District Councillor for the Lyth Valley and lives in Crosthwaite.  He can be contacted on 015395 68599 / 07766 774326 johnmholmes@live.co.uk

Since I was elected on your behalf to serve as the Lyth Valley & Lindale Ward District Councillor in 2010 I have spent a considerable amount of time serving on various Council Committees including Planning, Scrutiny, South Lakes Housing and Lake Administration as well as many training and briefing sessions to fully understand the workings of SLDC and its impact on this ward as well as the larger community. Part of this has involved me serving on "Task & Finish" groups to examine in detail the various services provided by the District Council and ensure that they are provided on a 'value for money' basis. This is to ensure that Council Tax does not increase and progress is made to reduce this in future.

This has not been at the expense of my responsibilities to this Ward.
Since election I have attended Parish Council meetings on a regular basis and feel that I have been able to make a meaningful contribution to that process. I also serve on the two Local Area Partnerships covering the Parishes within the Ward. This has enabled me to ensure that the Parish Councils are fully aware of what the District Council is doing and that the views of the Parish Council are represented at District.

This is now of particular importance with Government initiatives such as Localism, Neighborhood Planning and Participatory Budgets, being implemented which will give greater responsibilities to Parish Councils to manage their own affairs.

Road Gritting Scheme.

I instigated a Road Gritting Scheme in Crosthwaite over the winter of 2010/11 which has proved a great success and on the basis of this have set up an Association of 6 Parishes (including three in our Ward) tp provide this service across those Parishes during this winter. Not only that but we have managed to secure sufficient funding from one of the Local Area Partnerships to cover the costs of this service to the member Parishes for this winter and the surplus being carried forward to winter 2012/13.

11 Defibrillators

I have been instrumental in obtaining significant funding from the LAP to purchase a total of 11 defibrillators which have been distributed to several Community First Responder Groups - which includes three to our group, The Lyth Valley First Responders - to work to provide as many of our Responders as possible with full kit to improve the response time to attend emergency call outs across most of our Ward.

Crosthwaite

I continue to be actively involved with St Mary’s Church in Crosthwaite and have been able to assist other Churches in the valley with certain projects. I still serve as Secretary/Treasurer to the Recreation Field in Crosthwaite and was responsible for raising £35,000 of funds - significantly supported here with funds from the County Council through Jim Bland - to completely upgrade the Children's playground.

Lyth Valley First Responder Group

Jim Bland and I formed the Lyth Valley First Responder Group operating across 6 villages in the area and continue to serve as Secretary/Team Leader. We have some 30 responders across the villages and have raised some £25,000 to date to provide 7 static equipment boxes and 10 roving kits across our Responders to ensure that we can get to a call out within 8-10 minutes to provide support until an Ambulance can get there. We have been operational now for almost 3 years and have responded to 132 call outs to date.

Westmorland Damson Association

As Vice-Chairman of the Association I am responsible for organising Damson Day in the Lyth Valley. This is a small County Fair and serves to help local traders showcase their products in turn encouraging tourism to the area. It also enables the local primary school to raise some £4,000 each year by providing catering facilities on the day. It is their major fund raising event. The WDA operates to support and encourage the growing and use of Damsons in the Lyth & Winster Valleys.