Gary Griffin makes a personal statement as Lib Dem candidate for the Haymill and Lynch Hill by-election on 4th May 2017
I believe I have the experience and commitment to represent the residents of Haymill and Lynch Hill if I am successful in the by-election to Slough Borough Council on 4th May.
I have lived in Slough for 33 years and am a volunteer for Age Concern Slough and Berkshire East Berkshire, helping to protect the interests of older people.
As a councillor I would consult residents properly and keep in touch with regular Focus newsletters and monthly Advice surgeries. This is exactly what Lib Dem councillors nationally and here in Slough have a good reputation for doing, for example in Foxborough Ward from 2000-2014. The Focus newsletters delivered by volunteers to every house in Haymill and Lynch Hill would allow me not only to let residents know what I'd been doing as a councillor, and what the council was planning to do, but they would also be a means through which I could help residents to work as a community to help themselves by promoting websites and phone links that can be used to report items such as pot-holes and fly-tipping.
I would campaign strongly against unwanted traffic schemes that Slough's Labour-run council seem obsessed with introducing across the town. This includes all along the A4, with the worst example being the Labour councillors going ahead with their idiotic scheme to close Station Road in Haymill in both directions. This proved to be so unpopular that even the Labour Council eventually backed down, but Haymill needs councillors who can mobilise community opposition sufficiently well that these schemes are stopped before they are even introduced on a trial basis. Currently Slough's Labour-run Council are pushing ahead with further schemes that again are flawed such as the work at the Five Points junction at Priory Road, Burnham Lane, Lower Britwell Road, Hogfair Lane (and Windsor Lane).
As a councillor I would stand up for the residents of Haymill and Lynch Hill rather than putting the interests of my party first. I recently stood up for Slough residents by telling the Boundary Commission that their plans to move Salt Hill Park, Chalvey and part of High Street out of Slough constituency and into Windsor constituency were unnecessary and unacceptable. I did the detailed work to construct arguments, as requested by the Boundary Commission, to support my submission. I think Slough Conservatives have let down our town by appearing to put their party before the residents of Slough by supporting these plans which almost cut Slough in two, rather than opposing them as I have done.
As a councillor I would campaign for services in Slough to be run in a joined-up way for the maximum benefit of the town's residents. For example, in order to promote the council's purported agenda of improving health and well-being I would campaign to ensure the charges for hiring sports pitches were kept low in order to encourage more healthy activity. I would support the Slough Lib Dems campaign led by Robert Plimmer against the Labour council's massive increase, in April 2015, in charges for adult and youth teams who hired sports pitches. I would work with Robert Plimmer whose Freedom of Information request first exposed that, for example, the 55% increase in charges for adult teams had resulted in a 50% drop in the number of council pitches that were hired following the enormous increase in charges introduced by the Labour councillors.
Finally, I know a lot of EU citizens live and work in Slough, including in Haymill and Lynch Hill, and contribute in valuable ways to our society and economy. I will work with others in the Lib Dem party to campaign to ensure that those EU citizens already settled in Slough are able to stay.
Published and promoted by Gary James Griffin for and on behalf of East Berkshire Liberal Democrats, and Gary James Griffin: all at 45, Victoria Road, Slough, Berkshire. SL2 5NF.