Milton ward, it would be an honor to stand up for you and to serve you.

Full statement

It is time for councils to remind themselves of their obligations towards the public; no decision should be made without a clear transparent legitimate public consultation, to us the people.

Having been a Southend resident for 17 years, I have long loved this city and hate to see the state it has fallen into. We desperately need change from the old parties which have repeatedly let us down!

As a home educator, and someone who runs multiple community projects, such as the people's health alliance hub, I am very in touch with the residents' issues, concerns, wants and needs. Many of which I experience daily myself.

My main priority is to stop southend from becoming a ‘15 minute city’. These models that have been rolled out by other councils, in spite of residents voting against them, they take away our freedoms, in many different ways and levels and are completely ‘miss sold’ to the public. And oppose the related issues linked to agenda 2030. As well as: Better management of residents housing issues including mold, for both private and council tenants. Stop the spilling of sewage in the sea. Transparency in spending on emergency services, and spending more money on training police officers, that will actually come to reported scenes, and making sure our police staff spend less time and money on monitoring twitter and political correctness and more time dealing with physical assaults and real crime. Allow all local businesses to thrive, not only the high street but hamlet court road and all those in betweens should be able to benefit from any schemes that are introduced. Free use of the public library, particularly for the home education community, And the removal of inappropriate materials for children from it. Stop rampant development, and stop over riding residents' opposition to do so, protect our historical sites and listed buildings. Clean up our city, force landlords to provide walls, fencing and bins to the front of properties, to stop rubbish spilling onto the streets, via rats, seagulls, animals and unfortunately the homeless. Keep regular bin collections for retail and restaurants as well as residents, which should help cull the rodent issue that spreads across the entirety of the city including our parks and beaches. The opening of a permanent community center in central southend, and a swimming pool nearer to this area. Keep women's spaces. Allow transparency and parental rights over children's school curriculum.

Part of our local and national manifesto is to stop rampant development, especially when all residents oppose, for example the residents of royal terrace, who all voiced concerns about the building of the ‘Seven hotel’ on their doorstep. Not only does the modern building ruin the historical aesthetic of this conservation area, the residents are now left with the issues of parking, noise and smoke pollution. Too many perfectly good structures, such as the victoria hotel which once stood opposite the metro bank in southend high street, have been replaced by ugly square concrete blocks, which the majority of the residents do not appreciate.

There are too many empty lots and abandoned houses to warrant new developments, and the cutting down of trees and loss of green land to build blocks of unaffordable, small flats on. The average family can not afford to buy or rent a family home, and struggle to afford and fit into these small modern flats. I call for better management of council houses and the monitoring of private landlords to meet the basic needs of tenants, such as dealing with root issues of mold and damp problems. On a national level the Heritage party has some great solutions to housing and related issues.

We need to stop the spilling of sewage into the sea! Our seafront should be one of the biggest sources of income for our city, in terms of tourism. How can we encourage people to come here, when newspapers are printing warnings not to, due to the health risks of the waters! The large sum of money used to build the structure at the end of the pier has been severely underused, and again the public were not consulted on what they would like to see at the end. A missed opportunity for increased revenue, and a waste of funding that could have been used on countless other priorities and city issues.

Equally our high street needs attention, there is no opportunities for local and independent businesses to thrive, and there needs to be regulations and schemes put in place to help and support everyone who is not a major corporate chain store. I do not forget the many beautiful family run businesses in hamlet court road, in milton ward, which seems to be better than southend’s main high street in some regards. Stop punishing residents for trying to earn an honest living from their businesses.

In the cost of living crisis we are in, we could at least allow residents to visit parks for free. So we therefore oppose the implementation of car parking charges or any charges to enter our parks including; Southchurch Park, Southchurch hall park, Priory Park and Chalkwell Park. Whilst I do NOT oppose any spending that improves the lives of children or the mental health and physical well being of the residents, one simple thing we can do to maintain these things, is simply not charge people to walk and play in our parks. Many smaller parks such as christchurch park, and the skate and micro park opposite warrior square would benefit from public toilets and benches. We also oppose the proposition to charge for the use of public toilets city wide.

