Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell is a local dad of three and current councillor for Gorrell ward. You might have seen him freezing on the touchlines up at the Whitstable School on a Sunday morning, waiting by the stage door for his daughter at the Playhouse or pushing his youngest around between play parks in town.

Chris is passionate about people and is founder of local dads’ group in the town, a former Scout leader and deputy chair of governors for Whitstable’s largest primary school. Professionally he’s a former manager of homeless services and now a university lecturer specialising in supporting small businesses to grow.

As a practical politician Chris is never happier than when bringing people together across our town. He’s been at the centre of Whitstable’s responses to Covid, the Afghan refugee crisis, the Ukrainian war and rising cost of living. He’s brought together charities to save our Remembrance Day celebrations, organise Jubilee celebrations and fight the closure of children’s centres.

He’s a former Chair of Whitstable Umbrella Centre and has since formed a charity to help raise the money needed for a new play park in Cornwallis Circle and set up the Kent Little Library to bring books to old phone boxes across town. He’s led campaigns to raise money for community murals in Stream Walk, new Christmas lights for the High Street and puts out a weekly post telling residents what he is up to and keeping them informed of changes locally.

The last couple of years he’s spent trying to mitigate the worst of cuts to our town and now wants to be part of a Labour administration prevent them.