My Story

WHAT DO
I STAND FOR?

SOCIAL PROGRESS

ONE COUNCIL

ADVOCATING FOR BCP

Most of us remember the old days days of Bournemouth under complacent conservative control which lead to disastrous vanity projects and flagrant abuses of power by cabinet members. More recently, we've seen millions of our money wasted on the Future Places debacle and an ineffective opposition that uses BCP as a platform to promote the government at large.

Whilst I don't think the current administration is getting everything right (who does?) we do at least have an emergent local authority that is now perhaps better reflective of what local citizens want; not a private members club as things largely were pre-2019. Councils by their very nature are oil-tanker organisations that take a long time to change direction.

The current administration relies on independent councillors who are the real power brokers across BCP. The more independent councillors we have, the less we waste oxygen on political hyperbole.

A vote in Queens Park & Charminster for an independent councillor increases the chances our area receives direct attention on local issues and isn't relegated to the back seats of perpetual opposition as it currently the case. I will never support any policy or plan that I believe to be detrimental to our three towns, and I will never subscribe to the growing narrative that we will solve our problems by trying to split one contiguous urban area up again with administrative lines on a map that mean nothing to council tax payers.

Where the border of one town ends and another starts is nothing more than historical trivia. Retreating to the false safety of parochial thinking in a large urban area like this will not deliver the progress that BCP so desperately needs and any changes to our local government structure should be a genuine exercise in democracy, not an abuse of governance legislation to resolve financial pressures.

KEY LOCAL POLICY

TACKLING URBAN DECAY

REFOCUS THE COUNCIL ON THE MOST BASIC TASKS

BCP's shocking state of urban decay is all around us. Our street scenes are now depressing and decrepit. The Bournemouth I remember as a child was one full of flowers and broadly orderly streets. I think BCP has lost its homely vibe and is well past looking its best. I thoroughly believe that urban decay is about so much more than just general maintenance of assets. When street furniture like lamps, bins, benches and planters are left to fall to pieces, this creates a collective sense of decline and malaise across the population.

The more we feel like the place around us has no pride, the less we feel we ought to take pride in it. Pretty soon, we consign ourselves to the notion that this place is in terminal decline and that we have no power to change this spiral downwards. This is not true.

It is a political choice to 'sweat' the council's assets beyond their working lifespan and I believe there is a compelling economic case for tackling urban decay in tourism driven towns. We are a tourist town and always have been; its why this place was built. But if we keep neglecting the state of this place then people won't keep coming here. If people don't visit us and bring their essential business on which our local economy thrives, then Bournemouth may finally fall to the well documented decline experienced by so many other coastal towns and cities in the UK.

Nothing will repair itself; the Council needs to realign its focus back onto the "bread and butter" work of local authorities; unblocking drains, sweeping streets and maintaining the public realm. It might not be headline grabbing stuff or "world leading" but it is a job that needs doing.

CHARMINSTER ROAD SAFETY

IMMEDIATE RESTORATION OF RED BOX JUNCTIONS & SAFETY MARKINGS

Residents in Charminster know from St. Leonards Road to Bennet Road and intersecting through the straight and somewhat narrow streets of Capstone, Nortoft, Shelbourne, Avon, Malmesbury Park & Stuart Roads that the red safety surfacing and junction stop lines have all but vanished in most cases. In the past two years almost every street corner featuring a brick wall has been smashed into by an out of control vehicle and countless near misses witnessed.

The refrain of "there's no money" to reinstate these essential safety features isn't good enough. The Council needs to find the money, and find it now. Because when a human with a life and a family is lost to poor road safety, no amount of money in the universe can bring that life back. Reactive highways works isn't good enough - putting in a speed camera after a death, isn't good enough.

Will it take the loss of a life for BCP to admit its liability for maintenance under the Highways Act? Or will the local authority sit on its hands until the local roads are completely devoid of any demarcation whatsoever?

These safety markings were put in place for a reason. To allow them to fade away to the march of time is criminal in my opinion, and if elected I will be fighting tooth and nail to see the highways maintenance regime prioritise this overdue, elementary maintenance.

