About

I have lived in the local area for almost all my life, except for a brief foray working in Miami. I passed my 11+ at College House, thanks Mrs Nicholson!, enabling me to have a fantastic grammar school education at Bramcote Hills. I gained a degree equivalent qualification in accountancy at Boots, where I worked for a fabulous 23 years.

I bought our family home on Long Lane in 1978, enjoying evening bar work as well as my day job in order to save the mortgage deposit. I was a committee member of Nottingham CAMRA in its formative years, and still love a pint of real ale.

My work in Miami resulted in my love of Chevy cars (Corvette’s fibreglass body means it CAN do up to 40mpg on long journeys and the Blazer is great for towing cars out of snow drifts, mud etc).

My political career started in 2002, in  response to poor local representation by Labour, so thanks Nick for positively failing to save our local bus.

At that time, the electoral boundary meant that I lived in Chilwell, so joined that area, stood for the Conservatives and was elected in Chilwell West in 2003, where I also lived in my teens on Bramcote Lane. I represented that ward until 2011, when my mentor, the brilliant Attenborough Cllr Tom Pettengell, decided to retire. I am proud to have been elected as ward Councillor for Attenborough in 2011 and pleased to have helped deliver the Flood Alleviation scheme on time and within budget in spite of residents being split by the proposed route and, as I believe, stirred up by Palmer supporters. Following the boundary changes in 2013, I was re-elected in the new combined Broxtowe Borough ward of Attenborough & Chilwell East.

I also served 4 years as County Councillor for Beeston South & Attenborough from 2009-13, winning a seat that was Labour for decades, and enjoyed my work with the Police and Fire Authorities, Finance & Property, Joint Health Scrutiny and Economic Development. The move to a committee system significantly improved the involvement of local councillors in the decision making process at the council. I have recently May 2017) been elected as County Councillor for the new division of Toton, Chilwell & Attenborough (and Beeston West).