Baker Consultants Ltd

We had been invited to tender for a number of contracts in Wales and were keen to have an established contact in the vicinity.

Anton, who lives in Monmouthshire, offered his services and started attending team meetings on 8th June 2009. He now attends by Skype which adds a new dimension to the meetings (on one occasion the camera would not work, so we had Anton’s voice over the wallpaper of the PC which was a black Labrador!).

Anton’s input has already reaped benefits as Baker Consultants now have a number of contracts in Wales.

Download Anton's professional CV at the bottom of the page or click here to read more about our stories.

There is a need for the industry to work closely with Natural England to make sure that their systems are fit for purpose, can be easily implemented and achieve the aims of the legislation – which is to protect those rare and vulnerable species, the law may be complex but it does not mean that the systems which implement the law should add more complexity.

The danger is that an over bureaucratic approach can lead to a backlash against the law, driving species protection underground. If people perceive the law as unjust, the system can collapse.

The agencies responsible for this implementation themselves face challenges: how to ensure that they meet their obligations to the EU, getting the forms fully completed, following their procedures.

We don’t spend enough time together it seems – its hard to find a forum where statutory staff, non-statutory and consultants can spend time together and understand each others’ demands and challenges. Not the managers, the ‘coal face’ staff who do the work.

Tanya joined us a few days after Susan (27th March 2009) and soon realised that her initial time-line for establishing Baker Consultant’s accounting systems needed drastic re-drafting and fast-tracking since Fred and Susan were bringing home won contracts from right across the country.

It didn’t take Tanya long to establish some very efficient and easy to use accounting systems. She now has everything ticking over and manages the flow of contracts with ease.