Meet the Candidates: Ken Arlett

Ken Arlett (HRG)

BORN and educated in Henley, married to Dorothy. A former district councillor with more than 12 years’ experience.

Henley is the jewel in the crown for South Oxfordshire. However, over the past 12 years there has been no opposition to the Conservatives at the council, hence Henley Town Council has lost funding for:

•The one stop shop in the town hall.

• The town manager.

•The tourism information office.

• Two police community support officers.

In addition, there has been no improvement to car parking in town and no real support for air quality improvements.

We have seen massive cuts to community groups and there is no budget to look into parking yet the district council’s budget this year has a £2 million deficit!

With my experience at the district council and now chairing the town council’s planning and neighbourhood plan committees, I believe it is time to engage with the district council strongly — it is the planning authority — to ensure our concerns for the future are met.

HRG has managed to ensure that in the district council’s local plan, we have only 156 more homes to provide in Henley (reduced from 677). I will help ensure that 40 per cent of these are affordable homes.