I wanted to report that I am in danger of being unable to fulfil one of my pre-election promises, which was to provide coding clubs for Church Hill residents. I have attempted to launch a scheme three times, but each one has not had a sufficient level of uptake to make them viable. Learning how to write computer code is a skill that can drastically improve career opportunities for young people and help adults to re-skill themselves. However, it has proven more difficult than anticipated convince local people this is something they should pursue.
I believe in transparency in public life, which is why I wanted to report back to residents and outline what I plan to do next. As part of my Councillor surgeries I will start to promote a cyber-security and digital skills as part of these so that I can provide help and advice to any local residents who have security concerns or would like some support with digital issues, including online harms and scams. I hope this will help improve the digital resilience of our area and act as a suitable substitute for coding clubs.