The KALC Award 2025 - Alan Ford

At our recent Annual Parish Meeting, we were proud to present the Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC) Award posthumously to Alan Ford. The KALC award celebrates individuals who have made a significant contribution to their community - and this year, councillors voted unanimously to recognize Alan for his wonderful dedication to protecting wildlife and the countryside in Speldhurst Parish over many years.

With the sad news of Alan’s passing, his award was accepted on his behalf by his friends and fellow members of the Parish Council’s Environment Working Group - John, Ed, and Ken (pictured, from left).

A longstanding member of our Environment Working Group, Alan played a leading role in our biodiversity project at Pocket Park, Speldhurst. With his guidance, we left an area of grass to grow each summer, and 3 growing seasons later, we have seen many new species of plant and animal life emerging, indicating that the rewilded area is returning to its native ‘meadow’ state. During this time, Alan regularly inspected the park, flagging new species and explaining what they meant for biodiversity. He photographed everything (his photos were always beautifully shot) and helped us build an archive. It’s a wonderful piece of natural history, providing an invaluable snapshot of the changing state of the land from year to year, and we couldn’t have done it without him.

Alan was always generous with his time and expertise, explaining the best way to do things so we could be sure of genuinely investing parish money for the good. Last year, he helped install bird and bat boxes at Pocket Park, showing us the best places to attach them to attract all sizes of birds and bats. His tireless enthusiasm also saw him get up at 5 am to inspect moth traps he had laid the night before, and what he didn’t know about moth markings wasn’t worth knowing!

No doubt many of you have warm memories of Alan too; from his must-read wildlife column in both Speldhurst and Langton village magazines to his involvement with the Speldhutrst Flower, Vegetable and Craft Show, he was such a vital part of local life. For our part, we just wanted to say: Alan, for all you did – THANK YOU!