This page of my website lets me keep the people who live in the area that I represent fully informed about the work I am doing for them.
My principle aim as a councillor is to ensure that we get the best possible value for money from our council taxes and to resist above inflation rises.
I am Leader of the Conservative and Independent Group on Alnwick District Council and I take a formative role in all matters affecting the district. I am a member of the planning committee and the Policy Executive Committee, and I chair the Operations Scrutiny Committee; therefore, I have a constant input into all policies and plans. I am very pleased with the way that the Independent Group managed council affairs in recent years and I believe that the council as a whole functions well. However, I never rest in seeking ways in which we can improve, and my instincts are always to obtain consensus amongst politicians of every persuasion.
I am also Chairman of Alnwick Community Development Trust, which has a multi million pound portfolio of projects to manage in Alnwick; some are completed (seats in the Marketplace, Park at Swansfield), others are now independently run, like Lionheart Radio, which the trust nurtured from its inception. The trust now aspires to be a registered social landlord, bringing homes within the financial reach of local people.
One of my most rewarding duties is to Chair the totally independent Alnwick Christmas Lights Committee. Our display has become famous throughout the North and shows the community at its very best. About 15 active citizens put hundreds of hours of their time into a very complex task without any reward save the satisfaction of achievement. We switch on at 7PM on the last Friday of November in Alnwick Marketplace: All welcome!
Each county Councillors has an allocation of 15 thousand pounds to spend annually on local schemes. Two years ago I committed all of mine to the Community Sports Pitch project in Clayport Ward which will help bring a much-needed recreational facility to a relatively deprived part of Alnwick. Last year I committed ten thousand pounds to play equipment in the successful new park at Swansfield. Other uses of this allocation have been to secure traffic safety restrictions at the rear of King Street and to place double yellow lines down the lower part of Wagonway Road. I have also pledged future funds to secure street lighting in certain poorly lit parts of Alnwick (what a saga!) and to resurface the road at the top of Percy Terrace, easily the worst stretch of highway in town.
I am vocal and active in trying to secure improvements to Alnwick’s roads infrastructure, with a record of encouraging successes. I have brought some detailed proposals for traffic management in our town centre to the front of the agenda and I wish to see Alnwick take more control of its own traffic management problems via partnership working. I am keen to ensure that tourism continues to bring prosperity to Alnwick and all of Northumberland, but it must be managed so as not to damage the very features that make this wonderful area so appealing. Most recently, along with other councillors I have ensured that the junction at Denwick Lane was examined by NCC engineers, who have agreed to draw up proposals for improvement.
I was until recently Chair of Governors of the Duke's Middle School, Alnwick. It is a great pity that this fine school (of which I am a former old boy) is faced with closure under County Council proposals, although I am generally supportive of the need to make radical changes to the educational structure in Northumberland if it is to remain affordable and have properly maintained buildings. I also recognise the vital importance of building a new High School in Alnwick, and as a member of the Child Services Scrutiny Committee on the County Council I make every effort to promote this objective and ensure that we provide for our children to the best of our ability. I have pressed the Executive to use the windfall money the council obtained as a result of remortgaging its share in Newcastle Airport to plug the funding gap identified in studies to rebuild the High School and I continue to raise this issue on behalf of the town.
