It is a privilege to be standing in the council by-election to serve as your Conservative Councillor in Beverley St Mary’s Ward.
What happens in Beverley really matters to me because it’s my home town. I was born in the old Westwood Hospital and grew up and went to school here, returning after a spell away completing my apprenticeship and a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Beverley is a great place to live and work, which is something to celebrate. It also means that lots of people want to live here, which puts pressure on our housing stock.
New developments aren’t always welcome but it’s vital we strike a responsible balance when it comes to house building so that people who grew up in Beverley can stay here, raise families of their own and establish themselves.
All new developments should have 25% affordable housing unless there are very good reason otherwise as per the local plan, ensuring hard working individuals and families get the opportunity to live in Beverley. There is the provision for an annual review to see whether targets for delivering affordable housing are on track.
One of my passions is education for both young people and adults – I received fantastic support as a pupil at Beverley Grammar School, helping me overcome the challenges of dyslexia. The newly opened Adult Education Centre in Beverley offers real opportunities for adults to improve their skills and enhance their job prospects and confidence. I will work hard to ensure we don’t cut back on funding and we look at improving the experience to make learning accessible and rewarding.
As part of the regenerate of the old lower Longcroft School (brown field site) a new modern youth facility will be built for the cadets. I also plan on working close with the schools and colleges to support initiatives to encourage youth activities.
In my spare time I have raised funds for Breast Cancer Care by completing a “Tough Mudder”, enjoy attending events locally and also play Sunday league football.
As we know this election has arisen in sad circumstances owing to the death of Conservative Councillor Irene Charis. Irene loved Beverley and was a strong and popular representative. If elected I promise I will always stand up for our area, for better public services and affordable council taxes – that is my pledge to you.
I welcome Roy as my Conservative opponent in the upcoming by-election. However, I feel his comments are somewhat disingenuous in light of the track record of his political colleagues in office at ERYC.
He states, correctly that: “All new developments should have 25% affordable housing unless there are very good reason otherwise as per the local plan, ensuring hard working individuals and families get the opportunity to live in Beverley.”
Once again, the devil is in the detail: “unless there are very good reasons otherwise”. If developers can show that such affordable housing provision is “not economically viable” they can be forgiven this requirement and ERYC has a lamentable track record of accepting such pleas from developers eager to make easy money on executive homes in Beverley without rigorous investigation a to why this might be the case.
He goes on to state that: “There is the provision for an annual review to see whether targets for delivering affordable housing are on track.” That may very well be the case, but can he assure us, the residents, if such reviews take account of the get-out set out in my previous comment and/or, if those targets are not being met, what, if anything, ERYC will do to ensure they are?
I note he plays Sunday league football. Long may do so although this may prove increasingly difficult as his political colleagues at County Hall press on with selling off our playing fields and other green recreational spaces to the apparently bottomless appetite of developers.
Thank you Margaret Pinder for a totally unbiased view of the candidates.
Is there anyone else standing in this election and if so could you please give us the full run down on them to .
I do appreciate the information you have so very kindly offered.
May I just point pout that the actual definition of affordable housing is ‘Social Housing’ or what people used to call council houses.
To my knowledge the only ‘affordable houses’ being built are in Swinemoor on a corner of the playing field.
Sale price – ie a house less than the current market value does no mean ‘affordable’.
We need to build homes but there is no way developers are going to give up 25pc of their development to ‘council houses’
Ian M – Roy will win the seat, there is very very slim chance some one else may but its hard to see anyone voting for any of the other parties.
Possibly he will , i was just intrigued who else could be standing .Just trying to think of the playing fields of Beverley that have been built on .Correct me if i am wrong but i can only think of the one near Saman Road . Didn’t that have social housing built on it.