Headingley Development Trust

Dominic Charkin is currently working in community development in Wakefield. Offering developmental support to both new and existing community groups and ensuring that they and the community centre he works from are linked into the districts networks. Previously he has worked on a neighbourhood management programme and has also supervised teams of volunteers on community development programmes in both the UK and overseas. In his spare time if he is not found in Leeds then he is likely to be found enjoying some of the stunning countryside that surrounds it.

Rachel Harkess has lived in Headingley since 1967. She works, shops and socialises in Headingley. She has been involved in campaigning against licences, planning applications and landlordism. Rachel coordinates the Celebrate Headingley festival on behalf of Headingley Network Community Association and is secretary of Headingley Network. Rachel has been a teacher in Leeds for over 20 years.

Chris Hill is a director of The Camberwell Project, a Leeds management consultancy committed to the development of social enterprise. Working closely with Leeds City Council, Camberwell are currently working with local people to transform Hillside Primary in Beeston and Harehills Middle School into enterprise incubators.

Chris has project managed the development of four business centres in Leeds and Kirklees and managed an enterprise centre in Dewsbury. Formerly director of the West Yorkshire Social Enterprise Support Centre, he is a director of Unity Housing Association and a representative of the Charity Bank.

Lesley Jeffries is Chair of Headingley Network Community Association, which has a track record of campaigning on issues such as licensing and cleansing, which affect the wellbeing of the local community. In this capacity, she has presented cases to magistrates, local government panels, Crown Court benches and a Government committee.

Lesley has lived in Headingley for 25 years with her partner and their two children who attended local schools. She was a parent governor at Headingley Primary School for a number of years and Chair of Governors for part of that time. As an academic she has experience of management, budgetary responsibilities, making grant applications and many different kinds of writing and publishing. Lesley is the Chair of the HEART board.

Adrian Luke has lived in Leeds since 1971 and in Headingley for the past 15 years. He is Chairman and Co-founder of David Luke Limited a Manchester based business manufacturing and selling specialist School Uniforms. The company also has sole licences to manufacture Scout and Guide uniforms. The company is a mid corporate business with a turnover of 10M in 2008 employing 50 people. He retired in March 2009 but continues to work one day per week as a consultant to his company.

Adrian now has more time to enjoy his many local projects and interests that include being a member of Moortown Squash Club, Roundhay Bowls club and Ash Road Allotments where he is a committee member.

Richard Norton has lived in Headingley since 2001; he has been active locally for much of that time, most notably as a founding director of HDT and its Chair since 2006, and brings a wealth of skills and expertise to this role.

Through his work Richard has extensive experience of community engagement and project and organisational management within the voluntary/third sector, and for the last 11 years he has worked for re’new, a leading local regeneration agency, where he is now Director, Young People and Employment. In this role he is responsible for running and developing a number of services, which in 2009/10 have 85 staff and a combined turnover of over £3.5m; these include the original Archway project in Harehills which he set up in 1998, and a new project in Killingbeck which he is establishing in 2009.

Richard has been heavily involved in partnership working for a number of years through Leeds Voice, the leading voluntary sector representative body in Leeds, and the Leeds Initiative, the city’s Local Strategic Partnership; he is currently a member of the Initiative’s Narrowing the Gap Board, and is also actively involved in partnership work around children’s services and youth issues, as Chair of the Integrated Youth Support Service Strategic Board and a member of the Integrated Strategic Commissioning Board.

Linda Robbins, having retired from the demands of a primary school headship, can now use her time more actively on her interests in the community. She has links to Headingley back to her University student days in the 1960s and began her working life as a Social Welfare Officer in this area. After a period out of Yorkshire she returned to north Leeds to train as a teacher at Becketts Park and raise a family who attended local schools. She bucked the current trend by moving back into central Headingley sixteen years ago. She is currently also a Citizens Advice Bureau advisor with a particular interest in social policy.

Helen Seymour has lived in the Headingley area since the late 1970s, was formerly a member of the now abolished Community Health Council, a governor of City of Leeds school and learnt activism mainly through the women’s movement. She has been part of the organising group of Headingley Farmers’ Market since its inception and was one of four founder directors of The Natural Food Store Limited, which was bought by the community from its former private owners. She is Head of Projects and Development at Co-operatives^UK and oversees the externally funded projects in which Co-operatives^UK is involved. She is on the board of ns (New Sector) magazine and is a trustee of the Plunkett Foundation.

Chris Trethewey has lived in Headingley since 2003 and is a senior banking executive responsible for the Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank credit card and personal loan businesses. Through the Bank’s corporate responsibility programme Chris has been involved a wide range of community initiatives that have included: the multimillion pound restoration of the Leeds Grand Theatre and the creation of a permanent home for Opera North, various fund raising events for the Bank’s chosen charity St. Gemma’s hospice and activities that have had a positive impact on the environment through the Bank’s sponsorship of the National Trust.

Chris is an active member of the Banking industry and is a Director at two leading banking industry bodies. He is a Director at MMF (MasterCard Member’s Forum) and a Director for The UK Cards Association.

Chris’s day to day management of a £1.5 billion portfolio and approximately 1 million customers and his expertise in financial services bring skills in strategic development and delivery as well as general financial governance.

Richard Tyler has lived all his adult life in Headingley, and as a committed resident was a founder-Director of Headingley Development Trust. Since 2000, he has been Co-ordinator of Leeds HMO Lobby which campaigns to resist the pre-dominance of shared houses (Houses in Multiple Occupation) in our neighourhood, in favour of a balanced & therefore sustainable community. He has helped the Lobby bring together local community groups, to develop planning and housing policies for the area, and to represent these in Council committees. He edits Headway, the quarterly community newsletter, which reports news on the way we are heading in & around Headingley. Richard welcomed the Trust as a way to take action to support the community. Accordingly, he is Project Director of the Neighbourhood Design Statement, a community-based planning document which will describe the character of the neighbourhood and provide guidelines for its future. And he is also Project Director for Housing in Headingley, whose main purpose is to set up Headingley Homes as a Community Land Trust, which will bring homes back into community ownership, for sale or rent to families.

Atam Verdi is a Partner with International Property Consultants King Sturge. Atam is a Chartered Surveyor working in the Urban Regeneration and Development Consultancy sector. He has been based in the Yorkshire and Humber region for over 13 years and is involved in masterplanning, development framework and development delivery. Working with both public and private sectors to develop and implement development schemes across the North of England.

Jane Williams is a Strategic Development Manager for NHS Leeds with responsibility for commissioning services for vulnerable groups. Prior to that she was the Deputy Chief Executive of a Social Firm Development Agency for Yorkshire and the Humber following over 15 years working in senior management and development of mental health services in Leeds. She has lived in Headingley since 1985. Both her children attended Headingley Primary School, where she was also a governor. She was chair of the committee of North Leeds Community nursery, a Board member of Women's Counselling & Therapy Service (WCTS), and was until 2009 also a Director of the Natural Food Store. She has been an active member of the Headingley community for the last 20 years.

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