Hi, I'm Matt Cortes, your PIP candidate for Thundersley.

Full statement

I am also your current Thundersley South Borough councillor and have been since May 2024.

I'm sure lots of you will have seen me and my colleagues at out weekly stalls either in the village on the 2nd Saturday of the month or at one of our other locations in Castle Point on one of the other Saturdays. I personally think its important to be visable and available for residents to discuss matters that affect them directly with myself. This is in stark contrast to the current Essex County Council (ECC) councillor for the area who is rarely seen.

I, like the majority of the UK, believe in democracy. Unfortunately it appears that the Conservatives in Essex do not and took away everyone's vote last year to spend a year without a mandate. This is quite simply unacceptable.

During my time as a councillor I have played a large part in dealing with 1 of the 2 main issues that I heard on every one of our weekly stalls, that of getting the street lights turned back on so everyone feels safer. The other issue that we constantly hear about is the state of our roads and pavements. There is simply no way we get value for the huge amount of your council tax that we send to ECC. This needs to be fought for so we get our share. Other parties have been in ECC so why have they not improved them so far?

Its not however just the roads that ECC is failing on. Does anyone feel that there is anything they are doing well with? For example, Essex ranks as one of the lowest with regards to SEN provision in children. Again this is unacceptable.

The People’s Independent Party is not a national party. Every member has different political beliefs when it comes to national politics but what we do all passionately believe is we need to protect Castle Point at all costs. It is our home. National parties will talk about immigration, the economy, the NHS etc. All issues that people are rightly concerned about but none of them are relevant for a county election. This is not about saying how unhappy you are with any of the national parties. This is about Castle Point being protected and heard.

With the impending Local Government Reorganisation that will merge us with Rochford & Southend we need to be in a position so that any decisions that affect us allow our voice to be heard. Personally I can't believe that any of our current ECC councillors voted to go in this pilot scheme that all the models predict will not save the tax payer money or improve the services for decades! For some reason they did! Even more astonishing is the fact that the leader of ECC is still fighting to get us merged with Basildon and Thurrock. This is simply unacceptable.

I would be honoured if you would trust me with your vote on May 7th so I can continue to get the things that matter locally to you done.

Thank you for listening. I am happy to answer any questions.

Matt Cortes

Now the legal bit

Promoted and published by Russ Savage on behalf of The People's Independent Party and Matt Cortes of 441 High Road, Benfleet, SS7 5AF