Shortly after my wife and I moved out of London to the Surrey countryside, we were faced with the prospect of major new town being built on our doorstep.  Together with some of our new neighbours, we set up a campaign to fight against this development.  We were given a tremendous amount of help from local CPRE members and, in the end, we stopped the development in its tracks. 

We moved to Dorset and I joined Dorset CPRE to try to give back some of the help we had been given by CPRE but possibly in other ways.  The real opportunity came after we were flooded in December 2013.  Having experienced first-hand the emotional stress that being flooded can bring, I felt that by working as a member of CPRE, I might be able to find ways to help improve the level of protection against flooding that could be given rural communities. 

I now have volunteered to act as Topic Leader on flooding for Dorset CPRE.  This is a new role and one that I am working on to give shape to what CPRE could achieve in this subject.