Jane Grant
Jane was a member of the Wiltshire Rural Initiatives Fund and the last Chair for the Fund which ceased in 2003. In 2002 she was co-opted by the Board and elected on at the 2002 AGM. Jane is a member of the Wiltshire Association of Local Councils and is involved in many organisations in her home village, Holt. These include being a parish councillor, member of Holt Ahead, the WRVC Holt Luncheon Club, Advice and Support Group for the Young People of Holt, Holt Community Bus and the Holt Magazine Board.

Jane has experience in business administration and has been a company director, a school governor and clerk, as well as an executor.

Jane’s interests in Community First are in community development, needs assessments and service provision in rural communities, particularly for young people. She is the current Chair of the Board of Trustees.

As Chair, Jane represents Community First on two county and regional bodies: Wiltshire Strategic Board and SWAN.

Lesley Andrews
Lesley is the former director of a specialist housing and related social policy consultancy which focussed on work for central and local government. Much of this work was undertaken for rural local authorities across England. As a result of this experience Lesley has a good appreciation of the policy context of much of Community First's work.

Currently Lesley is the managing partner of Community Data Services, and supplies policy support to one of the housing market renewal programmes in the North West. She is also marketing manager of InDesign, an arts marketing initiative which supports local artist/craftsmen by promoting their work to architects and other design professionals. Her work at Community First is focussed on supporting the village shops programme, a subject in which she has a strong personal interest and research experience.

Dr Hoshang Bharucha MD FRCPath
Dr Bharucha was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1937 and trained in medicine at the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore, S. India.

He and his wife moved to Belfast and because of great job satisfaction and the feeling that there was a need for people from outside N.Ireland to bring a cohesive influence to a very divided society, stayed 32 years.

In Belfast, Dr Bharucha was senior lecturer/consultant pathologist and involved with teaching undergraduates and providing pastoral guidance and career advice to designated students from different ethnic backgrounds. He was involved with administrative affairs at senior level both at Queens’ University and the NHS and gained experience of teaching and working in Zambia, Libya, Malaysia and the USA as an exchange lecturer. He also had a short spell as Assistant Director (Dean) of the medical school.

Dr Bharucha and his family moved to Great Bedwyn when he retired in 2003.

Since moving to Great Bedwyn he has helped in assessments of post-graduates from outside the UK, is Chairman of the combined Bedwyns and Grafton Link Scheme. He is a keen observer of parish council issues and grass roots democracy at work and Chairman of the Great Bedwyn History Society.

Dr Bharucha brings his experience of working and living in a divided social setting and knowledge of cross cultural issues rising from different ethnic backgrounds to Community First.

Sylvia Brown
Sylvia has been immersed in the rural voluntary and community sector in Wiltshire for the last 20 years as a grass roots activist within her local community in South Marston and as a trustee and ex Chair of Community First.

She is a long standing Parish Councillor, and has worked at local, county and national levels, always with a strong focus on connecting policy issues with grass roots experience. In the 1990s, Sylvia chaired the Wiltshire Rural Forum for 6 years and was a founder member of other multi-agency partnerships.

Her current role is Chief Executive of ACRE, the national umbrella body of Rural Community Councils across England, one of which is Community First. Sylvia leads ACRE’s activity in government policy development and is a major stakeholder within both Defra and the Home Office. Together with other national voluntary sector representatives, she shared the role of ‘midwife’ to the current Defra’s Rural Strategy programmes and the Home Office ‘ChangeUp’ programme, which has invested heavily in county level infrastructure support in Wiltshire. She is now participating in the design of future proposals emanating from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on supporting community level infrastructure in rural and urban areas.

Sylvia is Vice President of Community First.

Piers Dibben
Piers runs a Calne based business which works predominantly with Councils around the UK to deliver amenity services to the local community.  His previous experience has ranged from trading futures on the old futures exchange through to rare breed pig production.   

He has come to Community First from Youth Action Wiltshire, where he was chiefly involved with the fundraising. He is now Chair of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee.

David Evans
David retired in 2001 as Manager of Wiltshire College Calne, which provided a wide range of vocational training (including IT skills) and recreational courses for the local community.

He has been involved in the Calne community in a number of initiatives to raise the quality of life in Calne and the surrounding villages including the Calne and District Community Link Scheme, Calne Credit Union, Calne Area Transport and the Calne Heritage Trust. He helped initiate community facilities on Coleman’s Farm and currently with the Beversbrook Community Association in the Calne northern development.

Since moving to Wiltshire with his wife and family in 1978 David has enjoyed community involvement in his village and is a trustee of Cherhill Village Hall and a Parish Councillor. Since May 2003, he has been a Liberal Democrat member for the Hilmarton rural ward of North Wiltshire District Council and a member of the Executive with the lead role for customer focus and electronic government. He is a trustee of Age Concern Wiltshire, has been a trustee of Community First since 2001 and enjoys contributing to the development of Wiltshire rural communities.

David is a member of Community First's Human Resources Committee.

Alan Fox
Alan is retired and takes a keen interest in his local village community. Currently he chairs two local interest groups, namely, Holt Ahead, the Village Appraisal Follow-up group, and Broughton Gifford and Holt Youthwork Project. He was founder chairman of the ASGYPH (Advice and Support Group for the Young People of Holt). He attends meetings of BOACAT (Bradford-on-Avon Community Area Transport Group). He is a trustee of the Holt Village Hall Committee, and he is a member of the Holt Community Bus Committee where he co-ordinates village excursions to places of interest as far a field as Cornwall.

