College Centre for Agricultural Innovation opened by CLA President

The recently established Bishop Burton Centre for Agricultural Innovation received a boost today as its official home, a newly built suite of offices, classrooms and research units on the Bishop Burton College campus in East Yorkshire, was opened by the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president William Worsley.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and lives at Hovingham, North Yorkshire, where he runs a family business involving farming, forestry and residential and commercial property in Hovingham, North Yorkshire.

He is also a non-executive director of the Skipton Building Society and The Brunner Investment Trust plc.

He was invited to open the new building by College principal Jeanette Dawson.

She said: Its extremely beneficial for our students to meet industry representatives such as president of the CLA, who can offer advice, encouragement and provide inspiration.

William Worsley is a fantastic character, and a great advocate not only for Yorkshire, but for rural England and all that includes, and our learners and staff feel privileged to have met and spent time with him it is something they will remember for a long time.

The Colleges Centre for Agricultural Innovation has been established to draw together all strands of land-based research currently carried out by staff and students at the College as Mrs Dawson explains:

We hope that by establishing a Centre such as this, the results of valuable applied research can be used, built upon and promoted effectively to the betterment of agricultural and allied industries.

William Worsley was impressed the Colleges facilities and the students he met during his visit, which included a tour of the campus and the chance to meet some of the Colleges agriculture degree students, who spoke to him about their dissertation projects and their plans for the future.

He said: Im hugely impressed by the immaculate campus and how everything is so beautifully organised. The investment has clearly been used wisely and the improvements are wonderful.

The idea of the Centre for Agricultural Innovation is a brilliant one. Both the idea and the building are very efficiently laid out and the students are clearly engaged. Im very encouraged by the quality of the dissertations.

Im also encouraged by their engagement with commercial enterprises and the sponsorship they have obtained, its impressive that these businesses are so on board with it, and that the students are able to approach organisations with their ideas and get such positive responses.

Its really important to the CLA that young people are engaged with land management and agriculture, and we have recently launched a student membership to encourage this.

William Worsley, President, CLA

William Worsley is a businessman, farmer and forester. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and lives at Hovingham, North Yorkshire, where he runs a family business involving farming, forestry and residential and commercial property. He is also a non-executive director of the Skipton Building Society and The Brunner Investment Trust plc.

After attending the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, William qualified as a Rural Chartered Surveyor, practised as a land agent, and ran his own property development business, before taking over the management of the family business.

He is a former chairman of the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Joint Advisory Committee and is a former member of the North York Moors National Park Authority and the Forestry Commissions Advisory Panel.

William feels passionately about the countryside and the rural economy. His determination that the rural voice should be heard led to his involvement with the CLA. He has been actively involved in the CLA for around 20 years and previously served as the Associations Deputy President and Vice-President and has chaired the Board and the Policy Committee.

He is passionate about forestry and his woods at Hovingham have won many awards for forestry and conservation.  Williams other interests are art and architecture and he is a keen collector of pictures.