Tony believes in a good future based on sustainable cities, urban regeneration and building inclusive communities. His work has varied across the voluntary, public and private sectors and universities, always with a partnership approach to solving big problems. He has written widely, starting in Manchester, UK in the 1980s with a book on funding for Black and Minority Ethnic community organisations.

Tony Baldwinson first became involved with ERDF in 1989 as the representative for the voluntary sector on the local governing committee of the Manchester Salford Trafford Integrated Development Operation (MST IDO), and in the 1990s representing local authorities at the national ESF programme governing committee. He has managed ERDF projects and programmes for two local authorities and a university, promoted best practice in regeneration for a regional funder, and worked freelance to help public organisations develop their knowledge systems for neighbourhood improvement and for promoting green infrastructure themes in local authority planning.

He has an honours degree in Computation following an industrial gap year as a programmer, and an MPhil for research into the political history of disabled people through their photography in England between 1920 and the 1970s.

His early interest in voluntary work was with homeless young people, then in mental health and currently with rights-based disabled people’s organisations. He led the Buses for All European campaign from 1994 to 2001 which changed EU single market law so that all new urban buses are accessible to disabled people including wheelchair users.

He lives in Manchester and was married to Lorraine Gradwell (RIP) and has two adult step-children.

Disclaimer: all posts are his personal views only, not necessarily of any clients.

He writes his fiction using the pen name Jack Duffy, in honour of his grandfather. There is a separate blog – http://www.jackduffy.wordpress.com