2025: Week 16 - Elections!
I celebrated my birthday this week, I took the morning off to spend with my family, the first time I’ve actively taken off since being elected last July! Whilst the last 10 months have been a huge learning curve and extremely full on, I can honestly say they have been the most enjoyable and fulfilling months and I am proud to serve constituents.
We are now a week from the County Council Elections, and I was so pleased with the number of seats gained by the Lib Dem candidates which has given us the largest number of councillors of all the parties at Devon County. Those dedicated councillors can now begin the process of addressing the huge backlog of problems left by the previous Conservative administration, and get the County Council working for the good of the people in Devon. Too much money and time has been wasted over the past 26 years, the Council now needs to focus on the issues that matter most such as SEND provision, roads and social care, amongst others. It is well known that budgets are tight, but the Lib Dems have an excellent track record of finding creative solutions to problems and getting the best value for money for the people they serve. The leader of the Conservative party tried to insult the Lib Dems by saying we are “the people who will fix your church roof” but as a party we are proud to be local champions advocating for our constituents on matters close to home. A lot of Westminster politicians so often forget about the people who put them where they are, which is dangerous territory. Lib Dems will always put their localities first and do their best for their constituents. If that means fixing the church roof, then so be it!
Now that the County elections are over, it’s time to focus on Westminster, I’ve got my parking debate coming up on May 6th where I will be pushing for an independent regulator for private parking companies. For too long these companies have been able to make their own rules and treat customers with contempt, an independent regulator will stop that and ensure there is a robust set of rules they have to abide by which will give customers the clarity that they need.
Once that is complete I will be focussing on my Private Members Bill, the Company Directors (Duties) Bill, which is seeking to amend section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to require company directors to balance their duty to promote the success of the company with duties in respect of the environment and the company’s employees. If passed this will mean that companies will no longer be accountable only to their shareholders, and they will have to consider the environment, their employees and their customers as well. As part of this I have met with the team behind the Better Business Act, which aligns itself with this vision that companies have a responsibility to align their social and environmental impact with shareholder returns. I’ll keep you posted about this….