Name:

Gareth Sargeson

Where do you live (roughly) in the village?
Knaresborough Road, Bishop Monkton

Tell us about your immediate family 

I have been married to Victoria for twelve years and we have three children Lennie eleven, Lily eight and Saffia three. I grew up in Wetherby and Victoria grew up in Harrogate. Prior to our move to Bishop Monkton we had lived in Harrogate and then Knaresborough. We were lucky enough to move to Bishop Monkton just over three years ago where we have definitely found our forever home. Whilst life is hectic with three young children, both myself and Victoria have wanted to be as involved as possible in the village. Victoria has been the treasurer for the Village Hall for the last couple of years and I am now part of the Parish Council. We feel like we really have settled into the village.

What is your professional background?
I am a trained actor and attended drama school as opposed to university. However, after becoming a bit disillusioned with the performance industry as a whole, I travelled abroad and undertook voluntary service in Africa. Whilst there I was involved in building schools for remote villages and this is where I decided to pursue a practical career in construction. Working from an apprentice on the tools I have had the chance to work in many different elements of the construction industry. For the last four years I have been a construction manager mainly project managing new build projects ranging from £10,000,000 to £60,000,000.

What particular skills and experience do you bring to the PC?
I feel I bring a different set of skills to most other councillors and hope to put my practical skills and experience to use on village projects. I have a good working knowledge of planning and new build housing and infrastructure and know how large developers work. I hope this will prove a valuable resource to the PC and want to be actively involved in getting the right outcomes for our village.

Are there particular issues/matters you want to concentrate on?

Planning – As stated above I would like to be involved in this aspect of the Council to ensure we get what we as a community feel is beneficial to the village.

Community – I would like to work on more cross-society projects which will bring different factions of the village together more i.e working with the school and VH on joint projects.

Accessibility to the Council – I would like to make the Council more accessible to the community, so people feel they have a real input to what we are working on and ensure they reap the benefits.

Social Events – I would like the council to have more involvement in community events such as the Duck Race etc. I feel like I see the same people putting so much into these wonderful events and would like us as a Council to be more involved and share some of the burden.

What do you hope the Parish Council can achieve for the village? 

As a Parish Council I want us to achieve a wide range of things for the village. We are already working on some good projects which I think and hope people will see as real improvements to the safety and the look of the village. I would encourage people to approach us more with their wants and needs so that we can try our best to implement them. I would hope that the Parish Council’s role, as well as being practical and dealing with some serious matters, can also evolve into something that brings the village together more and that people feel is really working on their behalf.

You can contact Gareth by email.