Members - Independent Members

Born on a small farm in Llanaelhaern, he was educated at Pwllheli Grammar School, Coleg Glynllifon and Seale Hayne, a faculty of Plymouth University. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Farm Management (CDFM Seale Hayne) and a NDA (National Diploma in Agriculture) together with a N.C.A. dist.

Having worked as a veterinary technician for a number of years, he subsequently bought a farm in 1974 and he added other holdings to it to make it economically viable as time elapsed. The main farm enterprise is milk production from a traditional dairy herd and beef cattle and sheep are also kept.

He is married to Eleri and they have three grown up sons and two grand daughters to date.

His interest has revolved around his community and especially young people and children. He has held the Chair of the Young Farmers Federation in Wales and the Llannor Community Council amongst numerous other voluntary and public bodies. He was one of the instigators of “Governors Wales”, a body set up to represent school governors in Wales. He enjoys acting with Cwmni Drama Llwyndyrys, and occasionally directing plays.

He is a lifelong member of Plaid Cymru, and was elected to serve on the Gwynedd County Council in 1992. He was elected to serve on Gwynedd Unitary Authority from 1996 to 2008, during which time he served seven years as a deputy leader and leader from 2003. He was also the spokesperson for the environment and planning to the WLGA for four years prior to 2008.

He is passionate about improving the life of children and young people and notes his greatest achievement was to chair the Gwynedd Children’s and Young People Partnership, putting in place a number of innovative ideas such as mainstreaming “the incredible years programme”.

As well as being a newly appointed member of North Wales Police Authority he is chair designate to the North Wales Food and Drink advisory board and a member of the ministerial, National Advisory Board . He also sits as an independent assessor for “Excellence Wales”, a national programme to promote improvement and good practice in Local Authorities throughout Wales.