Michael James Cullen
Conservative Party
Castleton Ward
Address
87 Fairway
Castleton
Rochdale
OL11 3BZ
I would first like to thank everyone in Castleton who have been supporting me in my campaign for the local elections in May.
As a long-time resident of Castleton, having grown up and lived in Castleton all my life, I feel that I have a strong sense of belonging to Castleton. I attended local schools within the community, firstly St. Edwards Primary School and later Matthew Moss High School. I then went on to complete an apprenticeship in IT, which has led me to my current role as an incident coordinator at Bupa in Media City, Salford Quays. My parents initially moved to Castleton during the 1970’s and have lived and raised me and my two brothers here since.
I feel that as a local Conservative resident I would better represent our community of Castleton.
During the 2017 General Election, I played an active role in campaigning for the Conservative candidate for Heywood & Middleton; helping canvass and encourage people to vote Conservative in the elections. I mainly focused all my work for the General Election within Castleton, as I believe that encouraging people within my community to vote Conservative would help benefit the people of Castleton the most.
Having lived in Castleton all my life I have seen how much our village has changed and not always for the better. I want to make Castleton a safer place to live for all residents. A place where people do not have to worry about their properties being burgled, cars being broken into, bins being set alight and our public transportation infrastructure being vandalised. While we cannot fix one of the biggest issues facing our community overnight, it is my solemn promise to you that I will not stop until the matter is resolved and to achieve this goal I will work with Greater Manchester police and residents to find real solutions to the rising crime and anti-social behaviour in our village.
In recent years there has been an increase in the amount of litter on our streets, therefore I set up a group called CleanUpCastleton which aims to clean up our village and make it a nicer place in which to live. There has been a huge amount of support from residents across the ward who have joined my campaign to clean our streets and if elected, I will have the ability to expand the group further, so we can achieve that cleaner and greener Castleton that we all want and deserve. I also plan, if elected, to walk around the ward on a weekly basis to find any issues & speak to residents about their concerns. A councillor should be proactive, not reactive.
Over the years I have seen our village deteriorate and if elected I believe this decline can be put into reverse, as I pledge to re-invest my entire councillor allowance back into the village and oppose any increases in councillor allowances, so more money can be spent on our vital services.
With the growing problem of potholes, not only in Castleton but across the borough we have seen Labour talk about investing £12m into our roads and whilst this is good for our roads, this money is being borrowed and will have to be paid back with interest. This will mean there will be less funding available for our vital services in the future, as the debt must be paid off. Therefore, I’d like work with other councillors on a cross party basis to find more viable solutions to our crumbling road infrastructure. We see councils such as Cumbria County Council rolling out plans to fix their roads using recycled plastic, and with this technology it enables the Council to spend less money maintaining the roads as this type of asphalt is less susceptible to cracks and potholes, which in the long term saves the Council money which can be better spent on vital public services for the residents of Castleton and the wider Borough of Rochdale.
Believe in Castleton.
Vote for Michael James Cullen on Thursday 3 May
