A Cumbrian property adviser has been appointed to a national committee for agriculture and countryside issues.

Julie Liddle, director of Robson & Liddle chartered surveyors, Penrith, has been appointed as a member of the property committee of the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers.

The CAAV is a professional body representing more than 3,000 agricultural and rural valuers who provide advice and valuation expertise on rural issues.

Its remit covers all matters affecting the ownership, letting and occupation of rural and agricultural land, especially current and future EU and UK legislation.

The committee monitors how regulations and practice impact transactions in rural and agricultural matters, town and country planning legislation and issues arising from energy policy that affects buildings and renewable energy facilities.

In addition, Julie will be responsible for overseeing issues around arbitration and other methods of dispute resolution.

The committee also helps to organise the CAAV’s annual Agricultural Land Occupation Survey.

Julie, who comes from Durham and lives in Carlisle, said: “This appointment is a great honour and I am very much looking forward to the challenges ahead which could be huge depending on how we exit the EU.

“It’s an especially interesting time to be part of a team that can make a real impact on to the agricultural and rural sector in its broadest sense.”

Julie was invited to join the committee after having been involved in wide-ranging roles in the CAAV since joining in 2002.

She said: “When I started, I organised revision groups for younger, and unqualified valuers, to assist them taking their exams, which are a two-day programme and are quite daunting.

"I soon became chairman of the young valuers in our local CAAV branch covering Northumbria and Cumbria.”

Julie then moved on to a role as an education officer, organising tutorials before being appointed as a national observer for the wider CAAV, a role that meant she was monitoring examiners across England and Scotland. In her third year in this position, she was asked to take up the chairman’s role, reporting annually to the education and examination committee. This role came to an end earlier this year, when she was asked to join the property committee.