Biographies
Andrew Brown is a Rutland farmer born and bred. His family have been farming in Rutland for over 300 years.
He was Chairman of Rutland Squash Club and played rugby for Oakham RFC for many years. He is a past High Sheriff of Rutland. He also sits on the Leicestershire and Rutland bench as a magistrate. He is a former NFU East Midlands Regional Chairman.
The farm has won several local, regional and national awards for his conservation work whilst maintaining a viable and productive commercial farm. He has been hosting school trips for over 20 years and goes into schools to promote British food and farming.
He has achieved the status of Chartered Environmentalist and has been awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Societies and is a Professional Fellow of the Institute of Agricultural management. He is a Freeman of the City of London, a Trustee of the Leicester Comedy Festival. He won the Leicester Comedy Festival Stand-up Challenge in 2017 and still performs stand-up occasionally.
He was educated at Caldecott County Primary School and Oakham School. He has an engineering degree from the University of Nottingham and has recently gained a post graduate law degree from De Montfort University.
Being elected in May 2019 he is committed to tackling rural crime, improving road safety and social care in Rutland.
Outside of work he is a keen cricketer and after dinner speaker.
A warm hello. I have a degree in Journalism and worked within radio and NHS press office for a while until my daughter became very ill. This led me down another path of progression as my personality began to change. I later decided to study counselling, leading to a foundation degree qualification (BTEC level 5). During this journey I counselled terminally ill- rape victims as well as anxiety and depression. I also now lecture in this area.
How did it lead me here? I was encouraged to join our town council, which I put my heart into and decided to run for local elections. Four elections later, I won! Working amongst residents and tackling local issues has been very rewarding. I have recently become a family magistrate for Lincolnshire, which is a true honour.
My whole life changed with (single parent, carer, jobless, on benefits, volunteering and victim of domestic abuse) money, personal and children – all were incredibly challenging. I consider myself lucky to have experienced these issues, as I can honestly say I have walked a mile in many shoes. I do not claim to have all the answers but will work around the clock to achieve or find them. Here’s to the next step of learning and helping more people.
I am currently an Independent councillor on Caerphilly Council in South Wales and have previously stood for Parliament as a Liberal Democrat in 2002 and the Welsh Assembly coming second to Labour. I become an Independent Councillor in 2007, and left the council in 2010 to work in London as a tribunal officer within Insolvency Service as a Civil Servant at Whitehall until I took voluntary redundancy in 2015, and was a drug/ alcohol peer Counsellor in Powys until I got re-elected to the county council in 2017 with the next elections here in 2022.
I have a particular interest in helping vulnerable people and dealing with social services issues due to my previous background as a tribunal officer and defending people at tribunals.
I believe in a partnership approach with all views and in a non-judgemental approach taking the best ideas forward, not party-political dogma.
I was elected to both Stockton Borough Council and Thornaby Town Council in May 2019 as part of the Thornaby Independent Association. It is a group of like-minded individuals who put national politics aside to focus on the local issues that affect the day-to-day lives of people in Thornaby. I got appointed to Cleveland Fire Authority in June 2019 and was selected to lead the Independent Group on the Executive.
Prior to being elected, I ran a local non-profit organisation that reached the most vulnerable within Thornaby, whilst looking at current issues facing the town. I set up the organisation in December 2015 and it quickly became one of the biggest non-profits within Stockton.
As well as being a councillor, I help run the family catering firm that covers the Tees Region, North Yorkshire and the North East.
I am a freelance theatre technician and as of May 2019, a Residents Association councillor for town ward in Epsom and Ewell where I have lived for all 23 years of my life.
I became a councillor to engage young people in local politics and felt that as an Independent I had more freedom to do that. I also felt it the best way to give back to a community and town that has given me so much.
I am a trustee of a local charity called Epsom and Ewell Phab. The aim of the charity is to bring disabled and non-disabled young people together on equal terms. We run a youth group every Friday night and other events throughout the year.
I have joined a few committees since becoming a councillor including Community and Wellbeing and Environment and Safe Communities.
Siriol Hugh-Jones grew up in South Wales and read Modern Languages at Cambridge University. She requalified as a solicitor in 1996 and worked in London and Moscow until the end of 2000. She then left legal practice to study cello in Moscow, returning to the UK in 2004. Since then she has worked as a peripatetic music teacher, freelance cellist and freelance legal translator.
