Martin’s key responsibility now is as a borough councillor for Leckhampton ward, elected in May 2018. He is also a parish councillor for Leckhampton and works particularly on neighbourhood planning including the protection of Leckhampton’s green fields.
As a councillor, Martin also serves on the local ‘cabinet’ helping to direct council services such as planning and licensing (though not taking the actual planning and licensing decisions, sadly!).
He has also been Cheltenham’s representative on the countywide Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, holding local NHS and county social care decision-makers to account and tenanciously opposing downgrades at Cheltenham General Hospital. He represents Cheltenham on the board of the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is an unpaid trustee of the county’s leading nature conservation and promotion charity, the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. He is a Patron of local homeless charity Cheltenham Open Door and of Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers.
From July 2019 until Brexit in January 2020, Martin was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the South West England & Gibraltar constituency. You can read more about the Parliament and Martin’s role as an MEP here.
For ten years until 2015, Martin was Member of Parliament for Cheltenham. The Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham is now Max Wilkinson. You can read more about the UK Parliament and Martin’s role as an MP here.
After leaving Parliament, Martin has remained involved in the Liberal Democrat party nationally, chairing the party’s expert international policy working group which produced the policy Britain at the heart of a changing world (downloadable here) and remaining Honorary President of the Green Liberal Democrats. He was recently elected to sit on the party’s Federal Policy Committee.