Councillor John Bloxham

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Councillor John Bloxham

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Blaby District Council & Leicestershire County Council. LCC Cabinet member for Growth, Economic Development & Planning. Representing Blaby & Glen Parva.

Promoted by Reform UK, Millbank Tower, 21-24 Millbank, London, SW1P 4QP. All views my own.

29/10/2026

🚧 So glad to see this scheme launched: the abandoned signs and cones, especially on our country lanes, are a real eyesore.

Well done and thank you to my cabinet colleague Cllr Hamilton-Gray for taking action; and to Cllr Graham Cooke (Countesthorpe and Cosby) for pushing this issue on the Highways Scrutiny Committee. 👍

If you see any abandoned signs, please report them here: https://www.leicestershire.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/road-maintenance/report-a-road-problem

29/10/2026

🚨 BREAKING: COUNCIL SHAKE-UP FOR LEICESTERSHIRE WITHDRAWN... FOR NOW 🚨

The Government has withdrawn its July decision to expand the city and create two new unitary councils across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland by April 2028. That said, further decisions are still to come, so there is a chance that the same proposal or something similar will be back in the future.

I’ve consistently opposed this land grab and any attempt to swallow up parts of Blaby District into the city. I’m pleased the Government has listened - and the Judicial Review proceedings brought by Leicestershire County Council may well have played a part.

Now let’s hope ministers go back to the drawing board and either scrap these plans altogether or come forward with a reorganisation that local people actually want.

📅 Local council elections for existing districts and boroughs are still planned for 6 May 2027.

28/10/2026

📢 A BIG announcement for Leicestershire in today’s Budget!

Amid all the financial announcements, there was some potentially significant news for our area.

The Chancellor has announced that Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland will become part of a new combined mayoral authority.

The three existing councils will remain in place, but a new mayor will oversee the wider area, with responsibilities including strategic planning and infrastructure investment.

🗳️ The timetable isn't confirmed yet, but the first election for the new mayor is expected to take place in May 2028.

So, what could this mean for us? 👀

If the new authority follows the approach taken in other parts of the country, it could open the door to MAJOR additional investment in our area: from infrastructure and transport to wider economic development.

And that investment is desperately needed. Leicestershire is one of the lowest funded areas in the country and has long faced challenges in securing the level of funding and investment required to support its communities, improve infrastructure and unlock its full potential.

Of course, the details will matter, and we’ll need to see how the new arrangements work in practice. But this could be a real opportunity to put Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland on the map and secure the investment our area needs.

A significant announcement - watch this space! 👀

28/10/2026

📉 Immediate Budget Verdict: A Bit of Good News, Lots of Business as Usual 📉
Let’s start with the positives 👏
✅ The rise in the Business Rates threshold is welcome news. Around 70,000 businesses will be taken out of paying Business Rates altogether. That’s a real help for the shops, pubs and cafés that keep our high streets going. 🏪☕🍺

But overall? A mostly disappointing Budget, and essentially a continuation of the Starmer/Reeves years. 😤

🎭 The gimmicks: Removing standing order charges from energy bills will affect 60% of households and save them... less than a pound a week. That’s not a cost of living plan, it’s a headline.

🎭 The populism: A Minimum Wage rise sounds lovely, but it will make our economic problems worse and push up unemployment, especially among young people who are trying to get their first foot on the ladder. 😟

💸 And the real problem? The debt keeps growing, and vague promises about future spending restraint won't reduce it. We’re at £3 TRILLION and counting, and for every £13 the government spends, £1 goes on interest alone. 😱 That’s money not spent on defence, schools, roads or police, and it gets worse every time we add to the pile. 📈

🔧 The answer is both simple and difficult. Simple, because it means cutting spending, like the £40 billion in cuts identified by Reform UK. ✂️ Difficult, because the spending that needs cutting is tied to the vested interests that support the Labour Party. 🏛️

