From my very early years, my parents’ sense of public duty – as a police officer and health & social care worker – instilled in me values based on fairness and community care.

Full statement

My work, first in community arts, then in academia, and now as a software developer, means I am used to working within tight budgets, navigating complex development processes, understanding cutting-edge digital technology, delivering world-leading research, and developing award-winning products. I have done everything from running a 25-person business, working for huge multinational companies, to freelancing paycheque to paycheque: I understand what it means to be precarious as well as to have the responsibility of others’ livelihoods in my stewardship.

Both Labour and the Conservatives tell us they see the problems we face, but neither is truthful about the scale of them. Reform tells us they see the scale of our problems, but their solutions are based on targeting scapegoats while they sell off what little is left of the NHS and our country, all to line the pockets of their rich backers. Only the Greens are brave enough to name the scale of the problem, and honest about the kinds of solutions that will help everyone, not just a few. The Green Party puts local people and workers at its heart. Sets out real possibilities to increase wages, lower bills, stimulate the economy through green jobs, and build cities your children can feel safe in, connecting towns and villages with public transport and walkable infrastructure, which improves our lives, our health, and our wellbeing.

I have always believed in workers’ rights, the need for justice for all, to build a society that lifts us all up, and an NHS and state that pick us up when we stumble. I also believe that the most urgent threat to our ability to improve our lives is the climate emergency – something which is felt deeply in the cost of living: energy, fuel, the cost of our supermarket shop – not just in the larger-scale climate events like the flooding that wreaked havoc on many communities this winter. But we can build a future which begins to make an immediate difference to our cost of living, quality of life, and in the longer term prevents the crisis with our climate from getting worse.

This starts with us, at a local level, making changes that work for our communities, building a better world, right here, right now, in Sheffield. We need an NHS which is not on its knees, a state which supports us, energy and food security, and success which is shared by all. The Green Party offers a pathway to that.

If I were elected as your councillor in Woodhouse, it would be a privilege to listen to you. To not just advocate for change, but to make it, and to make it for and with you.