- What was it like running a sweet shop?
Fantastic, because it was all about the history and background of sweets and where they come from, a herbal background, because if you think about it, liquorice, mint, clove, cinnamon, they all come from a herbal background, so the history behind it, and the fact that, obviously, I like sweets because I’ve got a sweet tooth. The combination of that and dealing with the public, from the very young to the very elderly, was fantastic. Community, people, so yeah, really good business to run, and I enjoyed it for nearly 25 years as a family.
Even in hard times, you know, when the economy is struggling and people are finding it difficult, they can still usually afford a treat, which is a bag of sweets, you know, for £1 something for a quarter of pear drops or Yorkshire mixture or some fruit salad. You know, they can always afford a treat, and it just brings a smile to your face, makes you happy.
- How do you think having an elected mayor would benefit York?
I think this is a huge opportunity for everybody in York and North Yorkshire to have a mayor who will be an ambassador for them, somebody who will bring, you know, benefits economically to the whole region because it’s somebody who can really say what we’ve got to offer.
From Harrogate and York, to Ripon, to the East Coast, Whitby, Scarborough, all these areas that we’ve got are so diverse, but they offer so much, and of course, the beautiful Dales themselves. So I think we’ve got to sell it. Tourism is a huge part of it, but also new green tech industries.
If I am elected, I want to build the first green tech college for people to go to. So it’s a very exciting opportunity, and to improve transport links, and provide people with a roof over their heads, which, nobody should be without one. So I’m excited because I’ve got the ambition, I’ve got the experience, and I’ve done it, delivered it in the communities, and I’ve been unpaid, so with the budget behind me, I’ll be a force of nature.
- You have spoken about the police and fire services being under-equipped and have said that you would talk with appropriate parts of the private sector about sponsorships. How will you demonstrate to the public that the police will still be independent from these sponsors?
Yeah, very good question, and certainly, you know, I’ve got a police background of over 20 years and I’ve got my son and his partner both full-time firefighters, one in West Yorkshire, one in North Yorkshire. They were both on-call firefighters, doing it in the community. Sponsorship is something which, there’s a lot of altruistic, philanthropic organisations, charitable trusts, who aren’t looking for anything back in favour of doing sponsorship, they just want to give to the community. And it’s a simple thing like in the fire service at the moment, a lot of firefighters have to even buy their own torches which is ridiculous. So we need to be getting you know people who will provide those torches, and they’re not going to expect anything back.
We all need to work together to protect our society, and that’s how we do it. And, you know, when you just think that West Yorkshire Fire Service have just announced that they’ve spent £20 million on new fire appliances, and North Yorkshire have just bought four 11-year-old fire appliances, there’s something not quite right, and it needs a champion to actually address that and improve it. And for the police, the police, you know, they put their life on the line for us every day, they risk their life for us, and we need to support them. And at the moment, they’re not getting the proper training, they’re not getting the proper equipment, and that’s what I need to bring to it. We really are second best to a lot of other forces in the country in North Yorkshire, in both the police and fire service. Vast improvement: I will bring that very quickly within the first 12 months.