Before delving into tax policies, it’s crucial to examine the budget. With a budget of over £700 million, we have a significant responsibility to allocate resources wisely. My experience in local government has shown me that this does not happen, as existing spending is poorly scrutinised.

I advocate for transparent, evidence-based decision-making that prioritises essential services, infrastructure, and welfare. We must strike a balance between investing in public goods (like education, healthcare, and transportation) and maintaining fiscal discipline.

In summary, I believe in a fiscally responsible approach that maximizes the impact of our budget while ensuring fairness and sustainability.

The provision of adult social care is broken. There is a lot of repetition, lack of timely and appropriate assessment and a reliance on agency staff and resources. These are expensive and do not provide a consistent and a well thought through package of care. There are significant savings that can be made here if we adopt a more proactive approach and reduce waste in repetition. We must nurture and support staff by drawing up long term cross party plans instead of relying on short term and reactionary measures.

I am extremely experienced across the health and social care sector having worked in the NHS, social services, education and housing. We must work collaboratively and cross party to address these challenges.

Housing is now unaffordable for first time buyers. Private rentals have increased dramatically and the demand for social housing far exceeds supply. There are hundreds of households in Somerset in temporary accommodation and more than 10,000 people on the housing register. Young people can now neither afford to buy or rent a property. With a background in housing, this is an area I am passionate about. 

I will work alongside the local authority, developers and our communities to ensure best outcomes for new developments. This includes the protection of our environment, consideration to flooding and the development of supporting infrastructure to meet the needs of our growing communities.

I am a strong advocate for our local businesses. I actively use and promote them and I have developed many relationships already across the Mendip Hills. Issues that have been highlighted are the over-regulation and complexity for small business owners and the difficulties in recruiting reliable staff.

I will champion the Mendip Hills unique characteristics of our geographical area to encourage continued investment. We need to address the barriers of those who are currently not in employment and support them to access work.

I have worked for the NHS and social services. One of the reasons I am running as an independent is to advocate for respectful debate and decision making. All of the parties believe in having good and functional Health and Social Care services, but are unable to work collaboratively to find a way forward.

We need to reduce waste and ensure a more efficient and well run service that supports our staff working in this sector and enables the public to access the services in reasonable timeframes. I have extensive experience with mental health services. The support we offer is not fit for purpose. CAMHS (child and adolescent mental health service) for example offer a 6 week program when the recommended duration is 12 weeks. If we are going to provide support for people, we must follow the recommendations by the mental health services. We need to be more proactive with mental health service provision rather than firefighting.

Education needs a cross-party and long term working plan to secure good provision for our children now and into the future, taking into consideration projected population profiles. OFSTED is no longer fit for purpose. It puts immense unnecessary pressure on teachers and does not address any of the real needs. Furthermore, schools have to fund pay rises from their existing budgets. Teachers are leaving the profession and those that stay are not supported to use their creative skills to teach our children. There is a lack of effective and
meaningful accountability for those schools adopting the academy structure. None of these issues can be addressed with polarising party politics. We need to collaborate to find solutions.

This item has come up repeatedly in parish meetings. Our bus service is extremely limited and unreliable. I am already in partnership and supportive of the Wells Bus Users Group. 

We need to ensure that infrastructure development meets the needs of our growing population. This is another common topic at parish council meetings where housing developments have been completed without supporting infrastructure. This must be taken into our planning with future developments to support our growing communities.

I am committed to our environment. We stopped flying as a family in 2018 to reduce our carbon footprint. We need to be far more proactive in protecting our environment whilst also supporting our farmers in the Mendip Hills with food production. I have already developed relationships with many farmers and the Mendip Hills National Landscape and the Somerset Wildlife Trust. I will continue to work with these organisations and others if I am elected to champion environmental issues in balance with our farming community.

We need to use the right land for the right purpose. Good farming land needs to be used for farming. Other areas need to be utilised for our renewable energy. I think that the term Net Zero has been hijacked. We can be intelligent about this rather than just tick our green box. The two priorities are not in conflict but need careful balancing.

Abi talks more about the environment in this episode of her podcast.

I supported saving our local library as a town councillor while also broadening its remit and maximising use of the facilities. These services are important to our communities. However, we do have to be realistic about how we fund and run these services. Looking to the future, I believe they need to be community-led rather than provided at the Somerset level.

As a former police officer, enhancing public safety and reducing crime is high on my agenda. I think the police service has lost the ability and resources to investigate crime effectively. For example, here in Shepton when
the Town Council reported an arson in the park with accompanying CCTV, it was not investigated, and the nearest cell block is a 45-minute drive away. I will work alongside our local police officers and PCSOs to promote public safety and reduce crime.

I have door knocked over 23,000 homes all through the winter in freezing temperatures. Many people answered the door to me in their overcoats, hats and gloves. Too many working families are now reliant on food banks for necessities. This is not acceptable in a country that has the 6th largest economy in the world. We must be realistic about this issue and work collaboratively in Somerset Council to find solutions to address this now fundamental problem.

To tackle low wages and poverty, we need to live in a more equal society. We need to apply a trauma-informed approach to recognise the discrepancies with access to education, employment and overall quality of life. This is another important item where we need to work collaboratively towards sustainable
long-term solutions.

As with public safety, I have been a police officer so this is high on my agenda. Our voices are being reduced in society. This increases anxiety and leads to more radical behaviours. It is essential that we promote honesty, truth and transparency in our media and amongst our elected politicians and debate in Somerset Council.

Many communities are already positively self-policing with support. We must always promote and facilitate strong communities that in turn result in a reduction of crime and increased pride over where we live.

As I am not subject to a party whip, I will accurately and vocally represent the Mendip Hills in Somerset Council whenever necessary.

I am already engaged and connected with all of the communities and parish councils in the Mendip Hills. I have developed relationships with almost all of the Somerset councillors from all parties. I will continue to build on this so that I am present and representing our parishes across the Mendip Hills effectively.