In memory of our Chair Matthew Balfour

By Gary Walters, KNP Vice Chair and by the KNP Secretariat at Kent County Council.

We start the year with the sad news that Matthew Balfour, our Chair of the Kent Nature Partnership for the last three years passed away a few days before Christmas.

Matthew was born and brought up on a farm near West Malling and lived in London, Scotland, and other parts of the country before his return to Kent over twenty years ago. As a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Matthew spent his working life in the world of property, involved in agriculture, woodland, commercial property and both property and farm management.

Having settled back in Kent, Matthew became a Local and County councillor and sat on numerous committees which benefitted from his lived experience and wide ranging knowledge.

Matthew was particularly keen on environmental issues and steered the Kent Nature Partnership’s ambitious approach to the Local Nature Recovery Strategy for Kent and Medway. This prepared the way for the Making Space for Nature project for which Matthew was a Board member and actively involved across the last 12 months of meetings and workshops.

Matthew’s efforts to ensure the work of the KNP remained meaningful and real is exemplified by his support for annual field meetings, whereby those involved met at environmental project sites to witness firsthand the outcomes and multiple benefits of working at scale and together with others.

More recently Matthew had joined other Nature Partnership Chairs within the South East Region to ensure a seamless approach across the wider area, itself an example of Matthew’s capacity to both see and engage with the bigger picture.

For Kent Nature Partnership this is a huge loss but work to consult on and publish the Local Nature Recovery Strategy will continue and that those who knew Matthew would know this to be his wish.

I am sure all of you who knew Matthew will agree he was a true advocate for nature and the rural environment. He was also a very kind and supportive man, with a great sense of humour, attributes which benefited all those who met him.

Kent and Medway were fortunate to have him as our Kent Nature Partnership Chair.

2nd January 2025

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