My Plan for North Devon

Looking Forward

As we look to the next General Election, I want to continue to represent you and your families, the businesses, charities and community groups that I have had the pleasure of meeting and championing. I will not shy away from the difficult issues; I will continue to work at 100 miles an hour as I always have done and challenge decisions that may not necessarily be my responsibility, but, if it is important to you then it is important to me and I will not stand back and let councils, councillors, government departments or statutory authorities drift, dither or take decisions that badly impact on our community without demanding improvement. I may not agree with every resident or viewpoint out there, and as such I may upset people, this is politics and that is normal. I can only work hard and do what I believe is best for our wonderful part of the world and our many vibrant and differing communities.

In putting together my future priorities, I of course reflected on the many thousands of people who have contacted me over the years. Of the changes that we have seen and the things that we have experienced together, and that I and we have learnt. They are not specific to any one area of North Devon, as the needs and priorities across the constituency vary greatly. They do not cover everything that is important to everybody and certainly not everything that is important to me, and are not specific to any single project, they are again themes that I hope you recognise need addressing, and hope that you will support me in my ambition to address them moving forward.

 

My Six Point Plan for North Devon 2024 onwards:

  • Levelling Up North Devon

    Ensure that in levelling up North Devon, it reflects our unique mix of rural and coastal areas when developing housing and community projects.

  • Increasing access to health services

    Continue to work to ensure better health and dental services are available within North Devon. Working with our Hospital Trust to ensure North Devon Hospital has the accommodation and facilities it needs, alongside our other health and social care providers, to support our often rural and ageing population.

  • Improving Connectivity

    Much has been done to improve internet speeds across North Devon, but there is more to do with far too many experiencing poor mobile connectivity as well as poor transport connections by road, rail, bus, and active travel.

  • Driving local skills

    Far too many employers are unable to recruit highly skilled staff locally. I will continue to work alongside our schools and colleges to ensure skilled training and apprenticeships are available, to drive social mobility and attainment, making North Devon a great place to work and do business.

  • Benefiting from the green economy

    Champion North Devon’s unique environment and ensure it is protected alongside our tourism economy as well as positioning North Devon so that it is well placed to optimise investment from new green industries.

  • Supporting farmers to deliver food sustainably

    It is vital our farmers are supported to produce more fine British food and our land is used to optimise sustainable food production whilst improving biodiversity and reducing water run off, that can affect the quality of our rivers and beaches.