In 1980, I gained promotion to the post of Divisional Trading Standards
Officer at Cleveland County Council to run a small unit dealing with Consumer
Credit and Fair Trading matters.home about me comments contact me links reference students training what's new
I grew up in Cheltenham, and after a spell at university in London (running the university folk club and editing the student newspaper), joined Gloucestershire County Council in 1971 as a Trainee Trading Standards Officer.
I qualified in 1974, and started as a Trading Standards Officer with North Yorkshire County Council, working from the then Harrogate office. At my own expense, I attended an introductory evening class on the (to me exciting!) new Consumer Credit Act 1974, run by a lecturer from the University of Hull.
In 1980, I gained promotion to the post of Divisional Trading Standards
Officer at Cleveland County Council to run a small unit dealing with Consumer
Credit and Fair Trading matters.
I moved to Devon County Council in 1986 to be Assistant County Trading Standards Officer, a member of its HQ unit dealing with all aspects of Trading Standards work, but still specialising in Consumer Credit and Fair Trading matters.
From the early days of my work in Cleveland, I became a trainer, initially having to develop notes for consumer advisers working in the County, and then being asked to undertake work on the NALGO (later Unison) correspondence course, and also to help out with the Weston-Super-Mare courses run by the then South Western Provincial Council (now the South West Regional Assembly). In 1989 I was asked to become an examiner for the Trading Standards Institute's Diploma in Consumer Affairs (now Diploma in Consumer and Trading Standards), a post which I held from 1990 to 2008.
While I worked in Devon, I was lead officer on Credit for the Trading Standards Institute, and was also a member of the credit panel run by LACOTS (now renamed LACORS, the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services).
Throughout my time in Devon I was a member of the Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau's management committee, and for two years was its chair. I also chaired the Exeter Welfare Rights Project and Exeter Money Advice Project management committees.
Following local government re-organisation in 1998, I left Trading Standards, and went into the finance industry, working as National Compliance Officer for the Finance Industry Standards Association, based in Lincolnshire (which has since closed down). My functions included the development of training for credit brokers and lenders in the second mortgage market, investigation of fraud and other breaches of legislation and industry Codes of Practice.
In early 2002, I became a self employed consultant and trainer on Consumer Credit matters. I continue to organise and run courses for the Trading Standards profession, and write correspondence course notes for the National Extension College in Cambridge (who took over this function from Unison). I also assess competencies within individual Departments.
In 2007 I was made an Honorary Member of the Institute of Consumer Affairs, after five years as its treasurer, and took a back seat, acting as its webmaster. In 2008 I reverted to the treasurer post for a short time, to assist ICA out of a hole.
Apart from my professional career above, in 1986 I obtained a first class Honours degree at The Open University, as well as a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies.
I live in the village of Collingham in East Nottinghamshire, in an ecologically sustainable house, the photo shows the installation of my new Solar Photo-Voltaic panels.
I enjoy travelling around on my Brompton folding bicycle, am a member of the Tall Persons Club, the Campaign for Better Transport, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, CND and the Vegetarian Society.
In the village, I am Chair of the Collingham Scout & Guide HQ Management Association, a charity which has just opened a new scout & guide HQ for the village, and am Treasurer of "The Fleet", Collingham's parish and village magazine. I am also chair of Friends of Collingham Station, a group campaigning to improve our rail service, as well as webmaster and treasurer for 2020 Green Vision, a climate change group covering my local area.
This page last updated 08 April 2010