New Broads Authority Member Appointment
A former Norfolk high school geography teacher has been appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to serve on the Broads Authority for four years from 1 April 2009.
Mrs Sholeh Blane replaces Norfolk farmer and sailor Simon Daniels who has served for ten years.
Mrs Blane, who lives in Dereham, taught at Costessey High School where she spent some time as head of the geography department and deputy director of the sixth form. Here she promoted the Broads as a topic for the GCSE coursework, leading her students on field trips to learn about the special nature of the environment. She is also a governor of Northgate High School in Dereham.
“Education is so important,” she said. “Children absorb and soak up everything you teach them. If you bring them up with the ethos of respect for the environment and give them an understanding and appreciation of how to enjoy it without damaging it that’s how they will grow up.
“I am extremely excited about the prospect of making a full contribution to the work of the Broads Authority. I feel passionately about looking after the environment for future generations to enjoy. It’s about conservation, not preservation. The Broads isn’t a museum stuck in a particular point in time. It’s a naturally evolving working environment, an ever-changing phenomenon which needs careful and considered management.”
The daughter of a lawyer, Mrs Blane, who was born in Iran, moved to England with her family at the age of 15. She studied cytogenetics at Birmingham University and worked at the Multi-Faith Resource Unit in Birmingham, representing the Baha’i faith. Her work involved bringing together leaders of different religious and racial groups to participate in education programmes and giving presentations on the work of the unit in Europe and at the United Nations in New York.
“A lot of prejudice is based on ignorance,” she said. “Once you can understand why people do what they do, though you may not like what they do, you can respect it. It’s not until you talk about your differences that you can start a proper dialogue. A dialogue can open up empathy for other people’s interests and you can negotiate and compromise.”
Mrs Blane is married to Dr Ed Blane, Team Leader of the Natural England Eastern Wildlife Team. They have two children aged nine and five and enjoy long country walks and taking boat trips on the Broads to watch the wildlife.
“The children love it and they learn so much by being on the water,” she said. She also loves literature, poetry, theatre and has performed with an amateur operatic society and sung in a choir.
Chair of the Broads Authority, Dr Stephen Johnson, said: We are enormously grateful to Simon Daniels for his service on the Authority for the last 10 years, and sad to have to lose such a valued contributor to our work.
“But we are also delighted to welcome Sholeh Blane to replace him. Her love of the area and her experience in education will, we hope, help the Authority to widen opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the Broads for those of all ages.
The Broads Authority has 21 members. Ten are appointed by the Secretary of State for their specialist knowledge and interest in the area, nine are appointed by the two county councils and six district councils whose boundaries fall within the Authority’s executive area, and two are Navigation Committee members.
23/03/09
