Council of the Cockburn Association

President – Stephen Jardine

Stephen Jardine is one of Scotland’s best known journalists and broadcasters.

He started his career in radio before joining Scottish Television as a trainee reporter. He then moved to GMTV as Scotland Correspondent and then Europe Correspondent, based in Paris.

In 2000 Stephen rejoined Scottish Television and went on to present a wide range of programmes including documentaries, politics programmes and the flagship news show Scotland Today.

Stephen now works for the BBC presenting “Mornings” on BBC Radio Scotland and the TV political discussion programme “Debate Night” on BBC Scotland.

He also writes for The Scotsman and The Times and hosts a range of conferences and high profile events. He is an ambassador for the organisation Keep Scotland Beautiful and the cancer charity Maggie’s.

We are thrilled to welcome Stephen as our new President and work with him as we celebrate 150 years as an organisation.

Chair –Dr Lesley Martin FRSA MRTPI MCMI

Lesley is an independent strategy and research professional who has held roles as a consultant, non-executive Board member, and community volunteer. She is also a senior examinations invigilator, mentor and visiting lecturer.

Lesley is a qualified town planner with Masters and Doctoral level qualifications in business administration. Until 2016, she held senior posts in local government, latterly with the City of Edinburgh Council’s Economic Development Service. She led and managed strategic development plans, economic strategies, research programmes and performance auditing. Her experience has ranged from corporate-level work in community planning and sustainability, to responsible business and inclusive economic growth.

Lesley’s consultancy work has included research, training, and facilitation of community workshops. Her Board experience includes the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI), where she was a Corporate member of the Scottish Executive from 2017-19. She has contributed to Planning Aid for Scotland as a Board member and volunteer for community development programmes. Lesley is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), serving as an RSA Fellowship Councillor and Council member 2018-20, when she facilitated the Scottish dimension of the RSA’s Commission on Inclusive Growth. She remains active in the RSA, representing them on the Scottish Alliance for People and Places, and supporting the RSA’s mission for the betterment of society.

Lesley was invited in 2022 by Cliff Hague, the then Chair, to be co-opted onto the Cockburn Association where she served as a trustee until her election as Chair in 2025.

Vice Chair – Richard Price

Richard Price moved to Edinburgh in 2000 and lived in various areas within the New Town since then.

He is an engineer by profession, having studied at Chemical Engineering at Imperial College in the 1970’s, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hons). After graduating , he joined ExxonMobil, the world’s largest public oil company, in a career that spanned  almost 35 years working in the petrochemical industry in various roles within the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United States. His professional training has provided useful expertise in understanding complex technical information and the ability to assimilate substantial amounts of factual data.  Moreover, during the latter stages of his career, he moved into a business role that involved collaborating with many private companies and public institutions towards a common purpose.

Following retirement in 2013, he became a community councillor for the New Town & Broughton Community Council, initially taking on the planning brief, following the stepping down of a previous long-serving planning convenor.  His living experience in Brussels had stimulated an interest in architecture  and the Planning convenor role within the community council allowed this interest to be extended, albeit with more of a focus on Georgian architecture. He was elected to the role of Vice Chair for the community council in 2016, whilst retaining the Planning Committee convenorship.

He has been actively involved with the many significant planning applications and pre-consultations over the past 10 years across the New Town and city centre. In addition, he was the community council representative in the coalition formed to oppose the ill-fated Royal High School (“RHS”) hotel proposals which were refused following a Scottish Reporter Inquiry.

He has submitted numerous representations for the community council  on behalf of the local community on the many Edinburgh city centre developments over the last 10 years, successfully liaising with heritage bodies and also with many developers in pre-consultations and providing comprehensive representations on many applications reflecting the views of the wider community.

As a local resident he is fully committed to continue to work with others to protect, preserve and promote all that is valuable and unique in the landscape and heritage of Edinburgh.

Richard was elected to Council at the May 2023 AGM.

Richard was appointed Interim Chair of Council in October 2024.

