Paul Smith

Paul has always had a keen interest in nature and his natural surroundings. As a young boy in school he set up his own plant box scheme selling Lupins and Carnations he had grown at home to teachers after all the kids had gone home! He graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1999 with a BSc (Hons) degree in Geophysics (Geology) having funded his way through via a regular and extensive gardening round. As part of his degree he studied geological map making and mapped parts of the Northern Cantabrian mountains in Spain on a field trip.

Paul has always helped his Dad with his allotment from an early age and has a keen interest in growing his own food, having taken on his own allotment in 2015 at a community owned site in West Kirby.

Paul was a founding member of Wirral Pomona, a community group that promotes cider making and apple juice production from surplus local apples. He is also involved as a volunteer at Apple Avenue in West Kirby which is a project planting apple tress as an activity for people in recovery from various conditions. Paul is also involved in the Wirral tree Wardens scheme and regular works at an Orchard in Brimstage that was formerly part of the Lord Leverhulme estate and is now looked after by the Wirral Tree Wardens. He is also involved in activities that take place under the banner of Transition Town West Kirby.

He is interested in sustainable building methods and hopes to project manage the building of a straw bale community building at the allotment site where he has a plot over the next couple of years.

In his day job, Paul has been a civil servant for 15 years and works in Learning and Development. He is a qualified work place coach and is also CIPD qualified in Training Design. Paul is an experienced trainer and facilitator and has delivered many training courses ranging from Investigative interviewing skills to Competency based recruitment training.

He also has an interest in yoga, veganism, cycling, vintage scooters and Northern Soul.

Paul obtained his Permaculture Design Certificate in 2015 having attended the "extensive" course over one year in Bury. He is now looking to work towards his Diploma and also developing as a permaculture design teacher.

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