Profession: Health and Safety Officer

Dear Voter

I am delighted to be standing as an Independent Councillor Candidate for Friends of Brighton and Hove in the Ward of Hollingdean and Fiveways. I am born and bred in Hollingdean, went to school in Hollingdean and played for the Hollingbury Hawks as a child and coached the Hollingbury Hawks as an adult.

I am a family man with a Trade Union background.

Over the years I have seen many changes to Hollingdean and to Brighton and Hove, most of them not beneficial to the people who live and work here or who visit.

Parking charges and parking permits are now among the highest in the country and driving tourism and trade away, which is also a disaster for our reputation as a prime seaside resort. Contractor permits are causing sole traders to move out of the city at up to £1,400 each for a van, more than ten times the council cost of a normal car permit.

Successive administrations have squabbled like children while Brighton and Hove becomes ever more neglected with its heritage falling down, its community areas and the most basic services such as rubbish collection, public toilets, pothole repairs, graffiti removal and street weeding not functioning as they should.

It has become clear to me that the party political system of council management has failed and is now broken.

I firmly believe that a new model of Independents who live in and care for their wards should stand for election to restore our city to what it once was, putting people and communities first and getting back to the basics in running the services that people expect, rely on and pay for.

I am committed to the priorities of Friends of Brighton and Hove that put serving citizens first and don’t ignore their needs in favour of wasteful vanity projects which result in budget cuts for the essentials.

If you are kind enough to elect me, I promise a new review and consultation process for parking permits in Hollingdean as the previous consultation was badly flawed. I also want to see a city-wide review of parking permit charges and possible capping to ensure fairness across the board.