Andy Burnham is a more likeable and capable politician than Starmer, no question. But on this evidence he’s just as fearful of Labour’s vested interests. That means more tinkering at the edges while Britain’s economic problems get worse and we head towards a financial crisis. ⚠️

Britain deserves better than managed decline. 🇬🇧

27/10/2026

🇬🇧 REFORM’S ECONOMIC RESCUE PLAN: LET BRITAIN WORK, GROW AND PROSPER! 💷📈
Britain needs a change of direction - and Reform’s new Economic Rescue Plan offers a bold alternative to years of high taxes, rising costs and economic stagnation.

💼 Back free enterprise and British business. Less red tape, lower taxes and fewer unnecessary regulations would give entrepreneurs, small businesses and manufacturers the freedom to invest, expand and create jobs. A growing private sector, not an ever-expanding state, is the key to long-term prosperity.

⚡ End Net Zero subsidies and bring down energy costs. Reform proposes scrapping Net Zero subsidies, carbon taxes and green levies. The plan targets annual savings of £250 for households, with even greater savings for businesses. By unlocking the North Sea and supporting reliable domestic energy production, Reform will make British industry more competitive, protect manufacturing jobs and help business to thrive.

🍻 Save our pubs! Our pubs are the heart of our communities, yet many are struggling under the weight of rising costs. Reform will cut VAT to 10% for pubs, reduce b**r duty by 10% and phase out business rates for pubs. A fairer deal for publicans, support for local jobs and a better chance of keeping our cherished community pubs open.

💷 Cut taxes and reward hard work. Raising the income tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 would deliver a £486 tax cut to most taxpayers. Reform will also make the 5p fuel duty cut permanent and increase the VAT threshold to £150,000.

🤝 Reform welfare and restore the incentive to work. The plan proposes requiring work-capable, long-term claimants to contribute to their communities, tackling fraud and error, and reforming disability benefits while protecting the severely disabled. The principle is simple: support those who genuinely need it.

🏭 Reindustrialise Britain. From cutting the cost of employing British workers to unlocking investment in energy, infrastructure and technology, the plan puts production, enterprise and economic growth back at the centre of government policy.

📉 Spend less, tax less, grow more. Reform argues that cutting wasteful spending can fund tax relief while reducing borrowing. Instead of asking working families and businesses to shoulder ever more of the burden, it wants a leaner state and a stronger private sector.

🇬🇧 Britain has the talent, resources and entrepreneurial spirit to succeed. We need policies that reward effort, encourage investment, support our pubs and small businesses, and deliver affordable, reliable energy.

Less state. Less waste. Lower taxes. Cheaper energy. More growth. A better future for Britain. 💪🇬🇧🩵

26/10/2026

🗳️ Could You Be A Councillor?
Do you care about your local community and want to make a real difference? 🌟

On 25 November, Blaby District Council is hosting a "Be a Councillor" event for anyone interested in learning more about representing their community and standing for election in May 2027.

✅ Find out what district and parish councillors do
✅ Hear first-hand experiences from current councillors
✅ Ask questions and learn what's involved
✅ Discover how you can help shape local decisions

You don't need any special qualifications or previous political experience to become a councillor. People from all walks of life bring valuable skills, knowledge and perspectives to local government. 🤝

If you've ever thought, "I'd like to make a difference locally," this could be the perfect opportunity to find out more. 🏡

🔗 Learn more and register here: www.blaby.gov.uk/be-a-councillor

This event is for anybody who wants to be a councillor, from any party or no party. But if you're specifically interested in standing for Reform UK, and you have any questions about being selected as a candidate, please get in touch with me.

26/10/2026

🦫 🐾 Our Beaver Allies Are Getting Closer! 🌿💦
The Leicestershire beaver reintroduction project continues to progress behind the scenes. Alongside Cllr Adam Tilbury, my Cabinet colleague for Environment and Flooding, we had a meeting today with representatives from the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, the Beaver Trust and the Trent Rivers Trust.

