Helen Gavin

Hello!  

I am a Chartered Water and Environmental Manager with more than 18 years of experience in environmental and sustainability issues, covering water resources, aquatic environments, greenhouse gas emissions, and renewable energy.  I have managed multi-million pound projects and work with people from academia, industry and government.

I have lived and worked in Eynsham for the past 17 years.  I am passionate about ensuring people and the environment have a say in the decisions being made at a national and local level that affect us all.

I represent the Green Party in Eynsham and Cassington in the local elections for West Oxfordshire District Council. 

Eynsham and Cassington face acute pressures from massive housing development and insufficient and failing infrastructure.  If elected to represent Eynsham and Cassington, I would fight to ensure development is sensitive to our area and needs, is in keeping with what local resident want, and that sustainability is central to decision making.

More housing = more congestion = poor air quality & less green space = public health issue!  Infrastructure should be built first, and not on the Green belt, with housing second!  New low-carbon houses should be built only after the required infrastructure has been created.

I am keen cyclist and regularly cycle from Eynsham to Oxford.  I am a supporter of the B4044 community path and added my voice to the protest against it being dropped from WODC’s A40 Improvement Scheme.  I will fight to try and ensure this scheme gets implemented for the benefit of pedestrians and cyclists.

I am proud to be a member of the Green Party as it is the only political force that is committed to creating a society based on democracy and justice, acknowledging that our climate is changing and that we need to live sustainability, within the planet’s limits. We believe that our institutions, our economy, and our society should work for everyone and for all the species on the planet - not just the rich and powerful.

Short term decisions like austerity hurt those who did not implement them, and just create creating big problems for the future. Rather than save money, austerity is just creating problems for the future that will need to be addressed at a much higher cost.  Only by taking into account our current and future challenges - the risks posed by the climate emergency, a growing population, and our education and housing needs -  will we be able to create a resilient future for ourselves.