I was proud to be elected as an East Suffolk Councillor for Framlingham ward in May 2023, and am now also the Cabinet member for Resources and Value for Money, overseeing the council budgets and finances.
I’ve had a lifelong passion for the natural world and have worked in both agriculture and the environment in the UK, Asia and right across Africa. My strong sense is that politicians simply have no choice but to work in a more collegiate way (from all political persuasions) to face the climate crisis that we face, and I’ve seen first-hand the havoc that climate change is causing. We must push back and defeat the ongoing ‘tragedy of the commons’ and foster far more community ownership of our living environment, for both ourselves and future generations.
Framlingham has experienced two emergencies in the past three years, covid and flooding. Both have severely impacted my town in negative but also surprisingly positive ways. In March 2020, in the early days of covid, my neighbours formed a WhatsApp group that operates to this day. This, in my view, is a great example of how communities can get back together and help each other out.
Framlingham no longer has a physical bank, and our post office was badly damaged in the recent flooding. Losing our critical community infrastructure is very traumatic for residents. Framlingham Town Council has established a Flood Resilience working group that has met and now developed an Emergency Response Plan. It has also funded a local expert to do a flood assessment and hosted a well-attended public meeting to discuss this.
I’m helping Thomas Mills and Framlingham College Eco Councils to establish wildflower gardens, working with teachers and students. In response to Framlingham ward residents, I have been pressing Suffolk County Council to deal with potholes and remove roadkill more quickly. It’s all in a very busy day’s work.