I am fifty years old and grew up in West Sussex where I was educated at Collyer's Grammar School, (now a sixth form college), before going to Plumpton Agricultural College, East Sussex, where I attained an NDA in Agriculture. I initially worked for a farmer and contractor in Sussex before moving to Upton-upon-Severn in 1987 to set up a plant hire and contracting business with a friend and colleague from Plumpton. Our business activities evolved over the years and now manufactures and sells earthmoving and materials handling attachments for excavation and agricultural machinery.

I live in Upton with my wife Julie and we have three children and three step-children each, ranging from fifteen to twenty-seven years old. They are all wonderful and I am privileged to be part of their lives. I enjoy family get-togethers, the cinema, theatre, gardening, dog walking and motorcycling (only in the warm weather as far as Julie is concerned!)

Politics never interested me in my younger years and I never thought I would join a political party, but in recent years I have seen first-hand the raft of unnecessary directives spewing out of Brussels interfering with every aspect of our business and personal lives and I am convinced that the costs to this country far outweigh the benefits. My business imports products from several manufacturers in Italy and we now export to Poland, Germany and Norway. We import more than we export at the moment and if we were to leave the EU tomorrow that relationship with our suppliers and customers overseas would not change. It is a complete myth that three million jobs in this country would be suddenly lost if we left. The Italian economy (along with most others in the south) is suffering terribly at the moment and has declined over several years – they are dependent on their export business for survival, by their own admission.

UKIP attracted me because of their common-sense policies and their stance against the EU and the career politicians that have been ruling our lives for too long. Cameron got it wrong with his 'Big Society' policies. Britain has always been a nation built on local communities and community spirit. None of us can hope to change the world overnight, but if we all try and do our bit locally things can change. An old friend once said to me if we all do what we can, with what we've got, where we are, then we can all make a difference for the better. So rather than whingeing about things and not doing anything, I am putting myself forward for local council, based on that simple philosophy.