Alan’s personal interests include his family; he has a son, Matthew, who attends St. Lawrence School in Bradford-on-Avon, and his wife, Susan, who is an archaeologist managing the Collections at the Roman Baths Museum. He enjoys walking, cricket, cycling (he is responsible for teaching Cycling Proficiency to Holt Primary School Children), and issues surrounding the local environment – he is Honorary Life Vice President of the Flat Holm Society, an island nature reserve.

Alan’s background is in education. He set up and ran for 20 years an educational team within a multi-professional psychiatric unit for children and young people. Prior to that post he taught in a rural centre for London children. He is currently a trustee of the Peredur Trust – an organic farm and craft centre for people with Aspergers Syndrome, and a trustee of PETT (the Planned Environment Therapy Trust) and chairs the Friends of Barns House and PETT.

As a trustee of Community First, Alan has kept a watching brief on the Wiltshire Rural Transport Partnership which has gone from strength to strength. He is also a member of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee.

Alison Irving
Alison has been a Parish Councillor for 18 years and was a District Councillor for 8 years (1995-2003). She is very involved with community planning in the Westbury area and is Secretary of the Westbury & District Community Development Trust.

Alison is involved and in touch with the various organisations in the village of Dilton Marsh, including the Village Hall Committee, and led the Planning For Real exercise in the village in 1999.

Alison is a member of Community First’s Human Resources Committee.

Michael Jones
Michael has been a Trustee of Community First since 1987 and was last elected to the Board of Trustees in 2003. He is currently Vice President of Community First.

Michael served as a West Wiltshire District Councillor for 20 years and is a parish councillor for Edington. He has had a leading role in support of rural communities, chairing management committees for the Wiltshire Rural Priority Area and the subsequent Wiltshire and Swindon Rural Development Partnership. Michael continues to be interested in the relationships of public sector authorities with Community First.

Arthur Laflin
Arthur was co-opted to the Board in May 2004 and is a member of the Human Resources Committee. He has a Diploma of Business and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. He has an Honours Degree in Management and is a Director of a Management Consulting company. He brings a wealth of Human Resources knowledge to Community First as Chair of the HR Committee.

He currently is Principal of ABL Human Resources providing business consulting, advice and facilitates profit related learning and development opportunities to small/medium sized companies across a range of industries. He is also a Senior Associate with ADTI/Augusta Consulting.

He has previously held senior posts in companies in Australia, Papua New Guinea and is a former Personnel Director in a major subsidiary of an international rubber company.

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James Layton
James is a retired Insurance Broker having worked initially for the Sedgwick Group and latterly the Aon Corporation for over 30 years.  Since retirement he has busied himself with various activities being the Chairman of Youth Action Wiltshire and in that role has been heavily involved in the merging of our two organisations.  

He is also a Trustee of Fight for Sight, the leading UK Eye Research Charity, as well as being the Chairman of the Charles Letts Memorial Trust which helps young people thoroughout their time at Newcastle University.

He is also a Governor of Bradfield College in Berkshire serving on the Finance and General Purposes Committee as well as its main Council.   He is married with 4 children and at this time 5 grandchildren.

Tom McCaw
Tom is the Land Steward for the Eastern District of the Duchy of Cornwall, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, National and county committee member of the Country Landowners and Business Association (CLA), Governor of John of Gaunt School in Trowbridge and Mentor with the Prince’s Trust.

As well as providing an income for the Prince of Wales, the Duchy has particular interests in farming, the natural and built environment.

Agriculture includes the Duchy Home Farm at Tetbury which is run on strictly organic principles.

Development includes the Poundbury site at Dorchester and Thicketmead at Midsomer Norton. Local consultation has ensured the development reflects the heritage of the area and creates a quality environment for local residents. The good example is now being followed elsewhere.

The woods are managed according to the best environmental criteria and redundant farm buildings are converted to provide rural employment.

Tom is Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees and has a keen interest in Affordable Housing and sits on Community First Finance and Policy Committee.

George McDonic

George was a chartered Town Planner practising as a Town Planning & Development Consultant with special interests in countryside planning and affordable housing.  Previously County Planning Officer for Wiltshire for more than 20 years.

He is involved in the following organisations as Chairman:

            Royal Town Planning Institute Services Board
            Wiltshire Historic Buildings Trust
            Wiltshire Small Industries Trust
            Wiltshire Branch of CPRE

His other interests include the West Wilts Youth Sailing Association, Wiltshire Rural Housing Association and Redundant Churches Committee. 

George is currently Vice-President of Communty First.

Susan Thorpe
Susan is an experienced small business management accountant, specialising in establishing computerised financial management systems and procedures. As a Salisbury District Councillor, Susan was consecutively Chair of Finance, Budget Performance and Review and Partnership Committees. She was the Sallisbury member of the South West Regional Assembly from 1998 to 2001.

Deputy Leader of the Council from 1995 - 1999 she was also one of the founder members of the WIltshire Multi-Agency Anti Poverty Forum and subsequently became a leading member (as Chair of Partnership Committee) of South Wiltshire Action against Poverty and South Wiltshire Economic Partnership, as well as one of the two South Wiltshire members on Wiltshire and Swindon Economic Partnership.

Su is the Chair of Community First's Finance and Policy Committee.

Tony Thorpe
Tony works as a freelance training consultant, has been a trustee of Community First for 4 years. After 34 years in the RAF, much of the time working on complex Government-funded projects, he became heavily involved in community and charitable activities.

Apart from a significant involvement with ecumenical Church community-based projects and activities, he was largely responsible for the establishment of the increasingly successful South Wiltshire Credit Union, of which he remains the Treasurer.

Tony is a member of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee.