Voluntary Directors

Alex Spofforth BA FCA

Alex is a partner in a leading firm of Chartered Accountants Spofforths LLP, working from their Chichester office, and leading their IT team.
Alex has recently finished a long term as Chairman of the South East District Technical Advisory Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW), which entailed review and commentary on technical accounting and auditing developments. This included being on an ICAEW working party for guidance on Environmental Issues in the Audit of Financial Statements.
His client base is wide spread across Sussex and London, having worked in the City and the West End, and covers property and media businesses in particular, alongside a portfolio of charity and family group clients. He is 47 and is married to a Chemistry teacher and has three children.

Bill Cutting

Bill has spent much of his working life in the Water Industry. He trained as a Civil Engineer, working in water supply, sewage disposal and flood defence. He worked on the construction of Bewl Water, the large impounding reservoir near Tunbridge Wells and on rebuilding the sea walls as part of the Thames Barrier Project. During the latter part of his career he became Managing Director of Southern Water Services, based in Worthing. Bill became interested in recycling and waste reduction (particularly using composting to reduce the amount of food that finishes up in the dustbin) and is now committed to reducing packaging and other unnecessary items that only serve to fill our waste bins. Bills contribution to Better Tomorrows aims to help us all reduce waste, reduce our use of natural resources and reduce our carbon footprints.

Jan Sander

Jan studied engineering in Sweden followed by later academic studies in the UK (Open and Sussex Universities). He worked in electrical engineering for several years, then moved to computers and information technology. That work led to Quality Assurance as a QA Manager for a large international computer services company responsible for ensuring suitability of working practises to meet the critical customer requirements. He has worked in the UK, Europe and Africa.
An active member of several local environment organisations, Jan’s interest in waste started when he joined West Sussex County Council’s Community Interest Group representing the local Friends of the Earth. He aims to bring a broad, holistic , systems approach to Better Tomorrows CIC, working to reduce West Sussex waste and its detrimental effects.

Ashley Ralston

I have been involved with the Community Involvement Groups since their inception in 1997 and live in Shoreham-by-Sea. I am married with 2 children and have been retired for nearly 5 years from my job as a chemical engineer in the pharmaceutical industry. I am actively involved with social justice issues, hence my passion for the environmental concerns and the footprint we are leaving behind. Conservation of our resources is fundamental to the well being of this planet and why I believe that the way we manage our waste is a key to our own sustainability.

Tak Fan Chan

Tak lives in Crawley with his wife and 2 young boys. He moved to Sussex in 1993 after completing his research in industrial wastewater treatment at Newcastle.
He is currently working for a leading global engineering, consulting and construction firm as a process engineer specialised in wastewater treatment and advance treatment technologies. Work and conferences take him to countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Recently he completed the course as one of the Waste Prevention Advisors in Sussex.
He is actively involved in the life of a local church. In the spare time that he has, apart from being with his family, he likes to sail in the summer and stay warm in winter.

John de Mierre

First elected to the County Council in May 2005, John has lived in Haywards Heath for over 30 years. He is a partner in a Marketing, Design, and Public Relations company which he helped to found in 1990. He is a former Chairman of the West Sussex Sustainability Forum as well as a past Director of the West Sussex Start Up Co, which helps new businesses in the county. He has been active with business organisations locally and nationally and specialised in liaison between local authorities and business.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, he is Chairman of its Home Counties South Region, a member of the Institute's Professional Practices Committee and a member of the President's Panel. 

Ian Jopling

After graduating from Manchester University, Ian served as a navigator for 8 years in the Submarine Service. He was then a company director for 5 years before working a s a consultant on productivity and IT projects across Europe. Ian joined local government in 1992, before moving to Horsham in 1998. He is now responsible for all asects of recycling, waste and cleansing across a district of 205 square miles and 54,000 properties. Ian is a founder member of Better Tomorrows CIC and represents the District and Borough authorities on a number of panels as art of the wider West Sussex waste partnership.

Mike Thair

Mike has worked for Biffa since 1998 in a variety of roles, including Regional Operations Management, Commercial Development and Procurement/Tendering. Mike led Biffa's negotiations for the West Sussex Matierials Resource Managment Contract and following the award of the contract in June this year, is now a Director of Biffa West Sussex Ltd responsible for the delivery of the Mechanical Biological Treatment facility and ongoing management of the contract.

Bill Griffiths

Bill is a farmer by background and qualified with a degree in Agriculture from Harper Adams Agricultural College. In April 2005 Bill Joined Viridor Waste Management Ltd as National Recycling Manager where he has marketing responsibility for a wide portfolio of materials including dry recyclates from Local Authority kerbside collections, bring sites and Household Waste Recycling Sites as well as the organic matierials from composted green, kitchen and residual waste. Bill is Chair of the ESA Organics Working Group and sits on a number of WRAP Organics Steering Groups.

Ronnie Hall

Ronnie Hall is an independent researcher and editor, collaborating closely with Friends of the Earth International (FoEI),the Global Forest Coalition and other environmental organisations. She is also co-Director of Critical Information Collective, a document and image library focusing on the impacts of corporate globalisation on people and the environment. Ronnie helped found and coordinated FoEI’s Trade Environment and Sustainability Program from 1992 to 2007 and coordinated FoEI campaign teams at World Trade Organisation Ministerials, including in Seattle (1999), Cancun (2003) and Hong Kong (2005).