Larkhall residents can vote for a new Councillor to represent us on Thursday 9 July 2026.
Larkhall Plan Partnership created a manifesto based on what residents told us matters to them in our surveys. We sent this manifesto to the four by-election candidates and invited them to chat about the key points from the manifesto as well as their ambitions and commitments if elected.
Gary Burns is the Conservative candidate.
Will you work cross party for the benefit of Larkhall residents?
Totally, yeah, we need to work together because working against each other doesn’t work for the community and that’s the bottom line of it. So working together is quite clearly the answer. 100% agree with that.
Do you support an open spaces strategy to improve our green spaces?
100%, yeah, when I was younger I was in the Scouts and I was always out camping and it’s not until you get older you realise the benefits of that so anything to do outdoors I’m totally in favor of.
Will you support our community action plan created based on responses from our surveys?
Absolutely – get the community responses – that’s what they’re wanting. So that’s really what needs to be done basically. And acting on it.
Do you support upgrading our running track?
Absolutely. That’s close to my heart. Years ago I used to travel to Coatbridge, I did athletics when I was younger, and to Grangemouth to get a proper track. So I know that feeling well and it makes such a difference if you’ve got a good running track. A lot of people are into running now. There’s a lot lot more people – older people as well, middle-aged people. So I definitely 100% will be in favor of that.
Do you support more funding to improve and maintain our roads and pavements?
I know a bit about roads. It’s the lack of maintenance that general maintenance on themt and that’s what’s causing a lot of issues on the roads. The roads are terrible; I’ve had a few bad dunts in my car, which is frustrating for people.
Potholes are not even cleaned properly. They’re filling up in the wintertime with the rain and the gully pots getting cleaned out and all that sort of thing. I absolutely agree with that 100% – it’s one of my day sticking points
The other issues with the roads are the lines, road markings: where’s the center of the road, where’s the stop sign, what’s the give way sign? All these things have all gone away now, so the roads are actually to my mind illegal the way that they’ve got them to the state that they’re in
Then even in the dark in the wintertime as well there’s poor lighting and you used to have cat’s eyes on the road to mark the center of the road but you don’t even have that now. They’re actually dangerous now the roads.
Will you support local businesses?
The rates and the taxes and the national insurance, everything else is crippling businesses and you need it for a community like Larkhall. People rely on the shops and smaller businesses round about and the taxes and government issues are basically killing them and it’s not helping. Every business is probably struggling – they’re struggling to survive.
And that’s what the people need, the local people and community needs, it’s people’s lives as well. You can get together and get a chat and make their day a lot better, make them feel happier. Or help them if they take ill, develop illnesses, depression or whatever may come their way. So you need the local businesses for that
Do you support our employability programme to help people take steps into work?
The welfare budget’s just gone way, way over I think it’s more than doubled in the last two years or a year or so. It’ll help people to point them in the right direction. As you’re saying it’s probably easy to do to help people, especially younger people, to help them to move on to try and find work because they’ve got a lack of confidence to go out and try and find a job.
Sometimes they go chap a door, it’s like sending emails out; doing something physical to go and get a job makes it much easier for them to get a job in a sense. So I agree with you, yeah
Quite often that’s all somebody needs as a young person is that little step to say look they’re expecting too much to come their way instead of saying look this is what you need to do and help them and if they get that little bit of help, it’s amazing. I see it all the time if you get so many knock backs for a job, go and tap the door and say ‘look, I’m here’ and that works wonders. This is better than any class lesson or college lesson for that matter.
Do you support long term sustainable funding for the third sector?
The third sector’s fantastic involvement in what they do and it’s at the heart of people’s lives, isn’t it. They’re going out helping other people and they do that as you say through COVID and other situations and it’s wonderful to see.
Quite often a lot of projects can put the initial money into it to get it kicked off, but it’s going to take two, three years for it to establish and get set up and then it’ll roll on and it’ll help through that process of the number of years that it’s going on.
Do you support local businesses partnering with Larkhall Academy to create opportunities for pupils?
I’ve got a little bit of experience of voluntary work in the schools with MCR Pathways. So I’ve been involved with young boys just to help them in the building trade that I’m involved in. I think it’s good to get more expertise in to help younger people. The education system and the curriculum that’s there for them is one thing, but there’s also other things that they need to be taught as well. So I think that would be really helpful for younger people who and not maybe academic as well in that sense, so they need that bit of extra help.