Lynda Kitching

Lynda is our Vice-Chair. She grew up in Leeds although has had spells living elsewhere. She has over 20 years’ experience as a volunteer in Leeds’ greenspaces. She is Chair of Leeds Parks & Greenspaces Forum, Secretary of Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery, a member of Guiseley in Bloom, a committee member of Friends of Springfield Park & Guiseley Wells and a working party member of the Friends of Roundhay Park (formerly a Trustee and events organiser).

Dr Anna Barker

Anna moved to Leeds in 2006 to pursue her studies and has lived in the city since. She is now an Associate Professor in Criminal Justice at the University of Leeds and is passionate about researching parks and working collaboratively to enhance our local parks and green spaces. In recent years she has undertaken research into how women and girls’ feel about safety in parks, public and business opinion on charitable giving to parks, and a project on the past, present and future prospects of Victorian urban parks as places of social mixing.

Dean Ellison

Dean has lived in Leeds since 2017 and in that time has extensively explored Leeds’ parks, rivers and canals, making him feel very much at home in the city. Having benefitted so much from this green and blue space himself, he now wants to do his part in making it more accessible to people across Leeds.

He has ten years’ experience working in spatial data analysis and in this time has looked at the differences in what communities have access to local green space. He looks forward to working with Love Leeds Parks to improve this accessibility and to ensure parks are developed to best serve the needs of their local communities.

Casey Morrison

Casey is Love Leeds Parks’ Chair. His day job is for the Future Parks Accelerator, working with 27 local authorities across the UK helping them take a longer-term, strategic approach to funding and maintaining their public greenspaces. Born in Leeds, he’s worked for the National Trust across the north of England, the Big Lottery Fund Policy Unit on social programmes, and he set up an Action Research Social Enterprise. He has been a non-exec director of the Yorkshire Regional Voluntary Development Agency and has Post Graduate Qualifications in Conflict Resolution, leadership and Management. He’s interested in open data, self-organising groups and democratising public space for social outcomes. He’s @caseymorrison on Twitter.

Justin Scully

Justin is General Manager of the Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal World Heritage Site. Fountains is one of the busiest properties in the National Trust, attracting 600,000 visitors a year. Justin has worked for the National Trust for 11 years and in his 5 years at Fountains has overseen multi-million pound investment in visitor infrastructure as well as the Skell Valley project – a £2.5m Landscape scale conservation project. Prior to the Trust Justin worked in the charity sector in the UK & Africa, after a 10-year career in the private sector.

John Preston

John has lived in Leeds for over thirty years and worked in practical conservation for four decades as a volunteer, then a project officer with The Conservation Volunteers, followed by two decades developing Hollybush as an inclusive environmental volunteering centre. His current role is Business Development Manager for TCV covering Northern England. He is looking forward to continuing his efforts to improve green spaces in Leeds, many of which he uses for recreation, bird and wildlife watching.

Chloe Sykes, CEO

Chloe has worked in the non-profit sector for a decade, leading high-value income generation and partnership programmes for both regional and national charities. She joined Love Leeds Parks in January 2023, to manage the day-to-day running of the charity and provide strategic direction alongside the board of trustees. With a background in advocating for marginalised communities and the charities striving to support them, Chloe is passionate about working with community partners to address inequalities in access to parks across the city, so that all residents can benefit from quality greenspace that they love.

Oliver Scruton, Marketing Officer

Ollie has been volunteering for not-for-profits since he was 17 in a variety of roles, more recently to assist in social media and marketing. He joined the Love Leeds Parks team in March 2023 to take on the role of Marketing and Communications Officer.
Ollie has a strong understanding of and a passion for Diversity & Inclusion and aims to inspire local communities to visit greenspaces and take advantage of the wellbeing benefits that come with this.

Anne Proud, Community Officer

Anne joined Love Leeds Parks in March 2023 as their Community and Volunteering Officer. Having worked within ecology for many years she then moved into environmental education within special schools and community groups. Anne has worked with a number of charities across Leeds combining an interest in urban ecology with a passion for developing access for people to engage with their local green spaces. She has run a host of walking and gardening groups including those specifically aimed at supporting people with mental health issues.