64 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 Vox pop Jennifer Leadbetter Who has been your greatest inspiration? I have been very fortunate to have studied under Katriona Byrne at Birmingham City University. I have met many driven people but never seen anyone so committed to sharing information and teaching with such energy and determination. I felt that anything was possible when I came out of lectures and discussions with Katriona. What has been your best idea? To take the plunge and change my career at 50. I love learning and have spent several years working through degree courses, much to the fascination and sometimes ribbing of my friends. But while working as a planning consultant at Aspbury Planning in Nottingham I had the opportunity to work with their conservation specialist. I realised that the most natural path for me was to link my background in architecture and planning with that of conservation. What would you like to have been if you had not become a conservationist? A portrait artist. The ability to capture a spark of a person’s character has always eluded me, but it is a skill I wish I had pursued. How do you reply when at a party someone asks what you do? I tell them I am a conservation officer and I help people look after some of the most wonderful buildings I have ever seen. What is the biggest frustration in your job? When people think they and their short-term greed are more important than the heritage assets they ‘own’. I know a common perception is that water is the biggest enemy of traditional building fabric, but I believe it is people, either through ignorance or sheer greed. I have sympathy for the former; I was never instructed during my first The Richard Dunn Sports Centre, named after a Bradford boxer who fought Muhammad Ali
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