Kingskerswell - District and Parish

Being a politician was not and has never been on my wish list. Being a police officer, was,  I always wanted to and was lucky enough to have 30 glorious years, serving the people of Devon and Cornwall, mainly local to Teignbridge. I had a fantastic varied career, eventually retiring as a Chief Inspector in Operations.
Upon retirement, I remained in Safeguarding as a Consultant and advocate for victims of domestic abuse.  I have a number of other volunteering roles, supporting young people excluded from mainstream education and delivering  food to street sleepers, for a local charity, as well as continuing to raise awareness of domestic abuse.
I only became involved in politics, when a local resident tracked me down and asked me to investigate why a large area of trees had been felled on the Downs, Kingskerswell.  As a result of my investigation, I ended up joining the Parish Council and soon after that the  campaigning group, Newton Says No, came to my attention and TDC became my focus.
It has left me very saddened, having come to the conclusion that the Council is run by a minority of self serving individuals, who do not listen to those they have been elected to serve. It is not acceptable and I think I can’t do any worse. That is why I am standing as an Independent Candidate for the South Devon Alliance.
It is my view that  past performance is an indicator of future performance and when choosing your candidate you should do just that, don’t just vote for a party because you always have.  An established party should have a history of doing the right thing for you.  Even before joining the local council I have been voluntarily working to support our community. Supporting those most vulnerable in our society and bringing that into our village, by training local people how to spot the signs of domestic abuse and how to signpost those individuals. You may have seen then J9 heart displayed in the window of the Pharmacy and St Mary’s garage.  More training is coming soon. 
As a result of having to do CPR on a local man, I arranged a series of first aid courses for villagers, it was a great success. However, I am most proud of working with other residents to fight the TDC vision for our village, the Local Plan Consultation.  TDC had even removed our village status and included Kingskerswell in the ‘Heart of Teignbridge’, with Newton Abbot and Kingsteignton.  Together we walked many miles, pushed leaflets through every letterbox so that people knew what was happening.  If you hadn’t stood up to TDC, the Village would be  irrevocable changed forever, with green space and open fields being covered in 100s of high end houses and dozens of industrial units in the space reserved for Aller Brook Country Park.  Since then I have supported many of you on a variety of issues including Planning applications, housing, poor roads and amenities, to name a few.