Well, it wasn't to be. It wasn't through any lack of effort, on the part of me or the many many volunteers who helped me with putting the word out there with the leaflets we dropped. When presented with a real opportunity to drive change in our area the majority have voted for more of the same.

IT'S POLLING DAY. DON'T FORGET

✅ Voter ID

✅ You get 2 votes

✖️ It's not about national politics

1 vote for a political party

1 vote for real change - Independent

Thank you to everybody for all your support and assistance so far. Now it's over to you

Having compared my ambitions for the Ward if I’m fortunate enough to be elected, and compared them with the leaflets I’ve seen from the major parties I’ve started to wonder if I might be too ambitious.

Here I set out and summarise those plans in one place

I’m standing in Aughton and Swallownest Ward, which also covers Ulley and Orgreave and is outlined in the attached interactive map. If you click on it the map will open and allow you to zoom in and see if you are covered by the Ward, or if you fall into a neighbouring Ward (the most obvious being Aston and Todwick).

A commonly raised topic when I speak to other local residents is the lack of banking facilities in the area - which makes it difficult for those without cars to access the services of a Bank.

Aughton and Swallownest Ward contains around 8000 residents and 20% of them are over 65. Like my Mum.

The last thing I want to do is disturb them in their homes. They get enough people knocking on their doors trying to sell them gardening, roof repairs, double glazing. The last thing they need is someone banging on the door asking that they vote for them.

HELP: Postal votes will be going out 14th April, 10 days from now. I have 4000 leaflets arriving next week that I'd like to have through letterboxes before a week on Monday. So I'm looking for some volunteers who can help me with an hour or two of their time.

Something that's bothered me for some time is the derelict buildings around our village. They attract drug users (in the case of the old pub - cannabis farms TWICE) and are dangerous, as well as unsightly bringing the whole area down.

Back in the early 90s a plan was revealed to build a station in Swallownest, at the junction of the Kiveton-Sheffield trainline and Chesterfield Road… that would reduce commuting times to Sheffield to just 15 minutes…

Recently BBC Watchdog reported on the massive problem of potholes and the expensive damage they cause to our vehicles. It's a huge problem in Rotherham, and as a resident of the Aston cum Aughton area I can confirm it's a huge problem round here.

I've been asked this a lot recently, especially because I have no desire to represent a political party. Let's get politics out of the way first. I am interested in politics, I just don't understand what being a member of a political party brings to the role of councillor in local Government. Can anybody tell me?

500 new houses in Swallownest, Aughton & Aston and little to no consultation with residents...

Here are plans for over 500 houses on our doorstep, on our green spaces and hardly anybody I’ve spoken to know a thing about it.. I promise that I will communicate these kinds of thing much better than we have experienced from our councillors in the past

For many years now I've never understood why the crossroads at Treeton Lane, Rotherham Rd and Ulley hasn't been upgraded to a roundabout.

Not only would it massively improve congestion and safety at the junction, it would slow down traffic entering Aughton, further improving safety

My reason for standing, is to forget politics (left or right) and work to help improve the Aughton & Swallownest Ward. And make it a better place for us all to live. I want to represent the people of the area, and be accountable to them. I'll use this website to communicate my aims as we go along towards the election on May 2nd. I hope you'll stick around as I post these updates and join in the debate (and maybe share some of the updates too?)