Ken White takes over chair of the APL

Ken White from Frosts Landscapes was elected as the Chairman at the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) Annual Review meeting which took place at Futurescape at Sandown Racecourse on Tuesday 15 November.

Ken takes over from Mark Gregory of Landform Consultants who had been in the role since 2010 over which time he has overseen many key developments helping to take the association forward. These include:

• his involvement with World Skills UK, Masterclass and Apprenticeship initiatives
• the growth in APL Awards and its standing within the industry
• the launch of ‘Low Cost High Impact’ at Hampton Court and negotiations with RHS
• his involvement in setting criteria and promotion of APL Avenue at BBC Gardeners World Live
• his valuable time giving many talks and mentoring sessions to APL members and the wider industry on APL’s behalf.

Mark was presented with an engraved slab of Yorkstone, kindly made by London Stone, in recognition of the huge amount of time, work and energy that he has put into the work of the APL.

Mark will continue to be involved in the APL helping to shape many of the special events the APL have going forward in 2017 including the Stone Seminar – Paving the Way on (17 January) and the APL Awards (17 March). He will use his enthusiasm, professionalism and eye for detail to support the staff at the HTA to ensure these events are of maximum benefit to APL members.

Ken White took the opportunity to thank Mark, and the APL Committee, for the work they have done on behalf of the industry commenting, “On behalf of all APL members I would like to thank Mark for his commitment and tireless enthusiasm to the association and the role he has played in helping to raise the profile of domestic landscaping. Mark had a dream that the APL would be a family, a community. His efforts over the last six years have achieved just that and he steps down leaving the association in a very strong position which I and the rest of the committee look forward to building on in future years.”

In other changes Rod Winrow from Garden House Design takes on the role of vice chairman and Neil Fisher from Hambrooks joins the committee. They join existing committee members who are David Sewell (The Garden Makers), James Steele-Sargent (Arun Landscapes), Paul Baker (Holland Landscapes), Claudia de Yong (Claudia de Yong Designs), Roger Gladwell (RG Landscaping), Stephen Moody (Frogheath Landscapes), Richard Barnard (Hillier Landscapes) and Julian Ransom (4^th Corner Landscaping).

Many thanks to Futurescape and ProLandscaper for hosting the APL Annual Review meeting.