Dorothy Ford for Oxshott, Stoke d'Abernon and Cobham Fairmile

I moved from Germany to live on the edge of our precious Green Belt, at the very heart of our ward, 36 years ago.  My children enjoyed attending some of the local schools. I enjoyed sharing my love of music with Royal Kent School pupils by playing guitar and singing with them. I taught languages at a university and at comprehensive schools before working on government policy in Whitehall, and occasionally in Brussels and Strasbourg. I now sing in choirs and study piano.  I am passionate about the enormous benefits of lifelong learning. Providing a quality education, including music and the arts, for all school pupils helps the pupils and society as a whole to blossom. I am honoured to have recently been awarded the Ashdown Prize for my proposal to accelerate redistribution of food to the homeless and the poor.  This proposal has great potential to benefit the disadvantaged as well as the environment. I am closely wedded to both of these issues. As a teenager, on Saturdays I taught poor hungry children how to read and gave them milk.  As an adult I have helped a young mother learn to read at Oasis Childcare in Cobham, and I helped set up the Cobham Community Hub at Cobham Library. Volunteering to help others can be a friendly, rewarding experience. It is a sheer pleasure to take daily exercise on our beautiful green fields.  I am fully committed to both safeguarding and enhancing our unique environment, and to building much-needed affordable housing on appropriate sites such as brownfield sites and town centres.  If we are to improve our environment’s footprint, our air quality should be monitored. There is just the first step forward. I also campaign to protect all the rights of all EU residents.  Many of our local businesses, education services, care services and health services rely on EU citizens as staff, service providers and customers. I look forward to continuing to listen to, and represent the views and values of all my fellow residents if elected a Councillor.  I offer not just a new face - but a new voice.” Return to other items