I’d like to introduce myself as the new chair of the GIGL Steering Group. I have been involved with GIGL from the outset, representing the London Boroughs Biodiversity Forum (LBBF) on the Steering Group, as well as contributing my own professional viewpoint as the Biodiversity Manager forWandsworth. I hope to continue to provide an understanding of all facets of the data requirements of local authorities.
I am also pleased to be able to call upon the knowledge and experience of John Swindells from LNHS as my vice chair. We are working to refine the structure of the Steering Group and the specialist advisory groups to maximise our support for the staff at GIGL and to ensure that we continue to meet the needs of all of our partners and customers. Don’t forget, if you have an idea for a new product that you’d like to see GIGL develop, please get in touch with Mandy.
I would also like to take this opportunity to offer sincere thanks to John Archer for his chairmanship of the GIGL steering group in all its guises for the past 6 years. He has been much more than just a chair at meetings; he has ensured that GIGL has been included from the outset of many projects enabling data management issues to be considered from the beginning. We wish him well in his new endeavours. Indeed, we hope to keep him involved in the development of our new planning screening tool, introduced on page 3, so he hasn’t escaped entirely.
– Valerie Selby, GiGL Chair