Re-elect Vaughan Thomas

I was first elected in 2015 and spent 2 years on Cabinet as the Equality and Fairness Porfolio Holder. I have served on the Licensing Committee, Scrutiny, the Council Tax Reduction Scheme Cross Party Committee, Sustainable Development Committee and Personnel Committees also sit on the Twinning Committee. I am a Trustee of Norwich Living Wage Charity and I am also an active Trade Union rep for School Support Staff across Norfolk’s schools for the GMB. I am also a member of the National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers giving the opening speech at their December 2020 meeting.

I have put myself forward as a candidate to re-stand for the Labour Party in the 2021 City Council Election as I am all too well aware of the suffering that Central Government funding has made to people living in Mile Cross who deserve better than this Government are currently metering out to them. As a Welfare Rights caseworker for 20+ years, I have represented many Norwich residents at Tribunals over the years at both Citizens Advice and the Norfolk Community Law Service. Over the last two years I have been raising money for six advice charities across the City; Citizens Advice, Shelter, Mancroft Advice Project, Age UK Norwich, Equal Lives and Norfolk Community Law Service. I have had to watch residents’ see their rights cut back and curtailed; ie Legal Aid cuts to Welfare Benefits that resulted in my own redundancy, along with the growth of Food Banks that didn’t exist when I first started as a Welfare Rights Worker, when the wealthy 1% received increased incomes through tax cuts. This is not fair or just and I want to continue helping and representing residents in the role of a City Councillor to contribute towards the already positive measures that are being implemented by the Labour run City Council despite Government cut-backs. The deficit fro m the Financial Crash in 2008 was not caused by public sector workers or benefit claimants but by greedy bankers who are largely still in place enjoying bonus’s that Mile Cross resident’s can only dream off. I want to help mitigate and address this injustice for the majority of residents.