FIRST PERSON: Heather Myers, Abergavenny Food Festival chief

“I WAS born in Liverpool and grew up in Purley in London. My family moved to Southampton when I was 11.

After school I went onto Sheffield Polytechnic and completed a degree in urban studies. I loved it and met a lad from Wales. We were quite an item for a long time and I moved to Wales to be with him.

My first job was at Torfaen council as an assistant planner in 1989. They paid for me to study for a masters degree in town planning part-time at the University of the West of England.

I became a town planner and worked on some really interesting projects.

Most people think of town planning as planning permission and extensions but I became the head of the urban regeneration team identifying areas which could be developed and policies to help that.

I worked there for about 15 years, mostly in deprived communities, looking at ways of regenerating them.

I spent a lot of time with road engineers, traffic engineers, tree specialists and economic development officers looking at ways of creating more vibrant spaces. I was working on the Blaenavon World Heritage site nomination in 2000 and was part of the team putting together case studies and working with the community of Blaenavon so they could understand what the status would mean.

I loved working there. It was a fantastic community and such a nice story in the sense that everyone thought Blaenavon was too insignificant to do anything with so nobody had changed anything in all those years. No big developers had come, no major investment had taken place. It was a community that had literally almost been left as it had been and there is so much of it still there. Now it is one of the major tourist draws of Wales.

The Local Government Act of 2000 meant that local councils had to scrutinise themselves much more closely.

It was a time of change at Torfaen council and it was decided that there needed to be a function of officers who would look into and investigate how well the council was doing against what it said it should be doing.

There was a team of four of us who were brought in to help backbench councillors scrutinise what the cabinet was doing and hold them to account.

It was a new function of the council and was a brilliant job. I loved it. You were asking all the awkward questions, helping councillors understand the workings of the council, poking around in the cupboards looking to check to see what evidence there was – with the whole point of trying to make things better.

From that I was involved in working with the council on the first corporate model. This was quite groundbreaking because before then the council hadn’t really had a plan that worked across the whole council. I was lucky enough to be involved in working on the policy and leading how the council would agree what its top priorities were, which is quite hard when you are trying to get five priorities out of a £250 million budget.

It was an interesting exercise and the fact that I have come from a policy background with my planning was very useful.

Over my career I have done a lot of public consultation workshops, exhibitions and a lot of work with communities to find out what works for them, what doesn’t and asked a lot of questions.

There was a restructure and I headed up all the council services for members and councillors. I managed the elections team through to the mayor and all points in between in terms of every single decision. I managed the minuting of all the meetings, the committee process, the reports and making sure they came in on time from the officers and scrutiny functions.

I had that job until 2011 and the whole issue of cutbacks in the public sector meant that I took a redundancy package.

While I was working out my redundancy, I went back to the planning department for three months so that I could revisit and re-engage with my town planning.

I set up two different companies – a town planning consultancy business called Cloud9 Planning and with my partner, Duncan Anstey, Cloud9 Estates.

I met Duncan while I was at the council and we have been together now for 10 years. I had previously married in 1995 and had two children Ethan, who is now 17, and Hamish, who is 14, but we divorced about 10 years later

Duncan, who is from Monmouth, was studying at Sheffield in the same lectures as me but at that time we didn’t know each other. We met years later at Torfaen council. He can remember me [in Sheffield] but I can’t remember him.

We have a son together, Henry, who is six.

We work together in property development so I do the planning and he does the building. We are a little business, we bought a plot in Christchurch which is where I live.

I also do business management consultancy and am also a chartered manager. I saw an advert for chief executive of the Abergavenny Food Festival and have always loved going to the festival with my family. I thought I would apply, got an interview and started in my post in January last year.

I work three days a week throughout the year along with seven others.

The first year was great but I felt like I was on a galloping horse and was happy that I stayed on. It was utterly overwhelming and terrifying at the same time.

During the festival weekend I like to go around every single venue and site and try to make sure everything is OK and that those involved have what they need. I am the top point of contact and that carries its own stress because the buck stops with you. But again knowing that there is no problem we can’t get around and where to get help is the key. I pitch in wherever I’m needed. I’ve been up ladders, in storage containers and even fixed bits of the festival with nail glue. You just do what needs doing. From the sublime to the ridiculous, every day is different.

This year I felt like I have been able to steer the horse. It’s like a firework because you spend ages planning it and literally ‘bang!’ it’s over in a weekend. Certainly in August and September, the festival needs all of my time. It is all-consuming.

This year we had nearly 32,000 visitors over the weekend with some great guests including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Claudia Roden.

The festival is a not-for-profit organisation, which is really important because it is a community regeneration festival.

I spent 20 years working in the Welsh Valley looking at ways of regenerating communities and the festival is a really brilliant way of undertaking community regeneration.

It showcases Wales, its food and produce. It has been described as trying to create ‘Brigadoon’ because it rises out of the town over the weekend, is the best food market you will ever go to in this country and then disappears back into the ground again.

After the first festival I felt a sense of relief that we pulled it off. You know people will come, but the pressure is in ensuring they have the best time and experience a carnival of food.

I’m now concentrating on the Christmas Food and Drink Fair on December 14. We have over 80 stalls and a range of chef demonstrations, a Narnia-themed children’s workshop and a Christmas musical feast. The fair culminates with a performance from the Abergavenny town band and choir as well as a concert and evening service at St Mary’s Church.

The highlights for me so far have been winning the Best Event in Wales and two Monmouthshire Business Awards. Those mean a lot because they are external validation of what you do.

I am excited about taking such an established event forward. This year we held a night market and an artisan kitchen school. It’s about trying to think of different ideas and I go to other festivals and have a look at what they are doing.

Its purpose is to showcase Abergavenny and Welsh food and to create a place where people have a good time. It’s not commercial or corporate, and the whole reason for us doing this is to try and give the town a sense of place and pride.”

l See abergavennyfoodfestival.com