I’ve been asked by AboutMyArea and Gatley.net to provide a candidate statement, putting my case as to why the residents of Cheadle & Gatley should re-elect me as a local councillor on 6th May.

Since the first was 300 words and the second 200, there’s been some editing between the two to get the word count down.  I can only hope I’ve not accidentally contradicted myself.  As the 200 word statement is Gatley oriented, I cut some words by removing a few Cheadle references.

Here are the two as  submitted them:

The 200 word version

Since my election in September 2009 I’ve worked hard for the people of Cheadle & Gatley. I’ve had several areas of flooding fixed, reported over a hundred potholes, faulty streetlights and broken pavements. I’ve had many pieces of graffiti cleaned up, worked hard to improve parking and traffic problems and worked with the police and council to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. I’ve worked to get the right outcome on the Tatton site – investigating a land-swap deal to get Gatley a much-needed car park and playing my part in opposing the developer’s appeal.

But there’s more to do. Fixing our roads after the winter freeze, improving parking, getting ‘Gatley North’ rail station built, helping our village centres to recover from the recession and making them attractive destinations for shoppers.

There’s more to do tackling traffic problems, including the Kingsway junction and on the South Park Road estate. More work making us all safe from crime, giving our young people more to do, and many other issues.

In the months since my election I hope I’ve shown that I get things done, and I’ll always fight for our area. Re-elect me and give me the opportunity to continue this work.

The 300 word version

Since my election in September 2009 I’ve worked hard for the people of Cheadle & Gatley, with results that can be seen around the area. I’ve had several areas of flooding fixed, reported over a hundred potholes, faulty streetlights and broken pavements. I’ve had many pieces of graffiti cleaned up, worked hard to improve parking and traffic problems and worked with the police and council to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour, including in the Oak Road area. I’ve worked to get the right outcome on Gatley’s old Tatton site – investigating a land-swap deal to get Gatley a much-needed car park and recently playing my part in the successful defence of the Council’s refusal of the unsuitable planning application at appeal.

But there’s much more to do. We need to get our roads back in order after the winter freeze, to improve parking, get Cheadle and ‘Gatley North’ rail stations built on the Stockport to Altrincham line, help our village centres to recover from the recession and make them attractive destinations for shoppers.

There’s more work to do tackling traffic problems, like those at the Kingsway junction, on Schools Hill and on the South Park Road estate. More work making us all safe from crime, giving our young people more to do, and a host of other issues.

In the months since I was elected, I hope I’ve shown that I get things done, and I’ll always stick up for the people of Gatley and Cheadle and fight for our area. Re-elect me and give me the opportunity to continue this work.