Below is the candidate profile for Ian Parry, the Conservative Party candidate for the Staffordshire County Council Stone Rural seat.
This profile has been added to our Candidate Profiles page on our 2021 election hub – click here to see more candidate profiles.
Answers to the questions aren’t edited, other than for formating, and are therefore the candidates own words.
In your own words tell our readers about yourself
I have been the County Councillor for Stone Rural for 24years and have always been committed to serving my community and making local government work for residents. During my time on the County Council I have served as Deputy Leader – responsible for finance and leading on transformation. During my time in the role the Council spending reduced by 1/3 and we needed to introduce some important changes to make the council work better and become more affordable. I am now a Chair of one of the Council’s scrutiny committees which hold the Council to account for executive decisions and policy – a vital check and balance. I work for a charity-based social purpose consultancy providing governance support for organisations in the public sector.
I am married to Sarah and live in Hixon with our two cats. I am a keen football and cricket fan – A lifelong ‘sufferer’ of Stoke City and enjoy theatre, cinema and museums too.
What’s your personal statement about why you’re standing and what you want to achieve over the term if elected?
I have served the area on the County Council since 1997, since then I have fought many campaigns, worked on countless issues on your behalf and helped numerous organisations in the community to access funding and support. It’s tough and challenging at times, but also a great privilege to serve my community.
This year has been especially demanding on all of us as we fight to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. Locally I have been working with our local community groups who have done a brilliant job in reaching out to people who need support. I have also been especially keen to ensure that council services do not fail those who need support and care in their homes, particularly during the lockdown periods.
I hope my experience, commitment and record has earned me a reputation for being a strong advocate and community leader, a good listener who makes sound judgments and gets things done.
Roads and safety continue to be important, which is why I continue to argue and push for more to be done to make our roads safer and why I successfully got extra £millions for maintenance. I have also managed to gain more weight restrictions, safety features, crossings, speed camera monitoring and better signage to divert heavy vehicles.
There are still lots of problems to resolve and I will not give up.
How does standing as a political party candidate affect serving local people on local issues?
90 percent of council decisions and activities are non-contentious, and politics plays no part. But there are controversial and political decisions that affect the strategy and direction of the council and set the important priorities designed meet local residents’ needs. Political groups can organise themselves more efficiently when driving these important changes and are able to focus on a collective purpose. Therefore, as a political party councillor people know what I stand for and aim to achieve. In contrast, it’s hard to see what Independents stand for or to judge what their position is on the many complex issues that face a large County Council. Therefore, it’s much harder to make them accountable and to predict how they will respond to a new challenge or crisis. People know what they are getting when they chose a councillor from a the main-stream political party.
Do you live in the area you’re standing for, if not what’s your link to Stone and your reason for standing in this area and not your own?
I am born and bred in North Staffordshire and I lived in my Stone Rural Division for over 15 year but then moved home a few years and now live just outside. But nothing has changed, I know area and villages that make up its communities very well.
What’s been your history as a political councillor?
I am the former Deputy Leader of the Council and held cabinet roles, leading first on children and families and then finance and transformation. These were extremely challenging roles as local government was (and still is) going through a period of massive change, especially as its income from government grant reduced considerably. It meant that I had to find ways to reduce the what the council spends whilst protecting the things that matter most to people – such as social care and looking after people, or roads and infrastructure and local services such as libraries.
Apart from family commitments what other commitments do you have on your time? This could be work, business, voluntary or community roles – if these are linked to organisations in Stone then please mention it.
I am very used to balancing my time between the various demands of being a County Councillor; working, home and the organisations which I support in the community.
What are the top 5 issues that you think affect the residents of Stone currently have?
For Stone Rural residents having a county councillor with the experience and network ability to get things done matters most. Stone Rural is an area that has many villages and small communities, each has specific needs, but road safety, highway maintenance and maintaining good community facilities are high priorities.
Over the next few years we need to keep the pressure on HS2 to try to avoid the construction phase becoming a massive burden on local roads and communities.
How will you keep in touch with your constituents’ concerns?
People prefer to contact me via email or telephone – my contact details are widely available.
If you’re an incumbent candidate then what’s been 3 things you’re most proud of in your latest term.
– Resisting industrial development and quarrying, but supporting jobs growth where this meets environment and commercial vehicle accessibility standards. Minimising impact, but supporting more jobs
– Working with many local resident organisations to help them build and maintain essential community and social events, activities and mutual support groups – this has been especially important during the covid lockdown period
– Introducing more road safety features in some of my communities – these can take a very long time to achieve, but are a priority for many residents