Southend has a thriving home education community, but many of us are outpriced from renting the rooms in the library which are upwards of £30 an hour. Our central library runs as a business, and we deserve a free public service, especially for those wishing to use the space casually, and not for ticketed events. I have recently attended an event at Southend library, where my 10 year old was deliberately given a magazine which contained cartoons and photographs of sexually explicit acts, and my 6 year old similar. Home educators should also not be penalized for their life choices, they are tax paying citizens as well, and should therefore not have to pay for their children to sit GCSE’s if they so wish to. So I am in support of keeping and improving all schemes that allow home educators or children not in schools for other reasons to have the opportunity to do so for free.

To further help with the cost of living, and to help local businesses establish community connections, we suggest a resident discount card scheme, for our local attractions, seafront and shops. This should however not be solely digital. Individuals should not have to sacrifice privacy and allow others to make a profit from harvesting their data, and older generations that do not have smart devices, or anyone who ‘runs out of battery’ should not have to forgo the benefit of this. A non-digital version of this also saves money on app development.

On a national level the Heritage Party fights to stop the eradication of cash, and on a local level we feel all businesses should uphold the legal rights of all residents to pay in cash.

Whilst I am a part of so many micro communities in Southend, many residents feel there is a lack of community spirit, we once had. With many well loved events being canceled such as the southend air show, we need new replacements. I have many ideas for merging micro communities and re-establishing this, without spending the amount of money the council has previously on events such as the luminosity festival. Which whilst ok, was still an affront to people struggling to pay their electric bills, and is also contradictory of the council members who are for the globalist net zero agenda.

As previously stated, we have far too many community officers, and signposted staff to monitor twitter spats about political correctness, and wasted budget on printing flyers that promote southend police on social media, and a shortage of constables to attend to serious call outs. From talking to Milton residents, I have found that I am not alone in my personal experiences, and the amount of ignored calls and police requests to attend the scenes of serious crimes like stabbings is ridiculous. Many Milton ward residents feel the need to invest in personal CCTV, and to keep objects that could be intentionally used as weapons to hand in their homes. We need police to reduce crime in our area, and allow us to feel safe, not egg on ‘cancel culture’. Spending more money on CCTV cameras and vans is useless, if emergency services still can not respond at the time of events. We need police to turn up and stop assaults from happening, not look back at it on video. Residents report very specific general issues, such as open drug use by groups of individuals in the queensway underpasses at peak school run times. 4 years later the problems persists.

We are aware of the homelessness issues in our city, and that other councils give their homeless residents one way train tickets to southend. I fully support the homeless charities in southend, and the good work that they do. However many of the solutions we have discussed to resolve this would not suffice, if the feeding of the problem continues by external councils. And many of the issues that lead to homelessness are systemic national issues that sadly at this level we have little control or influence over, other than to support the good work of the homeless charities.

The Heritage party received instant slander from the Echo, and other elected council members, attempting to label us ‘far right’ and ‘fascist’ from the offset. It is ludicrous to think that our elected council members do not even understand the actual meaning of such terms that they throw around in an attempt to discredit other parties. And that an average concerned resident such as myself, with no political background, has the capability to write an entire essay explaining how this makes no sense, and is purely a projection of everything that the main parties are themselves in current times.

I joined this local election with less than 5 weeks to go until voting day, and with no clue to the formalities of the system. Myself and fellow Heritage candidate in Kursaal ward, have been ‘canceled’, name called and oppressed, yet I know from the short amount of time I have had, talking to residents, that we stand for what the people are craving; Freedom, Family, Nation.

Please stop being complacent about voting, and take back your voice and power. Please stop voting for the same parties that have repeatedly let down you and this country. They are not your only option!

Milton and Kursaal ward, please VOTE HERITAGE!