Mark Wright (politician)

Mark Wright
Born	1974 Bristol

Dr Mark Wright is a software engineer and Executive Councillor responsible for Housing, Service Improvement and IT on Bristol City Council in Bristol, England ^[1]. He has been councillor for Cabot ward since 2005, and was re-elected in 2009.^[2]

Background

Mark Wright was born in Bristol in 1974, went to schools in Bristol and has a degree in chemistry from Bristol University. He also completed a PhD in astrophysics at Bristol University. This PhD on "interstellar hydroxyl masers" won the Royal Astronomical Society's prize for "Best PhD in the UK" in 2002 ^[3]

Politics

In his role on the council executive, Mark Wright is responsible for nearly 30,000 council houses in the city that house over 60,000 residents - one of the largest retained stocks of housing in the country - and is responsible for the spend of about £150m of public money per year ^[4]. He has initiated the first council house building program in Bristol for nearly 30 years ^[5][6] and launched a drive to get empty homes in the city back into use ^[7]. Under his IT remit he also tightened the Council's rules on RIPA authorisations to limit council "snooping" on residents ^[8][9][10]. He was also chairman of one of the City Council's planning committees from 2007-2009.

He is a member of the South West Provisional Council ^[11] and sits on the "West of England Partnership" Planning and Housing Board, which oversees policy in the former Avon area. ^[12]. He is a Governor of St George's Primary School, which he helped to save from closure in 2008 ^[13].

He has a record of opposing ID cards ^[14][15], supporting tidal power in the Severn Estuary ^[16], and campaigning for reform of Parliamentary expenses ^[17]. He has also campaigned against nuclear power ^[18][19] and against light pollution ^[20][21]. In 2006 he helped save a popular piece of graffiti by renowned local artist Banksy. An online petition Mark started collected over 3,500 signatures and was at that time the biggest e-Petition the council had ever received. ^[22].

He was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Bristol South constituency at the 2010 General Election.

Open Standards advocacy

Since taking the responsibility for IT at Bristol City Council in 2009, Wright has become a vocal proponent of Open Source^[23][24], open document formats^[25], and open data in UK local government^[26][27]. He speaks at IT conferences to highlight the problems still faced by public sector organisations wanting to avoid "vendor lock-in", particularly to Microsoft.^[28][29]

References

1. ^ Bristol Evening Post: Mr Wright can do no wrong
2. ^ Bristol City Council: Councillor Details
3. ^ Royal Astronomical Society: Winners of the 2002 Thesis Prizes
4. ^ Bristol City Council: Budget 2009-2010
5. ^ This is Bristol: Bristol to build first council houses in 30 years
6. ^ eGov Monitor: Council wins another £2.3m to finance more new homes
7. ^ Bristol 24/7: Landlords have "Social responsibility" to fill empty homes
8. ^ This is Bristol: Bristol housing chief - we won't snoop on you
9. ^ Jack FM: Snooping Powers Only "Last Resort" in Bristol
10. ^ Bristol City Council: Council takes action to safeguard privacy
11. ^ South West Provincial Council Members
12. ^ West of England Partnership Planning and Housing Board
13. ^ This is Bristol: Two Bristol primaries axed - but one survives
14. ^ The Guardian: Council votes to oppose ID cards
15. ^ This is Bristol: 'Bristol schools letting in ID cards by the back door'
16. ^ This is Somerset: Lib Dems oppose barrage across Bristol Channel
17. ^ This is Bristol: Would-be Bristol MP backs calls to change politicians' expenses
18. ^ Original 106.5: Bristolians "Should Have Say" On Nuclear Plans^{[not in citation given]}
19. ^ Bristol 24/7: Call for city to oppose new nuclear power plants
20. ^ Bristol City Council: Help us reduce unnecessary floodlighting says council housing chief
21. ^ Build.co.uk: Reduce Floodlighting, Says Housing Chief
22. ^ Bristol Indymedia: Help protect Banksy's Park St mural, again!^{[dubious – discuss]}
23. ^ The Register: Bristol Council mulls mixed FOSS, Microsoft upgrade
24. ^ thinq: Bristol councillor makes stand for open source
25. ^ Openforum Europe: UK Government pushes for open standards
26. ^ BEP Find out where your money's going
27. ^ Bristol 24/7: Wikipedia founder in Bristol to celebrate 10th anniversary
28. ^ Westminster eForum Keynote Seminar: Open source software
29. ^ http://www.herefordshire.lug.org.uk/node/68

External links

• Bristol City Council
• Bristol Liberal Democrats
• Bristol South Liberal Democrats
• Cabot Liberal Democrats
• Personal web page
• National Liberal Democrat profile page

Persondata
Name	Wright, Mark
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Place of birth	Bristol
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