Gary joined the Green Party in 2022, inspired to get involved in politics by his two teenaged daughters, who had already joined the party and were attending meetings.
In May 2023 he was elected as a district councillor for Painswick & Upton in a by-election, getting 45% of all votes and becoming the first non-Tory to represent the ward since it was established in 2016. Gary’s 1,168 votes gave him a resounding win, with his nearest rival, the Conservative candidate, getting only 817 votes.
Gary, who is also a parish councillor for Painswick, says of being a councillor: “It has been interesting on the district and parish councils to utilise the energy and ideas of the community to achieve outcomes that help everyone.
“I think GCC has a great opportunity to make Gloucestershire a fantastic county to live and work in, and Green councillors can play a vital contribution in making that happen because they are thoughtful, dedicated and community focussed. Greens are also able to understand how things fit together and come up with solutions for the whole community, skills that are of special relevance at county level, where joined-up thinking is particularly vital. I will relish the opportunity to have a real impact at this tier of local government.”
The current chair of SDC’s housing committee, which looks after nearly 5,000 council homes, Gary says he is particularly proud that the council will meet its retrofit targets five years early and will exceed them. “I’m also proud that SDC is going to be one of the top 20 council house builders in the country,” he adds. “The financial position of the Housing Revenue account has been transformed and is one of the healthiest in the country. We have achieved these results whilst protecting the most vulnerable in our community by increasing the tenant support fund by more than £100,000.”
A retired head of claims at an insurance company, Gary now works in the voluntary sector, having founded Sustainably Enough, a Community Interest Company that helps people build financial resilience for a happier life.
He is also a supporter of Giving What We Can, an organisation that advises people about how they can most effectively donate to charities to create real change, through pledging at least 10% of their income to charity.
When he was in the insurance industry, Gary managed a team of more than 100 people and was responsible for an annual budget of more than £300million. This is experience that he believes will be invaluable in helping GCC to manage its major projects if he is elected.
Gary and his wife and daughters have lived in Painswick since 2007 and he loves the sense of community there. A former chair of the Painswick Playgroup, he enjoys walking, running and cycling in the local countryside.
He has Masters degrees in Business Administration and in Systems Thinking in Practice, and is studying for an Environmental Science degree.