Mr Timothy Ashelford CGeog (GIS)

Biography

Occupation: Engagement& Monitoring Officer Employer: UK Location Memo: Since March 2011 Tim has been with the UK Location Programme, coordinating publishers' provision of data and services to the EU INSPIRE project. Tim has an honours degree in Geography from the University of Liverpool. He started working for the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in 1986 where he conducted land classification surveys, to support natural resource protection policies. Tim became head of the northern field survey team in 1994 and was required to act as MAFF's expert witness in land use planning inquiries. Tim also led the team that established the upland environmental monitoring baseline for MAFF's agri environment scheme in the Lake District in 1993. Tim also led the survey team who in 6 months produced a detailed and definitive map of the extent of moorland in northern England. This work required the assessment of over 200,000 km2 of difficult to access land. This moorland map provided the basis of the so called right to roam open access land, following the countryside and rights of Way Act 2000. In 1998 Tim joined MAFF's national Geographic Information Unit where he was responsible for developing a range of geographic products to assist MAFFs' rural development remit. Between 2001 and 2011 Tim was a Senior Research Officer at Government Office for Yorkshire and The Humber. In 2005 he established England's only regional rural observatory - the Yorkshire and Humber Rural Observatory. The Observatory's publications provided an objective evidence base to inform rural development activity.