A Riddell of Juniper and Stone

Tony Juniper runs Natural England but perhaps more importantly has a very important surname, as of course does Dave Stone, newly appointed head of Britain’s top natural science body, the JNCC. Lucy Riddell has a less important surname but arguably the most important job, which is to keep Hepple running.

Natural England has come in for the most absurd amount of stick, wedged between the unbending and immovable spreadsheets of the RPA (Rural Payments Agency) and the swarming anger of the Farming Lobby. We at Hepple very much like this institution. The people in it - and we have met many - have always been helpful, highly educated, and actually rather nice. Their insistence on trying to protect nature in England is sniffed at as if it is were deeply pretentious or precious or pedantic, rather than simply what they have been tasked to do. The clue is in the name.

Today (23 May 2023) its ebullient and personality-rich chairman came to visit Hepple with a broad retinue. Dave Stone - chair of the JNCC but ALSO chair of the Hepple Advisory Group (HAG) - was also here to review our monitoring work. We visited ponds, discussed the delights of British Bureaucracy and finally, as ever, ended up in the Distillery. Oh, and someone was able to take a photo of Tony Juniper holding a Hepple Juniper. Hooray!