One Voice Wales Staff

Lyn has financial and operational responsibility for running One Voice Wales as the national representative body for Community and Town Councils in Wales.  

Prior to taking up his current post he had 19 years’ experience of local government and the housing sector in Southeast Wales.  

Lyn is a Geography graduate and holds posts graduate qualifications in Housing, Business Administration and Leadership.  

He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.  

He has held a variety of roles on Welsh Government Advisory bodies since joining One Voice Wales including the Ystadau Cymru Advisory Board, National Assembly for Wales Nature and Us Advisory Panel, Wellbeing of Future Generations Technical Advisory Board, Ministerial Town Centre Regeneration Action Group, Section 6 Environment Act Working Group, Wales Community Resilience Forum, Diversity in Democracy Advisory Board, Ministerial Advisory Forum on Ageing and more recently Community and Town Councils Digital Health Advisory Group.  

Lyn is a member of the WISERD Advisory Board and a former Chair of Monmouthshire Community Chest (SPORTLOT) Panel. He is a member of the National Trust and Gwent Wildlife Trust.

Maria joined One Voice Wales as the South Wales Development Officer on 1 March 2022.

Maria lives with her with her family in a small village just outside Newport, South Wales.

During her career she has worked in the private and public sectors.

Initially, Maria worked for a number, of years, in the insurance sector before joining a Local Authority where she worked in insurance and risk management. She left to focus on family matters before commencing work in the local community as Clerk for a Community Council and a separate charity.

Whilst continuing to work as a clerk, Maria completed the ILCA (Introduction to Local Council Administration) course the CiLCA (Certificate in Local Council Administration) qualification.

Maria says “It has been an important time to join One Voice Wales due to the changes being brought about by the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, which provides for the establishment of a new and reformed framework for local government elections, democracy, performance, and governance. This will obviously present challenges in adapting to the changes of the new framework.”

One Voice Wales will be leading on these changes with Community and Town Councils. Maria looks look forward to meeting colleagues from other Councils through the course of her work.

Maria is also an important link with commercial organisations and suppliers who support our events.

Each Development Officer supports a network of our Area Committees and is available to give advice to Councils via the Chair or Clerk.

Originally from north Pembrokeshire, Alun was appointed Development Officer for Mid and West Wales in January 2021.

Alun enjoyed a long career in the police service and worked in various roles in all areas of Dyfed and Powys. He also served as Head of Human Resources and Development at police headquarters and Divisional Commander at Ceredigion. He was seconded to the Home Office at London for two years as project manager of the National Crime Recording Standard.

Alun graduated from the Open University in Sociology and Psychology and became an accredited executive coach with the Institute of Learning and Management in 2012. Following his retirement from the police service, Alun worked as Head of International Services for a private construction and mining company in west Africa, being based in Sierra Leone for three years.

Alun was appointed Clerk to Carmarthen Town Council in 2015, a role he undertook for seven years. During that time, he completed the CiLCA (Certificate in Local Council Administration) qualification, and the Council won several One Voice Wales national awards.

Alun and his wife have lived on the outskirts of Carmarthen for many years. They have four grown up children.

Each Development Officer supports a network of our Area Committees and is available to give advice to Councils via the Chair or Clerk.

Catrin has over 30 years’ experience of working in Higher Education institutions in Wales, including academic and administrative work at the highest level of governance, management and quality assurance.

Catrin’s work experience has been very varied. She has extensive management experience and is fluent in the Welsh language.

Catrin is our all-Wales lead on policy. She is responsible for liaising with Community and Town Councils, organising and running engagement events and developing responses to Welsh Government and stakeholder consultations.

Catrin also enjoys a second role as part-time Clerk to Criccieth Town Council. Her management role within one of the most innovative and responsive Councils in Wales puts her in a strong position to support the work of One Voice Wales and the Community and Town Council sector as a whole.

Catrin’s previous experience includes spells as a Special Adviser on Strategic Governance and Collaboration Strategic Alliance between Aberystwyth University and Bangor University, Registrar and Secretary of Aberystwyth University and Academic Registrar Bangor University. Her extensive experience in the academic sector includes a role as Head of Planning Bangor University and other teaching and post-graduate learning, especially in the field of geography.

In 2024, the National Eisteddfod appointed Dr Catrin Jones as its Secretary following an open recruitment process. Catrin is the first woman to serve as Secretary and will play a key role in ensuring that the charity is effectively governed.

Wendi joined the One Voice Wales team in April 2014 as an Administration Officer.

Part of her role includes the One Voice Wales training programme for Community and Town Councillors.

As the demand for training has gradually increased, this has become the main part of her role.

Wendi’s work background is very varied.

She qualified in Hotel, Catering and Institutional Operations and worked for many hotels, as Front Desk staff, Night Auditor and then, when she moved back to Wales, a hotel sales team in Swansea.

Wendi then worked for a catering company as a Temp Controller, a stressful but rewarding position, before she transferred to another arm of the parent company as Management Support.

Following the birth of her daughter, Wendi filled-in for the Stock Controller at a local company where she was kept on and fulfilled further roles in sales and administration whilst continuing with her Stock Controller role – another interesting role as she was occasionally able to try her hand at basic manufacturing amongst other things.

From there Wendi began working for a scaffolding company with no administration staff in place. She developed an administration system and trained subsequent employees within the organisation.