Dr Bill Moyes

Bill is the current Chair of the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB), which provides financial assistance to people who cannot fully fund the costs of legal action. SLAB also plays a major role in advising Scottish Ministers on the development of legal aid policy and processes.

His previous Chair roles have included the Accounts Commission for Scotland, the Gambling Commission, the General Dental Council, the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts (“Monitor”), the Boards of Governors of Heythrop College (a constituent college of the University of London) and of St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh.

His non-executive board directorships have included the Priory Hospital Group, the Legal Services Board, the Office of Fair Trading, membership of  the Council of the University of Surrey and chair of its audit committee; and being a trustee of the Catholic Trust of England and Wales.

His executive career included a range of Civil Service policy-making roles in Whitehall, including the Economic Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, and in various departments of the then Scottish Office; Head of Infrastructure Finance in the Bank of Scotland and Director-General of the British Retail Consortium.

Bill was educated at Edinburgh University, where he completed a Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry. He is a member of the Cockburn Association and the Grange Association. and was elected to the Cockburn Council in May 2021. Bill is Hon. Treasurer of the Association. He is married with one adult son, and lives in The Grange.

Professor Richard Rodger

Richard is Professor of Economic and Social History at Edinburgh University. He has published widely on the economic, business and urban history of Britain since 1800. His book The Transformation of Edinburgh: Land, Property and Trust in the Nineteenth Century was awarded the Frank Watson Prize for works on Scottish history.

Ongoing research involves projects on the development of public health in Victorian Scotland, and a study of Edinburgh trusts as part of a comparative analysis of legal and institutional factors affecting the trajectory of urban development. This research strand began while undertaking MA and PhD degrees in Economics and Economic History at Edinburgh, and continued during appointments at Liverpool, Kansas and Leicester Universities, where Rodger was until recently Professor of Urban History and Director of the East Midlands Oral History Archive. As author and editor, Rodger has published 16 books, and over 100 articles and chapters; he was General Editor for a series of 40 books under the title of Historical Urban Studies, and was Editor of Urban History, published by Cambridge University Press, between 1987 and 2007.

Richard was an Appointed member of Council.  He was elected to Council at the May 2023.

Peter Williamson

Peter was born in Edinburgh. A graduate from the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen he undertook an academic career between 1980-1991 working in the fields of politics, public policy, and health policy and management, latterly as Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Policy and Management in the Medical School at Aberdeen University.

In 1991 he was appointed Director of Strategy and Performance Management with Grampian Healthcare NHS Trust where he developed services with local authorities and third-sector organizations. He moved to NHS Tayside in 2000 as Director of Strategy where he led community planning and the provision of health and well-being services. He also chaired and organised the national NHS Directors of Planning group from 2012 to 2014 which had a liaison role between NHS Boards and the Scottish Government regarding national planning.

In 2011 he was seconded to the Scottish Government’s Health and Social Care Directorates to act as lead for health innovation across the government in support of ministers, initiating the first Government strategy in this area.

Since 2017, he has become  involved the local community organisations setting up and chairing the Picardy Place Residents’ Association. In October 2019 he became a member of the New Town & Broughton Community Council and subsequently became the convenor of its Environment Committee before becoming chair of the Community Council in 2023.

Alongside engagement with community groups Peter is an author witing books on politics and history.

As a local resident he is fully committed to working with others to protect, preserve and promote all that is valuable and unique in the landscape and heritage of the city and in particular to address the deterioration in the streetscape and fabric of public spaces in the City Centre and the hollowing out of communities particularly because of problems of housing provision.

Annick Gaillard

Annick Gaillard is a Computer Scientist with nearly 30 years of experience. She’s designed and built multiple systems for various major companies around the world. More recently she has worked in Finance and Investments, but her other sector experience includes Telecommunications, Energy and Manufacturing.

Annick has lived, studied and worked in many parts of the world, in cities of diverse sizes and invariably rich in heritage history. She moved to her current city centre address on the edge of Edinburgh’s World Heritage Site in 2007, and her ties with the mixed-use area that she has been living in have only grown stronger over the years.

