Before becoming a councillor I had a varied sales career, managed a catering and leisure facility in the borough, managed the Assembly House in Norwich, and set up my own tea and coffee distribution company in Great Yarmouth. Even when clocking up 70,000 miles a year during one particular role in sales, or while living in Norwich when managing the Assembly House, Great Yarmouth has always been my home. I've been interested in the way that politics can allow you to influence and benefit your local area since a young age and I joined both Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Norfolk County Council to make a difference to where I live and make my opinions, and those of my local area, known. Every week I get contacted by local people, who need information or guidance to help them with something that's important to them. First and foremost, being a local councillor is about being available to local people and trying to help them and it's rewarding when successful. It's also really satisfying to be involved in big projects that bring benefit to a large number of people - such as the huge investment that went into renovating the seafront in Great Yarmouth. I want to see our local economy continue to grow, so that we have enough jobs for local residents. We also need to continue to evolve our tourism sector so that we can keep encouraging visitors to the area. For some of our businesses, these two both go hand in hand. I got involved with our tourism sector locally at a time when package deals were increasing in popularity and visitor numbers were dropping off as people headed abroad instead. Since then I think the area has been very good at recognising what it needs to do to keep bringing people back and I'd like to see the continued improvement of customer service and accommodation standards in the years ahead. We also need to continue to be innovative with the events and attractions that we put on in the borough. When the economy fully recovers I'd really like to see a ferry service from the Outer Harbour bringing a whole new host of visitors to Great Yarmouth.