I’ve been a councillor for ten years, starting at Harrogate Borough Council. In 2017 as part of the fight against the relief road, I was elected to North Yorkshire County Council.  I am now, the first ever the Climate Change Champion and I am promoting an environmentally friendly approach to everything the council does as part of business as usual so that it is sustainable.

I sit on the Transport, Economy, Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and make it a point to attend all the fortnightly meetings of the Executive, which are in Northallerton. I like to keep my finger on the pulse.

I am the only councillor on Food for the Future (Fix our Food) York and North Yorkshire in conjunction with the University of York

I also represent North Yorkshire at Transport for the North and chair the Scrutiny Committee.

If you were to ask what I have done then I might cite:

Leading the successful campaign against the Relief Road across the Nidd, supporting the residents around Knox Lane to get the proposed inappropriate development refused planning permission. And just yesterday, I was scrambling down the side of the Viaduct in Bilton with a project engineer to check on the impact of recent slippage of the riverbank to assess the potential impact.

This year, I have used my locality grant to support:

New Beginnings Charity – supporting women after domestic abuse.

Resurrected Bites – reducing food waste, loneliness and food poverty.

Nidd Action Group – protecting the water quality in the Nidd.

Installation of VAS signs – improving road safety outside schools.

I help people and businesses transform their performance through delivering sustainable, measurable improvement.
With clients across the world, my management consultancy provides Executive Coaching and Business Consultancy including ESG, the Circular Economy and Mergers and Acquisitions (up to £100M).

In recent years as a CEO, I managed the sale and acquisition for £82.5m of a retail company based in London on behalf of the owner.

At home

Married to Kath, granddaughter of a Yorkshire coal miner. We have two dogs who I can be seen running with daily, Charlie and Sidney. We love living in Bilton, Harrogate where we settled in January 2006. We have two very grown up children and 6 grandchildren. I grew up in a corner shop which my mother ran, whilst my Dad worked as a “progress chaser” at Hawker Siddeley (aerospace). I confess to having spent much of my formative years in Lancashire but can honestly say I have now been In Yorkshire for past thirty years and so hope to be considered a local. However, I have been known to watch reruns of Peter Kay to remind me of a happy past!

Outside my council aims which drive me, I am mainly seen running with my two dogs. I will be running the London Marathon again in April, raising money for Guide Dogs.