Wendi enjoys music and singing. She loves her snakes and tattoos and will probably not be seen with the same hair colour, or style, more than a few times!

Emyr joined One Voice Wales in January 2022 as the Pembrokeshire Community & Town Councils Project Officer.

Having worked in Carmarthenshire County Council’s Regeneration Department for over 10 years and then as a Senior Project Officer at PLANED on the Arwain Sir Benfro LEADER Programme between 2016 and 2021, Emyr brings considerable experience in areas such as community regeneration, fundraising, working on European funding programmes, project monitoring and audit.

Emyr is a Pembrokeshire-born fluent Welsh speaker and promotes the sharing of best practice and community networking.

An element of his role in supporting Pembrokeshire Community & Town Councils was to encourage Youth Engagement opportunities and facilitate community activities, including digital project ideas and Community Asset Transfer projects. He helped Councils raise awareness of what Community and Town Councils do, raised awareness of how to become a Councillor and helped guide residents on how to raise ideas and issues with their Council.

Emyr is now the Communications and Social Media Officer with One Voice Wales. He works closely with our Development Officers to identify exemplars of best practice and case studies within the Sector, and identifies opportunities to collaborate with partners geographically or thematically.

Having served as a Community Councillor himself for 10 years, Emyr hopes that his experience and knowledge can be used to help support Community and Town Councils across Wales, to develop new project ideas, raise the profile of local councils and encourage younger people to get involved in democratic and decision-making activities in their area.

Tracy lives in Ammanford where our office is based. She is coming up to 20 years working for One Voice Wales.

Tracy started as a part time administrator in November 2004 and worked her way up to Office Manager. She has varied roles within the organisation including the day to day running of the office to financial management which includes the accounts, processing salaries, the majority of purchasing and organising the main One Voice Wales conferences.

Tracy has over 35 years’ experience in administration including working for a Plastic Injection Moulding Company a PVC Window Company and a Monumental Masons. Tracy believes that none of her previous jobs have been as interesting, varied, manic and at times stressful as working for One Voice Wales but she loves it!

Tracy and her partner Antony and have a little fur baby Bobs that they spoil rotten. He’s a papillon who thinks he’s a rottweiler. They are currently renovating a little freedom caravan ready for the three of them to explore Wales.

David joined the One Voice Wales team in January 2024. He supports our internal governance structure and is responsible for developing policy practice guidance which will be of great value to Councils.  

David brings a wealth of local government and Third Sector experience to the role of Governance and Policy Practice Development Officer. David enjoyed a long career with both Cardiff and Newport City Councils, working in areas such as committee administration, policy development and legal services.  

The local government modernisation agenda saw David develop into the role of Chief Scrutiny Officer, where his analytical skills helped deliver solutions to a range of strategic and operational challenges. 

In 2012, David became Clerk to the Council at Cwmbran Community Council, before transferring to Radyr & Morganstown Community Council in 2022.  

David said, “I believe that my experience as a Clerk to local Councils of different sizes across South Wales will help me provide a quality service to One Voice Wales and its members. My wider understanding of the Welsh social, political, economic, and cultural landscape will also help us identify and disseminate best practice across the sector.”  

Away from the workplace, David has volunteered with the charity Christian Aid for many years and brings his understanding of the voluntary sector to his role at One Voice Wales. David is also a season ticket holder at Cardiff City FC and has written several books on football and other topics. These days he is a regular in the press box where his colourful match reports describe the fortunes of our Welsh football teams.

Paul is currently the Deputy Chief Executive and Resources Manager of One Voice Wales and is the lead officer on developing and managing the implementation of the Councillor training programme in Wales and managing its financial resources. 

Following a successful career in local government, Paul commenced a career with the Probation Service in 1981 serving in a range of roles including Assistant Chief Officer (Support Services) and Director of Human Resources and Business Development. During the period up to his early retirement in March 2008, he was Acting Chief Executive for the South Wales Probation Area in the year ending March 2003. During this period of acting up, Paul served as a member of the Local Criminal Justice Board and the Wales Forum of Chief Officers and Board Chairs.  

Paul is a graduate in public administration, a chartered member of the Institute of Personnel and Development; a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management; and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Sector Management.  

He has a wide range of experience across all aspects of human resource management and strategic planning gained through membership of the Ministry of Justice’s National HR Strategic Board and National Business Development Group; serving as Vice-Chair of Skills for Justice (Wales Regional Group); and through participation in a wide range of regional and national criminal justice groups in the fields of personnel and training and development.  

In his final year prior to early retirement, he was instrumental in assisting the South Wales Probation Board become one of the six first Wave Trust Boards in England and Wales.  

Since 2008, Paul has practiced as a freelance HR consultant; headed up the HR function at Seren Housing Group; worked as Clerk to the Corporation at Coleg Glan Hafren; and served as a member of the Welsh Government’s Employment and Skills Board for several years.  

He has been active in the field of local council administration for many years and has been the Clerk to Llandough Community Council for over 40 years. He is currently the Deputy Chief Executive for One Voice Wales and is the lead Consultant in the field of HR and governance.  

Paul is CiLCA qualified and has been engaged by the SLCC as a CiLCA trainer. He has significant experience of undertaking disciplinary and grievance investigations as part of his former role in the probation service, for community and town councils and for a range of charitable organisations and educational establishments.  

Paul has served as a board member on a number of charities and is currently a Chair of a Charity in the RCT area.