It’s time to welcome three new members to HGN’s steering group, bringing a wealth of talent and experience. Richard Urbanski, Gordon Coppock and I have been joined by Heather Gorringe, Jonathan Hofstetter, and Lynne Bowers.
A long-term Hereford resident with a professional background in health and social care policy, Lynne Bowers is a long‑standing advocate for sustainability, community resilience and climate action across Herefordshire. She’s been active in local sustainability networks for many years, supporting groups across Herefordshire to strengthen community‑led climate responses. Lynne is passionate about collaborative approaches that protect Herefordshire’s landscapes, empower local people, and accelerate progress towards a nature‑rich, climate‑resilient Herefordshire.
It’s compost and worms that get Heather Gorringe excited! She’s a partner in A R Gorringe & Partners at Lower Blakemere Farm, a business which integrates regenerative agriculture, direct food supply, composting, biodiversity and education. There, she’s spent over 30 years building ‘Wiggly Wigglers’ into one of the UK’s leading environmental home-composting and wildlife brands. Enabling people to deal with kitchen waste using Bokashi and worms has helped divert many thousands of tonnes of food waste from landfill, turning it instead into living, biologically active soil. Heather is committed to helping people to buy local food, to support farmers who are doing the right thing, and to understand that building living soil is one of the most powerful climate actions any of us can take.
Jonathan Hofstetter is a relatively recent arrival from Warwickshire. Alongside a legal career he has spent many years involved in environmental projects, from field conservation work to active campaigning. He has managed or looked after various urban or semi-rural nature reserves and worked alongside wildlife trust wardens on trust reserves, and spent 16 years developing his own 6 acre ‘rewilding’ project. He is currently part of a team (outside Herefordshire) working with an inner-city council to set up a community woodland. He studied ecology and conservation, and also modern history at university, and has been a non-executive director of a leading sustainable building products company and a disputes resolution lawyer in various international firms.
Find out more about the new (and old!) steering group members here.
It’s absolutely brilliant for HGN to have the new members’ ideas, energy and expertise, and I’m sure their influence will be visible before long. It’s always good to hear from others who might want to step forward for one of these volunteer roles, so do get in touch if you’re interested.
And we’re still looking for somebody who’d like to do the Treasurer role! It’s quite light touch as Rachel does the book-keeping … so do email admin@hgnetwork.org to find out more.
Jackie
HGN Chair
