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Biographical Notes
Peter Thornton is 58 years of age (dob 26/08/51) Married to Hazel for 37 years, they have three grown up daughters one of whom lives in the USA.
Peter and Hazel with children and grandchildren
He was born in Kendal and attended Kendal Grammar School
Most of Peter's working life has been spent as a photographer but Hazel and Peter now have a smallholding in Longsleddale where they keep Dexter cattle. They also run a small business producing pork and lamb sausages that they sell at Summer festivals and agricultural shows. It's very hard work for a couple of months but it allows Peter to spend the rest of the year being a full time Councillor. Peter has been a businessman for over 30 years and has traded through bad times and good. He's very aware of the pressures on small businesses, rent, rates, utility costs, excessive regulation and the particular problems of the small shopkeeper in the age of the internet and of out of town shopping. He visits his daughter in the USA and sees a land of strip malls and hypermarkets often with no recognisable town centres. He's very aware that our town centres are under huge pressure and believes that radical solutions are needed if they are to continue to survive.
Peter is a County Councillor representing the Kirkby Stephen Division, also a District Councillor representing the adjacent ward of Whinfell and a Cabinet member on South Lakeland District Council. His portfolio includes culture and sport. If elected, Peter would continue being a County Councillor but would give up all his other responsibilities in order to devote himself to the Penrith and The Border constituency.
Peter's other passion (after family and politics) is motorcycling. He loves motorcycling touring and has ridden his Harley Davidson from Longsleddale to Wyoming. Peter used to race motorcycles and has lapped the Isle of Man TT course at over 100mph on his Honda 600 machine.
If elected as MP for Penrith and the Border, he believes that his priority will be to remind Westminster that Cumbria, exists even when we are not facing foot and mouth or flooding.
"Penrith and The Border has suffered from successive governments simply forgetting that where we are! I will leave Westminster in no doubt that this part of the world is just as important as the South East of this country and that we will no longer be content with occasional handouts. We need affordable housing, better paid jobs and an upgraded transport system. "
Peter believes that we are in danger of sleepwalking into a Conservative government which will have no idea of how to handle the economy. He points to local Tory run Councils who he says have proved themselves incapable of making savings whereas Cumbria's Lib Dem Council of South Lakeland have balanced their budget and delivered the lowest ever Council Tax increases in the history of the Council.
Contact details:
0797 0891 322 (Preferred 1st point of contact)
01539 823640
Ubarrow Hall
Longsleddale
Kendal
Cumbria
LA8 9BB
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