Regional - North East

Angus Collingwood-Cameron has been involved in rural policy work in the North East since 2001. As a result, he has built up a unique set of contacts and relationships within the Defra agencies and other public sector bodies. This allows him to address issues at a Regional Director/Chief Executive level – engaging with the decision makers.

He also sits on a number of forums and stakeholder groups in the region. These include:

North East Farm & Rural Advisory Network (NEFRAN)
Angus played a major role in establishing this body in 2011, which is used as sounding board by Defra and has direct access to Defra Ministers two or three times a year.  NEFRAN acted as the lead body for submitting a bid to the Rural Growth Network initiative, working with the Local Enterprise Partnership. This was a competitive  bid against other parts of the country. NEFRAN was successful with its bid (one of only 5) and brought £3.2m funding into the North East rural economy.

Environment Agency Regional Stakeholders Forum
An annual meeting in the region where strategic issues are discussed with the relevant personnel within the agency. Specific issues are dealt with on a case by case basis as they arise.

Forest & Woodlands Regional Advisory Committee
Responding to the Forestry Minister and the Commissioners, this body meets at various locations through out the region. It covers all aspects of forestry including red squirrels, green infrastructure, private woodland management and pests and diseases. After six years of participation, Angus had to step down from this Committee, bit its membership includes NFLG Members.

North East Heritage Environment Forum
With English Heritage providing the secretariat, this is an important body for land based heritage. It covers issues such as listed building consent, planning, tourism and funding.

North East Rural Development Plan for England Stakeholders Group
This body did help steer RDPE delivery in the region, as well as ensuring that the North East got its fair share of the funding pot. With the recent changes to the RDPE team, this group has fallen by the wayside, but NFLG is attempting to resuscitate it to ensure that the North East does not become the poor relation in terms of RDPE funding.

Animal Health Stakeholders Group
Fortunately, this group is not overly active at present, but vigilance is maintained, information exchanged and exercises undertaken. The current main focus is TB and how minimise its impact in the North East.

LEADER Local Action Groups
Angus sits on the Northumberland Coast and Lowland LAG, and NFLG has Members sitting on the other LAGs in the region, so ensuring that the rural economy receives the correct priority when LEADER funds are allocated.

Northumberland Fire Group http://firegroup.northumberland.gov.uk
Angus has chaired this group for a number of years. The success of this group has meant that its format has been used as a template for the Durham Fire Group and also the North East Community Flood Group.

Rights of Way Liaison Groups
Angus sits on both the Northumberland and Durham Rights of Way Liaison Groups, as well as being a member of the Northumberland Joint Local Access Forum. This means that the land based sector is represented in discussions on access, and also that Angus has a good working relationship with the access authority personnel as well as the access lobby.

Tyne Rivers Trust (TRT) Strategy Group
The Rivers Trusts are of increasing importance as Defra looks to outside bodies to assist it with Water Framework Directive delivery. This group has been pulled together to help the TRT pull together its catchment management plan.

Northumberland Rivers Trust

In early 2014, Angus was invited to become a Trustee of the Northumberland Rivers Trust, covering the Blythe, Wansbeck, Coquet, Aln and Northumberland coastal streams catchments.

Catchment Sensitive Farming Steering Group

Angus has been a member of this steering group since its inception, helping to steer its work across north Northumberland.

Other
In addition to the above, regular meetings and discussions are held with the likes of the rural MPs, the North East head of Natural England and the Chief Executives of the County Councils, the AONBs and the National Park Authority.

Consultations
Angus does respond on behalf of NFLG to consultations relevant to Members’ interests. Recent responses can be viewed in the Documents section of this website.

NATIONAL
Although NFLG is a regionally focused body, it can be seen from the above that there are also several direct routes for national representation of North East issues. This can be via local MPs or direct to Defra Ministers via NEFRAN.