She has been active in local matters and developed an expertise in Planning and Building Standards, Civic Licensing and Environmental Heath, and more recently Alcohol Licensing. She joined the New Town & Broughton Community Council in June 2021 and started convening its Licensing Committee in February 2022.

She also joined the Edinburgh Licensing Forum in September 2022, where she acts as vice-convenor. She’s made a number of presentations to the City of Edinburgh’s Development Management Sub-Committee, the Scottish Reporters (when responding in writing to Planning appeals), and Edinburgh Licensing Board.

Personal drive and ability to navigate quickly through complex information and processes, and positively influence stakeholders at all levels and from all backgrounds, are her key trademarks.

Annick was elected to Council at the May 2023 AGM.

Eric Dawson

Eric Dawson is a qualified architect (BArch Hons, Dip Arch) and qualified planner (MURP with Distinction) with over 30 years’ experience in public and private practice in the UK and abroad. He was appointed as a design adviser to City of Edinburgh planning authority where he worked on projects and policy development before moving to Architecture and Design Scotland where he managed the Design Review and Sustainable Placemaking programmes.

He was part of the team that developed the Place Standard and was seconded to Planning Aid Scotland (PAS) to assist their charrette / workshop activity with local communities. Eric joined the Scottish Government’s Planning and Architecture Division to help take forward the planning reform agenda and was a core member of the team that produced the National Planning Framework (NPF4).

Eric was coopted onto Council in August 2024.

Harry Nimmo

Harry Nimmo has a career in the investment industry both in the UK and internationally. He was the manager of the abrdn UK Smaller Companies Growth Trust plc for 21 years and has a strong familiarity with the workings and structures of plc boards.   Harry spent the early years of his career as a Land Surveyor working both in the UK and Saudi Arabia mainly on infrastructure projects and oil in & gas construction.   He studied geography and graduated with an MBA from the University of Edinburgh before joining Standard Life.  Also, Harry was appointed Honorary Consul of Finland in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen in 2013.

Harry was coopted onto Council in June 2024.

Fred Mackintosh KC

Fred Mackintosh is an advocate. He was called to the Scottish Bar in July 2000 and took silk in September 2019. He is also practices in England. The primary focus of his practice is Criminal Appeals and Human Rights, Extradition, Public Law, Judicial Review, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. He represented the Cockburn Association and the Coalition of Objectors at the public inquiry into the hotel proposals at the Old Royal High School in 2018.

He studied Geography then Law at the University of Edinburgh. Between 1999 and 2007, he was a City of Edinburgh Councillor, representing the Newington Ward as a Scottish Liberal Democrat. During this time, he was the Convenor of the South Edinburgh Local Development Committee and for six years was the Liberal Democrat Transport Spokesperson on the Council. Fred was also Director of EDI Group Limited from 2001 to 2007, a standalone development company owned by the City Council.

Currently, he is Senior Counsel to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry chaired by Lord Brodie in respect of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow.

Fred also has extensive experience outwith the Bar. He is a Senior Teaching Fellow, University of Edinburgh Centre for Professional Legal Studies; an External Examiner at the University of Glasgow; an Examiner for the Law Society of Scotland and is the Convenor, Meadows Festival.

Katrina Walker

Katrina Walker has lived and worked in Edinburgh for almost 30 years and brings a deep appreciation for the city’s character, heritage, and evolving story. She currently works in the private rented sector as co-owner of a well-established local letting agency, with a strong focus on thoughtful service, trust, and attention to detail. This role gives her daily insight into how people live in the city and how policy decisions, planning, and development impact residents and neighbourhoods at a practical level.

She has a longstanding interest in architecture, civic life, and community engagement. Originally arriving in Edinburgh to study Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh, she was drawn to the work of the Cockburn Association through a desire to better understand the decisions that have shaped the city and to contribute meaningfully to its future. She is particularly interested in public awareness and advocacy and in using clear, accessible communication to engage more people in the issues that affect Edinburgh’s landscape, liveability, and legacy.

Katrina was co-opted onto Council in July 2025.