Richard Newcombe

Nominated by: Buckinghamshire Council

Richard Newcombe has lived in Buckinghamshire for 36 years. He represents Wendover, Halton and Stoke Mandeville Ward on Buckinghamshire Council, where he is Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee. He has been a local authority nominee on the Chilterns Conservation Board since he was first elected to Aylesbury Vale District Council in 2017.

Richard is a retired criminal lawyer whose career in the Crown Prosecution Service was mainly spent in Northwest London and the Thames and Chiltern Areas. This has given him a good knowledge of the whole of the AONB.

He is particularly interested in planning. He sits on two of the Buckinghamshire planning committees. In particular he is interested in using planning to defend the AONB against illegal, unnecessary and inappropriate development, whilst recognising that the Chilterns have to evolve over time, as they always have in the past.

As Vice-Chairman of the Wendover and Villages Community Board, he believes that by co-operation between them local authorities and the Chilterns Conservation Board can do much to tackle and address issues such as biodiversity, climate change, economic prosperity and the pressures and opportunities of tourism.