My name is Greg Myers and I’m standing to be re-elected as your Labour councillor in Norwood Ward on May 4th.

My family and I live in the heart of our ward on Bispham Rd and I want our community to thrive.

For years in Norwood, I saw little activity. I wanted to change that and set about resurrecting the Labour branch here and creating an ethos of action politics, not slogan politics.

From organising community skip sessions to help residents clear their clutter to clearing alleyways of weeds and litter, to cutting back overgrowth and planting trees, I’ve rolled up my sleeves to get stuck in with my Labour colleagues. Since being elected in 2019, I’ve taken this approach into my work as a councillor.

During the first Covid lockdown and before any vaccine was on offer, I volunteered to singlehandedly go out to check on all of the vulnerable residents on the ward’s shielding list, ensuring they were getting the supplies and support they needed. When the South African variant later hit here, I volunteered again to go out on the door-to-door testing programme to help test, inform and reassure my local community.

Working with my ward and council colleagues, residents, community groups and local businesses – I’ve tried to make a difference. I’m also the lead on the Bispham Rd improvement plan, the driving force behind giving that important retail and residential area more of a village feel, helping build community pride and resilience.

From the planters to the decorative lighting that now lines the length of it, to things like bringing Norwood ward its first community Christmas tree in decades and the disability improvements both there and in other parts of the ward – it’s important to work hard to get things done to improve our neighbourhood.

It can sometimes take a frustrating time to actually get done given the paucity of resources at our disposal these days but it’s vital to keep plugging away.

The Conservatives with Lib Dem help have slashed over half a billion pounds from Sefton’s budget in cumulative cuts. Now, over four-fifths of the council’s budget goes on social care alone – leaving just £40m to cover everything else from parks to potholes.

The Lib Dems and Tories are then the first to jump up and down about the effects of the very cuts they made, trying to exploit the misery they’ve created – my Labour colleagues and I are more interested in getting positive work done despite it.

Contact me at greg.myers@sefton.gov.uk if you wish to raise any local issues.