Stepping down as Chair of the BALI Chalk Fund Charity’s Board of Trustees this September, we wanted to encapsulate the BALI and UK landscape career of Peter Jennins OBE in the Fund’s 50th anniversary year.
BALI personified
Stepping into the landscape industry after first training as a quantity surveyor, Peter’s landscape journey took him from contractor to business owner; BALI member to BALI Chair; BALI Chair to BALI Chalk Fund Chair. He has interwoven his expertise through many strands of the sector and has been pivotal in shaping the industry into what it is today.
Landscape legacy
Receiving BALI Honorary Life Membership in 2021 after having joined the association over 50 years ago, Peter speaks of memorable moments across the decades; from a Buckingham Palace Garden Party, an OBE and the creation of the first Garden Festival in Liverpool in 1984 – all on the back of his endeavours to bring the concept to the UK.
BALI Chalk Fund: The beginnings
Peter’s tenure as BALI Chair began in 1978-1979, by which time he had been instrumental in setting up the National Landscape Awards. In its earliest infancy, he also saw the BALI Chalk Fund momentum begin to grow – supporting training, scholarships and excellence across land-based colleges all over the UK.
Early funding streams were modest, with behind-the-scenes support from BALI and Bernhards Nurseries (Jeffrey Bernhard was the founding Chair). Donations from raffles, collections and fundraisers from annual conferences, golf days, dinner dances and the Awards – a rattle of a tin was often the only rousing call-to-arms! The resulting funds could then be awarded as travel scholarships, encouraging winners to re-invest their learning by sharing their experiences at regional BALI forums.
Landscape luminaries
Peter’s Trustee history has been enriched by landscape luminaries including other Chairmen such as Norman Wilson, Chris Baylis and Bill Sones (Landscape Architect), Professor Rodney Beaumont, John Pearson (Vice Principal at Otley College) and Bill Simpson (Principal at Pershore College, RHS Chelsea judge and one of the founding Trustees of the BALI Chalk Fund).
Since those early days, the BALI connection has been reinforced by the appointment of more recent BALI Chairs as trustees, including Richard Kay (recently retired as a trustee), Richard Gardiner, Nick Coslett, Paul Cowell and Paul Downer. We also have Martyn Mogford, for some years on the BALI Board as Honorary Treasurer, together with Sarah Seery (Former Head of Horticulture and Landscape at Capel Manor College) and Stuart Phillips (Deputy Lead Assessor for Landscape and Horticulture Apprenticeships).
Funding for the future
Fast-forward 50 years and the BALI Chalk Fund team and its supporters are celebrating their half-century milestone in 2025. The Trustees now represent a diverse cross-section of the industry with contractor, education, training, grower and supplier contingents – all with a BALI philosophy close to heart.
This year, the Charity’s fund has been boosted by an exponential increase in financial support from Industry Champions. Mirroring their 50 year anniversary, the Fund’s Champion numbers hit 50 in July. These funds have been put to great use across the land-based training sector, with eight colleges benefiting from grants for enrichment training this year.
In 2024 alone, college grants of around £25K have been available to help landscape, garden design and horticulture students of Level 3 and above bridge the gap between academic learning and practical work-ready skills including spraying, machinery and equipment use – vital for achieving CSCS and unlocking an otherwise closed door to a professional landscape career.
Peter Jennins OBE, BALI Chalk Fund Chair 2013-2025
Peter’s love of business, contract and project management was forged during his ownership of EH Williams Environment Limited in Liverpool where he employed around 50 landscape operatives undertaking commercial landscape projects across the North West. This has driven him forward throughout his time in BALI and as BALI Chalk Fund Chair since 2013.
Whilst there is still a way to go in raising the profile of Landscape as a highly skilled and attractive career choice, Peter is encouraged by GoLandscape as a particular initiative of BALI and supported by the BALI Chalk Fund. He says:
“I have always strived to raise landscape contracting as a separate entity and distinguish it from “building” and “gardening” – and its status as a strong, important stand-alone sector is now established. The lack of availability or funding of the courses the BALI Chalk Fund (BCF) are supporting is concerning, together with, in some cases, the lack also of availability of qualified tutors to test students in house at various colleges. Without BCF’s help in financing these, many students would not have the required skills to be able to undertake some of the basic tasks which may be required of them when trying to find their first gainful employment.”
Highlighting the need for clear, defined and skill-specific training, he continues:
“There is a place for specific and separate training in softworks and hardworks – contract teams who specialise in planting, turfing or grounds maintenance require a very different aptitude and set of skills to those laying paving, erecting fencing and building structures. But I’m encouraged and proud of where the industry stands today – and am extremely honoured to have been able to play my part in promoting the landscape profession and its ongoing development.”
Supporting land-based training
Demand for training – and the support needed to fund it – has never been greater. The BALI Chalk Fund’s Enrichment Programme window will be opening shortly for grant applications for the 2025/2026 academic year. The BALI Chalk Fund Top Student of the Year Award winners for 2024/2025 will shortly be announced after a record year of entrants.
Thank you, Peter
The BALI Chalk Fund, BALI and the future of UK landscaping owes a debt of gratitude to Peter and all the other trustees, past and present, for their formidable drive and determination over the last 50 years within the industry. We think Peter will find it hard not to continue to add his twopenneth as he takes a back seat on the BCF Board of trustees over the next few years!