Find out about the people who run Cartrefi Conwy
Cartrefi Conwy’s Board of Management consists of five tenants, five Council nominees, five independent people and a co-opted member (who is a resident in Conwy County).
Profiles of the members of the Board are attached to this page.
Pam Lonie, Chair of the Board
Pam lives in Abergele and has worked in the housing field for more than 20 years.
She has a keen interest in the development, refurbishment and sustainability of local communities.
She has been a board member of her local NHS Trust and a transfer housing association.
Pam believes the Board is committed to putting the interests of local people first by working together on the improvements to people’s homes and the local communities it serves.
“We are fully committed to meeting the promises that were made to you during transfer but even more than that we are determined to ensure that Cartrefi Conwy is the kind of organisation that tenants want to have as their landlord and people will want and be proud to work for.”
Michael Warren, Vice-Chair
Michael has been a tenant in Llansannan with his wife Julie since 1997. He has worked in IT, as an NVQ assessor and an IT Business Development Advisor for a local college.
He is currently a member of the Conwy Tenants’ Forum and Repairs sub-committee. Living in a rural area, Michael wants to be involved in decisions that affect all tenants, ensuring equality of service.
Michael is also undertaking a Design and Art course in ceramics and is looking forward to producing his own ceramics.
Brian Horton
Brian has been a tenant in Conwy for 27 years and lives in Kinmel Bay.
He has worked in management and engineering and has been involved in projects including tenant participation on the housing transfer consultation.
He is a trustee of the Chester Avenue Community House and is the chair of Conwy Tenants’ Forum.
Brian aims to continue working for tenants to improve the quality of life on estates and throughout Conwy.
Brian Roberts
Brian is a Financial Adviser with an office in Craig-y-Don.
He has lived locally for most of his life and has more than 10 years experience of working with housing associations across North Wales.
Brian was a local school governor for 13 years. He is committed to listening to tenants and working to ensure that the board of Cartrefi Conwy delivers the housing service that meets their needs for generations to come.
Chris Hughes
A former Vice Chair of the Council’s Housing Committee, Councillor Hughes has served on a number of committees and community organisations since being elected as a Councillor for Colwyn Bay in 1995, and County Councillor four years later.
He is a Trustee and Vice-Chairman of the Daniel Cleverley Trust, a founder member of the Colwyn Bay Conservation and Environment Federation and a member of the Colwyn in Bloom management committee, as well as having a range of other roles.
He is also vice chair of Theatr Colwyn Joint Management Committee, serves on the board of Bay of Colwyn Town Management, is a member of the board of the Colwyn Bay regeneration project and is the Governor of two local schools.
Chris is a former Mayor of Colwyn Bay.
Eileen Jones
Eileen has lived in Colwyn Bay since in 1952 and currently lives in a sheltered housing scheme in Rhos on Sea, where she was a warden for more than 12 years.
She was previously employed by two health authorities and also ran her own residential home for seven years.
Eileen is chair of the Rhos Sheltered Housing Tenants’ Association and is a committee member of the Conwy Tenants’ Forum.
She is also a trustee of Conwy Community Transport and serves on the League of Friends for Colwyn Bay Hospital committee.
Ian Jenkins
Ian was born in Rhuddlan, near Rhyl and brought up in Melin y Coed, near Llanrwst. Ian works closely with the Glanrafon Residents' and Tenants' Association in Llanrwst and has been involved in the transfer proposals from the beginning, recognising the benefits it will bring for the area and the whole of Conwy.
All his adult life he has worked on building sites all over England and Wales as a carpenter and joiner, and working for a short period in British Columbia, Canada. Ian is married to Iona and has 3 children, aged 21 to 30. As a young man Ian played football for Llanrwst, Machno and Dolgarrog in the Vale of Conwy League and became Chair of Llanrwst United FC then Chair of the Vale of Conwy Football League for 9 years until it finished in 2002.
Ian shares with his wife an interest in music and they love to visit the North Wales Theatre to enjoy opera, 60's, Big Bands, Dafydd Iwan and Catatonia (from Llanrwst) together with many other Welsh bands. One of Ian's life goals is to learn to dance the tango and visit Patagonia!
Steven Moule
Steven has a long history as an activist, and of working for the community in a variety of roles.
He is committed to working for tenants and is a member of the Conwy Tenants’ Forum.
Has was Founder Member of the organisation Crossroads in Barnsley, where he became the Secretary and Welfare Officer.
Steven, who has been a tenant for more than 20 years, also had a long career in the Army which included two tours of Kuwait.
Sylvia Lavender (Co-opted member)
Sylvia was a tenant for 22 years before buying her home and remains committed to working within her community. She is chair of Tan-y-Lan Community Association in Old Colwyn.
She is a founder member of the Housing Task and Finish Group, a member of Conwy Council’s Housing Strategy Group and the Resident Involvement Strategy Group. Working widely with tenants, as vice chair of Conwy Tenants’ Forum, Sylvia helped develop the constitution and code of conduct of the organisation and has helped attract more than £100,000 in grants from public bodies.
Sylvia has experience of working in customer services and with the elderly and was a supervisor with a national contract cleaning company.
Sylvia was nominated at the Tenant Participation Advisory Services (TPAS) Participation Awards 2008, and came second across Wales, for the Ruth Radley Award for Outstanding Achievement in Participation.
David Chynoweth
David retired in 2004 from his post as Chief Executive of Unversities Superannuation Scheme Limited. He has also had extensive experience in British Local Government at a senior level. In the early part of his career, David was a Housing Accountant for the London Borough of Ealing.
He believes that his financial experience in both the public and private sectors will be of benefit to the Board of Cartrefi Conwy.
David lives in Rhos on Sea and is married with three children.
