his local civic society and convener of the independent forum for Friends groups in Merton

Alena Kalashnikova, Treasurer

Alena is a corporate finance and investment management professional, having completed her Master’s degree in Energy, Trade & Finance at Bayes Business School. She has broad international experience – most recently she worked for PriceWaterhouseCoopers identifying new markets and export opportunities for companies from Russia and Kazakhstan.

Alena lives in Central London and is passionate about energy transition in general, and environmental challenges in urban environments.

Emma Bould, Trustee

Emma works for the Cabinet Office Disability Unit since February 2022 as Head of Comms and now Head of Cost of Living. Before that she worked at Government Office for Science and Alzheimer’s Society. She is a member of Network Rail’s Built Environment Accessibility Panel.

Emma is committed to the public health and wellbeing working with disadvantaged communities.

Tara-Jane Sutcliffe, Trustee

Tara works professionally in the charity sector and has held a range of leadership roles across the public and charity sectors: notably, as executive director of an international volunteering charity and of an overseas national trust organisation. She brings strong skills in strategic planning and business development, with a particular focus on strengthening good governance and financial accountability.

Passionate about the protection and promotion of the natural and historic environments, she also serves as a trustee of the Open Spaces Society and of the William Morris Society and is a member of the National Trust Council.

Catherine Irving-Johnstone, Trustee

Catherine has valuable experience in community, corporate and legacy fundraising and supporter engagement at two leading national charities, Cancer Research UK and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

As a born-and-bred Londoner, Catherine is committed to protecting green space for all in the city and has a particular interest in promoting equality, diversity and inclusion.

Sally Penrose, Honorary Secretary

Sally spent the majority of career in marketing and communication roles in healthcare, management education and publishing.

Following her retirement as chief executive of the Lymphoma Association, she’s undertaken a number of voluntary roles. These include Lay Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Institute of Group Analysis where she also served as a member of the Executive Committee and Board representative on the Ethics Committee.

In her spare time, Sally’s interests include sailing, gardening and exploring London’s waterways and parks.

Justin Portess, Trustee

Justin works for a large global law firm in a senior management role. Previous roles include PR and his first career as a British Army officer. Justin has also served as an elected London Borough Councillor and a School Governor.

Justin’s motivation to be a Trustee comes from a deep love for the city’s green spaces and a commitment to our ability to enjoy them. This is borne out of his passion for the outdoors over the years; from military service and team expeditions, to solo long-distance walks.

As an Islington resident, Justin spends many hours walking and cycling the city and developing these interests in his family. He hasn’t owned a car for over 20 years.

Charlotte Ellis, Trustee

Charlotte is currently Director of Finance at Guardian Media Group, publisher of The Guardian newspaper and she joined as a trustee in November 2023.

She brings financial and risk management experience.

Charlotte lives in West London and loves the amenities and community that urban living can offer whilst still having nature on her doorstep,  with access to the Brent river where she has been excited to see kingfishers, jays and woodpeckers.  She strongly believes the outdoors is great for mental & physical health and should be accessible for all.

Anna Taylor, Director

Anna is an experienced charity director with a strong track record of devising strategy, diversifying income, and growing impact. She is a geographer with a strong interest in ecology.

She has been an enthusiastic nature watcher since childhood.  As a mum of two young children, she’s passionate about playing a role in mitigating and adapting to climate change – and in particular, empowering people to act locally.

Anna’s also interested in the value of green and blue spaces for mental well-being and community cohesion. While Chair of her local residents’ association she ran a community gardening group planting up local grot spots.

She currently volunteers with an art for well-being group based in Crystal Palace Park, where the value of being outdoors in the beauty of nature is very much part of the ethos.

Alice Roberts, Head of Campaigns

Alice joined CPRE London in 2015, having worked at the Local Government Association, Campaign for Better Transport, Defra, the National Lottery and the European Commission.

She has campaigned on parks, street scene, planning, transport, waste and recycling issues.

Alice lives in Hackney where she keeps a parklet and enjoys guerrilla gardening.

She tweets as @ClaptonAlice.

John Sadler, Campaigns and Planning

John has worked in operational, outreach and campaigning roles at environmental NGOs over the past 15 years.

At the Ramblers Association, he managed the Get Walking Keep Walking project in East London. He co-ordinated marine policy and campaigns for Wildlife and Countryside Link. And he was the Humane Society International’s Operations Manager before joining CPRE London in 2021.

John lives in Hampstead, loves walking and is passionate about protecting parks and green spaces in the capital.

Tim Fountaine, Office and Accounts Administrator

Tim had a career in IT in the finance industry for 20 plus years.

Originally from rural Bedfordshire he now lives in Tower Hamlets and has lived in East London enjoying it’s rich and varied green spaces since 1982.

Tim is a keen A to B and leisure cyclist and a strong advocate of the movement to encourage active travel.

