District Council Campaign
I'm standing as a Green Party candidate for election to Mid Suffolk District Council on 7th May 2015.
It has become more and more clear locally how important it is to have a District Council that helps to protect what is special about local villages such as Stradbroke, Laxfield and Wilby.
It is the District Council that considers planning applications and ensuring that we are able to protect our villages against large speculative planning applications has never been more important.
Cllr Rachel Eburne who leads Mid Suffolk Greens says:
This local election on May the 7th will determine who runs your District Council.’
Since 2003 the Council has been run by the Conservatives. However, it is important that
there is a strong opposition which ensures that they don’t take this position for granted. For the last four years the Green Party has led the opposition. We have challenged the ruling group’s position on areas such as planning, where the lack of an effective approach means that developers can now ignore the views of our communities, transparency of the budget and also plans to allow the Council to borrow excessive sums for activities which they refuse to specify. We have also pushed to ensure more sustainable social housing and create better cycle routes and footpaths. Now is the time you need strong local Green councillors to fight your corner.”
About MeJames Hargrave grew up in West Yorkshire and has lived in Stradbroke for 10 years with his three children attending local schools.
James has been a proactive Parish Councillor in Stradbroke for four years. During this time, he has campaigned successfully on a number of local issues, including against the building of a Co-op store opposite the primary school, on the grounds that it would be unsafe for children at the school and would increase traffic through the village, as well as campaigning for small, affordable housing developments but against large, unsustainable housing developments that would change the rural character of Stradbroke.
Furthermore, having being deeply involved in the campaign to save libraries across Suffolk in 2011, he is now a Trustee as well as Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Stradbroke Courthouse and Library Trust, the local charity behind the recent refurbishment and re-opening of the village’s Court House building. The Court House now includes a library, a newly re-opened Post Office, and a soon-to-open community café. In the future, it will also feature a studio space for a community radio station and storage for the village archives.
For the past seven years, James served as Chair of Governors of Stradbroke Primary School, and he is currently leading the process to create a federation between Stradbroke’s and Laxfield’s primary schools. He is also part of Radio Stradbroke (www.radiostradbroke.co.uk) and helps to run the village website (www.stradbroke.org.uk). A citizen blogger of some repute, James regularly reports on local education, libraries, and other community news and politics on http://blog.hargrave.org.uk.
If you would like to help me in my campaign please Contact Me.
Published and promoted by Brian Fearnley for Mid-Suffolk Green Party, both at 14 Dove Close, Debenham, IP14 6RR.
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