Moving beyond our local election defeat.


I would like to apologise to and thank everyone that took the time to go down and vote for me on election day, we may not have won but together we can still make a difference.

Firstly me standing in the election was due to the fact the way our community is going did not sit well with me, I wanted to do something about it and I still do. The fact the Tories got returned in both seats with a majority, should not deter us from wanting to change our communities.

While two thousand odd people are happy with the way our villages are turning out, there was still a sizeable chunk of people that were not.

So what is next for us? We need to come together to fight for the community we want to see, in the hope that we can direct and effect the changes that our community needs.

To do this I’m going to set up a community association for Roade, it will require your support and participation. With the community association we can have a positive impact on our community, and together we can do something.

What is a community association? A community association is a non governmental organisation which is made up of members of a community to carry out a specific purpose which is of benefit to said community. It will be an official organisation, and exactly what our role and remit will be, will ultimately be decided by those who wish to engage within it.

I will write further on how I feel the community association will be good for our community in the future, in the mean time further information can be found here:

Once again thank you, but the real challenge begins now. Get involved, lets create the community we deserve.


Roade: Double the school, double the problems?


As it was reported here: Roade School is going to double in size from 210 places to 420.

I attended Roade School from 1995-2000 but since then I have had little to do with it outside of attending a planning meeting to get a crossing put outside the shop, so I am not the most knowledgeable on the current state of the school nor its facilities.

However there are some concerns that I have about this development, the roads not only outside the primary school but in the wider infrastructure of Roade already face problems in the morning and evenings, just how much stress are these extra places going to put onto the roads?

The development is of course happening because Roade it self is nearly doubling in size with various housing developments completed or about to commence, which means more people, more cars and more kids.

This is further evident in the fact a large chunk of the money is coming from a Section 106 developer contribution, which for those that don’t know mean developers who are going to build in the area have to provide money to fund a certain project, in this case expanding the school.

While it is of course obvious that if Roade is going to grow then our infrastructure needs to grow with it, there are still pressing concerns that need to be addressed before the building of new houses and more stress is added to the road network.

We need an improvement to the roads in the area, the a508 is struggling to cope with the present traffic, and this is going to add further stress alongside the houses that are being built. That being the case any developers first concern should be sorting out the road network before being able to add more cars to the mix.

On top of this nothing has emerged to replace the services we have lost over the last five to ten years, with Roade expanding we still lack amenities we once enjoyed, which not only enrich our community, they provide valuable job opportunities.

I have been contacted by numerous parents who have children that attend Roade Primary and they have expressed concerns that the vital Bumblee Bees service currently housed at the school is going to be ended due to the development, as there will be a lack of room.

This means that they are doubling the school, while cutting another vital service from the area! Which makes me think, just how are the school going to afford the extra staffing costs and other stresses which this is going to cause?

Under no circumstances should the school be cutting away a vital service to the village, that is lets not forget well used, for any reason what so ever. Those involved and the wider community should not only come together to support this service, we should be looking at how we can ensure its survival.

Under the Localism Act 2011 local communities have certain powers which they can use to take control of their areas, and we should be exploring how we can do this to ensure whatever happens to this village, is in the benefit of the people who live in it. (Information on the Localism Act can be found here:

Lets take our community back!