Elected in 2021 
Tell us a little bit about yourself
Hi, I’m Brian, and I work as a part-time Further Education teacher and a local community organiser. I grew up in Crookesmoor and my children have attended local comprehensive schools.
I have worked for a number of local community organisations providing heritage walks for health and wellbeing, including Sheffield Mind, Drink Wise Age Well and Shipshape, which also involved actively promoting health walks and food sustainability issues in Broomhall.
What do you think makes a good local councillor?
Three main things:
1. Being out in the ward talking to people, making sure I am always aware of very local issues.
2. Helping drive “bottom up” changes, to ensure local communities thrive, by working with creative people with good ideas to bring them to a result.
3. Thinking about the future, including acting locally on the climate emergency, in all the actions that I take.
Tell us three things you're aiming to focus on or achieve for your ward during your term as councillor
I want to involve residents in local decision making as much as possible, approaching them and genuinely seeking their views.
Secondly I want to ensure local businesses, community groups and voluntary organisations are supported to help them Build Back Better as we all struggle through the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis.
Finally, underpinning all this I want to address the climate emergency, by making the city carbon neutral by 2030, in everything that I do as a Green councillor.
Tell us three things you're aiming to focus on or achieve for the city of Sheffield during your term as councillor
1. The climate emergency needs to be at the heart of all the actions of the Green council group in creating a city for the future. I will be supporting the actions in the Green budget proposal.
2. I have been a supporter of the It’s Our City Sheffield campaign from the very beginning. I believe we need to make a change from ‘strong leader’ to a fair and democratic modern committee system in the city.
3. Our natural and built heritage is important to me. I will support and vote in council for the Joined Up Heritage Sheffield heritage strategy: the first grass-roots, community-led heritage strategy in the country. It will champion our city’s diverse heritage; make better use of the economic potential of heritage; support its education value; and recognise its social, well-being & environmental benefits.
Transport: The Sheffield City Region bus services should be taken back into public ownership
- Strongly Agree
- Agree
- Neutral/Other
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here
Greens have encouraged and supported this over more than a decade as the negative impacts of privatisation on fares and services become clear. Many people are reliant on buses to get to and from their jobs and local authorities need to be in control of services and routes. Good, affordable bus services can drive the increased passenger numbers that reduce cars on the road, traffic jams and dangerous air pollution.
Economy: A Universal Basic Income pilot should happen in Sheffield
- Strongly Agree
- Agree
- Neutral/Other
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here
The Green Party is a long standing supporter of UBI. Sheffield Greens have consistently supported a pilot in Sheffield. The Green Party supports scrapping Universal Credit, means-testing and the cruel benefit sanctions regime, which have been found to push people further into poverty and destitution. UBI provides a non-means-tested safety net. People will have more choices, and more people will be able to cut working hours to retrain, start new green businesses, take part in community action or simply improve their well being.
Democracy: How would you like Sheffield City Council to be run?
- By a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors (this is how the council is run now)
- By one or more committees made up of elected councillors (this would be a change from how the council is run now)
If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here
Sheffield Green Party is a registered supporter of the Sheffield People’s Referendum. We were asked by the It’s Our City campaign group if we would deliver their leaflets and have been doing so across many council wards.The last few years of “one party” state rule by the Labour group have been damaging to local democracy. Vote for Change on May 6th !
Social: Do you agree with the finding of the Government's Sewell Report stating the UK is no longer institutionally racist?
- Strongly Agree
- Agree
- Neutral/Other
- Disagree
- Strongly Disagree
If you'd like to add details on your position, please do so here
Sheffield Greens posted this on our Facebook page on the morning the report was published: “Priti Patel described Black Lives Matter protests as “dreadful”. This whitewash report from the government dismisses institutional racism. They say the report is a “major shift in the race debate”. It’s a disturbing and dangerous shift that must be opposed. Stand up to Racism!”