Dear Fellow Electors

I have enjoyed serving on the Town Council for the last four years. After a lifetime in business the pace and procedures of local government take some getting used to and I'm only now beginning to get the hang of things. I'd welcome the chance to carry on fighting for the things I believe the town needs. The Town Council can't do much directly - but my word it can make its voice heard when it wants to. We need to do that more often and make ourselves a nuisance with the District and County Councils when we feel really strongly. These are the things I feel strongly about.

Chipping Norton is at a crossroads.

Either it will lose more jobs and even more services and become a commuter town. Dead during the day with the huge polluting HGVs and the resident old age pensioners as the only signs of life. That's the direction the County Council and District Council seem to be wanting to take us - aided and abetted by a totally ineffective Town Partnership and a Town Council afraid to say boo to the WODC Cabinet.

Or a few people are going to have to make a fight of it. The officers of the local political parties seem to be more interested in keeping on the right side of  education committees and planning committees so they just do as they are told.

We were PROMISED that Wimpey would not be allowed to sell houses on the Parker Knoll site UNTIL a detailed marketing plan for the 5 acres of land allocated for industrial units had been approved. In three years the houses are built and many sold. NOT A SINGLE THING has been done about the employment land. Our Labour Mayor tells us to be patient. Our Conservative District Councillors do nothing. The District are being given the run around by the developers. We must demand that WODC honour their promises. Time to put CHIPPY FIRST

Some of us have fought for three years to keep our new Chippy hospital in the NHS. Not have it privatised as an add-on to a private Care Home. 11,000 local people signed a petition demanding the nurses stayed in the NHS. Now our MP, the Tory County Council, and the Tory District Council are all simply suggesting we drop this demand and be satisfied with what's on offer. Thats what they call "consultation". And its all because the issue of our small community hospital has been allowed to get mixed up in a huge multi-million pound Healthcare deal which the OCC have done with a private Care Home company.  We should have none of it. Time to put CHIPPY FIRST

The facilities for young people in the town are dreadful. The Leisure Centre is too expensive. The playground equipment is not being properly maintained. There are hardly any decent football pitches. Promises have been made over recent years about skate parks, centres and shelters. Nothing. When the kids on the Town Hall steps ask you "Well where are we supposed to go?" What's the answer? We absolutely must make some progress on this. We need a dedicated Youth Centre. Time to put CHIPPY FIRST

We should stop further residential development until the infrastructure can catch up. The Traffic is chaotic, there are not enough pedestrian crossings. There should be a an HGV weight limit. The drains are packing up, the library needs replacing, the school and the doctor's surgeries are bursting at the seams. We need an ambulance based in Chipping Norton - as we were promised. There is absolutely no chance that a paramedic could get to a life-threatening emergency inside eight minutes. We need to tell the police yet again that we want some officers patrolling the town centre at appropriate times.

Lets stop playing party politics and all get behind achieving the things which will make Chippy an even better place to live.