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I have lived in Brightlingsea all my life, as have both my parents and I now live there with my partner Sandra and son Michael who is now attending the same schools that I did.
I love this area of North Essex and have held many roles within the local community, including running a local karate club for 13 years. I have been Chair of Brightlingsea Free Music Festival
which is responsibile for staging a major free outdoor music festival, attracting 8000 people. I have led the investment of £3.2m into the generation of creativity projects within 17 schools in
Harwich and Clacton and until recently championed the community dimension of the planned Colchester Community Stadium in my role as Chair of CUCST. I also established a successful Market Town
Initiative - the Community Reach Partnership which succeeded in delivering £360k of community investment across Brightlingsea, Alresford, Thorrington, Frating, Great Bentley and St Osyth, part of
which was the establishment of a community ferry to East Mersea.
 I spent 8 years as a Labour Councillor on both Tendring District Council and Brightlingsea
Town Council, including a year as Mayor of Brightlingsea.
Seen opposite with the Deputy Mayor, Councillor Jo Ruffell celebrating the Blue Flag Award for Brightlingsea's beach in front of Bateman's Tower.
I am currently an IT Project Director with BT and have responsibility for a large budget. This has led me to become an accredited Programme & Project Manager with 12 years experience in
Information Technology, managing multi million pound IT deliveries with teams of between 5 – 250. Many of these involve Indian subcontractors which has given me the opportunity of gaining
experience working in Mumbai and Pune within the Indian community.
I am passionate about the community and excited by the prospect of having the opportunity to serve and support people from communities right across the new Harwich and North Essex Constituency.
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About Darren
