This is the area covered by my County Division, where I represent my community with respect to the services provided by Hampshire County Council. However, within it I also represent West End North residents at Borough level as well as West End residents at Parish Council level and Horton Heath and south Fair Oak residents at Parish Council level.
The Mayor is Eastleigh's first citizen whose role is largely ceremonial, but provides the opportunity to raise funds for nominated charities and support local businesses. I was invested as Mayor on 14 May 2018 at a Mayor Making ceremony held at Kings Community Church, Hedge End. Thank you to all those who helped support my charities, which covered mental health and Scouting. One of the initiatives I created was the Eastleigh Community Networking Forum.
I became an approved Liberal Democrat prospective European Parliamentary candidate in 2013 and was eighth on the Lib Dem list for the European elections in 2014. The first on the list, Catherine Bearder was elected a South East region MEP.
One of the biggest questions currently facing all of us is Brexit, which has such huge implications for our future. It will determine our economy and culture. Do we want to be internationalists or isolationists?
Attending meetings is critical to my role. Whether it is a Parish, Town, Borough or County committee meeting, they present a great opportunity to hear and be heard. I currently serve on 12 committees at various levels. If you would like to learn more about which ones and why I think they're important, click on the link.
Case work is a real passion of mine. It involves hearing peoples' problems and trying to solve them. Whether the issue is big or small, there is nothing more gratifying than being able to help solve someone's problems for them. To find out more about some of the publicly disclosable case work I have done click on the link.
Knocking doors gives me the chance to meet people and hear what they think about the services provided by local government. Through knocking doors, I get to know what matters to the community and am also able to pick up case work which gives the opportunity to help people and demonstrate how passionate I am about making life better for my constituents.
Ultimately nothing I do really works unless I keep the public informed. This is firstly, because I am lucky to hear things that not everyone does and secondly, because if I don't let people know what's going on and what I've done to help the community, why would they vote for me in the future?
I am a liberal in every sense of the word and am passionate about our community. I have one sole aim, which is for this community to be absolutely the best place in England to live. When the opportunity arose for me to enter politics, it was after having a very satisfying engineering career and I therefore have a wealth of experience to bring to my newfound passion.