Our Trustees and Staff

John Goodridge

Chair

John Goodridge has had a career in finance in London, working for investment banks and hedge funds. He lives in Waverley, close to the big natural areas of the Hindhead Commons and the Devil’s Punch Bowl, Thursley Common and Hankley Common, where he often walks the family dogs. He is also a keen road cyclist across Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire.

It was John’s experience of living in this beautiful corner of Surrey, walking and cycling in its stunning countryside, that led him to volunteer for CPRE Surrey. John is concerned that the government drive to build will result in the loss of more land from the Green Belt and Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. He joined the board of CPRE Surrey in 2020 as Treasurer, and became Chair at AGM 2022.

Matt Mallinder

Vice-Chair

Living in Haslemere, with two young boys and two young dogs – both pairs needing regular running, allows Matt to enjoy the wellbeing benefits and closeness to nature on his regular local sorties into the Surrey Hills. Being an avid cyclist both off and on road allows him to roam further afield on the tracks less travelled to see the broad expanse, beauty and uniqueness of the Surrey countryside.

Last summer’s lockdown really allowed people to re-engage with what is on their doorstep, to value the countryside and contemplate lifestyle choices; but it’s important to recognise that this in turn brings both threats and opportunities in the way that land and space is managed in Surrey as the county looks to ‘build back better’.
Matt recently joined CPRE Surrey as a Trustee bringing 25 years background in governance, fundraising and advocacy in transport charities. He is currently the Director of Influence and Engagement Cycling UK, the national cycling charity which inspires and helps people to cycle and keep cycling.

The influence bit of the role means leading the charity’s advocacy work in making the case to governments, local authorities, businesses and decision makers to invest in cycling to realise the wider societal benefits of cycling beyond just transport. Engagement is ‘selling’ cycling to new audiences to grow the number of regular cyclists through UK wide programmes such as National Bike Week and the Women’s Festival of Cycling. Skills that he looks forward to bringing in to CPRE, especially as how we design transport choices into planning influences where and how we live locally.

David Allen

Treasurer

David Allen is a chartered accountant who was a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers for over 20 years. Since retiring from PwC he has been undertaking a range of voluntary roles, including being a member of the work party at the RSPB Pulborough Brooks bird reserve, and being a School Governor. He was born and brought up in the Surrey countryside and has lived outside Guildford on the edge of the Surrey Hills AONB since 1979. He has been a member of CPRE for longer than he can remember, and an email to members saying that we were looking for a new Treasurer sparked his interest and prompted his latest role.

David walks and runs regularly with his dog on Blackheath and occasionally finds time to do a bit of birdwatching and bird photography there as well. His favourite local bird is the Dartford Warbler which died out on Blackheath after a series of very cold winters a few years ago but now is thankfully thriving again. David is married, with three children and five grandchildren.

Susan Briant

Trustee

Sue grew up in the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park area in Wales and has a love of the countryside and its flora and fauna and a desire to preserve it.  She has worked in the public and private sector and spent many happy years working in the Countryside Legal department at Surrey County Council researching ancient paths and adding rights of way to the Definitive Map, amongst other things.  Sue acted as a Trustee for the Surrey Gardens Trust for several years and volunteers for a number of other organisations.

Susan became a Trustee at AGM 2022

Jennet Eyre

Trustee

Spending much of her early childhood in Wales, Jennet was introduced to the glory of Welsh mountain walking and countryside. On moving to Waverley as a teenager, she spent weekends orienteering on Hankley Common, the Devil’s Punchbowl and other green spaces in Surrey and became aware of the importance of the Surrey Hills for exercise, nature and wellbeing for all.

After a legal career in the City she now spends time walking, cycling and volunteering in Surrey (as well as looking after a wood in Islington) and is focused on protecting local green spaces and heritage from their many challenges, for the benefit of people and nature. Jennet has recently spearheaded a successful Walking for Wellness scheme with GPs in London, and is keen to support CPRE’s “Nature for Wellbeing and Health” initiative.

Jennet became a Trustee at AGM 2022

Jeremy Saunders

Volunteer Coordinator

After over 30 years working in magazines and media Jeremy decided to retrain to pursue a lifelong ambition of working in the countryside. Having grown up on a farm and always been a lover of the great outdoors he had a ‘road to Damascus’ moment when he saw a job ad for a Countryside Ranger. With the support of his wife he retrained at Plumpton College, near Lewes studying Countryside & Wildlife Management and now works as a Ranger for the National Trust, at Limpsfield Common, near Oxted.

He is passionate about preserving our green spaces and is working on regenerating areas of heathland at Limpsfield. He is also a huge lover of chalk grassland, another rapidly diminishing habitat and one that Surrey is blessed with in a number of sites.

In his spare ​time, he is a keen dog walker, and loves metal detecting and mudlarking on the banks of the Thames.

Phil Partridge

Admin

Phil is doing some Admin for us, having started as a volunteer late in 2020.

He talks about The Three Degrees, 1 in languages, 1 in computing and the ‘third degree’ is a brother whose severe mental health problems have lasted 50 years.

After project-managing first in IT, then in Mental Health and Family Carers, he has stopped commuting to London to go ‘Green and Local’, joining CPRE at Cowpie a few years ago. He is ever-more-aware of dangers to our finest asset, (no not Spitfires, Rugby, bitter or The Beatles), but our countryside.

You might find him at a gig, litter-picking at Glastonbury, helping at a music festival, stewarding at Twickenham, on the allotment, planting trees, at Eco-Build, or clearly tabulating the numbers hidden in a Local Development Plan. He would like to see that any new housing allowed from now, is only ever allowed to be constructed by fully eco-responsible developers, is sustainable, desirable, what community needs, and by-design  reverses climate and bio-diversity crises.

Oh yes, and he’s an optimist.