Growing up in Cambridge Road, Walton, I always knew I wanted to make our local community a better place.

Full statement

I currently live next to St Mary's Church. I attended Grovelands and Rydens Schools as a child, lived on St Johns Drive as an adult, and served as a local councillor from 2014-2019, so I have a passionate commitment to keeping our patch of Walton a wonderful place in which to live, work and grow up.

A vote for me this May is a vote to champion our environment by keeping our streets clean and our park and river areas tidy, to spur action on tackling littering from both the top down (the council end) and the bottom up (organising councillor-led litter picks within the local community), to work with business groups to help businesses thrive along the Terrace Road parade, to work with Surrey councillors to address parking and pothole issues, and to ensure council tax is kept low while services to residents deliver at a high standard. I will also take action on the issues I hear about on the doorstep: to replace the trees lost to the disgraceful vandalism recently, to get the area around the pond in Shaw Drive tidied up after the recent oil line replacement, and to set up an active pothole watch for users of our roads to get swifter action.

Elmbridge Council is currently run by a coalition of independents and Liberal Democrats who are raising council tax while charging residents to use local tennis courts and who voted themselves a pay increase of 12% in 2017/18. Only by voting in a strong Conservative administration can we begin to make our council work for Walton without the need to burden residents with large increases in council tax.

I know local democracy may be the furthest thing from our minds as we look forward to resuming life, but your vote really can make a difference this May. If you’d like to discuss why you should support me, please drop me a line at lewisbrown.walton@gmail.com.