Trustees and Volunteers of Rylands House Community Trust
Simon Gershon
Simon has served on the boards of LESS, Morecambe Bay Community Renewables and Lancaster Green Spaces and is a trustee of the Harmony with Nature Charitable Trust. He helped set up the North Lancashire Community Land Trust in 2012 which in 2017 established a community orchard at De Vitre House, Ashton Road, Lancaster. Simon is a former owner of retail and manufacturing businesses, and manages several rental properties. He is also a fixer with the Lancaster & Morecambe Repair Cafe
Simon has been refurbishing Victorian buildings in Lancaster since 2008, and is currently working on the eco-renovation and extension of a large 1860's house. This includes a building large shared flat for people on low income. Simon's hobbies include long-distance walking and cross-country skiing.
Peter Wiltshire
Peter was born in and grew up in Lancaster, attending Skerton Secondary School, and later working in the music industry. In the 1970s he returned to Lancaster to work in his family’s retail outlets.
He later developed a hobby of renovating properties which grew into a full time business and he formed a company specialising in Barn Conversions and New Build housing between 1988 and 2006. Peter was an NHBC registered developer during this period and at the same time ran his own construction company, called Bay Regeneration. He worked in partnership with Lancaster City Council to create 19 low cost homes in their Conversion for Sale Scheme. In 2006 he moved from construction to property management, and trained as a Commercial Energy Assessor in 2009 and as a Domestic Energy Assessor in 2013.
Peter was appointed Energy Officer for LESS in 2010 a post which he enjoyed until their Home Energy Service closed in early 2016. He has participated in several conferences on Fuel Poverty, has participated in on line debates on Fuel Security, and has twice been invited to participate in all party discussions on Energy Conservation at the House of Commons.
He is the current Chair of Lancaster Vision (Civic Society), Assistant Secretary of the Lancaster Engineering Society and a past president of Lancaster Loyne Rotary Club.
Peter is also company secretary for the land trust.