BA (Hons), MSc, Associate Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, Member British Institute of Agricultural Consultants
Alastair is a Director and Company Secretary of Reading Agricultural Consultants. Following employment as a Research Officer in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Management at Reading University, he has been in private practice for over twenty years in an agricultural and rural planning consultancy, in the agricultural and environmental division of a multi-disciplinary international consultancy firm and, since 1994, with Reading Agricultural Consultants.

He has considerable experience of assessing the impact of developments on soils and agriculture as part of multi-disciplinary teams, and has also co-ordinated a number of Environmental Impact Assessments. These have related to over thirty highway schemes and other infrastructure projects (having been heavily involved over a fourteen-year period in the planning, design, environmental impact assessment and construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link), mineral extraction and restoration, landfill restoration, new housing and industrial/commercial developments and habitat creation schemes.

He continues his experience and development of EIA practice and procedures through membership of the IEMA and day-to-day project work.

He is commissioned regularly by local planning authorities and farmers/landowners throughout the country to appraise planning applications for dwellings and buildings to support agricultural, equestrian and other appropriate rural land uses; and to appraise proposals for the change of use of existing buildings in the countryside for residential, small?scale industrial, recreational and tourism purposes.

He has given expert evidence at over 100 public inquiries and hearings in relation to the impact of transport and other developments on agricultural interests and the requirement for agricultural and equestrian dwellings and buildings.

He has contributed to management plans for the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Sites; assisted in the design of a Countryside Stewardship Special Project for the Isle of Axholme medieval open strip fields; assisted in the review of the impact of modern farming methods on English lowland landscapes; undertaken a study of de facto access to the countryside; and was runner-up in the Letchworth Garden City Centenary Competition, with the submission commended as "showing a particularly sensitive approach to the issues of bio-diversity and public access". He was also co-author of a guide produced by North Yorkshire County Council for farmers and landowners to the planning issues involved in farm diversification proposals, cited by the ODPM as an example of best practice.

Key Strengths: Agricultural and Environmental Impact Assessment, Agricultural and Rural Planning, Management Plans and Agri-Environmental Studies, Farm Diversification and Rural Development, Agricultural Economic Appraisals