ENPAA chair
The Chair of ENPAA is elected, from amongst the ten Chairs, each year at the AGM (held in July/ August). The Chair:
- helps provide strategic direction to the organisation;
- chairs the ENPAA meetings; and
- represents the Association at Ministerial and other high level meetings.
ENPAA’s current Chair is John Riddle (Chair of Northumberland National Park Authority). ENPAA's current Deputy Chairs are Stephen Johnson (Chair of Broads Authority) and John Dyke (Chair of Exmoor National Park Authority).
John Riddle
John Riddle has been Chairman of Northumberland National Park Authority since 2001, and Deputy Chairman of the ‘free-standing’ Authority which was created in1997 to replace the original County Council National Park Committee.
Elected to Northumberland County Council in 1988 to represent Bellingham, the largest yet most sparsely populated ward area in England, he was first appointed to the County Council’s National Park Committee in 1993, and subsequently to the new shadow National Park Authority from 1996.
Having been Chairman of the UK Association of National Park Authorities (UK ANPA) since July 2007, he is due to stand down in September 2010. He is also the newly elected Chairman of the English National Park Authorities’ Association (ENPAA).
John also represents the Authority on the Northumberland Strategic Partnership where he has been appointed Rural Champion, reflecting his understanding of the Environment, Farming and Rural Issues.
Born, bred and educated in Northumberland, he is a fourth generation hill livestock farmer and helps his wife run a small self-catering tourism business on the farm. He has had close involvement with the Young Farmers Club at local and county level and is currently President of the Bellingham Young Farmers Club. John has both direct experience and a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of remote upland rural communities.
