Originally from London Mark said Aylesbury was one of those places that eventually gets under your skin. We are surrounded by great countryside which really appealed to this former city boy, but the clincher for me is the sense of community is still strong here in Broughton and Bedgrove . That was no better illustrated when people came together to my call to arms during the pandemic to form the Bedgrove volunteers, which served to ensure residents that due to COVID or because they were vulnerable due to their age or medical condition to catching the COVID virus were able to safely isolate as the volunteers went out and got their shopping and medical supplies for them.
Mark spent 25 years as a civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, this include an overseas posting to the Former Yugoslavia after the conflicts there and an unusual role as finance manager for RAF Ascension island in the middle of the South Atlantic, which he describes as a place that few people outside the military would have ever visited, so remote that apparently pilots had trouble locating it. Mark now works both in his role as a Cllr but also as a Cabinet member for Homelessness and Regulatory Services dealing with everything from housing and homelessness to taxi licensing environmental health, Crematorium and cemeteries, registras, coroners and everything else in-between. Mark says he relishes the chance particularly on housing to make a difference to the lives of residents.