On May 6th there are 2 local council elections taking place – you can elect councillors for Buckinghamshire Council and also councillors for Beaconsfield Town Council.
I am standing in both of these elections as a true Independent. I have never belonged to a political party. I can truly represent the town and cannot be forced to follow a party whip. There are only 2 Independents standing in these elections - myself in North ward (and for Bucks Council) and Andrea Esserly in West ward.
For the Town Council, I am standing in North Ward which is the area north of the railway line.
For the Bucks Council election, the whole town north of the A40 is one big ward. So if you are a Beaconsfield voter who lives north of the A40, you can vote for me for Bucks Council. If you are a Beaconsfield voter who lives in North Ward (north of the railway), you can also vote for me for Beaconsfield Town Council.
For the Bucks Council elections, Beaconsfield is one big ward but for the Town Council elections there are 4 wards – North, West, Central and South East.
If you live in Central or South East wards, there are only Conservative candidates standing which means those seats are uncontested and those candidates will become your town councillors. BUT you will still be able to vote for your Bucks Council councillors and I am your only Independent candidate for Bucks Council. And your only Bucks Council Candidate who really fought to save our green belt.
I led the successful Save Our Green Belt campaign for 5 years and you may have been to some of the 12 Public Meetings in St. Mary’s Church which I led and organised. I prepared a series of leaflets throughout the campaign to let people know of the threat of the daft Local Plan which would have released a whopping 117 hectares of our Green Belt (the fields all along the A355 and down to junction 2 of the M40) for a business park, housing estates of 1600 homes and a travellers’ site. 10s of thousands of these leaflets were delivered across the town. I also organised 2 drop in sessions for residents to drop in and ask questions, at St. Theresa’s Centre and also at The Fitzwilliams Centre. I also held 2 coffee shop “surgeries.” I prepared template consultation response letters for residents to use to respond to the Local Plan consultations. I walked the green belt with the planning consultants, transport consultants and Landscape consultants and prepared the legal brief to Counsel, instructing the top planning QC on the case. Thank-you so much to everyone who supported the campaign and donated to the fighting fund. We raised over £170,000, an incredible achievement.
I am a solicitor who specialises in property and planning. My personal consultation responses to the 3 rounds of Local Plan consultations ran to hundreds of pages. None of the councillors submitted personal consultation responses. When I read that they “worked tirelessly” to protect our green belt, I KNOW they did not. Their claims are completely outrageous. There is only one candidate who really DID work tirelessly to save our green belt – me. I will continue to protect our green belt and follow the emerging new Bucks Local Plan and oppose release of Beaconsfield green belt. I will oppose the Government’s “standard formula” which calculates over-inflated housing need figures (applies a 50% uplift to Office of National Statistics household projection figures) and which only threatens our green belt and inhibits good Local Plan making. Don't be fooled by pledges by others to protect our green belt who will not oppose the Government methodology and do not have the professional experience to fight such a campaign.
I live in Beaconsfield North ward, where I have lived for 25 years. My children attended school here. I hope you will choose your councillors based on what they have REALLY DONE for the town, not just what they SAY they have done or will do. Please read my other blogs on the road to nowhere, affordable housing and the Old Town Allotments which will give you further insight into how I have helped our town. I am the current Chairman of The Beaconsfield Society (our town’s Civic Society).
Vote wise in May :) and thank-you for reading my blog.
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