Bradley Stoke Town Council Elections: Willowbrook Ward
Thursday, 4th May 2023

Tom Aditya's request to residents

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23/04/2023

Dear residents and friends,

I am standing as a candidate at this upcoming Council election, on Thursday, the 4th of May 2023 for the Bradley Stoke, Willowbrook ward. All these years, I have always been available to the community and have been helping out our community members. Many of you have seen me. Now, as part of the election campaign, I am trying to meet our residents personally and request your votes for our panel, but as you know, it is practically not possible to meet all within a short span of time. So, please consider this as my personal request. 

I enjoy being part of the local community and working with people from all walks of life. Since 2007, I have been part of the South Gloucestershire Equalities Forum and the UK Inter-Faith Network and proved my credentials locally as a passionate community campaigner. Thanks to the magnanimity and support of our residents, I have been elected to the Bradley Stoke Town Council and twice served as the Mayor of Bradley Stoke.  I currently serve as the Member of the Avon and Somerset Police Scrutiny Panel, the Bristol University Court and the West of England Community Transport Panel. Even political opponents have applauded my high attendance record and active participation at council meetings, community activities, and programmes.

As you all know, we all face a choice about the future of our area at this election. This local election will decide who’s in charge of our local services, and how much tax we need to pay. We don’t want a higher tax-paying council, wasting taxpayers’ money. I don't want to say anything bad about political opponents, because no one is perfect. On the other hand, I welcome fair criticism and take good suggestions from the other side, positively. Yet, I advise you to beware of some keyboard warriors who say and promise much in their candidate statements now but didn't bother all these years to even attend any community activities, programmes, or meetings or put even a single proposal for the community. You may have already noticed through the news media how our neighbouring Labour-run Bristol wasted £46 million on a failed energy company, cut frontline services, squeezed people’s money, and crippled with ever-increasing car parking charges. Labour Metro Mayor spent lavishly on his new office edifice, yet cut our bus services. We can’t afford a Labour administration here.

Bradley Stoke is the major town in South Gloucestershire with the lowest council tax precepts and one of the best towns in the country, thanks to the prudent policies followed by our Council administration led by Conservatives. This year too, we have frozen the tax precepts, whilst ensuring quality services. As you know, our Council during my Mayoral tenure won the Quality Gold Award, which is the ultimate achievement in the three-tier Local Council Award Scheme instituted by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) in partnership with the UK Government. Our Council has been working closely with all our stakeholders to safeguard and deliver the best service for our town. Our Council has achieved a lot under the Conservative administration. We delivered on the promises we made to you, and in many cases, we have gone even further. We lead the way on transparency and go above and beyond legal requirements to show how taxpayers' hard-earned money is spent. We actively campaigned to improve and maintain the quality of life in Bradley Stoke and fruitfully acted above our means.

Personally, as a local councillor, I have the privilege of raising the largest number of public submissions before the Council and initiating various community projects. I supported financial help and council grants for various community organisations, initiatives and projects. I have been part of several community initiatives, celebrations, festivals, programmes and events and helped to enhance social harmony in Bradley Stoke. I set up the initial community vaccination clinics in the region to combat the pandemic and introduced the Good Neighbourhood Scheme to help the distressed and the stranded at that time.  I presented the social networking initiative in Bradley Stoke to help the elderly engage in community affairs and reduce social isolation and loneliness. I promoted youth provisions and piloted the beginner’s sessions at the skate park. I closely oversaw the refurbishment of the Baileys Court Activity Centre Play Area and ensured its accomplishment, providing Bradley Stoke with a high-quality play area with some unique facilities which will keep children occupied, excited, and stimulated. I proposed floral beautification of all our town’s roundabouts and improvements around the town such as the Memorial Garden, the Multi-Use Games Area, the Basketball court, leisure equipment on Jubilee Green, and the renovation of the Jubilee Green Pond area. My approach has been 'value for money 'and 'fairness for all' in the community.

I was successful to persuade the South Glos Council to desilt the Three Brooks Lake and advocated initiating new public transport links through Bradley Stoke. I steered to set up welcoming community warm spaces in all activity centres in Bradley Stoke to help reduce the cost-of-living crisis. I suggested the idea of the Jobs Fair under the auspices of the Town Council and successfully moved that project to fruition. I have been a catalyst to establish the Local Nature Action Forum incorporating all stakeholders in order to protect our ecosystem and augment our climate emergency action plan. I inaugurated the tree planting initiative as part of the Queen's Green Canopy programme and piloted the Free Tree Giveaway event in Bradley Stoke. I have been at the forefront to call the attention of the police against burglaries and anti-social activities, and have been effective in finding solutions to resolve them. I supported the safety initiatives to protect our school children and helped to install more zebra crossings near schools. I have been active in tree planting, environmental conservation programmes, community litter picking and other social creativities.

Bradley Stoke is now a beacon of opportunity and success and I am delighted to be a humble part of our community’s well-being. Our town moved a lot from the campaigns for faster-fibre optic broadband and the crown post office in Bradley Stoke, which I have been proudly part of in the past, yet, my community campaigning spirit still continues. I believe that a strong community enables the individuals within to feel safe, thrive and achieve collective goals otherwise unattainable. I trust that a community’s shared voice has immeasurable power to enact change and am eager to spread the message of a progressive mindset. I initiated the 'Stand to be a Councillor campaign', a non-political programme under the auspices of the Council to help guide community members to become councillors.  I would like to see more younger people on the Council so that we have more diversity. I am aspiring that young people will bring novel ideas and innovation. Also, we need to have much more women representation in the Council. Due to space constraints, let me restrict myself from adding more to the list.  

I was able to accomplish much during my term of office and there are many community projects that I started, that are still in the pipeline. So, I need your support in order to continue our town’s progress. Our Conservative team promise to keep Bradley Stoke thriving. Our team's plan is to promote social harmony and community safety in Bradley Stoke, make sure we all get adequate medical care at the right time, enhance local amenities and facilities, ensure good bus services, help conserve our green spaces, beautify and keep Bradley Stoke in bloom, boost up youth provisions of the town, reduce social isolation and loneliness amongst the elderly, preserve the road network in top condition, preserve car parking free and improve the council's information channels and social communication. We need your blessings and mandate.

At this Town Council election, I am standing for Willowbrook Ward. It is a three-member ward and you can vote for 3 candidates. Mr Rajesh Joseph and Mrs Tripti Megeri are my running mates in this ward and their candidate statements are added below. Please vote for me and our Conservative team to sustain our town's progress and accelerate a positive and progressive change in Bradley Stoke. Thank you. Tom Aditya.

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www.tomaditya.wix.com/tom-aditya/campaign  

www.facebook.com/tom.aditya/

Email: cllr.tom.aditya@gmail.com

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Conservative candidates who are standing in Bradley Stoke are 

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Willowbrook Ward (3 Councillors)

Mr Tom Aditya

Mr Rajesh Joseph 

Mrs Tripti Megeri 

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Primrose Bridge Ward (3 Councillors)

Ms Aleena Aditya

Mr Tony Griffiths 

Mr Anil Mishra 

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Stoke Brook Ward (2 Councillors)

Mr Keith Cranney 

Mr Tony Hyde 

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Webbs Wood Ward (3 Councillors)

Mr Roger Avenin 

Dr Swati Sinha

Mr Ben Randles 

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Woodlands Ward (4 Councillors)

Mr Frederic Contenot

Ms Terri Cullen

Mr Joji Kuriakose 

Mr Franklin Owusu-Antwi

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