I have lived in Kilsyth my entire life, as have many generations of my family.

Full statement

My background is the roofing industry and I was employed for 6 years as an estimator at Marley Roof Tiles in Bishopbriggs before moving on and forming my own company which I ran successfully for some 25 years before retiring.

I still live in Kilsyth with my wife and have 2 children who have all attended the local schools in the area

Why am I standing for Reform UK.

I joined Reform UK as the other parties have continually let our area and Scotland down.

Our parks such as the Colzium in Kilsyth have fallen into disrepair. Burns are overgrown and streets are strewn with litter. Once a thriving and picturesque place to live is now only a distant memory. Zero tolerance on all crime and antisocial behaviour can significantly help with these issues. If people know that they will be prosecuted and there will be a cost to their vandalism or littering, then usually the problem disappears. We need to increase the level of Policing and return to using “Bobbies on the Beat” who actually know the local area and the people in it and importantly the ones causing all the issues.

We need to help make work pay and one of the ways Reform UK has suggested is to raise the start point of Income Tax to £20 000 per annum. This gives an automatic pay rise to everybody and the poorest benefit the most.

Our NHS seems to be hopelessly broken. At present we all seem to know or know of someone who is on a waiting list for months or even years for a minor operation. We are lucky if we are able to get a doctor’s appointment within a reasonable timeframe and an NHS dentist has become a luxury item with more and more people unable to find one and being forced onto the Private sector whether they can afford it or not. So many of our institutions just seem broken but Reform UK at least have policies which will start to address the harms that successive governments have done.

Something has to change. We cannot go on the way we have been. Our Country Needs Reform.