Jo Westlake

I have had strong ties to St Sidwells and St James for around 50 years, with my children all attending Newtown first school, two of whom are dyslexic and one autistic, and now all 3 are hard working, tax paying, family men. I left home at 16, married at 17, was widowed at 22, had lengthy periods of unemployment, returned to education in my late 20s, became a self employed taxi driver and started a property business. I now manage the properties and also work on a zero hours contract for a Royal Mail Group company. I have worked hard to make ends meet and to become financially sustainable, and have even been a trade union member for most of my working life. I can see, however that although the mainstream parties have now abandoned my families’ values and any form of common sense, I am thrilled that the Reform UK Party has not! My work in providing housing for local people has enabled me to be passionate about local issues such as parking, taxation, social care and special needs education! I want to offer the electorate an alternative vision of common-sense local governance that directly benefits the entire community and supports local values rather than out-of-touch ideologies which only cater to a few.