Homeworking can make council staff more productive. It also means we can manage with less office space.
I have been seeking support for businesses which moved into new premises and are not on the Rating List – so are not eligible for support.
We are providing food deliveries for around 2,600 households in the Scottish Borders. Rural transport for the children of key workers was also urgent.
Making full use of the volunteers will mean lifting some of the red tape around vetting and so forth. It is a matter of balancing the risks involved in a practical way.
When our elections finally come next year, we will be campaigning hard to win back an overall majority.
Labour and Lib Dem councillors offer a seemingly endless stream of virtue signalling motions. We want practical results.
I commit to ensuring that education standards improve, and to back a freeport and eco-innovation enterprise zones.
The relocation of a National Express bus depot for the Commonwealth Games athlete’s village will cost £15.5m – eight times more than budgeted.
We have reduced the number of councillors by 30 per cent and we froze allowances for nine years running.
Instead of seeing local councillors as a potential saving, maybe we should see them as an asset.
After having knocked on doors in six very different constituencies, across the South East, certain themes stand out. Social Care is one of them.
In Chesterfield, people want to know about tackling potholes, safeguarding social care, and protecting the local High Street and local pubs.
That means protecting the environment, supporting schools, and more police. It means friendly communities with better transport, homes, and high streets.
You wouldn’t go under anaesthetic if the surgeon were doing it as a hobby. There is a reason why a substantial number of MPs start life as councillors.