Bank Holiday morning. My fiancée is having a well-earnt lie-in, my ward colleague is putting in another’s day hard campaigning and I’m off to work, ahead of another evening on the doorstep. Why do we do this?

I’ve been one of the city councillors for Headington for eight years. In that time, I’ve also been Deputy Leader of the Council for two years, and more recently Leader of the Opposition. Through it all, though, it’s been the ward work, talking to local people and getting things done for them, that has been what I’ve enjoyed most. I’ve enjoyed it but at times shared frustration with residents about how slow the cogs in the machine work — the machine being the whole apparatus of businesses, quangos and Councils that make the decisions, often far detached from local people but which affect our everyday lives.

There have been little victories on the way, from working with Sybil and other residents of Staunton Road to get a crossing on Headley Way, through to encouraging a Farmers’ Market to become a feature of our local life, and down getting the damned bins in the Old High Street car-park put back where there should be, or helping residents of Brookside get both the sewage in the brook sorted and the fence put up that they needed. Then there’s been the issues with the local pubs, such a key part of our community but sometimes also a source of pain for their neighbours — but now the Black Boy is an excellent restaurant, and the White Horse is less noisy.

There have been battles that have been lost. My then ward colleague, Stephen Tall, and I pressed Royal Mail hard to keep their sorting office on Lime Walk — sometimes ‘market interests’ are hard to match with common sense. More topically, there’s the issue of the underpass on London Road — I’ve said for a long time that it’s a waste of money to fill in a well-used facility and that a crossing should be added at the end of Osler Road, on a line of travel and where the bus gate now is. But the Conservative County Council has acted like the not-so-wise monkey that covers it ears and just won’t listen. It’ll be a sad day when they fill in the subway at a cost of £45,000.

But more numerous are the battles that have not yet been won. High on that list is getting a more sensible bus system in our area — it’s madness that buses go down Osler Road, where residents don’t want them, and don’t go down Headley Way, where residents do. Ruth and I have talked to the bus companies and to the County, repeatedly. We’ve petitioned them too, with sterling help from residents like Robert on Franklin Road. And, slowly, slowly, maybe they’re getting the message. Don’t hold your breath, but I want to continue to press that cause.

And then there are grot-spots around Headington — be it smoking just outside the JR, or run-down properties. In these cases, the law and big institutions both move at a glacial pace — I want to be there to see the ice melt and action finally taken.

That’s one of the two big reasons why I am so keen to serve another term as councillor for this great part of our city. The other is that I’m looking forward to the opportunity to be a councillor, working alongside an MP who appreciates the local situation and who work in Parliament to deal with some of the nonsense that has come through over-legislating. I have known Steve Goddard for over a decade and seen him fight two previous general elections. He is more than ready to represent us all as MP for Oxford East and he’d be a darn sight better than what we have at present — though that’s not saying much.

This set of elections, City and General, are the most exciting we have had in my lifetime. If I were to be re-elected your councillor, I would relish the opportunity to continue the battles and score some more successes. The decision is yours.