Richard Olley

Richard Olley started his tree surgery business in June 1987 – 4 months before the famous hurricane that uprooted several million trees in the South East. He built the business up, gradually taking on more staff, and building a sound reputation with a wide range of domestic, commercial and Local Authority clients.

After 15 years he decided to become an instructor, so he handed the day to day running of the business over to his manager, Chris Mepham, and applied to join the Lantra Instructor Training Scheme. He passed all his exams and assessments at the first attempt and qualified to teach the full range of arboricultural skills; from ground based chainsaw right through to dismantling, including woodchippers, stumpgrinders, polesaws, hedgecutters, brushcutters and MEWPs. Two years later he also became an NPTC Assessor and is qualified to assess all the skill areas that he teaches.