Born in Yorkshire and resided in North Yorkshire for 21 years with 17 years’ experience as a councillor at North Yorkshire.

Full statement

Former Industrial chemist, married with 2 grown up children living locally. My hobbies include cycling and classic cars and doing voluntary work as and when required.

The constituency is very rural with several towns and a lot of villages. Connectivity is a key requirement along with a need for good infrastructure and places to be made welcome. There is currently no Leisure Hub in the main town of Wetherby and the new constituency also covers 2 different councils giving rise to conflicting needs. This requires managing to get the most for the area.

This rural nature of the area also means a more flexible approach to my surgeries is needed, and these will be set up on a rotational basis so members of the public do not have to travel far to see me.

Having driven and cycled round the area for a long time some of the roads clearly need an upgrade and I have contacts within the councils that I can turn to.

Finally there is the issue of public transport. How that will operate with the Mayor of West Yorkshire running services there and North Yorkshire thus becoming a separate entity is anyone’s guess at the moment. A sit down and conversation needs to take place.