A Cotswold Adventure

As Martin Lane, Director of the Cotswolds Conservation Board, steps into retirement, he talks to Siân Ellis about the Board’s pioneering role, achievements over the last 20 years... and lugging a Google Trekker along the Cotswold Way

I know it sounds a bit coy, but you have to remind yourself how lucky you are to live and work in such a fantastic landscape,” says Martin Lane. Set to retire as Director of the Cotswolds Conservation Board at the end of September after 20 years in the role, he is fielding inevitable journalist questions like: what have you most enjoyed about the job?

“There are far more dramatic landscapes than the Cotswolds, which is gentle and undulating compared with, say, the mountains of the Lake District,” he continues. “But I challenge anybody to show me an area that combines high-quality landscapes with highquality architecture quite as well as the Cotswolds does.”

It’s this sort of passion for our Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), combined with an enthusiastic can-do attitude (impending retirement is “another adventure”) that have characterised Martin’s management approach. A modest man, he is swift to acknowledge his good luck in working with “such a rich mix” of colleagues: 37 board members (appointees from local authorities, parish councils and Defra) and around 15 staff at Northleach, supported by some 400 Cotswold Voluntary Wardens.

Over the last two decades, there have been many collective achievements under Martin’s leadership. The Cotswolds Conservation Board itself came into existence in 2004; today’s flourishing Cotswolds Rural Skills courses began in 2005. Caring for the Cotswolds has raised thousands of pounds for environmental projects, orchard planting to charcoal making; while the Cotswolds LEADER Programme, captured by the Board and partners in 2015, has currently supported 52 projects across the AONB with a total grant value of £1.7m – collectively expected to create over 90 jobs in sectors ranging from rural businesses to farming and forestry. To highlight just a few landmarks.

FIRST INSPIRATIONS