About Me

I was born in Rochdale in 1933 and moved to Cleveleys in 1963. I am married to Linda and have 2 daughters, a step-son, five grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.

I qualified as a Joiner/Cabinet-maker and first became interested in politics as a young lad taking numbers outside polling stations. I was involved in first ever televised election in Rochdale in 1958.

I decided to stand as a councillor after it  was suggested that I should have a go myself as I was interested in the community and wanted to make things better and I was first elected as a councillor in 1999.

The issues I am particularly interested in are tourism and local issues, the recent development of the Peoples Promenade and charity work for Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Society for the Blind especially since being elected as Wyre's representative
.
The best thing about being a councillor is being able to help someone and the appreciation you get in those circumstances. The worst thing is not being able to please everyone and the unfair criticism you get.

I would also like to see the regeneration of some of the more neglected buildings in Cleveleys and better parking would greatly improve the local area. But the biggest problem with local government today is getting the financing and then the time it takes for things to come to fruition. More money from Central Government would help to solve our problems.

My greatest political triumph was that before I was elected, Jubilee never had 2 conservative councillors. My greatest passion is to keep my party in power and to improve the education system, though it is not a WBC responsibility.

As an example of how you can't please all the people, in 2006, during the last election I knocked on one door and the chap who answered said he would not be voting for me because of what the council had done at Jubilee. A few doors further down the same street, another chap came to the door and said he would be voting for me because of what the council had done at Jubilee...

My political heroes are Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. If I was Prime Minister, the first thing I would do would be to get rid of quangos and make sure that local government was properly funded

If my house was threatened by disaster the first thing I would grab would be the box of photographs because you can't replace them.

In my spare time I like to listen to audio books - particularly adventures and mysteries. My favourite kind of film is an old-fashioned western and the music I prefer is classic Sinatra and the Ratpack and the big band sound.