Paul moved to Newport in October. He lived in Thornton Heath (Croydon) from 1999 and first became involved in his local community when he took on the role as Parent Governor at Winterbourne Infant school between 2002 and 2007. During this time he helped form the Friends of Thornton Heath Rec which aims to create a safer, cleaner and more accessible green space for all to enjoy. Over the past few years the park has seen significant improvements due in large part to local resident activity. This has included; involving the local community and schools in creating an information board on birds, a therapeutic veg and flower garden, planting fruit trees, cleaning the brook, organising Christmas carol singing in the neighbourhood and winning a ballot to gain funding from the Council to place gym and play equipment in the park. Paul has been a Community Development Worker for over 25 years. He now works for Croydon Voluntary Action, where he has been working on several initiatives as a Community Builder over the past four years including the annual Thornton Heaths Arts Week, Manor Farm Nature Space and the Well Versed Poetry initiative. A journalist, Paul has a show on Croydon Radio and helped to establish the social enterprise, Words of Colour Productions which aims to promote diversity in the media and The Creative Collective Media, which set up the first national print media internship for Black Asian Minority Ethnic journalism students. I have worked as a Community Builder on a range of Asset Based Community Development projects through Nurture Development and Croydon Voluntary Action across the UK. As a community development practitioner, journalist and equalities consultant for over 25 years, I have contributed my knowledge and experience to a range of creative and innovative projects such as the development of successful “dialogue” strategies between Transport for London and Bangladeshi community networks in Tower Hamlets and being curriculum adviser and mentor to the journalism team of the award-winning youth newspaper, The Cut. I have also worked for the social enterprise, Words of Colour Productions and where my role included supporting a range of media and arts-based ideas generated from community led initiatives. I have an MA in Journalism from University of Westminster and during my journalism career I was community affairs editor at The Voice before freelancing for publications such as The Guardian, Evening Standard and Local Government Chronicle.