Former Council Director Running As Candidate in Election.
Martyn Todd, former Director of Recreation and Community Services in the legacy Down District Council, is to stand as an independent candidate for the Rowallane District Electoral Area in the local council election on 2 May this year.
After studying Engineering at Cambridge University, Martyn specialised in engine development at Rolls-Royce Motors in England. He then spent eight years with General Motors, in France, the USA and Northern Ireland. Following this he joined a management training consultancy in Belfast, working with small businesses and voluntary organisations. He then worked for LEDU and Invest NI before joining Down District Council’s senior management team.
Martyn is well known in the Saintfield area for his voluntary and community work. For nine years he has been an active member of the Saintfield Development Association, being elected as Chair three times, and is a Trustee of Saintfield Community Trust, the group that has spear-headed the provision of the new community centre in Saintfield.
He is a committee member and former Chair of Saintfield Heritage Society and has twice edited the Saintfield Heritage Book of local historical articles. His interest in local history stems from the fact that his family has been in the Saintfield area since 1640. Martyn’s great great great grandfather was a Captain in the 1798 Rebel army at the Battles of Saintfield and Ballynahinch.
Martyn was instrumental in organising the highly successful recent series of historical talks, ‘Discover Saintfield Community’, that attracted between 100 and 350 attenders to each event.
He said: “I thoroughly enjoy working with a wide range of volunteers in Saintfield and feel we have, together, achieved a lot for Saintfield in the last ten years. However, I feel that I could do more for Saintfield and the wider Rowallane area if I were elected to Newry, Mourne and Down Council. From my time as a Director in Down District Council I have a good understanding of how local government works,” he said.
Martyn stood as a Westminster candidate for the Alliance Party in 2014, and managed to triple the Alliance vote. When asked why he was not standing for the Alliance Party again, he said “Although I agree with the great majority of Alliance policies, I have come to the conclusion that I could focus better on the needs of the Rowallane area as an independent councillor, if elected. However I have shown in the past that I can work constructively with councillors of all parties for the greater good”.
Martyn first made a visible impact in the Rowallane area when he instigated and led the five-year Millennium Project, The Strangford Stone, where 1000 people, young and young at heart, pulled up the 10metre high, 47 tonne megalith in Delamont Park.
He has been a Board Member of the NI Tourist Board (now Tourism NI) and the NI Environment Agency. He says that he would use this experience to help develop tourism related business in Rowallane in a way that sustains the precious landscape and scenery of the area.
For more information, visit: www.rowallanesfuture.com