LOOKING FORWARDS, NOT BACKWARDS

OPPOSITION TO ADDITIONAL LAYERS OF BUREAUCRACY & REPRESENTATION

The current administration is proposing to set up new town councils. As a former clerk who has been responsible for running three different town councils in the UK including the haphazard and dysfunctional Christchurch Town Council, I do not believe these to be the right vehicles to deliver change in BCP.

Town & Parish councils are of best benefit to rural communities and small, isolated market towns. They almost exclusively exist in the countryside and are practically unheard of in large contiguous urban areas, and for a very good reason.

We already have 76 councillors on BCP representing our area. The proposal for new town and parish councils would create over 130 additional councillors across multiple authorities and is nothing short of unhinged in terms of the distinct lack of logic. Whilst it is proposed to create a Town Council for the whole of Poole - the proposals for Bournemouth see this area split across a "Boscombe Community Council" a "Southbourne Community Council" a "Bournemouth Town Council" and a "Redhill & Northbourne Community Council" - 4 councils in addition to BCP for an area that used to have just one.

Christchurch Town Council formed in 2019 and in 2024, failed to claim £138,000 in VAT, doubled the working hours of its finance staff to clean up its incompetence and inability to run even the most basic aspects of a parish council. Officers messed up the accounts, and councillors approved them anyway clearly having no clue what they were even looking at. What hope can we have with the new proposed town councils if this is the level of expertise we can expect from a living example of a BCP town council?

HOUSING THE NEXT GENERATION

STOPPING OUR KIDS FROM BEING FORCED TO MOVE AWAY

Housing in the UK is largely a free market whether you like it or not. I was born long after the fire-sale of public housing and my generation only knows the struggle between paying sky-high rents to landlords, or purchasing property at historical record highs on mortgage terms longer than any other generation before us. The ladder has been well and truly pulled up on social mobility across the UK with housing virtually now out of reach permanently for those who are not in receipt of a sizeable inheritance.

Housing is a simple question of supply and demand. Demand continues to outpace supply, so we have to built more houses. Crossing one's fingers really hard and saying "we need less people" is a myopic copout that doesn't even begin to factor in the very real issue of ageing population across the western world, and the general delapidated state of the UK housing stock.

Across BCP we have beautiful examples of late victorian family homes, but there's no more space to build good quality houses anymore. Our housing stock is maturing. In a place where the ocean blocks us on the south and the greenbelt restricts us in all other directions, there's only one direction left to go - and that's upwards. The 20th century NIMBYistic view must be consigned to the history book. The people who say "we don't want high rise flats" are the same who say "i'm alright jack". This won't do, and the social consequences of not building affordable and decent quality housing is written all over the fraying social fabric of the United Kingdom.

END ALL NEW 'HMO' LICENCING

BAN THE PRACTICE OF SLUM LANDLORDS & POOR QUALITY HOUSING

Too many high quality, heritage family homes have been lost by being carved up into poor quality flats and studio apartments under the 'Houses of Multiple Occupation' licencing scheme. BCP has over 1,400 HMOs. Coupled with fit for purpose development of new flats and apartments, this massive number of former houses could be liberated back to the open market and rebalance our housing stock.

BCP Council does already operate an 'Article 4' direction which affords greater scrutiny for landlords seeking to obtain and renew HMO licencing, however I believe BCP should implement more robust policy still and ban all new licencing with a view to allowing HMO licencing to naturally reduce over time. Houses that were once thoughtfully constructed family homes that have been carved up into mouldy, damp and dark single occupancy rooms that are not fit for purpose could be restored to the open market and help see streets regain a sense of community where currently some houses act like 24/7 revolving door dormitories.

Local citizens will know that HMO's are synonymous with a large and longstanding well known developer.

You can inspect the register of HMO's in BCP here.

On 1st August 2025 the BBC highlighted the impact of HMO housing and slum landlords in the UK.