She moved to Brighton Pavilion in 2007, joined the Green Party in 2015 and was elected as a Green Party councillor in 2019. Following a change of administration, she has been joint chair of the Housing Committee since late July 2020. She has a particular interest in retrofitting and sustainable housing.
I'm the sole Green councillor on South Somerset District Council, after defecting from the Conservative Party early this year, and was elected last year. I have a professional background in small business and education and have lived in Somerset for three years.
Prior to moving here, we lived in the Midlands and have spent much of our lives living abroad.
My wife works for the NHS and we have two school-aged children. When not juggling council, work or family matters I enjoy most sports - watching rather than playing these days.
After leaving Glasgow University, I worked as a trainee journalist with the Scottish Daily record. A few years later I started investing in property and expanded to London where I started my own property business. I eventually moved to Kent where I met Lori. We got married and had two sons and a daughter. During this time my past time was football and I became a qualified EUFA football coach level B. I then managed Maidstone United FC starting from the youth team upwards. During this time my two sons were playing under me, they eventually became professional footballers whilst my daughter became a British Gymnast Champion at 16 years old and went on to modelling and became a film actress in between getting her degree in Law. I retired soon afterwards devoting my time to my family.
I was coaxed into standing as a councillor by neighbours and local residents and in 2014 I was fortunate to win the election, then again winning by a landslide in 2019. This is my second term and I enjoy the job immensely. I am a member of the auditing team, scrutiny and have also been a planning member for the past five years.
During my term I have served the community well, I had a modern community hall built for the residents which has been a tremendous success. I signed this off in 2017. I have relaid numerous roads, implemented calming restrictions, worked with schools including implementing non-parking outside gates and addressing the climate conditions with the parents which again became a success as parents no longer parked their cars near the school and instead walked their kids to school. I also support mental health teams in the community and the schools raising funds for them, I work tirelessly for the community and enjoy every minute of it. My list is endless.
My name is Andrea Layton and I’ve been a councillor for Cannock North since May 2019. In June 2020 I left the Labour party to form an independent group with councillors from other parties.
A mum of three aged between 29 and 15, I work part time as an administration officer and am also a site rep for my workplace union.
I became interested in national politics as a student but now believe national political ideology can hamper good decision making at a local level. I represent my residents’ priorities in council rather than reflect my personal views and ideals onto them.
In my spare time, I love to spend time with my friends and family.
I was elected as an East Devon district councillor in May 2019 and have been the Cabinet Member for Democracy and Transparency since May 2020. I was also appointed as the vice chair of the Audit and Governance Committee.
I am a Sussex University history and politics graduate. Before my election I spent three years in the House of Commons working for two years as a researcher and policy advisor. I am interested in constitutional issues, local government reform and governance and anti-corruption strategies.
I also take an interest in my council's housing policy from a point of view of reducing poverty, in particular reforms to the private-rented sector. I am also interested in the idea of creating 'inclusive growth' financial and economic policies.
My name is Jordan Moran.
I am a 26-year-old publican, as well as parish and district councillor serving North Kesteven, in the Bracebridge Heath and Waddington East Ward.
I have been involved in local government since November 2018, joining my parish council, followed by election to district in May 2019.
I am particularly interested in advancing local representation and improving political participation by the electorate in a direct and meaningful way.
I became a councillor in May 2019 for the ward of Cann Hall in Tendring district council. A retired project finance manager with four grandchildren who all now go to school, I knew I would have some time on my hands and being community minded I thought I would give it a go. I wanted to stand as an Independent but as it was my first time I decided to join an Independent group – Tendring First, a group of local people working together to get things done to ensure the well-being and quality of life for residents is paramount in all things delivered by town, district and county councils. It also meant that I had the benefit of their experience and support.
I am a member of two committees: planning and audit which I find interesting and am learning a lot. I am also on the Local Highways Panel – which can be very frustrating.
I have always been community minded and did the odd bit of volunteering, mainly when I lived in Scotland. That included being a treasurer and committee member for a community centre, St Andrews First Aid, and prison Monitoring. I believe in empowering people and helping communities work together; and of course, you get to meet more of your neighbourhood.
