Gary has lived in Basingstoke for nearly 50 years and has been a South Ham Councillor for 16 years. He works as a Quality Manager for a local Basingstoke company and both his children grew up in Basingstoke and attended local schools.

Gary says “Over those years Basingstoke has changed vastly and not always for the better. We need to slow down the growth of the Town and let the infrastructure catch up.” At the moment we are seeing money being spent on things like property investment and management consultants that are not making a difference for the better. I want to see an end to the council wasting our money on consultants and outsourcing, and a push to improve council services that benefit us all.”

Over the last 12 months, Gary has been dealing with a large number of issues for residents such as:

• Residents living in damp conditions
• Helping residents with planning application problems
• Planning issues where 44 residents did not receive notification letters from the Council Planning Department to erect 5 new houses.
• Getting compensation for a resident who had property damaged by a fallen council-owned tree.
• Anti-social behaviour where it was necessary to liaise with the Local Community Support Officers to try and resolve the matter.
• Poor upkeep of the Diana Rose Gardens in the Berg Estate
• Resolving a complaint from a Sovereign resident regarding security and access
• Many complaints regarding the bus reliability
• Various other issues such as fly-tipping, potholes, over-grown hedges, faded road signs, flooded subways etc.

He has also used his Councillors’ Community Grants to help provide new equipment for the West Side Community Centre, and to provide a new intruder alarm and CCTV for the Basingstoke Scout group based in Margaret Road.