HELP PEOPLE ESCAPE A LIFE OF DRUG USE

CHALLENGING ATTITUDES AROUND 'DRUGS' & THE CAUSES OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE

Nobody "chooses" a life of addiction. In 2016, BCP ranked in the top 10 destinations for drug related deaths in the UK. According to the ONS, 38 people died in BCP in 2016 due to drug misuse. In 2023, that figure rose to 65 deaths, with an average of 30 lives lost each year in BCP to drug misuse. The conspicuous lack of mention by BCP is brushing this major social issue under the carpet. It's time to get real about the major drug trade and addiction facing BCP.

I watched helplessly as one of my closest friends from school slowly took a different path from me, drifting away from any positive influence and support until finally beginning a life of hardcore cocaine abuse and transitioning onto legal highs, psychedelics and 'crack'. A talented man my age who had everything to live for threw it all away, and nothing I could say or do would ever seem to resonate.

Why, I asked myself through tears so many times? Why? This place has a problem, and I believe my friends fate was sealed in part by the ubiquity of drug use culture in Bournemouth in particular, enabled by the sophisticated scourge of criminal gangs that continue to infest BCP like a plague. We need to get real. Other alternatives are available. Living examples of local authorities taking direct action exist.

BCP still appears to have its fingers in its ears at a councillor level when it comes to admitting our status as a drugs haven, and more people will lose their lives unless we step up and do something about this hideous and depressing situation.

You can download the official ONS statistics on drug deaths in BCP here.

GRAFFITI & THE ARTS

ENCOURAGING EXPRESSION & EMBRACING THE ARTS

The broken window theory has been proven time over. BCP no longer actively cleans graffiti which is as prolific as it ever was. One 'tag' invites many more. BCP must restore pro-active graffiti removal and learn from other local authorities about how to engage with young people who have an interest in graffiti. I propose the creation of a purpose built 'graffiti wall' in Cyril Park to give expressionistic youth a place to make their mark.

Graffiti and the arts are linked. Arts by the sea is a brilliant example of what we should be striving to achieve more of across BCP. If we want more vibrancy across the area, the local authority needs to lead by example. Closing BCP's tourism department very quietly has not helped at all.

CREATING A NIGHT-TIME MAYOR

LOOK TO EUROPE TO LEARN HOW TO MANAGE THE AFFAIRS OF THE NIGHT

The night-time economy is exceptionally important to tourist towns. We cannot afford to keep driving away people who want to spend their money here, and a continued "anti-club" and "anti-nightlife" attitude in a town where nightlife is the backbone of the student economy is a recipe for disaster.

Night-Time Mayors are a concept adopted around the globe to specifically focus on the growth and management of safe and respectable nightlife. BCP should create a new portfolio holder for the night-time economy.

You can learn more about night-mayors here.

BIODIVERSITY IN QUEENS PARK

ACTUAL WORK FOR THE CLIMATE; NOT PERFORMATIVE GUFF

A well used and expansive asset, Queens Park is brimming with potential to improve biodiversity and habitats for native species which is completely dominated by the golfing. A greater balance should be struck between the interests of golfers and the thousands of local citizens for whom Queen's Park is their primary green space.

I don't propose a war on golf, but I do think its important to recognise that golf courses create grass deserts with very little actual biodiversity or scope for nature to thrive, given their nature. I think this asset, long term, would be better as a rich open park space rather than a golf course - great for the select few reasonably well-heeled people that enjoy golf, but pretty irrelevant for everyone else that can't afford such privileges.

The tiny Winton Recreation Ground by comparison is always booming with people - the children's play area there exceptionally well used. How lovely would it be if Queens Park became an actual 'park' in the literal sense - areas to play, benches to sit on - flowers and features for all to enjoy. At best you can attempt to enjoy a walk under siege from projectiles at the moment and be made to feel unwelcome by people waving their hands at you angrily in the distance for having the audacity to want some fresh air.

A better balance should be struck in Queens Park - do you really need to be able to play golf in the centre of town? If you can afford to play golf, you can afford to travel out to the countryside where this sort of thing is better located. Meyrick park is also a golf course, and another sizeable golf course exists just up the road in Iford. In a place that is rapidly expanding, we need more accessible parks that everybody can enjoy; not just the privileged few.

You can read more about sustainable golf here.