I had the great pleasure of attending a Market Lavington Youth Council meeting recently. It was fantastic to see young people come together in the evening to discuss the issues that they see in the community. The young people from St Barnabas and Lavington elected a Chair and Vice Chair and set some initial projects […]

You may know that I hold the Education and Skills portfolio within Wiltshire Council, in addition to my role as representative of The Lavingtons. It was therefore a double-disappointment to hear of the White Horse Federation’s decision to change the post-16 education offering at Devizes School with huge consequences for Lavington School and our local […]

I hope 2023 has started positively for everyone and despite the miserable weather, the evenings are getting a little lighter each day. If, like me, you have younger children you will be used to the countdown to Christmas starting at the beginning of September – allow me to cheer you up by saying, at the […]

The Devizes Area Board is a panel made up of the seven Wiltshire Councillors from across the wider Devizes area. I sit on it and represent The Lavingtons, alongside Tamara Reay (Devizes Rural West), Simon Jacobs (Devizes South), Iain Wallis (Devizes North), Kelvin Nash (Devizes East), Philip Whitehead (Urchfont & The Cannings) and Laura Mayes […]

I’m always incredibly busy fighting for the needs of our villages and residents. Often it involves a huge amount of cage-rattling and negotiating with many groups including Wiltshire Council officers, Cabinet, Wiltshire Police and our MPs. This month has been positive on several fronts. Our Police & Crime Commissioner responded to my pleas for speed […]

One responsibility of Government is to ensure we have enough housing in the UK to accommodate all those who are resident here. We also have national planning policy to ensure that what is built is of a suitable standard and is desirable. Further to this, on a local level, we generate a strategy to help […]

As a parent of one child at primary and one at secondary school I have seen the tiredness creep-in through October. For school staff too, the holiday can’t come soon enough. With school finances being rapidly eroded by inflation, the pressure is on for schools to deliver the best education possible with less and less […]

Every now and again I hear people say, “There’s no point objecting, they’ll build it anyway”, or “It’s not worth the battle” or “Money talks”. It annoys me, quite frankly. I’ve never been afraid to have a scrap and nothing gets me riled-up as much as someone who throws their weight around like they own […]

Whilst thankfully, fuel prices at the petrol pumps have reduced slightly over the last few weeks, I expect, like me, you have concerns about the cost of living, especially as winter approaches. I am pleased that Wiltshire Council has been getting on with distributing the £150 Government energy rebate on council tax bills for households […]

In the middle of July, during the hottest week on record, people from all over the area (and beyond) enjoyed the spectacular Market Lavington Vintage Meet. Emily and I took the kids along on the Sunday and were blown away by the variety of things on show. It took me a good forty minutes to […]