The New Cross Team
Parliamentary Candidate: Gemma Townsend
Gemma is a native Londoner, who grew up in Wapping in the East End. Since graduating from the University of Manchester where she studied Sociology, she has lived all over London including Deptford where she was a candidate in the 2006 local elections. Gemma has been the Conservative Association Deputy Chairman in Deptford since the beginning of 2007.
Currently Gemma works for the GLA dealing with policing and crime issues for the Conservative Assembly Members, where she works closely with the Deputy Mayor for Policing. She has previously worked in a number of social policy and research roles for Southwark Council, Ofsted and Populus.
Over the years Gemma has been proud to have had an impact on policies to improve standards in education, youth crime, housing, health and social care and has learnt a great deal from a wide range of practitioners in the field. She has been volunteering with her local youth offending team since spring 2007 and also volunteers with the charity Age Concern.
Gemma is particularly concerned by the levels of violent crime in Lewisham. She will also be campaigning on regeneration, transport and education. Having worked in local government, Gemma is adamant that local authorities could be more resourceful and provide significantly better services, she will ensure her campaign holds Lewisham Council to account.
Daniel Hollis:
Daniel’s home town is Liverpool and he is a student at Goldsmiths College, reading politics. He is supporting his studies by working in a cake shop and trying to stay in touch with his home football team as a loyal Everton fan.
He believes that a large bureaucratic state is not the best way to run Britain given the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century and, at a local level, wants to take an active interest in combating street crime.
Mark Parsons:
Full bio coming soon.
Andrew Paterson:
Andrew moved to the Borough 10 years ago from Stirlingshire in Scotland. He works as a manager in HR at Marks and Spencer. Andrew is keen to reduce street crime by focusing on its causes using schools, Social Services and the local Police to educate young people to make Lewisham safer. If Andrew is successful he is looking forward to supporting Simon Nundy in his commitment to reduce council tax by 5% and deliver better pubic services across the Borough.
