Dr Alistair Duffy prospective Liberal Democrat Candidate for Sileby and Seagrave on Charnwood Borough Council

I have been living as a neighbour to Sileby and Seagrave for a quarter of a century, having moved to Mountsorrel from Loughborough in 1998.  I was born in Yorkshire and brought up on a council estate in the North East, settling in the East Midlands in 1990 after studying and working in South Wales.

I served a term on the Mountsorrel Parish Council and have, for several years, served as a Trustee of the Mountsorrel Education Fund, which provides financial support for young people’s wider education.  Hearing some of the ‘thank you’ stories that many of the recipients send the Trustees brings immeasurable joy.

I am standing for Sileby and Seagrave because I want to be able to make a positive contribution and believe I have the personal and organisational skills to get things done for the Ward in Council and the ability to champion those things that are the responsibility of other bodies on behalf of the Ward (which includes calling on our Parliamentary Party where appropriate).

As a Liberal Democrat, I’m asking for your support to allow me to support you, as a strong local champion and someone who will fight for you to have a fair deal and help keep Sileby and Seagrave a flourishing community.

First and foremost, I want to be guided by your priorities but I do also have things I want to achieve. So:

1. I want to know what are the aspects of living in Sileby and Seagrave we can be proud of an promote more widely … but also what aspects require Borough Council attention or a Borough Councillor to be a champion and an advocate.
2. Flooding is a perennial problem.  While we can’t do much about the weather, I want to ensure that the Borough Council is doing everything it should do, and working with other agencies to the limits of its powers, to minimise the problems.
3. More houses mean more traffic and more strain on services.  Expanding housing is a national priority and one for which Charnwood Borough Council has targets it has to deliver.  We can see the housing developments ongoing right now and over the coming years, within the region, we will see many more.  The Ward already has very busy roads and we need to ensure that they remain safe.  Equally, we need to make sure there is a voice to support our GPs and Schools so they have the capacity to deal with the expansion and also to challenge them where necessary.
4. Crime, particularly petty crime, is a constant source of concern to the community. People need to know they can report things like thefts from gardens and that the police will listen.
5. Do you know about Charnwood Community Grants?  What about owner-occupier grants, business growth grants, energy efficiency grants, flood recovery support, community infrastructure, help with rising cost of living? These are a range of grants to help the community.  I want to be able to support people and organisations in Sileby and Seagrave to access this support.
6. As someone who has discovered running in my late 50s, and the many physical and mental health benefits that brings, I am keen to promote community health and wellbeing to support physical and mental health, including promoting and expanding Active Charnwood in Sileby and Seagrave.  You will frequently see me running (or more correctly “Jeffing”) around or through Sileby, floods permitting!  Feel free to stop me to have a chat, or give me a “pip” if you’re driving past. Also, every few weeks, I will do the Watermead Parkrun, please say “hello” as you overtake me.

In my working life I am a Professor of Electromagnetics (an engineering discipline) at De Montfort University, Leicester, holding a PhD from the University of Nottingham and a DSc from Cardiff University.  I am also a Director of the IEEE (the world’s largest engineering professional body) and have previously served as the President of the IEEE’s Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Society.  Having been a volunteer leader at a professional level for nearly 40 years, I am very experienced in getting things done in committee-based organisations, whether that is stating my opinion and arguing my position or, more frequently and often more productively, seeking a collaborative solution between parties with different initial views.