Your Town, Your Vote: Independent Candidate

Dave Fisher – Independent Candidate for Belper Central ward.

I resigned from the Tory party in 2014 and became an independent member of Belper Town Council (BTC), because I refused to sign a foolish letter written by Cllr Alan Cox. Despite this, I went on to persuade the Council to:-

1) adopt a Neighbourhood Plan, giving residents a say in the way Belper is developed. I am Treasurer of the group of volunteers and facilitator on Parks and public open spaces. We are currently consulting residents so we can form an accurate view of how residents would like to see our town develop.

2)  let me draft the letter sent to UNESCO asking our World Heritage Site be put on the Endangered list. As a consequence UNESCO passed this on to the Secretary of State responsible for the UK’s World Heritage Sites who successfully suggested to AVBC that all of Bullsmoor should be removed from the Core Strategy.

3)  Cllr Alan Cox wanted to introduce charges to use the Town Council’s car parks which are free of charge 24/7. He did a small survey of car parks to prove his point. However I decided to do a survey of all the car parks in the town centre. My survey gave a very different result. Consequently the Town Council decided to keep their car parks completely free of charge.

Having free car parks at both ends of King Street was one of the features of Belper that helped the Town gain the Best British High Street award in 2014.

• I came close to drowning in the River Thames when I was five years old. I see being able to swim an essential skill for even very young children. Belper is the only one of the four major towns in Amber Valley to have neither a paddling pool nor a teaching pool where very young children can learn to swim without being out of their depth. Belper needs a new leisure centre in the centre of town similar to the Water Worlds in Mansfield and Stoke on Trent, complete with a teaching pool, a paddling pool, a fun pool with water slides, a standard 25 metre pool and gym. It will bring people into the town from 40 or 50 miles away, giving our shops long term viability and provide work for young people and give them more facilities for their spare time.
• I will support an appropriate future use for Babington Hospital when released by the NHS.
• I support the sensible rebuilding of the Tea Rooms in Belper River Gardens by a community group who have a plan that is in keeping with the site’s heritage.
• I would like the Borough Council’s car parks free to use. So that the four towns are much easier places to shop and will increase the turnover of town centre shops and business.
• I will continue to resist the erosion of the World Heritage Site and the Green Belt land around Belper, and support a Core Strategy that has housing in sensible locations that don’t compromise the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site , including Bullsmoor or are sited on landfill sites as those in Somercotes which have had highly toxic waste dumped in them. The World Heritage Site brings visitors from all around the world.
• I will aim to get the Borough Council and other agencies to ensure the North Mill is properly maintained with the upper floors which are currently unused being turned into apartments. So that the upkeep of the building is paid for by the Mill itself. The Mill is a key feature of the World Heritage Site!

For more information visit my website www.midderbyshire.uk