Cllr Derek Harvey OBE
Posted on 13th March 2023 at 14:01
Cllr. Derek Harvey OBE shares his experience of being a Parish Councillor and what the role means to him.
Hello, I'm Derek Harvey. I'm the councillor for Bolbeck Park and Pennyland, I've been a councillor since October 2021. I was inspired to become a councillor because I have lived in Milton Keynes for over 36 years, and I know how good a place it is.
I spent a lot of my working life outside of Milton Keynes so I thought now was a good time to put something back. I really wanted to get to know what was going on in the community.
My areas of special interest and expertise are mostly operational management. I've been involved with that for the past 44 years so I was keen to see what I could do within the parish council using those skills. I started off by litter picking and volunteered to be a parish guardian, from there I just got involved with community litter picks, and then somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Would you like to be a parish councillor?”
Now I am the chair of the Personnel Committee, and I am a member of the Finance and Governance and Assets meeting, and overall in the full council having to make decisions that really would make an impact on people's lives in the community. I was really pleased with what I saw, and I wanted to be part of it. So that's what inspired me to become a councillor and it hasn't disappointed, I'm really keen to do more.
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