Having met him both at the Cabinet presentation in September last year, and then again at the LEP’s presentation to the DBT in January, we were interested to see that Cllr Haslam has decided to resign from the Conservative party and stand as an Independent in the upcoming Mayoral election.
Although we don’t have any political affiliations, as we have to navigate the planning system on every project and things have a habit of changing, we were pleased to see that one of key elements of his manifesto is directed full-square at food security, and the relevance of production and farming in the region. He sets out an aspiration to innovate and develop agritech and food processing with a global focus, from North Yorkshire.
Whoever is promoting that mantra is worthy of a mention in our book, as our ability to feed ourselves in a resilient and cost effective way, in an ever changing world where we seem to have less and less influence is important.
He has a campaign website that you can find here: https://haslam4mayor.com
In the interests of political balance, we understand the other mayoral candidates are:
Conservatives – Keane Duncan
Green – Kevin Foster
Independent – Keith Tordoff
Labour – David Skaith
Liberal Democrats – Felicity Cunliffe-Lister
21st March 2024
