Alexandra Fairclough is a chartered town planner and currently works for Bolton Council as heritage and design lead for council projects as well as within Development Management. She has over many years of experience in, private practice, local government and Civil Service including almost 15 years as a Planning Inspector. She is a trustee and board member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC) and is chairperson of the NW IHBC.  

With undergraduate degrees in humanities and law, postgraduate qualifications in Architecture and Legal Studies (Bar), she is a regular visiting lecturer on postgraduate architectural, conservation and law courses helping to train the next generation of architectural heritage specialists.

Alexandra was called to the Bar in 2009, a planning inspector from 2003-2017 and currently writes a regular column in the IHBC journal Context on Legal.

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Clare Chapman BA (Hons), MA is the Closed Churches Regional Case Officer for the North East in the Cathedrals and Church Buildings Department of the Church Commissioners for England. She has nearly a decade of experience working with historic church buildings, having previously held roles with the Churches Conservation Trust and the Diocese of Leeds. Clare is currently studying for a second MA in Conservation of Historic Buildings at the University of York and has a particular research interest in the adaptive reuse and sustainable management of historic church buildings.

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Steve Emery is a director of Heritage Fire Consultancy with over 50 years’ experience in fire safety, the last 35 years with heritage buildings. After 15 years of operational firefighting, Steve worked for 12 years as fire safety officer for the City of Bath, followed by 15 years with English Heritage and Historic England, 6 years for the University of Oxford and 2 years as a fire consultant.

As a consultant Steve has undertaken large fire safety projects with the National Trust, the Landmark Trust, The Royal Holloway University and undertaken the design and fire testing of replica medieval plank doors for Norwich Castle. He has lectured about fire safety in heritage buildings on university conservation courses, fire and rescue CPD courses and sits on the Challenge Panel for the renovation and restoration of the Palace of Westminster.

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James Woolgrove FIIRSM MCIOB 

James has spent most of the last 30 years managing health and safety, primarily in the historic built environment from castles and churches to barns and homes. He was one of the leading speakers on the CDM 2015 regulations. James now works with Shire Homes Ltd as Senior Project Manager, using his approach to health and safety as an enabling tool towards all the traditional buildings that they work with, from Lakeland farmhouses to Scheduled Monuments. He also is very involved with climate change adaptation and retrofit, assessing the current state of a building as the first stage and recommending appropriate, wholistic interventions. 

FIIRSM – Fellow of the international Institute of Risk and Safety Management
CIOB – Chartered Member of the Institute of Building.

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Bryan Harris is a conservation planner with a varied background in the local government
planning function.  He has been Senior Conservation Officer with Durham County Council
since 2003 with specific responsibility for the provision of heritage and design advice
across County Durham as well as wider strategic and project related roles, primarily in
the heritage regeneration field.  Bryan has recently completed or is working on the
preparation, consultation and adoption of a number of conservation area character
appraisals and management plans which have or will support the implementation of
strategic physical regeneration and economic development priorities within a number of
major centres including the Seaham TH, Bishop Auckland Town Deal and the Bishop
Auckland Constituency LUF funding focussed on the Stockton and Darlington Railway.