As you might expect, introducing beavers is a long and somewhat bureaucratic process. There’s plenty of important work to do to identify and assess suitable locations before we can even start thinking about sourcing the beavers themselves.

But things are moving forward! 🦫🙌 We’ve got a much clearer idea now of the costs, the funding, the process we’ll be going through, the type of release, and the actions we need to do now.

Of course, we won’t have beavers helping us tackle flooding this winter, so please keep reporting those blocked drains, folks! 🌧️🚧 Every report helps us identify problems and get them addressed.

In the meantime, we’re laying the groundwork: beavers can play an important role in managing water naturally and supporting biodiversity, so there’s plenty to be excited about! 🌱💚

Watch this space: our flood-fighting beaver allies are on their way. 🦫💦

25/10/2026

⚜️ Florence, underdogs and politics ⚜️

Sitting in the airport after a few days in Florence, an obvious memory of the trip is Michelangelo’s David. It's hard to escape. There’s the original in the Galleria dell’Accademia, a full-scale replica in Piazza della Signoria, and another one overlooking the city from Piazzale Michelangelo.

It’s a magnificent sculpture, of course. But it’s one of many painted and sculpted Davids, and I've got a fondness for the smaller bronze David by Donatello. There’s something about this earlier, more understated figure that captures the biblical story in a different way. Anyway, Florence has a lot of Davids!

And David isn’t the only biblical hero celebrated in Florence. The city also has different representations of Judith and Holofernes, some of them pretty gruesome. 🩸

The two stories have something in common.

⚔️ David was a young shepherd who defeated the gigantic Goliath, not through superior strength or armour, but through ingenuity and a well-aimed stone.

🗡️ Judith saved her besieged people by entering the camp of the Assyrian general Holofernes and killing him while he was vulnerable.

Why did these stories resonate so strongly in Florence?

For centuries, Florence was a small republic dealing with larger and more powerful states. It had to navigate a dangerous world of rival Italian powers, plus the ambitions of France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Survival depended on diplomacy, commerce, ingenuity and a fierce sense of civic identity.

David and Judith were powerful symbols of that identity: reminders that a small power need not meekly submit to its larger neighbours.

🇬🇧 There’s a lesson here for Britain today.

In a world shaped by the immense power of the United States and China, there's a temptation to assume that our only choices are to attach ourselves closely to one great power or the other, and hope that our interests will be protected.

But there's another possibility. We could pursue a genuinely independent course, building our strengths in trade, technology, and education; investing seriously in our own defence; cultivating relationships across the world; and being careful about entering commitments that restrict our freedom of action.

That doesn’t mean isolation, or pretending that Britain can match the superpowers on every measure. Florence survived not by ignoring the world, but by understanding it, adapting to it and making the most of its advantages.

David and Judith show us that the answer to being smaller is to understand our own strengths and use them intelligently.

Florence carved that idea into stone and bronze centuries ago. It might be worth remembering it today. 🇬🇧

25/10/2026

🏛️ Trying to Be Machiavellian… 😈
A few days away for half-term, and a meeting of minds with that great Florentine: Niccolò Machiavelli. Five hundred years on, his ideas still spark debate.

He’s most famous for writing The Prince: the ultimate guide to power, manipulation and keeping your enemies guessing. For Machiavelli, political success meant knowing when to be the lion and when to be the fox. 🦊🦁 As a local councillor, naturally I’m here to learn from the master. 😂📸

He also wrote that 'it is better to be feared than loved'. But that probably needs amending for local politics, where love and fear are a lot less common than indifference and occasional finger pointing.

Just as long as nobody’s plotting against me at the next council meeting! 😉♟️

23/10/2026

🌧️ Great explainer video from my colleague Cllr Hamilton-Gray about the work the Highways team are doing to keep our drains clear and help prevent flooding this winter

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