Alison has been a Parish councillor in West Dean for 3 years, having lived in the Forest of Dean since 1992, and worked with fellow councillors to pilot Village Veg, a scheme to introduce non or returning gardeners to veg growing.

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This has led to the foundation of Yorkley Village Garden. Her commitment to good quality, local food also introduced her to the Dean Forest Food Hub cooperative, an “online farmers’ market”.

As a volunteer with Forester’s Forest, she has monitored river fly in local streams and surveyed ancient and veteran trees. With a couple of friends, she also spends time during the summer pulling up the Himalayan balsam that has invaded the Forest.

Her strong sense of fairness and social justice led her to become a social worker championing the rights of people whose voices were not being heard. She worked with children and families, adults with disabilities and latterly with people with hearing and vision impairments.

Her professional working life ended in 2018 and she realised she must devote her remaining energies to mitigating and adapting to the growing impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on our world and our people. The values and principles of the Green Party fit well with this.