Mark Wright is a

Liberal Democrat Several political party, political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democracy, liberal democratic ideology. Active parties Former parties ...

politician from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. He was the councillor for Cabot ward from 2005 until the ward's abolition in 2016. He then was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a populatio ...

for the new successor ward of

Hotwells and Harbourside Hotwells and Harbourside is one of the thirty-four council wards in the city of Bristol in the Southwest of England, United Kingdom. Hotwells and Harbourside The ward covers part of the Centre (between Jacob's Wells Road and Park Street), S ...

in 2016. Between 2009 and 2011 he was Executive Councillor responsible for Housing, Service Improvement and IT on

Bristol City Council Bristol City Council is the local authority of Bristol, England. The council is a unitary authority, and is unusual in the United Kingdom in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of Bristol. Bristol has 34 wards ...

in Bristol, England.

Background

Mark Wright was born in Bristol in 1974, went to schools in Bristol and has a degree in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

from

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. He also completed a PhD in

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

at Bristol University, with a thesis on " interstellar

hydroxyl In chemistry, a hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical formula and composed of one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom. In organic chemistry, alcohols and carboxylic acids contain one or more hydroxy ...

masers" that won the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

's prize for "Best PhD in the UK" in 2002.

Politics

In his role on the council executive, Wright was responsible for nearly 30,000

council houses A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...

in the city that house over 60,000 residents, the first council house building program in Bristol for nearly 30 years. Under his IT remit he tightened the Council's rules on RIPA authorisations to limit council "snooping" on residents. He was also chairman of one of the City Council's planning committees from 2007 to 2009. He was a member of the South West Provisional Council and sat on the "West of England Partnership" Planning and Housing Board. He was a Governor of St George's Primary School, which he helped save from closure in 2008. He has a record of opposing

ID cards An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...

, supporting

tidal power Tidal power or tidal energy is harnessed by converting energy from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity using various methods. Although not yet widely used, tidal energy has the potential for future electricity generation. Ti ...

in the

Severn Estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

and supporting civil liberties, and campaigning for reform of Parliamentary expenses. He has also campaigned against

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

and against

light pollution Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...

. In 2006 he helped save a popular piece of graffiti by local artist

Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams ...

; an online petition he started collected over 3,500 signatures. He was the

candidate for

Bristol South Bristol South is a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since 2015 United Kingdom genera ...

constituency at the 2010 General Election and again for the 2015 General Election.

Open Standards advocacy

Wright has been a proponent of

Open Source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

open document format The Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF), also known as OpenDocument, is an open file format for word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations and graphics and using ZIP-compressed XML files. It was developed wi ...

s, and

open data Open data is data that is openly accessible, exploitable, editable and shared by anyone for any purpose. Open data is licensed under an open license. The goals of the open data movement are similar to those of other "open(-source)" movements ...

in UK local government.

References

External links

Bristol City CouncilBristol Liberal DemocratsBristol South Liberal DemocratsCabot Liberal DemocratsPersonal web pageNational Liberal Democrat profile page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Mark Living people Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors Councillors in Bristol 1974 births Alumni of the University of Bristol