About Steve
Steve is the County Councillor for Sutton-in-Ashfield East, and currently serves as the Labour Group Business Manager. He also sits on the Standards, Education and Audit Committees. Steve was born and brought up in Sutton-in-Ashfield and has served on the County Council since 2001. He is committed to supporting local schools in Sutton-in-Ashfield and is on the Governing Body of Croft & Leamingon Primary School. He is also a County Council representative on the West Nottinghamshire College board.
Latest News
Spring 2011
At the Nottinghamshire
County Council Budget Meeting on 24th February 2011 I joined my Labour
colleagues in voting against the Budget proposals.
While we welcomed the extra
spending being made by the County Council on child protection and services for
vulnerable adults, we did not agree with the proposals to reduce funding to
other areas such as the Libraries service, Supporting People programme and
grant aid to voluntary groups.
We asked the majority group
to consider a more detailed consultation with the public and partner
organisations in order to allow a longer term approach to making efficiencies,
with a view to many possibly not being needed as the economic situation
improved.
However, our proposals were
not accepted, and the Budget was eventually passed with a majority of five
votes.
27th October 2010
"At the Council Meeting on 21st October, along with my colleagues in the Labour group, I voted against the proposals being made by the County Council to make spending cuts of £150m over the next four years.
The Labour group made it completely clear that we welcome the extra spending in Children’s and Adult’s services but we also stated that we felt it inappropriate to withdraw funding from other vital areas such as Surestart and Supporting People, and that the Council was moving too fast with its cuts and not taking full cognisance of the impact on the most vulnerable.
The Labour group presented a longer-term alternative which would’ve seen the £50m from reserves currently earmarked for redundancies instead being reinvested into vital services, and enabling the County Council to retain skilled staff who wished to remain, while allowing others to leave through natural staff turnover.
We believe that our longer-term approach would minimise the impact on external partners, minimise the need for redundancy payments, retain valuable staff and achieve the necessary financial goals.
Our proposals were, however, dismissed, and the administration instead voted to implement their original plans to make immediate service cuts."
Local Issues
Sutton Junction
Steve is supporting the Sutton Junction Residents Association who are objecting to the Ashfield District Council Local Developmental Framework, which identified land that could accommodate 1000 houses in the community.
Steve objects to the proposed plan, "as it would have a devastating impact on local schools, road network and the local community".
Hillocks Primary School
Steve presented a petition at the Full Council meeting held on 15th April 2010 in support of parents and the local community on behalf of Hillocks Primary School, who are campaigning for a crossing outside the school.
County Council Budget
At the County Council Budget Meeting in February, Steve spoke out about the County Council's plans to sell off care homes in Nottinghamshire to the private sector and questioned the viability of what was being proposed.
Councillor's Divisional Fund
The Electoral Division Initiative that we introduced a few years ago is now called the Councillor's Divisional Fund. However, the principle remains the same:
Each councillor receives £10,000 to help fund local organisations, causes, individuals and schemes, who would not normally have access to financial support for their smaller projects.
Please contact Steve if you would like to apply for some CDF funding. Here are just a few examples of the useful funding which was provided by Steve in 2009/2010:
