On 10 October 2024, residents in the South Acton ward will take part in a by-election to vote for a new ward councillor.
EALING.NEWS has asked all candidates standing 7 questions about who they are, what they hope to deliver and why they want residents to vote for them.
Kristian Mower standing for the Conservatives in South Acton answers the 7 questions:
Tell us a bit about yourself, your priorities for the ward and why you want to be councillor for South Acton?
I want to be the councillor for South Acton as I have lived here all my life and I have a keen interest in my local community; as I see it, the local Labour Party have had a monopoly over South Acton for over forty years, and I wish to bring about more balance to our political discourse in South Acton to deal with South Acton’s pivotal problems.
My main priority for South Acton is to stamp out anti-social behaviour and violent crime on our streets, as it has become uncontrollable under Labour’s stewardship. Another critical priority of mine is to work closely with residents, who have articulated that they feel they do not have an active voice in the community as Labour has been in power for too long and believes their local governance is stagnant.
As Labour views South Acton as a safe seat, local councillors must interact with hard-working residents and show an interest in representing the local people. I intend to change this by working with local residency associations and with all community groups in South Acton to strengthen the bonds of our community.
What motivates you?
My critical desire to bring about positive change in our society drives me. By being selected as the candidate for South Acton, I believe that change should start on one’s own doorstep.
By striving for change by tackling crime, protecting families and improving the quality of our greenspaces and community centres, we can make a better effort as a collective to increase the harmony, prosperity and perception of South Acton by enrichening local people’s lives and also their children’s lives by growing up in a safer and happier community free from the constraints of desperation felt by local residents.
As Labour is hellbent on taxing residents, taking money from old people and promising to tax us on budget day, the people of Acton deserve a candidate who will stand up for them whilst Labour councillors in Ealing passively accept it; I will work towards challenging the national and local government for less excessive taxation and more equitable treatment of our most vulnerable residents..
What is your own personal connection to either South Acton or any other part of the borough?
My connection to South Acton is that I’ve lived in the ward my entire life and feel responsible for wanting to bring about change. Rather than sitting back and letting Labour get the same result they always do, I believe that as a local man who was bred in South Acton, educated in Acton and a community-orientated individual, I can disrupt the one-party state created by Ealing Labour.
By working tirelessly for the community, I wish to make South Acton one of the most prosperous wards across London and the rest of the country by working for long-standing and new residents, tackling crime, and ensuring more excellent economic stability for residents by fighting our fundamental shared interests.
What do you consider to be your 3 top political, work or personal achievements and what impact have they had?
My most significant personal achievement has been my volunteer work acting as a consultant to the charity sector since 2019; by working closely with the charity Sculpt UK, we have been able to provision SEND children with the necessary skills to compete in an increasingly competitive job market, helping young people gain good quality jobs in the private/charity sectors, by increasing the diversity of the Youth Advisory Board we have increased our productivity and the quality of our consultations.
My most considerable political success came from helping Mayoral candidate Susan Hall win her target wards in Ealing & Hillingdon in the 2024 GLA election. Despite the national trends being against the Conservative Party, I significantly contributed to our minor victories in wards allocated to Ealing. Helping further the party’s interests despite the disillusionment many residents in and around West and North-West London felt by the last Conservative national government.
During my tenure as the Assistant Manager at Virtual Artists, I led a small team that accounted for over 25% of the organisation’s total sales. By enhancing the commission structure for the employees on my team, we collectively boosted institutional productivity. We created an idyllic model for all the other teams in the company to follow by increasing direct sales at our art galleries. This success resulted from the team’s collective effort, and it was inspiring to see everyone, from the sales representatives to the management team, motivated and working towards their respective goals due to my innovative incentive-based sales model.
What do you consider to be the top 3 challenges South Acton faces and how will you as a councillor address them?
The pressing issues that demand our immediate attention in South Acton are Crime, the limited voice of residents, and the rampant overdevelopment across the ward.
Firstly, as the Councillor for South Acton, I would work hard to increase the number of community enforcement officers and CCTV cameras in high-crime areas in South Acton, particularly on the high street and the roads just off the high street, where the highest proportion of crime is committed in the ward.
Secondly, as I have first-hand experience speaking to local residents, one of the biggest challenges is to make sure that residents from all across the political spectrum have a local councillor who is easily accessible and can best represent their views in Ealing Council. Labour has become stagnant in South Acton because there has never been a significant challenge to their authority. As a resident of South Acton, I intend to put residents first, as I wish my council representatives would do, as opposed to a Labour candidate who has been allocated a safe seat for the council as a stopgap to their parliamentary ambitions.
Thirdly, one of my most significant ambitions is to curtail the number of high-rise buildings in the ward as they have been hotbeds for crime and are destroying the natural environment, despite growing opposition to high-rise developments in the area Labour is committed to destroying the beauty of South Acton by overdeveloping high rise buildings as well as moving families into squalid and semi-Dickensian conditions in small and uncomfortable flats, the residents of South Acton deserve quality housing and ill be working towards building quality housing in South Acton without developing excessively high and poor quality housing.
What do you love about South Acton and the borough of Ealing?
I love South Acton not only because I am partial to it as a resident but also because of the vibrant people and hardworking families who make up the ward and proactively go to work daily to provide a better life for themselves and their families.
Despite our diverse population, I believe that as a community, we thrive because of our friendliness and compassion for one another. I intend to protect our community by working hard for working people and protecting the interests of their families.
Moreover, South Acton is home to outstanding quality parks and green spaces, which are vital to keeping disaffected people off the streets and providing great outlets for young people and families with children to play sports and foster a sense of community together.
How accessible will you be to South Acton residents and how can they get in contact with you now and if elected how will you ensure you are accessible to them in the future?
As a local resident of South Acton, I will always be within arm’s reach of my constituents, working tirelessly to ensure I am constantly updated on developing situations in the area and the specific concerns of residents.
Currently, I can be contacted via email @ Mowerkristian@gmail.com or on Instagram @Kris_mower; that way, I can be accessible to all people who may have a preferred method of contacting me. If I am elected, I intend to borrow a trusted method of communication from other Conservative councillors by creating a mailing list in which residents can easily access me, as well as making it easier to communicate with a range of local residents in weekly/monthly updates about our progress and activities in the area so that residents are aware of what I would be doing in real-time to improve and protect the community.
