A NEW councillor has joined Westbury Town Council and he hopes his experience in promoting small businesses will help to grow the local economy.
New independent member Dan Symonds, originally from New Zealand, was officially welcomed onto the council at a meeting of the town council on Monday 6th March following a short interview process.
Speaking at the meeting, he said, “I moved to the area nine years ago and over the past three or four years I have developed a real sense of local community. I now want to give something back to the place that has given me so much. The biggest take away I’ve noticed about Westbury since I’ve been here is that it’s a town that has taken a lot of knocks, but the community spirit has never wavered.
“Myself and my partner are really settled here now, and we are active in the local area, working with small businesses and organisations to try and help them to grow. We have roots in the community, but I would like to do more to help others and strengthen those roots.
“As I have worked with promoting small businesses for the better part of a decade, one of my major priorities would be to see how we can grow small businesses in the area to make them as healthy as possible. It would be great to see more businesses set up shop in Westbury and make places like Maristow Street as busy as it should be. I have also worked alongside the town council’s events manager, Ryan Child, with some of the various town council events, so it would be good to continue this and bring more people to the town through these events.
“Without blowing my own trumpet, I like to think that I’m a creative. ‘Disruptive’ is one word that is often used to describe me, so I’m looking forward to bringing some new energy, ideas, and challenges to this council.
“The more we engage the community the better – I would love to see more people involved with the town council and the decisions made here.”