Laura Collins

 GoParksLondon and London Friends of Greenspace Network Coordinator

Laura has many years of experience working in the charity sector and project management.

She started volunteering with local projects over 10 years ago and became really interested in green and blue spaces, which led to founding the Friends of Figge’s Marsh in Mitcham, London.

She is currently the chair of that group and co-chair of the Independent Merton Green Spaces Forum. She’s really excited to be working on GoParksLondon, and she relishes the chance to get more people excited about green and blue spaces and volunteering with friends groups.

Michael Shilling,

Volunteer, social media specialist

Michael has worked as a professional photographer for the past 20 years.

He runs a studio in Croydon, Memory Gate Photography and the Photo Cafe. Michael is also the creator of London In 360, where he produces daily photo and video content exploring London’s walking routes, street art and green spaces.

His relationship with London has evolved dramatically over the past couple of years.

He says, “The more I’ve explored and the people I’ve met working on a variety of different local community projects has inspired a shift in my career. I know I have lots of catching up to do to fill the gaps in my knowledge of London’s environmental needs but I’m enjoying the ride so far”.

Harriet Child

Volunteer, Planning Law

Harriet is a qualified solicitor. She completed her training at Deighton Pierce Glynn and was admitted on 1 May 2020.

She has been taking time out since then to raise a young family and volunteer with CPRE London on protecting open spaces.

Her volunteering focuses on researching the legal history of public land that is at risk of disposal so that local resident and community groups can use this information to push the land owner, usually the local council, to consider the land’s history and their duties in relation to owning the land in order to resist its sale. She has a BSc and Masters in Economics from the University of Sussex and retrained as a solicitor after 7 years as a financial journalist.

Emma Whiting

Volunteer, events project management

Emma has been working in project and change management for the last ten years. She has always had a love of nature and the outdoors, and has recently made a career change into conservation.

She spends as much of her free time as possible out walking and is passionate about the huge health and wellbeing benefits of being in green spaces, which is why volunteering with CPRE London has been such a great opportunity.

Sophie Postlethwaite

Volunteer, Resource Mobilisation Team

trusts and corporates

Sophie is a third year psychology student at King’s College London. She recently joined our CPRE London team after her summer work experience with us. After graduating, she is hoping to enter work in the sustainability sector.

John Croxen

Volunteer planning team

John worked for over 20 years for Devon County Council. For many years he was their Planning Solicitor, appearing at over 100 planning enquiries as the Council’s advocate. In 1988 he became Secretary General of the Hong Kong Law Society and later was Legal Counsel to the HK Medical and Dental Councils. He was chairman of CPRE London from 2014 to 2020, and also a member of the national Policy Committee.

He is currently a trustee and treasurer of a community garden in Islington.

He is interested in helping with London’s engagement with the next London Plan.

Chung Wa Li (Thomas)

Volunteer planning team

Thomas explains his interest in CPRE London as follows –

Having an interest in exploring cities, I always investigate urban issues and travel. By capturing the urban scenarios with a camera and visiting different communities, I get to know more about the cities’ unique characteristics and stories.

As I gain more knowledge about urban planning, I try to reflect on the current situations of different cities and think of ways to improve people’s living quality. In my opinion, each city has its own strengths and opportunities. Facing the challenges of sustainable development and urban issues nowadays, I always ask myself a question, ‘are there any good examples of urban development in other cities that London, where I’m currently staying in, can learn from?’ It keeps motivating me to broaden my horizons. I hope my passion and knowledge in urban planning, critical thinking, analytical skills, and faith in human-centric urban planning will contribute to society.

Namratha Anand

Volunteer planning team

Namratha recently completed her Masters in Environmental Management from the University of Hertfordshire. She is a certified scorer for the CDP’s 2022 Scoring process. Throughout her university days, she worked as an intern with her University’s sustainability team.

Originally from India, she was part of many renowned projects including the Kerala Government’s “Zero Waste project”. She is passionate and genuinely cares for the environment.

Roger Chapman

Volunteer planning team

Roger worked for over 35 years in planning for a number of local authorities across London, before moving across to the Government Office for London and finally ending up in Central Government working on regional Planning issues.

Open Space, green and environmental issues were always amongst his top interests. He is now Chair of his local park Friends group and Chairs the Barnet Green Spaces Network which brings together Friends groups across the borough. He also works with the local Ramblers group promoting a strategic walking network across Barnet. He is keen to work on protecting and increasing open space provision and biodiversity across London.

He keeps up his practical skills by hedge laying and making willow or hazel hurdles as well as occasional spoon making and bowl turning.

Delia Ray

Volunteer – Content and Communications

A former journalist, Delia’s background spans marketing management, PR and communications across not-for-profit and commercial organisations.

Delia has lived in north east London for more than 20 years, and enjoys running, walking and cycling. She is passionate about ensuring future generations benefit from London’s parks and gardens.

Delia joined CPRE London in October 2022 to support the team in bringing the charity’s vision to wider audiences.