Volunteer Directors
Chris Coates
Chris was part of the original group that set up LESS back in 2007. His background is in the construction industry where he worked as a time-served carpenter and project manager on community based construction projects. He was part of the management team for the ground-breaking Forgebank Cohousing project at Halton. From 2003 t0 2015 he was a Green Party councillor on Lancaster City Council and Lancashire County Council. He currently works as site manager at Halton Mill managed workspace.
Gail Capstick
Gail joined LESS as a director in February 2015. She has been heavily involved in Transition City Lancaster (TCL) from the early days, and has worked collaboratively on a variety of TCL projects, including film festivals, Transition Café events, sourcing local food, and sustainable approaches to death and dying.
Gail has an MSc in Leadership and Sustainability from Lancaster University, which involved action research with TCL. Gail also has a MSc in Housing, and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She has worked as a teacher, housing professional and a consultant, including advising on recruitment, training, appraisals, and health and safety audits and policies.
Staff Directors
Anna Clayton
Anna studied Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and, since graduating in 2010, has completed a Permaculture design course, RHS certificate in horticulture and a variety of facilitation and collaborative training. For the past ten years she has worked on a range of community projects with focuses ranging from environmental art, seed saving, heritage fruit tree grafting, wildlife gardening, up-cycling workshops, junk jamming and food growing- both in the UK and abroad. On behalf of LESS, Anna currently coordinates FoodFutures – North Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Partnership and network.
Anna also works part time as a Writer and Researcher and Worker Director at Ethical Consumer Magazine in Manchester, under which role she has co-organised the Lush Spring Prize for environmental and social regeneration.
She also sits on the management committee of Claver Hill food growing project in Lancaster, and sits on the steering group of the Northern Real Farming Conference.
Ellen Pearce
Ellen has a background in leadership and management of charities, having worked in the charity sector for over 15 years. She has also held a number of roles in sports clubs and for national governing bodies.Over past 3 years she has been coordinating FarmStart work in Lancaster for LESS. Undertaking a feasibility study, pilot programme and setting up a local funding scheme for the project.
She also co-chairs the Food and Economy working group for Food Futures -North Lancashire’s Sustainable Food Network . In 2020 she was the coordinator for the first Northern Real Farming Conference, She is co-author of ‘Local authorities in the North West & the Climate Emergency: from Declaration to Action’ written for Gina Dowding MEP, prior to Brexit.