PROFILE
5 minutes with...
A decade of travel – and work in some of the world’s most challenging locations – has given Peak District National Park Authority member Lydia Slack a new appreciation of the place she has always called home.
I
grew up on a Peak District dairy and sheep farm but, by the age of 18, decided I wanted to get away from the farm to experience another side of life. I spent a year with the charity Project Trust in the Kingdom of Eswatini, southern Africa, which really shaped my outlook and helped me to become more independent. After completing my undergraduate degree in Agri-Business, I thought I wanted to work at the United Nations. I was selected for an internship in the UN Division for Sustainable Development at the UN HQ in New York. It was a good experience to have at that time in my career, as I learned that actually I didn’t want to work in such a large organisation, where you often have quite a lot of distance between the work you do and the beneficiaries on the ground. Since then, I have worked in smaller organisations where you can see the direct benefit of the work, which I find rewarding. I’m currently the UK manager of Busoga Trust, a water, sanitation and hygiene charity, which constructs and rehabilitates boreholes and wells in Uganda. Clean water, good hygiene and sanitation is something we take so much for granted – and we often only think about it when something goes wrong. I moved back to the Peak District in 2019 after about 10 years away to be closer to my family and the farm. I had a completely new appreciation for the place and the people and saw an opportunity to bring my background and experience in the environmental and agricultural sectors to the Peak District National Park Authority, particularly in the context of climate change. I feel that the communities who live here, work here and farm here are the backbone of the National Park and key to
any decisions we make. It is so important that they are valued, supported and considered in all that we do. I really enjoy meeting people and hearing different thoughts and perspectives. One of the most enjoyable parts of my role is working together to reach a shared goal. It seems we live in such a polarised world and rarely have the opportunity to listen and understand why people think differently to us. I’ve found the Authority to be a place to have open and honest discussions, where people bring different perspectives based on their own lived experience. Working with people who share a love of the National Park and give their time to protecting it is a real privilege. My favourite place in the Peak District is the Goyt Valley. It’s close to where I grew up, has a dramatic and diverse landscape and I always discover something new (there’s also often an ice cream van in one of the car parks!)
Lydia relishes her role, working with others to protect the Peak District National Park.
The least exciting part of my role is all the reading. There’s a lot of paperwork to get through before meetings! People might also be surprised to learn that meetings can go on all day! One online planning committee meeting lasted from 10am until 6.15pm. My advice for getting the most out of the Peak District National Park is that you can never be too prepared. I’m a bit of a worrier, so if it’s overcast and I haven’t packed a waterproof jacket, I’ll spend the whole walk or activity worrying about it raining... Bakewell tart or Bakewell pudding? It would have to be my mum’s Bakewell tart. But I do love Bakewell pudding too. www.peakdistrict.gov.uk
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