Jon Mackeen Email and Phone Number

DART International UK is a Volunteer Humanitarian Response Team that is deployed to disaster zones worldwide to improve the welfare of citizens and environments. All proceeds received goes into our training programmes, deployments, and aid missions. Trees are a vital environmental, cultural and economic resource. However, in the wake of natural disasters fallen trees close roads, cause flooding, damage buildings and bring down power lines, invariably delaying the international relief effort.During the summer early autumn of 2017 several unprecedented hurricanes blew in and across the Caribbean. Hurricane IRMA and then a week later Hurricane MARIA both graded at category 5 the highest possible grade of hurricane devastated the Caribbean region in particular the British Virgin Islands, The Commonwealth of Dominica, Puerto Rico, etc.The Management Team were monitoring the situation in the Caribbean and regular updates provided to the Trustees by the Operations Manager. It was agreed that we should deploy a team as soon as possible for 2 weeks. Our first team were due to depart the UK on Wednesday 20th Sept, but due to the predicted impact of Hurricane MARIA in the region, their departure was been delayed until the 24th Sept. As the first British aid team to get in country the team got to work clearing roads from the airport so that vital aid and medical professionals could start to get out in to the communities. On request of the Dominican Government’s Emergency Operations Centre we started preparing for a second team to deploy which I was the team leader. During my time in Dominica I had meetings with Dominica's Foreign Minister Francine Baron to approve, coordinate and prioritise DART's efforts to assist local government authorities in their clear up operation. Also meetings with the UNOCHA, UNDP and the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID). Sharing details of the roads we had re-opened, etc.

TUPE'D in to Highways England when the Asset Delivery (AD) model was rolled (July 2017) out in the SW. Previous Areas 1 & 2 were combined to make up the SWAD contract area. Which covers from Penzance to Tewkesbury A30 & M5, M4 from Severn Bridges to Swindon, A30 & 303 Honiton to Thruxton A36, Southampton to Bath and a few other bits.Maintaining Highways England's ‘soft estate’ beside the motorway and trunk road strategic road network (SRN), which consists of over 3000 ha of verges, grasslands, shrubs, woodlands and individual trees. Identification of sites and works for routine maintenance and environmental enhancement schemes. Providing guidance and advice to other teams regarding trees on construction schemes. Carrying out damage to crown property site inspections following RTC's for safety and to prepare costs for any damage to be rectified via identified debtorsLiaison between, service managers, design teams and arboricultural contractors. Supervising arboricultural works within the contract, carrying out Health and Safety and Environmental site audits of contractors.investigation of soft estate related complaints from third parties. Carrying out safety inspections on trees including third party owned trees and serving notice on owners of dangerous trees.

Maintaining Highways England's ‘soft estate’ which consists of 918 ha of verges, grasslands, shrubs and trees throughout Area 1. 500 ha containing trees, representing 52% of the soft estate within the Area 1 network. The remaining 48% is comprised of grassland. Identification of sites and works for routine maintenance and environmental enhancement schemes. Providing guidance and advice to other teams regarding trees on construction schemes. Designing vegetation clearance & mitigation planting drawings & works specifications for schemes during the design phase of construction schemes. Liaison between design teams and arboricultural contractors – review contractor quotes. Supervising arboricultural works within the contract, carrying out Health and Safety and Environmental site audits of contractors. Investigation of soft estate related complaints from third parties (HAILs, etc.). Reviewing and approving contractors Risk Assessments and Method statements.

Planning, designing and purchasing of plants for the landscaping for new developments.Any tree work that was required within the company.Maintenance of all small power tools.Purchasing of new vehicles and organising the service schedules for the fleet of road vehiclesand plant machinery.

Overseeing the day to day running of the contract, organising the teams work load, ensuring quality and quantity of work was carried out to the customer's satisfaction whilst meeting contractual terms and upholding Health & Safety requirements, recruiting and training of new staff, liaising frequently with Western Power Distribution (WPD), formerly SWEB, staff regarding new projects, costings and budgets.

Working as part of a team on projects all over the South West and beyond for many different clients including The National Trust, The Lost Gardens of Heligan, The Woodland Trust, Euro Disney, Dartmoor National Parks and the Island of Tresco.

In this, my first position on leaving full time education, I was employed as a trainee (YTS) Gardener/ Forester on this major estate.