People

Jeremy Iles, Founder – Director Jeremy started “doing something useful” as a cycle campaigner at Friends of the Earth in 1983, and then became the first Director of the London Wildlife Trust when he was 27. He worked in Bangladesh and Eritrea for VSO, and on returning to the UK became Regional Manager for Sustrans in the 90’s.

In 2000 he joined the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens as CEO until 2016.  Many of the projects and partnerships he initiated  during this period have had a significant and long lasting impact nationally, including  the Allotments Regeneration Initiative (2002-2014),  the £57m Local Food Consortium (2002-2014), Community Land Advisory Service, and the Growing Together partnership (2014-16).

Jeremy is the instigator and joint coordinator of the Urban Agriculture Consortium, and is part of The Oral History of Environment Movement project with Royal Holloway University which is starting in autumn 2022. He has an NVQ5 (Management) & graduated from the School for Social Entrepreneurs (2019). ​

Jeremy lives in Bristol, grows food on an allotment, sings with The Island Folk, and plays guitar & mandola with the All@Sea ceilidh band. Jeremy is a qualified Yachtmaster and dinghy instructor. ​

Maddy Longhurst – Maddy has always followed her instincts to work on initiatives and ideas that lie in the fertile margins and serve future generations. Recently this has involved the protection of land and soils, community-led thermal imaging of cold homes, Ecosystem Restoration Design, creating regenerative Tiny House Settlements, Sociocracy and Gleaning training for communities. Maddy worked on Phase 1 of the urban agriculture project in 2019 and is currently coordinating the Urban Agriculture Consortium with Jeremy.

She has studied Ecosystem Restoration Design with Gaia Education, did a degree in Town and Country Planning, is a Community Organiser (level3), believes in the healing power of nature for all types of human dis-ease, and finds her joy in the sea, the sky, sit-spots, fires, singing, brambling, unexplainable community wisdom, her daughter Martha, Rilke and Ursula K Le Guin.

Clare Hanson-Kahn – Clare is a communications and fundraising specialist, working in the 3rd sector. She also works as a humanist celebrant leading funerals and weddings. She has a personal interest in food growing, and is the founder member of a local community garden. She has been nurturing her own allotment for 20 plus years

John Newton – Environmental Consultant John Newton founded The Ecology Consultancy in 1999, of which he was the Managing Director until 2016. John’s early career was as nature reserve warden in Norfolk and Suffolk. In the early 1980s he became Conservation Officer at the London Wildlife Trust, where he worked with Jeremy. Now retired.

Mary Stevens – Mary is the Experiments Programme Manager at Friends of the Earth (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Her role is all about bringing to life the new ideas that can help tackle the climate and nature emergencies. She previously worked at Defra, where in her last role she was Head of Strategy, Partnerships and Local Flood Risk Management in the floods policy team. Mary has a particular interest in applying innovation to support the emergence of more resilient local communities, and combines curiosity about theory with a hands-on approach to local action. She holds a postgraduate qualification from the Open University in systems thinking for environmental decision-making and manging innovation, and a PhD in cultural heritage studies from University College London.