About Base for Life Watchet

Liz worked as a teacher and teacher-trainer in the Further and Higher Education sectors and in the not-for-profit company sector for many years. Her last paid role was Chief Executive of Learning South West, an independent, not-for-profit education charity and she has held several other director roles. After retirement, for 3 years, she was Chair of Homestart Bridgwater, a charity providing support for struggling young families. Later she was a Director of Watchet Coastal Community Team. She has been a Trustee of several charitable and community organisations and has solid experience of obtaining funding for substantial projects.

Her interest in community housing is based on her strong belief that communities must be diverse and supportive of all. Young people, young families and older people should all have good quality and secure housing.

In the current local situation this is not possible for many and Liz hopes that Base for Life Watchet can, with the support of the rest of the community, do something about this.

Email Liz

After graduating with a degree in anthropology and a PhD in palaeoecology, Stephen joined the Inland Revenue where he trained as an auditor.  After working as a programmer and business analyst, he joined a leading management consultancy, and subsequently held posts as IT director at a major London law firm, projects director at a software company specializing in systems for law firms, and latterly as a principal analyst at Somerset County Council.

He and his partner Edwina moved to Watchet in 2021. Steve is keen to contribute to ensuring a thriving community in Watchet.

Edwina took Business Studies after sixth form, and worked for multinational companies in London in her early twenties. She has since worked in procurement for a local authority, qualified as a conveyancer, become an IT Manager for various firms of solicitors in the South West, and her last paid employment was as a Project Manager implementing software for lawyers.

Edwina’s interest in affordable housing began whilst she was living in numerous rented properties in and around London, as a student, and in her early twenties.  In addition, she has been a small-scale private landlord for 50 years. 

Having moved into Watchet in 2021, Edwina has been very impressed with the strong community spirit in this small town.  She would like to see this spirit continue not only to survive, but to thrive, and she feels that helping to create affordable housing is one of the fundamental ways of achieving this.

She believes that her involvement in being both a tenant and a landlord, her understanding of the law as a conveyancer, and her experience of Project Management, brings a well-rounded skill set to support the Base for Life goals.

After earning her PhD scholarship, Danusia rose from ESRC Research Fellow to senior levels as an Organisational Behaviour (OB) and Development (OD) expert. After leaving her tenured academic post she became Founder of a leadership development advisory firm, with a specialist focus on C-suite and senior execs. She is also trusted advisor to Boards & C-suite teams on strategic decision making processes.

Danusia is an award winning podcast producer/host, and published author. She brings years of experience consulting in the private sector as well as serving on national charity committees where the needs of the most vulnerable in society have been served. 

She is a mother of ten, and passionate about reducing housing insecurity in the Watchet area.

Jackie moved to Watchet with her husband Chris in 2019 and worked as a Living Better nurse providing personalised and co-ordinated care for patients to support independent living for Dunster and Porlock surgeries, before retiring.

She is fortunate to be able to own where she lives, which gives her and her husband security. Their son, who rents a place in London, was given notice to leave by his landlord as he wanted to sell the property. This led their son into a tumultuous precarious, mentally destabilising time which he is still experiencing.

Jackie is keen to serve the Watchet community in coming together to use local expertise and under-utilised spaces to try to solve housing need. She is enthusiastic about housing solutions that do not depend on arable land being converted into housing estates without an infrastructure to support them.

Having finished her degree in Film/Theatre, Production and Performance at Roehampton University, London in 2024, Tabitha moved back to the area.

Now working in Sales and Marketing in the local area, whilst strengthening her bonds with the local community, Tabitha is focused on creating solutions for low income households, increasing stability and sustainability of rental properties and providing access to long-term housing locally.

Tabitha was brought up with a strong sense of community, and she hopes that helping others feel secure in their living situation will allow the creation of their own pockets of support.

I'm Lizzy Fone, Bristol born and South Somerset raised. I was forced by a lack of opportunities locally to me to move away from the area I'm from when I was 18, and I wasn't able to afford a return to the South West until I was in my 30's. I've lived and worked all over Europe, and have noticed that often communities elsewhere in the world support their young people into remaining in their home communities by ensuring that housing, transport and local employment are made available to the people who need them. In the UK we have largely moved away from focusing on keeping communities together in favour of a more individualist approach - and our young people are often struggling as a result. Here in West Somerset, we are hoping that we can make a difference and create opportunities for young people to make choices which enable them to live and work where they choose, rather than be forced by a lack of resources out of their local environment.

My professional background is in education and finance (former Chartered Accountant) and as the Finance Trustee for Base for Life Watchet, I am aiming to bring my experience and knowledge to bear on the opportunities we have locally to make positive changes for local people. I have 3 daughters who all still live at home, although two of them are in their 20's. We are therefore faced with the restrictions on opportunities locally in our home lives. While it's wonderful to have their company, they are not likely to be able to afford or find suitable accommodation and the income to support that independent life without moving away from their home area. This gives me both a professional and a personal understanding of the challenges facing our young people - and a huge drive to help create meaningful change to continue the regeneration of our wonderful rural coastal community, and to ensure that Watchet and the surrounding areas are a vibrant, energetic, multi-generational community where people have pride in their home region and mutually benefit from being able to choose to live and work here.