Our Directors

Howard Boardman MBE

Howard has a lifelong connection with the outside and with fishing and field sports in particular. He spends the majority of his time to help improve the chalk streams in Hampshire and raise money for local charitable causes.

Originally from Bolton in Lancashire, Howard joined the Royal Air Force at the age of 17 in 1968 to train as an Aeronautical Engineer.  He spent the next 20 years serving on different RAF units in Germany, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, when he left as a Squadron Leader and moved to Hampshire, where he has lived ever since. He was awarded the MBE in 1983 for his services during the Falkland Islands war.

After leaving the RAF, he worked in the computer industry as a Programme Director managing large, global, IT infrastructure programmes for multi-national companies such as British American Tobacco, Anglo American Mining, Universal Studios and lesser known global giants such as Syngenta, as well as trouble-shooting complex IT programmes for major corporations.

He retired in 2011 and now spends time raising money for a local charity, working as a volunteer River Keeper for Portsmouth Services Fly fishing Association on the River Itchen and also as a volunteer with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust on their Watercress & Winterbournes Project, focused on improving the headwaters of 2 of Hampshire’s most iconic chalk streams – the Rivers Test and Itchen.  He has trained a team of over 50 volunteer ‘Citizen Scientists’ carrying out invertebrate sampling and Water Quality testing on the Upper Itchen in and around Alresford and helps with the education of the local Community on anything connected with the river through school visits, guided activities associated with the river and as a volunteer at the Alresford Eel House. More recently, he has joined forces with several like-minded people to form the Upper Itchen Restoration CIC, whose purpose is to initiate changes which will improve the Upper Itchen and its surrounding environment.

Dr Martin Burton BSc, MSc, MBA, PhD

Dr Martin Burton is an independent consultant specialising in water resources, irrigation management and institutional development with over 40 years’ experience in some 32 countries.  He has written over 50 papers and is the author of the book 'Irrigation Management: Principles and Practices', and co-author of a book on performance assessment of irrigation and drainage schemes.

He has an international reputation in the fields of water management, performance assessment, benchmarking, asset management and institutional development. Over the last 18 years, Dr Burton has worked primarily as a consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) where he worked on preparing, monitoring and evaluating projects and national and state policy related to water resources and irrigation.  

His most recent work was co-authoring an FAO publication on modernizing irrigation systems in Central Asia and Team Leader from 2020-22 of Phase 1 of the ADB-funded Support for Irrigation Modernization Program which established the framework for modernising irrigation systems totalling some 38 million hectares in India.

During his 15 years at the Institute of Irrigation and Development Studies, University of Southampton, Dr Burton taught irrigation and water resources management, and supervised PhD, MSc and undergraduate research projects. These including several research projects related to Hampshire’s water resources, including two irrigation studies for Vitacress Salads. 

He worked as a volunteer with the Hampshire Water Partnership (HWP) from 2003 onwards and was appointed Chair from May 2007 - June 2008.  He later organised the 6th Hampshire Water Festival in Romsey for the HWP and oversaw the holding of three subsequent festivals at Staunton Country Park in Havant. 

Dr Burton was a Trustee of the Vitacress Conservation Trust, an active member of the Upper Itchen Initiative, and co-founder of the Upper Itchen Restoration CIC.

Graham Flatt

Brought up in various parts of East Africa until secondary schooling and a home life in Hampshire, Graham has a strong affinity to the natural world, with much of his youth spent outdoors exploring streams and venturing through farmland and woodlands. Home was close to the expanding town of Basingstoke, giving him a growing awareness of change in both rural and urban environments.

Combining interests in art, design and the natural world led to a career in Landscape Architecture, a four-year training course in Manchester, followed by work in Landscape practices and with New Town Authorities. After qualifying as a Member of the Landscape Institute, Graham joined Hampshire County Council and spent most of his career within HCC covering a range of responsibilities. These included design projects for Schools, Countryside Services and Highways.  Also, in the Environment Department he was involved in reclamation projects for gravel working and waste site tips and on Planning issues contributed to Public Inquiries including setting out objections to Port development by ABP on the New Forest side of Southampton Water.

In a voluntary capacity, Graham became co-ordinator of Hampshire Conservation Volunteers, Chairman of the South Region and a Council member of BTCV. On retirement from Hampshire County Council, he became a member of the Countryside Access Forum and was chairman for several years. Living in Ropley, his focus has been very much within the activities of the village community, including chairman of the Ropley Society, involvement in the village Appraisal, School Governor, and preparation of the Ropley Neighbourhood Plan. Graham is engaged in Watercress and Winterbournes as a volunteer, adopting the Alre at Bighton Lane as a site for monitoring.

Martin Miles

Martin started his working life in the mid-1970s at GEC Telecoms in Coventry, designing Electronic Telephone Exchanges. He obtained a HND in Electronic Engineering at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University). He was responsible for the successful field trial of the RS22 (a small rural telephone exchange), which went on to be sold all around the world.

Martin changed careers and joined the IT industry as a Computer Service Engineer. He subsequently had a fabulous career as a Customer Service Manager, a Technical Support Manager, an IT Manager and finally an IT Director, working for four American IT Companies. He successfully led technical teams of varied disciplines and locations and managed global outsourcers. He travelled the world and worked with many different cultures, but primarily American.

Martin retired in September 2020.  Born and bred in Coventry, he has lived in South Wonston for 36 years. Married for 48 years, he has 2 sons and 2 grandchildren. He is a dedicated (some would say cursed) supporter of his hometown football club.

Martin has always been a keen fisherman, and fly fishing the chalk streams for Trout, Grayling and Salmon has been a dream come true. But he has seen with his own eyes their increasing deterioration and now he has the time, he is focussed on playing a part in restoring their vitality.

You can read about Martin's mission at https://www.hiwwt.org.uk/blog/hiwwt/tales-riverbank-martins-new-mission.

Nick Walton MSc (Oxon), C.Chem, C.Geol, C.Env, FGS, FCIWEM, FIES

Nick is a recently retired professional Environmental Hydrogeochemist who has worked for nearly 40 years in the global water industry. He has worked in some 30 countries from the deserts of Arabia to the swamps of Africa; from the jungles of Columbia to the depths of Polish coal mines; and from volcanic islands in Korea to offshore oil rigs in the Persian Gulf and North Sea. He has undertaken projects for both UK and foreign Governments, for the World Bank and the United Nations, and a variety of international engineering companies based in the UK, Japan, France, Sweden and the USA.

His work spans both hydrogeological research, interpretative hydrogeochemistry, practical water resource planning and development, water treatment engineering, wastewater recycling, desalination and advanced membrane plant operations, troubleshooting and management, field and laboratory chemical analyses, industrial and contaminated land surveys, counterpart training and latterly, the management and running of the Environmental Science programme of courses at the University of Portsmouth.

Nick has published some 20 international scientific papers, and a variety of UK journal papers, book articles and organised several national scientific conferences on hydrogeological and contamination themes.

Now retired, he volunteers as a water consultant to the Hampshire Campaign for the Preservation of Rural England, and gets involved with the many developing issues of water shortages and contamination in the SE region – especially Chalk Streams and the Test & Itchen rivers. He recently joined the Upper Itchen Restoration CIC as a ‘Citizen Scientist’, helping to integrate some of his knowledge and experience with other Group professionals to assist both in local projects to monitor and aid restoration of the Itchen and Test, and also to help with understanding the complexities associated with Southern Water’s ‘Water4Life’ project and its ‘novel’ desalination and wastewater recycling components, of which he has significant past experience.