Author: David Landon Cole

This short article for the Hunts Post is one of the pieces of writing I’m most proud of, right up there with my doctoral thesis. It’s the last thing I wrote for the Hunts Post when I was mayor; I didn’t put it on here at the time, but I want to have it on here for posterity or whatever.

Continue reading “Be political” →

Year	Precept (£)*	Increase (£) †	Increase (%) †	Cumulative Increase (£) †	Cumulative increase (%) †	CPI to April (%) ‡	Cumulative CPI to Apr (%) †
16-17	128.61
17-18	136.26	7.65	5.95	7.65	5.95	2.4	2.4
18-19	141.75	5.49	4.03	13.14	10.22	2.1	4.6
19-20	168.11	26.36	18.60	39.50	30.71	0.8	5.4
20-21	171.87	3.76	2.24	43.26	33.64	1.5	7.0
21-22	181.37	9.50	5.53	52.76	41.02	9.0	17.0
22-23	187.67	6.30	3.47	59.06	45.92	8.7	27.0
23-24	213.43	25.76	13.73	84.82	65.95
24-25	234.39	20.96	9.2	105.78	82.25

* Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Ministry of Housing, Co. (2013). Council Tax statistics. [Online]. gov.uk. Last Updated: 21 June 2023. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/council-tax-statistics [Accessed 16 February 2024].
† Calculated by me.
‡ Office for National Statistics. (2024). Consumer price inflation, UK: January 2024. [Online]. Office for National Statistics. Last Updated: 14 February 2024. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/latest [Accessed 16 February 2024].

Huntingdon Town Council is currently going through its budget and precept setting for FY24/25. Unusually, the budget and precept were not approved when they were presented to the full finance committee earlier this month.

Below are my remarks on the budget and precept at the finance committee meeting on 11th January 2024. The headings weren’t read out, but were for me so I knew where I was in what I was saying. The budget is at the Town Council website and is the document I refer to.

At the meeting, it was agreed that councillors would submit their proposals. In the interests of transparency, I’m sharing mine publicly. My suggestions are in column G of this Excel.

Continue reading “Huntingdon Town Council budget 24/25” →

My report to the annual meeting of Huntingdon Town Council at the end of my mayoralty.

Continue reading “Huntingdon Town Council Annual Meeting
Mayor’s Report” →

The picture here is doing the rounds on social media, and it has annoyed me, and I thought I’d explain why.

Continue reading “The ‘artists with degrees’ meme” →

This article originally appeared in the Hunts Post on 19th August 2022

Continue reading “Good public transport is needed to help reduce car use and carbon emissions” →

This article originally appeared in the Hunts Post on 17th July, 2022.

Continue reading “How do we make Huntingdon a market town again?” →

This article originally appeared in the Hunts Post on 14th June 2022. I’m writing a monthly column for the Hunts Post while I’m mayor.

Continue reading “The completion of the A14 is a ‘huge achievement and a huge relief’” →

Frankly, it has been a bit of a surreal evening.

I am tremendously grateful to have been elected as Mayor of Huntingdon at this evening’s Town Council, along with Cllr Audrey McAdam as Deputy Mayor. I am a little bit of a loss for words at the moment, as things are only now starting to sink in. I know that there is a great deal of work in the coming year, though, and I look forward to doing my best for our town.I feel like I have more thankyous than I can count – to fellow councillors for supporting me, to my friends and family for coming, to all the people who wished me well this evening and offered their help and support, and to all the Town Council staff for making this the most amazing evening.

Below is a copy of my remarks on being elected.

Continue reading “The Mayor of Huntingdon” →