My work life included both public and private sectors, part of it for a local authority so I have a bit of an insight of how officers feel. I am looking forward to meeting the other councillors on this programme and sharing experiences and learning how to improve my performance.
I am a district councillor on East Suffolk Council since May 2019, having previously stood a few times at the same and also county levels.I have also stood twice in the general elections of 2015 and 2019.
In May 2019 I was elected to East Suffolk Council with 60 per cent of the vote share. Since then I have continued to work hard to be a positive presence in our community. In the 2015 general election I secured 5.9 per cent of the vote share thus returning our deposit for the first time ever in this constituency.
In July last year I ensured our council joined the hundreds of others in the UK when I proposed a climate emergency motion which passed. Since then I have formed the Environmental Task Group with six other cross-party councillors. I have also just contributed to the party's official response to the government's Planning White Paper currently being proposed.
Your facilitators
Mike has been a district councillor at Teignbridge (South Devon) since 1987. During the 90s he was Chair of Planning and of the council, and was also Chair of the Local Government Partnership Committee (1998-2003). From 2003 to 2007 he was Chair of Planning (Development Control) and from 2007 to May 2011 he was Executive Portfolio Holder for Planning. He was also Chair of the Teign Estuary Partnership, Chair of the member group (10 authorities) for the South Devon and Dorset Shoreline Management Plan and Chair of the Devon Building Control Partnership. He is currently Leader of the Teignbridge Independent Group and Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
Since 2003 Mike has been involved with the LGA, he was Deputy Chair of the LGA Environment Board (2005-2011) and Deputy Chair of the LGA Economy and Transport Board (2011-2014). He was also Chair of the National Planning Forum (2009-2011) and chaired the LGA’s Inland Flood Risk Management Group. He is currently the LGA Independent Group National Lead Peer.
His previous occupation was as a teacher/FE lecturer of geography and environmental science from the mid-70s until 2002.
Other interests include; parish councillor (since 1983), primary school governor, and chair of a village hall. He has five children and six grandchildren.
Successfully re-elected four times, Marianne has overseen the Independent Group grow significantly in numbers and influence. The group is now the third largest in number, with over 2,800 well-informed and effective councillors, focused on getting the best for their residents.
Marianne is particularly active on environmental issues, health and social care and education. She is currently on the Planning Committee of both her councils and a past chairman. Her local election votes are among the highest in Lincolnshire and she is well known for her community engagement and determination to represent people directly, regardless of party politics.
After her science degree and postgraduate with the University of London, Marianne taught to A Level and went on to a second business career organising and running challenging expeditions for personal development through biodiversity research and helping with anti-poaching patrols in remote parts of Africa. Marianne served as a governor of the University of Lincoln and Vice Chairman of the Primary Care Trust (PCT) Board responsible for health across the county and a £1 billion budget. First fighting successfully for a bypass, Marianne was elected to council in 1995. Marianne has served successfully at all levels of local government, both in coalition control and currently as Leader of the Opposition on her council. Marianne has brought colleagues to succeed in what used to be solid Blue areas, and polled a personal landslide at the county council elections this year, winning against the odds.
Her long running and extensive experience in a range of fields and professions has given her a background of sound communication in education, scientific training and practices that helps in analysing data, experience in management of organisations with substantial budgets, voluntary organisations and small business, as well as an excellent awareness of the fundamental needs of communities. Marianne is a passionate advocate for women in government and was awarded a Fellow of the University of Lincoln and then the MBE in 2015 for Services to the Community.
With a Masters degree from UCL in International Public Policy and a diploma in Public Relations, Sarah is a passionate advocate of social justice having spent the last 15 years influencing policy across issues of health, social care, housing, welfare and justice.
Sarah joined the LGA in August 2016 from the voluntary sector where she led the policy, parliamentary and press activity for a large health and social care organisation. During this time she wrote a number of parliamentary speeches, responded to government consultations and gave evidence to select committees. She also published a number of articles and led successful media campaigns.
Sarah also acted as Clerk to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Complex Needs, undertook a secondment to the Department of Health to co-write the Coalition Government’s mental health strategy and assisted NHS England with their mental health parity of esteem programme. She also contributed to the Independent Commission on Mental Health and Policing and the London Fairness Commission.
Prior to joining the voluntary sector, Sarah worked for Kent County Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Dartford Borough Council and ‘Global Justice Now’, a small international development NGO.