Leadership, creativity and teamwork

In this coming election for the Buckinghamshire Council you will have THREE VOTES to cast in Buckingham East (and in all other wards too). 

So you have a choice: do you accept the decision that has been taken for you by each of the political parties (Conservative, Labour and LibDem) and simply put your crosses against the three candidates that they have chosen...?

Or do you want to take full control of whom you vote for, and make sure that you decide which candidates are the three that you believe will make the best team to work for the people of Buckingham East? 

I hope I will earn one of your three votes. Here are some reasons why:

For me, being a councillor over the last ten years has been all about these three things: 

• Leadership
• listening to people
• spotting the social patterns and economic trends 
• thinking about the future
• deciding the best course of action on a particular issue
• taking a stand and promoting the chosen path
• Creativity
• looking around for good practice elsewhere
• benchmarking ideas from one realm to another
• asking petinent questions
• using one's imagination
• experimenting, testing, trialling...
• Teamwork
• having conversations with many fellow councillors and officers
• understanding others' perspectives
• seeking consensus, building bridges and finding common ground
• supporting others' ideas 
• recognising that not only was Rome not built in a day, but nor was it done by one person alone!

I intend to take this forwards if I am fortunate to become one of the three councillors for the Buckingham West ward of the Buckinghamshire Council. 

Here's an example of what I mean. 

Two years ago (stealing a LibDem councillor's idea from Winslow Town Council) I proposed that Buckingham Town Council makes its annual grant to Citizens Advice based on the number of households in the town - £1 per household. This was agreed. 

Then this morning, I posted this on Buckingham: What Matters to You Facebook group with the comment...

As I gazed at the notice for parish council elections outside Dadford village hall the other day - I got to wondering - whether all parish councils do that... should do that...?

There are many parish and town councils in the northern half of Bucks (see below). And if each parish played their part, the Citizen's Advice Service would be far better funded. And so I tagged Jane Mordue (wife of Conservative candidate, Howard Mordue) who importantly now chairs the county wide Citizens Advice service (recently merged) and asked her this question. 

I was delighted with Jane's response. THIS is teamwork, creativity and leadership in action! 

If I am elected as one of your shire councillors, I look forward to many more examples of this - bringing together ideas, leaders and shared purpose to add to the well-being of our communities. I promise I will do everything I can to make more of this happen. 

*NB For Buckingham Town Council, most people will have several votes to cast. In Buckingham North, you will have seven votes unless you live in the 'anomalous' (due to old AVDC boundary changes a couple of years ago) ward of Highlands &Watchcroft. In this case you will only have one vote to cast. Whatever is your maximum - you can of course cast as many votes up to that number. You are not obliged to vote for seven or three - you can just one or two etc

For information - here is the list of all the (old) Aylesbury Vale parish and town councils. Quite a few! If they all contributed £1 per household to the coffers of Citizens Advice, that service would be helped enormously.