A day in the life of - An audience with Surrey County Councillor, David Gollin

	A day in the life of - An audience with Surrey County Councillor, David Gollin
	When David Gollin retired at a comparatively early age from a senior position with a multi-national company 12 years ago, he could have opted for an easy life. Instead, he works for 60 hours a week as a Surrey County Councillor for the good of the county, for the benefit of Mole Valley and in particular for Ashtead. Why?
		One does not need to look far to find a reason for David's commitment to his local community: it's in his genes. His parents arrived in Ashtead as newly-weds during the early days of the Second World War. His father, Geoffrey, served as Group Scout Master with the 1st Ashtead (Pelham) Scouts for almost 25 years and, as a member of Leatherhead & District Local History Society became an authority on Bygone Ashtead, the title of the definitive reference book which has spawned many more recent titles. Mary Gollin, David's mother, ran the Forget-me-not Club for the elderly at the Peace Memorial Hall, chaired a local housing society, was a school governor, an Independent district councillor and President of Ashtead Residents' Association. David divides his current work schedule into 15 morning, afternoon and evening slots. In a typical week, meetings fill 14 of those slots. He chairs the SCC Local Committee for Mole Valley - the first in Surrey to introduce open forums around the district, bringing local government into the heart of the community and thereby giving residents a bigger say over decisions that affect them. A particular focus is on youth projects, as he firmly believes that young people need to feel they have a stake in society. Education and the management of an unprecedented volume of traffic on our local roads are David's prime interests. Thanks to his efforts, and after a 50-year shortfall, there are now sufficient junior school places in Ashtead to meet the need. And our secondary-age pupils who cycle to Therfield along Barnett Wood Lane have a safer journey to school.
	Being a member of Surrey Policy Authority fills more slots in David's diary. He has played a lead role in improving the quality of police response to reported incidents and in neighbourhood reassurance through the reduction of crime and disorder. The young David attended Downsend School and from there went to Rugby and King's College, Cambridge. Much of his professional life was spent abroad but he always returned home to his Ashtead roots. He says he wouldn't have been as effective a County Councillor without his commercial experience. The wheels may grind more slowly and there is necessarily public consultation before decisions can be taken but he can and does make things happen. As one of only six Independents amongst a predominantly Conservative council, he sees the benefit of not being constrained by party politics. No longer travelling internationally on business, David and his wife still find themselves on long-haul flights to visit two of their three daughters in Japan and New Zealand. However, it is difficult to imagine him ever straying far for long from the place he calls home. "With a population of some 15,000 people, Ashtead is in fact a small town," he says, "but it is still referred to as a village because it thinks and acts like a village. It's the community that counts." As he nears the end of his third four-year term of office, there is no doubt that the Ashtead community owes a great deal to its dedicated County Councillor.
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