Clifton Robinson
Clifton worked for a local council and a housing association in London before moving to North Wales in 1988 to become housing manager with Clwyd Alyn Housing Association. He left Clwyd Alyn in 1993 to become housing director with North Wales Housing Association where he spent 10 years. During that time, among other responsibilities, he helped to develop the Association’s approach on tenant participation and community development and is certain that this background will be of particular value as a Board Member of Cartrefi Conwy.
Since leaving North Wales Housing Association, Clifton has been chair of the North Wales Probation Board since 2004; is currently an Inspector with the Health Inspectorate Wales; is a director of North Wales Race Equality Network which he helped to found in 2000; is a board member of the mental health charity Mind Cymru and is one of two founder members of the Cymru Equality and Diversity Consortium which has carried out work with housing associations and local authorities across Wales since 2004. In 2007, Clifton was appointed to the Statutory Wales Committee of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Clifton was also invited by the Welsh Assembly Government in 2008 to join one of 3 expert panels set up to produce a new National Housing Strategy for Wales and is keen that Cartrefi Conwy should also benefit from this role.
Jason Weyman
The new Conwy County Council representative on the board of Cartrefi Conwy is Deganwy councillor Jason Weyman.
The telecommunications expert from Deganwy was elected to the council in May last year and is also a governor of two schools, a parent governor at Ysgol Deganwy and Local Education Authority Governor at Ysgol John Bright.
He was also until recently the Subpostmaster and partner in Deganwy Post Office and Village Stores, in Station Road, Deganwy.
Prior to that he spent 12 years in the Telecommunications Industry and his interests include walking and cycling and he is a keen follower of the fast and furious world of Formula One racing.
He’s even been to Monaco, home of the most glamorous of the Grand Prix and he said: “One of my most interesting experiences in my career in telecommunications was accompanying customers to an exhibition in Monaco.”
He sees his role on the board of Cartrefi Conwy as moving the new company forward in the achievement of its promises.
He added: “I have strong organisation skills and attention for detail and I strive to gain an understanding of the Financial structure of organisations I’m involved in.”
Douglas Leech
The new independent member on the board of Cartrefi Conwy is Douglas Leech.
Douglas is currently a director of two private commercial and residential property development companies and has a long history of working in property development and in the construction arena.
In his spare time Douglas enjoys a round of golf, walking and reading. He enjoys meeting and working with people from all walks of life.
His vision for Cartrefi Conwy is to achieve our stated goals in contributing to the sustainable development and maintenance of local people’s homes and communities and in particular to prevent the de-population of rural areas.
Douglas feels that becoming a member of the board of Cartrefi Conwy allows him the opportunity to employ 40 years experience in the construction and property development field to assist Cartrefi Conwy in achieving its goals and to make a significant impact on the local community by improving housing quality and standards.
Bob Squire
Bob is the elected county councillor for the Eirias ward.
He has a background in private sector housing, having previously been a practising environmental health officer. In the early 1970’s he played a major role in the introduction of open dating on foodstuffs following the disclosure of serious malpractice.
In his spare time Bob enjoys watching rugby, football, horse racing and athletics as well as spending time with his grandchildren, reading books and learning Spanish.
Bob also has a great singing voice and has even recorded a CD on one of several holidays to Ireland. Donations from the CD netted nearly €4000 for two Irish mental health charities.
He wants to see Cartrefi Conwy succeed as a company and realise its ambitions and aspirations.
Ken Stevens
Ken is the elected county councillor for the Penmaenan Ward.
He was, for 22 years, a self employed builder who specialised in housing maintenance, repairs and improvements.
Ken’s main hobbies or interests include paleantology, geology, music and art.
When he was growing up, the Beatles were frequent visitors to the family home in Liverpool. Ken’s older brother was good friends with them.
Ken wants to be part of Cartrefi Conwy to see the quality of the housing stock improve and with it the quality of life for our tenants.
Andrew Bowden, Chief Executive
Andrew is very pleased to be appointed Cartrefi Conwy’s first Chief Executive and believes he has been given a fantastic opportunity to drive forward the much needed improvements to tenants’ homes that will deliver, by 2012, the Welsh Quality Housing Standard to all of Cartrefi Conwy tenants.
“I am a firm believer in tenant empowerment and will take personal responsibility in ensuring Cartrefi Conwy has tenant aspirations as its heart and that all tenants are given every opportunity to participate in the activities of Cartrefi Conwy.
I would want everyone who considers themselves able to add value to Cartrefi Conwy to feel free to contact me directly to discuss how they can get involved in ensuring this new company is a real success, keeps its promises to tenants and forms a valued partnership with Conwy County Borough Council.”
Tony Deakin, Director of Finance
Tony has worked in social housing for 18 years, most recently as head of finance for Wrekin Housing Trust, another housing transfer organisation established in 1999.
Tony has previously been a board member with another large scale voluntary transfer organisation.
He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s (CIPFA) registered social landlord panel and has delivered training for Board members and contributed to their newsletters and bulletins.
Tony’s duties with Cartrefi Conwy will be Business Planning, Financial Management & Information Computer Technology.
Gwynne Jones, Director of Operations
Gwynne Jones joined the Cartrefi Conwy team as Operations Director in July 2008, coming from Cymdeithas Tai Clwyd where he had been Director of Housing for the previous 10 years.
My role is to lead and manage the Housing and Property teams to deliver the property improvements and tenant services as promised in the Council’s Housing Transfer Proposal.
I believe that being part of Cartrefi Conwy is an opportunity for making a real difference in peoples lives not just in the fabric of the homes but by building community spirit and ensuring that our estates are places that tenants feel proud of.
It is also an opportunity to empower tenants to take an active part in the direction of a new organisation through creating a real partnership between Cartrefi Conwy and our tenants.
