Martin Brampton

My home is in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, where I've lived for over thirty years. My wife and son live with me, and my daughter lives in Kent.

My career started by writing mainframe software for major companies, mostly freelance. Although mainly commercial, there were some technical assignments including research into ship design and the development of telemetry systems for a natural gas pipeline.

Then, for a decade, I was Head of IT for Moore Stephens, a sizeable accountancy firm in the City of London, introducing universal PC based computing and managing in-house development of an innovative practice management system.

For a few years, I was an IT Industry Analyst for Bloor Research, and was appointed Research Director (including responsibility for financial and legal matters).

More recently, my preference has been to return to software development, with the emphasis on complex applications that operate behind the scenes to make highly functional web sites. Currently, I am a software engineer with MariaDB, and also do a limited amount of support of my open source products, Remository and Glossary, as well as running a number of web sites.

In the 2015 general election, I stood as Green Party Parliamentary candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. I never expected to be elected, but felt that it promoted the environmental and socialist cause. My blog during this period was http://martinbrampton.org.uk.

I was elected a member of Kirkbymoorside Town Council in November 2010 following a vigorous election campaign and one of the few polls for the town's council in recent years. My own web site for local and political information is http://kirkbymoorside.org although it's now rather out of date.

As a councillor I press for action to ensure that the council keeps its overheads as low as possible, while also enhancing and extending the services it provides to citizens.

When the county council sought to cut library provision, I campaigned to limit the cuts to a minimum and to seek equitable treatment for towns and villages throughout the county. To support this, a North Yorkshire Libraries web site was created.

Also, I was a trustee for Ryedale Citizens Advice Bureau for several years, and am a strong supporter of this charity, which is especially valuable in the difficult times we are experiencing at present.