05:00PM, Thursday 06 June 2024
With the General Election approaching, the Advertiser spoke to confirmed candidates for the Maidenhead constituency for a brief overview of their background and key policies.
In the lead-up to the election, we'll be taking a closer look at some of the key issues affecting voters, including healthcare, sewage and the environment, and the future prosperity of Maidenhead and its surrounding villages.
Conservatives - Dr Tania Mathias
Originally from London, Conservative candidate Dr Tania Mathias relocated to Cox Green last month when her selection was confirmed.
Dr Mathias is an ophthalmologist and has also travelled the world to carry out voluntary work abroad.
For two years she worked with the UN in the Middle East as a refugee officer and has conducted other voluntary work abroad specialising in fields including AIDS, Leprosy and Tuberculosis.
Her work has spanned locations including India, China, the Gaza strip and KwaZulu-Natal – a province of South Africa.
Dr Tania Mathias. Credit: The Conservative Party
She first got involved in politics more than 10 years ago because of the late Pat Parsons, who was a nurse and former Hampton Wick councillor and mayor for the London borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Dr Mathias served as the MP for Twickenham from 2015 to 2017.
She is now standing in the Maidenhead constituency, which also incorporates Cookham where she spent much of her childhood visiting her grandfather.
She said her key priorities for the upcoming election include improving services at St Mark’s Hospital and campaigning to re-introduce a walk-in service, providing a new NHS hub in the town, transport and the railways, protecting green spaces, tackling sewage and supporting local businesses.
Nationally, Dr Mathias added that her priority is to support the continuation of the economic programme.
Labour - Jo Smith
Jo Smith has lived in Maidenhead for over 20 years, and has represented people across the area through her work and community campaigns.
She told the Advertiser it was a ‘huge honour’ to be selected as Labour’s candidate in Maidenhead – a place she calls home and somewhere that ‘will always be special’ to her.
Ms Smith said she wants to rebuild the public’s trust in elected politicians and ensure that the Government represents ordinary working people.
Her priorities include pushing for more affordable housing, including social housing which is built and owned by the community.
Cutting NHS waiting lists and delivering more GP and dentist appointments is also high on the agenda.
Ms Smith added that she wants to see the economy kickstarted, Maidenhead town centre revitalised and the railways returned to public ownership and made publicly accountable, not ‘cash cows’ for foreign shareholders.
She also said rivers and waterways need to be clean and safe to use.
Ms Smith has also raised concerns about the council’s recent request for Exceptional Financial Support, and has called for full transparency about what assets might be at risk (see Viewpoint).
The Labour candidate said after ’14 years of Conservative failure’ there is now a realistic prospect of a Labour Government and she wants to be at the heart of that as Maidenhead’s MP, delivering a better future for all in the constituency.
She said the public and Maidenhead deserves better.
Liberal Democrats - Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds is a familiar face across Maidenhead.
Elected to the council in 2019, and now a cabinet member, Mr Reynolds grew up in Courthouse Road and went to Alwyn, Courthouse and Furze Platt Senior Schools, only leaving to study in Cardiff where he graduated with a first-class degree in business and management studies.
On his return, he successfully managed a chain of supermarkets before taking the decision to devote himself full time to public service.
Mr Reynolds said his time in retail gave him a valuable insight into the cost-of-living crisis.
He saw first hand how the crisis impacted his shoppers, and how the increase in shoplifting has hit local businesses.
He is also campaigning to see the walk-in centre re-opened at St Mark’s Hospital and the improvement and expansion of health services there and around the constituency to support the fast-growing population.
Mr Reynolds sees river pollution as another key issue and is calling for the water companies to be held to account for polluting our waterways.
He fully supports the Lib Dem pledge to transform water companies into public benefit companies, ban bonuses for water bosses until the pollution ends, and replace Ofwat with a tough new regulator with much greater powers.
Green Party - Andrew Cooney
Green Party candidate Andrew Cooney has lived in Eton Wick for 27 years.
He is self-employed in web technology and runs an online events ticketing and registration service.
He is a keen mountain and trail runner.
Mr Cooney is not a career politician, but he has been active in campaigning to protect the environment for decades.
He said: “It is my concern about the situation past governments have done so little to address that has led me to stand for this election.
“A concern shared by over 80 per cent of us. We already have solutions to address the situation but only the Green Party is prepared to deploy them at scale.”
Mr Cooney said his priorities are:
Social Democratic Party - Tim Burt
Tim Burt moved to Maidenhead 33 years ago.
After graduating in mathematics from Nottingham University, Mr Burt entered the telecommunications industry, initially as a software engineer and later in an operational role.
Mr Burt does not come from a political background but having become ‘exasperated’ at the current state of politics in the UK, he joined the SDP due to its ‘unique positioning as a patriotic, economically left-leaning but culturally traditional party with a comprehensive set of well-considered policies’.
He added: “I agreed to stand as a candidate as I think it is important in a democracy to step up and offer voters a real alternative.”
Mr Burt is backing the SDP’s policies which ‘directly address key issues affecting the local community’ and include:
Independent - George Wright
George Wright lived in Maidenhead from the age of six, studying at St. Edmund Campion and Cox Green schools, before graduating from the University of Oxford with a degree in English and French in 2022.
Since returning from a year as a language assistant in France, the Pinkneys Green resident has been undertaking temp work and is initiating his first foray into politics by standing as an Independent.
‘Disillusioned’ with current politics, George said: “I am first and foremost a democrat and believe our current constituency system does not mix well with party politics.
“It conflates national and local representation unfairly and I therefore advocate for reform.”
He said of key local issues: “It is important to expand infrastructure – including St. Mark’s Hospital whose services I have sadly seen dwindle – to cope with the arrival of Crossrail.
“I will also lobby to restore the Marlow branch line to High Wycombe and would like to see an improvement in recycling facilities.”
Finally, to ensure ‘no one falls through the net’, George proposes to establish an office using his personal MP's allowance to ‘help the disenfranchised’ with social security paperwork and signposting.
Independent - Qazi Yasir Irshad
Qazi Yasir Irshad relocated from Egham to Maidenhead in June last year and has worked as a university lecturer for more than four years.
He previously worked at the United Nations as a refugee officer and conducted voluntary work abroad in the banking sector and social services.
Currently, Mr Irshad is a research candidate in development economics.
By conducting surveys and speaking face-to-face, Qazi said he has taken note of the concerns among Maidenhead residents including issues of safety, crime, antisocial behaviour, and the lack of decent housing.
He said the lack of parking spaces, lack of appropriate health services, affordable childcare, and expensive nurseries were also raised as problems in the town.
Mr Irshad said several people were concerned about flooding in some parts of the constituency.
Others spoke about the ‘inexistence’ of a Hindu temple and the limited facilities of the Gurdwara, and some ‘showed their disgust’ at the silence of the Government over the suffering of civilians in Gaza and Ukraine.
Qazi said, based on the list of public concerns, he has prepared his plan and execution strategies called his ‘to-do list’.
He told the Advertiser it was a ‘great honour’ to be a candidate in Maidenhead as it is ‘the place he loves and has visited the most in his life’.
He added: “It is going to be [my] privilege serving the public as a future MP.”
W Visit the Advertiser’s website for profiles of all Maidenhead candidates.
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